ESSENTIALS MANAGEMENT Plan to articulate your values when you’re between 20-40 employees. Don’t express them when you’re three nor when you’re 500 people. Not too late, not too early. Primarily, it is the CEO’s job to articulate the values of the company — but not alone. “In fact, if you think it’s only the CEO’s job, I suspect the company will fail. Be inclusive because these values are not just yours, Mr. Founder or Ms. CEO,” says Lawson. “They are the tribe’s values, and what you’re doing is creating a tribe. Human beings are tribal creatures, because it took congregation and community to survive. So, the group has to be bought into the values as well.” Here’s how Lawson led the effort to articulate Twilio’s company values: Convene a diverse dozen. To start, Lawson assembled twelve people from across the company to discuss Twilio’s company values over dinner. It wasn’t a lottery — he selected those who he thought could thoughtfully consider the long term success of the company. Open the conversation informally but with insistence that it’s important: “We’re together to work on articulating the values of the company. Let’s start by voicing what you value about your interactions with each other and the kind of people we’d like here.” Record ideas until they’re in the triple digits. Let your group riff. Some will be proliifc; others will need some time to rev their engines. But everyone needs to push past the obvious or nebulous answers that come ifrst: honesty, hard work, teamwork, etc. These may be right, but they shouldn’t be unchallenged incumbents. Collect all ideas without qualiifcation. Then tell the dozen participants thank you, and that you’ll follow-up. Be the Chief Editor Oiffcer. Group and consolidate the ideas. When Lawson did this exercise, he combined 100+ ideas into about 25 values. A weeks later, convene the group and evaluate the consolidated ideas. Ask this question: Which of these ideas resonate with you and which do not? Put them to The Oxygen Test. Atfer the ifrst round of feedback, the CEO should do another round of consolidation until there are about 10 values letf. The ifnal step is to put each value to the test with one question: Which of these couldn’t you live without out? The goal is to keep those only that are natural and indispensable, like oxygen. 99