When values are declared — and how we help people actually live them

Recently, I came across an agency culture page that genuinely stopped me in my tracks.

Not because it leaned on the usual creative clichés — but because the values were clear, grounded and human:

Imagine.
Grow.
Respect.
Perform.
Enjoy.

They weren’t lofty. They weren’t over-polished.
They felt like values written by people who genuinely care about how work feels, not just how it looks.

And yet, in conversations across the industry, I keep encountering a familiar tension.

Values like Imagine and Grow are declared —
but people feel hand-braked, stretched thin, and unsure where their own growth actually fits.

Respect is stated —
yet trust erodes under pressure, workloads balloon, and voices quieten.

Perform is expected —
often without the conditions that make sustainable performance possible.

And Enjoy — perhaps the most honest value of all —
is quietly the first thing to disappear.

This isn’t a failure of intent.
Most leaders genuinely care.

It’s a failure of translation.

Because values are often articulated faster than organisations learn how to operationalise them — especially in high-pressure, fast-moving agency environments.

When corporate values and personal values drift out of sync, the impact is subtle at first, then cumulative:

Imagination narrows.
Learning becomes survival-based, not expansive.
Respect turns conditional.
Performance becomes extraction.
Enjoyment becomes a memory.

Which is why I keep returning to this reframe:

Values aren’t slogans.
They’re creative infrastructure.

Just like tools, systems and workflows, values need to be designed for, protected and practised — particularly when things get busy.

If we want people to Imagine, we have to remove the handbrake.
If we want them to Grow, we need to make learning safe and visible.
If we value Respect, trust has to show up in how work is allocated and voices are heard.
If we expect Performance, we must resource it sustainably.
And if Enjoy matters, it has to be defended — not sacrificed first.

As we kickstart 2026, this feels like one of the most important conversations agencies can have.

Not because values are “nice to have” —
but because retention, creative confidence, energy and originality depend on them.

The work I do with agencies sits right here: helping teams align organisational values with the lived experience of the people doing the work — so values stop being aspirational and start becoming real.

Because when values are felt — not just written —
people stay, creativity expands, and work becomes something worth investing in again.

Author’s Note:
This piece was originally published here on The Story Maker.
It is available for republication, syndication, or editorial adaptation.
For commissions or licensing, please get in touch with Jet Swain