Walk into almost any organisation and you’ll find a set of values proudly displayed on a wall, a website, or a coffee mug. They often sound uplifting — Integrity. Innovation. Courage. Empathy. Excellence. They’re designed to inspire, to represent the best of what a company hopes to be. Quite often they have been built around the values that they think their customers want to see!
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: many of those same organisations struggle to do the basics well. Employees don’t feel heard. Teams operate in silos. Leaders say one thing and do another. Managers fail to create the environment to get the best out of their employees. The day-to-day experience of working there bears little resemblance to the grand ideals written on the wall.
In the race to define aspirational values, too many organisations skip the foundational work — the “how we really behave” part. And without that foundation, aspirational values ring hollow.
The Problem with Jumping to Inspirational Values
Inspirational and aspirational values are seductive because they sound good. They make us feel progressive, modern, and morally aligned. But the problem is that these words are easy to say and hard to live.
Take Integrity, for example. It’s universally admired, but if your leaders avoid hard conversations, your processes reward results over honesty, or people don’t trust each other — then “integrity” is just an empty word.
Or Innovation. Many companies claim it as a value, but innovation can’t thrive in environments where people are afraid to make mistakes, where employees aren’t encouraged to challenge management’s ideas or where bureaucracy kills good ideas before they’re tested.
In other words, aspirational values often highlight the gap between what an organisation wants to be and what it currently is. That gap is fine — every culture has one — but when it’s too wide, it creates cynicism. Employees quickly learn that the posters don’t match the practice.
The Basics Matter More Than You Think
Before an organisation can credibly live out lofty ideals, it needs to get the cultural basics right. That means:
- Consistency – Leaders doing what they say they’ll do. Following through. Keeping promises.
- Fairness – Clear expectations, transparent decisions, and equitable treatment.
- Respect – People feeling safe, seen, and valued.
- Accountability – Everyone, including leaders, taking ownership of their behaviour and outcomes.
- Communication – Clear, honest, two-way conversations that reduce confusion and build trust.
These might sound “unremarkable” compared to big aspirational words like Excellence or Courage, but they are the soil from which those aspirations grow.
When employees experience consistency, fairness, and respect every day, then — and only then — do aspirational values start to feel possible.
Why the Basics Come First
- Trust is the foundation of aspiration.
You can’t build an inspiring culture without trust. And trust is built on the basics — people keeping commitments, being transparent, and behaving predictably. Without trust, inspirational values sound like PR rather than purpose. - Behaviour is contagious.
Culture is shaped more by what people see than what they hear. If leaders preach “innovation” but punish failure, the real value being taught is safety through conformity. Doing the basics well — fairness, follow-through, empathy — models the behaviour others will copy. - People need psychological safety before they can be inspired.
Aspirational values often require risk-taking — speaking up, challenging ideas, showing initiative. Those things can only happen when people feel safe enough to do so. You can’t ask for courage in a culture that doesn’t even provide security. - It’s easier to evolve from strength than from pretense.
When you focus on doing the basics well, you build a culture that’s grounded, credible, and self-aware. From that position, aspirational growth feels authentic — not performative.
At Cultiv8tiv we test an organisation’s culture against 12 key areas and through the use of anonymous assessment and AI can build a picture of the organisation’s culture and identify where the gaps are.
Only when these behaviours are normal can aspirational values become believable.
The Payoff of Getting the Basics Right
Cultures that focus on the fundamentals first are more resilient, consistent, and trustworthy. People know what to expect. They don’t waste energy interpreting mixed messages. They can then lean into aspirational values because they trust the environment to support them.
In short: You can’t inspire people with words that don’t match their experience.
If your culture doesn’t yet live up to your aspirations, that’s not failure — it’s feedback. It’s telling you exactly where to focus. Get the basics right, and the rest will follow.