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Values Builder by Scarlet Spark

A facilitated workshop for teams to develop values that guide how you work together

Step 01 — Before you start

Set up for success

Organizations often have a mission and vision but lack the values that describe how to operate and make decisions together. This tool guides your team through building those values. Check each item off before you begin.

Process

Decide how you'll work together

Choose a format that works for your team and share it with everyone in advance.

  • Process decided and shared e.g. shared whiteboard (Miro/Jamboard), in-person with markers, WhatsApp thread, video call with a note-taker
  • Roles assigned e.g. facilitator, note-taker, wordsmith, community advisor or elder
  • Decision-making process agreed on e.g. majority vote, consensus, everyone advises and one person decides, veto power
Frame the conversation

Invite your team

Tell everyone why you're doing this and how their input will be used. Here's a template to adapt:

"We want to be more aligned as an organization about how we work together — not just what we do. So we'd love everyone to participate in building our values. Our ideation process will be [X]. Our decision-making process will be [Y]. Once finalized, we'll apply our values to everything from hiring to everyday decisions. You make this organization what it is — we're eager to co-create this with you."
Why this matters

What you're building

Values are your principles — the ideals you refuse to compromise as you pursue your mission. They guide decisions, maintain cultural health, and describe how you show up at your best.

Aim for 3–7 values — enough to be meaningful, few enough to remember. Use them when making hiring decisions, planning strategy, navigating conflict, and building culture.

Step 02 — Team exploration

Collect your team's responses

Run these questions with your team — in a meeting, survey, or async thread. Then enter responses for each question below. Capture all raw ideas; don't worry about perfect wording yet.

0 of 6 questions answered
Step 03 — AI generation

Generate draft values

AI will read your team's responses and suggest values that reflect what you actually said — not generic templates. Click generate to begin.

Step 04 — Select values

Choose what resonates

Pick from your AI-generated values or browse the Scarlet Spark library. Select all that feel right — you'll refine to 3–7 in the workshop step.

Not finding the right fit? Browse the value library for more options.

Step 05 — Workshop

Define what each value looks like in practice

This is what makes values real and usable. For each value, describe the belief behind it, then give concrete examples of what living this value looks like — and what violating it looks like.

Scarlet Spark Values Builder
Our values: How we work together to achieve results
Reevaluating question

Do these values represent us at our best?

Share this preview with your full team. Ask: What resonates? What feels unclear? What's missing? Then refine before finalizing.

Embedding your values

Weave values into everything

Once finalized, embed your values into: website, job and volunteer descriptions, hiring and onboarding, how you welcome new members, compensation decisions, meetings and rituals, strategic planning, performance conversations, learning and development, and offboarding.