Your Company Core Values Mean Nothing If Not Operationalized

Most companies post their core values on their websites, or in dusty employee handbooks, but how many actually live by them?

The best companies operationalize their values and align their teams around them.

Think for a moment:

• How do your shared values influence how you make decisions?
• How you values shape how you market your products or services?
• Or how you motivate your team?

Values can quickly become meaningless when they are not brought to life with thoughtful implementation.

Operationalizing values is easier said than done.

At Podopolo our core values shape everything we do and who we're "being" as we do it.

Are we 100% in alignment 100% of the time? Well, not quite. We're human. But we are 100% dedicated to walk our talk with a values-based culture.

So let's break down how we operationalize our core values of innovation, customer-first, abundance, diversity, and collaboration.

Innovation

No one can truly innovate without failure along the way. We are not afraid of failure, we don't attach shame or judgment to failure, and we use it as an opportunity to always be learning and improving. When operating at a lightning fast pace in an agile environment, whether developing a new app feature or testing a new marketing strategy, those #failforward moments are both inevitable and illuminating.

The trick when operationalizing innovation is to create a safe space where team members feel free to think outside the box, try new things without fear, and share mistakes, blocks and learnings so the team as a whole gets smarter, wiser and more effective.

Now obviously, there is a big difference between taking an uniformed million-dollar guess and a well-educated test with some guardrails around it. Everyone has a different tolerance of risk vs. reward, so we believe it is best to work with team members to involve them in creating the parameters of innovation: What is an acceptable failure? When is a failure worth its weight in gold for the learnings? When might it be a disaster? How can team members be encouraged to speak up when they've it a roadblock or made a mistake? Because when we share our mistakes and failures with each other it can be a positive opportunity to share knowledge and improve our products, services, messaging, sales processes and beyond.

Customer First

Nothing is more important than delighting and building trusted connection with your customers.

That starts with truly knowing them: What motivates them, what scares them at 3am, what are their deepest desires?

Companies exist to solve problems for their customers; the best companies know how to turn their customers into their best evangelists or salespeople.

At Podopolo, we walk our talk by co-creating with our customers. We genuinely involve them in each phase of product innovation, actively seek their input and feedback, and ensure they feel seen and heard - because they are! Business is about relationships, and good relationships are built on trust. Even when we mess up, we build trust by openly admitting the fail and letting our listeners and podcasters share in our innovation process so they become part of the team.

And because our success depends as much as who we are "being" as people as what we are "doing" day-to-day, our "inside out" team culture becomes infectious. After all, people want to hang around those they know, like and trust, so we attract customers into our growing global community who share our values.

Abundance

An abundance mindset is?the belief that there are more than enough resources and opportunities in the world for everyone. People who choose abundance over scarcity are genuinely grateful for others' achievements because they know one person's success or wealth does not mean their own failure or poverty.

Companies that choose abundance over scarcity create deals and opportunities where everyone wins.

When a business operates out of scarcity, it becomes a zero-sum game, a war-like "win at all costs" mentality that inspires fear, distrust, stress and jealousy - and does not inspire the very best from a team. It can lead to short-term coping instead of long-term problem-solving, office politics and backstabbing instead of positive team collaboration, divisiness and disharmony rather than kindness, gratitude, generosity, and empowerment.

Abundance is at the core of Podopolo.

It's baked into the very "flywheel" of our growth, how every action is architected to accelerate a multiplicity of positive outcomes, and how we ensure our listeners and viewers win prizes and make a social impact just by engaging on our app, while podcast creators build audience and revenue, and advertisers get a bigger ROI on their investment. And while others might take a "walled garden" approach, Podopolo takes an expansive view to meet customers where they are and architect fair exchanges where everyone wins.

And abundance mindset goes deeper into how we interact with each other as a team.

We think big, we're generous by nature, and genuinely happy for others when they achieve success. Whether in a weekly team meeting where everyone gives someone else a shout out for an achievement or an act of kindness, someone surprises a customer with a special gift, or how we add accelerated incentive compensation to all our salary packages, abundance is core to who we are as people and how we choose to do business to always expand the value we are creating. And we go further with a commitment to donate or invest 10% of our earnings to underrepresented entrepreneurs with making a real difference to the health and wellness of the planet and its people. We #liftasweclimb .

Diversity

The world would be a boring place if everyone was the same, yet social media algorithms reward judgment, outrage and division. It keeps people in fear and scarcity, instead of compassion, understanding and abundance.

From a place of abundance, there is a place for everyone - every gender, every race, every background, every perspective, every sexual orientation.

Inclusive teams that truly represent, understand, and accept the differences of our culture truly are being "customer first" just by being, sharing and collaborating with each other and our customers.

We have made it our mission at Podopolo to put diversity and inclusion at the forefront of our recruiting, and to build bridges of understanding between team members. We all have more in common than not.

And rather than driving engagement by incentivizing division and fearful tribalism, Podopolo is leveraging the in-depth and intimate nature of podcast listening as a springboard to reward and incentivize positive engagement with our social features.

Collaboration

I remember being inspired by the late Tony Hsieh of Zappos who talked a lot about the power of "creative collisions".

I like to call them "chocolate peanut butter" moments, where "think different" learning is accelerated by the cross-pollination of connecting people with different skill sets and expertise to work together creatively in a non-siloed environment.

In a company like Podopolo, there are many interdependencies across technology, product, marketing, sales, finance and operations, so it becomes imperative for everyone to be aligned on the "why" and the "what" and know how their piece of the puzzle fits the whole.

It's hard to have "creative collisions" in a remote or virtual work environment, so we're working on ways to bring our cross-disciplinary and diverse team together for regular 3-day retreats, to spark creative improvisation and build collaborative connection. Effective collaboration demands respect, open-mindedness, kindness and the generosity of abundance, and we like to infuse it with fun and play.

The way we operationalize our values is a work in progress, and the most important thing to do ... is just start.

As we grow from an early-stage fledgling startup into a fast-scaling emerging growth company, it was important to me to get the infrastructure of our values established. I think of our values both as a North Star and as a canvas upon which everyone on the team will paint as we grow.

Melinda Wittstock is the CEO and Founder of Podopolo, the AI-powered app that's revolutionizing podcasting as interactive, personalized, and profitable for creators. We're hiring!