There’s a reason culture feels easy when you’re small. As the founder, the company revolves around you. You have a hand in every hire, you’re in all the meetings and ultimately, the decisions all flow through you. Your company is you, and so the culture is also you.

Values may be the latest buzzword in business, but they’re far from new. What is new is the level of importance employees—especially younger generations—place on working for organizations whose values align with their own.

Core values have become a buzzword in corporate boardrooms—but they’re far more than that. Or at least, they should be. When done right, core values aren’t just a checkbox for HR; they are the driving force behind an organization’s culture.

Values seem to be almost a buzzword lately. I hear all the time about how important culture is, and how organizations need to have values. What I hear less, though, is how to make values a part of the culture (or rather the culture).

We hear a lot about the importance of values in a workplace, and there are many organizations who have declared their core values but are they actually part of the culture or are they just posters on the wall.

For years, I’ve known about the importance of values. I had a loose idea of mine swirling around in my head, but I hadn’t clearly defined them. A couple of years ago, I spent time narrowing them down, and digging in so I could articulate them.