HBR has an excellent article  on exactly this topic, but it’s a constant question in a leader’s mind: how do we embody our core values? The question is, how do we get the most from those values?  In that HBR article, the author walks through ten ways to do just that and the most salient point, to me, is that the best way to really enable our coworkers, our managers, our leaders, our TPs and our customers is through conversation.   This all came to mind the other night when I was picking up a pizza for my kids and saw this on the back of the employee’s t-shirt:

Every day those employees literally wear their core values on their backs, and yet when I asked them about those values, they had a bit of a blank stare on their faces.  Why?  Because they were lacking a conversation around it.

Side note: I think it’s pretty amazing that they both limit their core values to two word statements and that “accelerate innovation” is among those values.  At a pizza joint.