"Your values become your destiny."
Mahatma Gandhi
Politician, Activist, Writer
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Eight Ways to Test the Ecology of Your Team’s Core Values
posted in Business Coaching
Adam Kreek
Why Testing Matters
It’s one thing to pick value words. It’s another to know if they actually work together.
Not all values are created equal, and not all values can coexist peacefully. Some will naturally conflict. Others might sound good on paper but crumble in a crisis. As I explored in my earlier post, Discovering Core Values for Your Company, Team, or Organization, values are the invisible levers that drive results and resilience.
Testing the ecology of your values is about asking tough questions before you etch them into stone. You’re not just choosing words—you’re building the DNA of your culture.
As I often remind leaders:
Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul? Barriers come down, work gets done.
Eight Methods to Test Your Team's Values
Picking values is only half the job. The real challenge is making sure those values actually work—that they hold up under pressure, align with your leadership style, and reflect the true culture of your company or team. That’s where testing the ecology of your values comes in. Think of it as stress-testing your cultural DNA. Below are 8 tests you can run to see if your values are authentic, enduring, and capable of guiding real decisions in your organization.
1. The BS Test
Ask yourself: Are these values congruent with your leadership style, character, and the character of your leadership team?
If there’s even a speck of dust on integrity, fairness, or consistency, your people will see it as a mud bath. Values only work if they’re lived.
2. The Non-Negotiable Test
Would you leave a job before you gave up this value?
If a value can be easily abandoned under pressure, it’s not a true value—it’s a preference. Core values should be deal-breakers.
3. The Stress Test
Can your organization live these values when things get hard?
- During a product recall?
- In the face of a stock devaluation?
- When the competition heats up or layoffs loom?
If values only apply in good times, they’re not values—they’re slogans.
4. The Disadvantage Test
Would you uphold this value even if it became a competitive disadvantage?
Real values aren’t about convenience. Sometimes doing the right thing costs you—but the payoff is long-term trust, resilience, and brand reputation.
5. The 100-Year Test
Would you want this organization to stand for these values 100 years from now, no matter how the outside world changes?
This test filters out fads. If a value doesn’t have staying power, it doesn’t belong in your core.
6. The Mars Test (Jim Collins & Jerry Porras)
If you had to send a small group of people from your organization on a mission to Mars to represent your culture, who would you pick?
The qualities they embody are your true values.
7. The Behaviour Test
Does each value connect to at least one clear behaviour?
Values must be actionable. If you can’t translate a value into something observable—like “We give and receive candid, direct feedback”—it’s not yet usable.
8. The Memory Test
Are these values short, sharp, and memorable?
If your people can’t recall your values in the hallway, they won’t use them in the boardroom.
Why This Step Matters
When values are tested through these filters, they stop being corporate wallpaper and start becoming real cultural anchors.
- They survive stress.
- They guide hard decisions.
- They inspire people to act consistently.
When you test the ecology of your values, you move from good intentions to guiding principles that endure.
Skipping this step is like building a boat without testing the hull—it might look sleek, but it won’t survive the first storm.
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Adam Kreek is on a mission to positively impact organizational cultures and leaders who make things happen.
Kreek is an Executive Business Coach who lives in Victoria, BC, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Seattle, Washington, USA, in the Pacific Northwest. He works with clients globally, often travelling to California in the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Georgia, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. He is an Olympic Gold Medalist, a storied adventurer and a father.
He authored the bestselling business book, The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen.
Discover our thoughts on Values here.
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