Toolkit · Article 10 · HR Strategy & Business Partnership

Values to Behaviours Kit

Three tools to turn each value into three things people can see. Staff can act on them. Managers can judge them.

3Tools
5Steps
4Weeks
FreeTo use
CUSTOMER FIRST ESTIMATE
01

At a glance

What it is

Values you can see

Most firms have values on the wall. Few staff can say what they mean on a busy day.

A value like "Customer first" is too big to act on. People need to know what to do at the counter, on the call, or in the meeting.

This kit turns each value into three clear actions and two things to avoid. Each one comes from a real story in your firm.

Who it is for

Who it is for

HR heads, HRBPs, culture and L&D teams, and the managers who live the values each day.

When to use it

Three moments

  • You have new values and need them to stick.
  • Staff roll their eyes when values come up.
  • Reviews ask about values, but no one knows how to rate them.
Kyun, the Mimansa loris
Kyun

Your firm has values. Can your staff tell you what each one looks like on a Monday?

02

The five steps

About 4 weeks. Steps 1 and 2 take two weeks. Steps 3 and 4 take one week each. Step 5 goes on through the year.

  1. 1Collect real storiesWeek 1
  2. 2Write the do and don'tWeek 2
  3. 3Ask what it means for managersWeek 3
  4. 4Test with 5 staffWeek 4
  5. 5Share it and use it in reviewsOngoing
1
Step 1 of 5

Collect real stories

Week 1

The HRBP leads this, with two or three managers.

  1. Ask staff for a time someone lived the value.
  2. Write down what the person did, step by step.
  3. Get at least five stories for each value.
Kyun

Let's start with what people have already done.

STORIES
2
Step 2 of 5

Write the do and don't

Week 2

The HRBP writes it. The value owner checks it.

  1. Find what the people in the stories did again and again.
  2. Write three do lines and two don't lines.
  3. Use the words staff use at work.
Kyun

Can a manager see each line happen?

DO DON'T
3
Step 3 of 5

Ask what it means for managers

Week 3

Each manager fills this in. The HRBP runs a short session.

  1. Pick two or three things the manager will do each week.
  2. Say how the team will notice them.
  3. Write what the manager will do when they fall short.
Kyun

Staff watch the manager first. What will they see?

MANAGER
4
Step 4 of 5

Test with 5 staff

Week 4

The HRBP does this, with five staff from different teams.

  1. Read each line to five staff.
  2. Ask: could you do this tomorrow? Could your manager see it?
  3. Fix or drop any line that two people find unclear.
Kyun

Would a new joiner know what to do?

TEST 5
5
Step 5 of 5

Share it and use it in reviews

Ongoing

The HR head owns this. Managers use it every day.

  1. Put the Values One-Pager on walls and in the joining kit.
  2. Add the do lines to the review form.
  3. Ask managers to share one story a month.
Kyun

Now everyone can see the same thing.

VALUES
03

Example and how-to

Filled-in example · Behaviour Canvas

Customer first

A bike service centre chain with 14 outlets in Mumbai. This is an example. Copy the shape, not the words.

Value
Customer first
Do 1
Give an accurate estimate before we start.
Do 2
Call the customer before any extra repair.
Do 3
Explain a mistake honestly, and say how we will fix it.
Don't 1
Add a part or a repair without asking.
Don't 2
Blame the rider for a fault we caused.
Real story
At the Andheri outlet, Ravi found a worn chain. He called the owner before he fixed it. She said yes. Next month she brought her brother's bike too.
Small touch
Offer tea while the customer waits.
How-to guide · 3 minutes

How to turn a value into 3 behaviours

  1. Pick one value.
  2. Ask staff for a time someone lived it.
  3. Find what that person did. Write it as an action.
  4. Write three do lines and two don't lines.
  5. Check that a manager could see each one.
  6. Test the lines with five staff, then fix them.
04

What you get

3 free tools. Each one is a single page or a single sheet.

Kyun

That's the kit. Each one fits on a single page.

05

Why it matters, and what's next

27%

of employees strongly agree they believe in their company's values.

Source: Gallup, "It's Time for a Core Values Audit", Dvorak and Patel, Oct 2018
26.4%

of employees say they act in line with their company's culture, down from 30.4% in 2022.

Source: Gartner press release, Oct 22, 2025 (survey of 18,000 workers worldwide, 3Q22 to 2Q25)
More than 80%

of large firms list their values. But what staff say about their culture barely matches them.

Source: MIT Sloan Management Review, "When It Comes to Culture, Does Your Company Walk the Talk?" (Culture 500 research; nearly 700 large firms, 1.2M+ Glassdoor reviews; c. 2020)
Kyun

Next, let's see how to count whether the values are lived.