How to formalize your values

and turn them into something

actionable

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 VIRGILE RAINGEARD YOANN LOPEZ
Head of People Head of Brand

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comet 2019
Why culture?

Brian Chesky (Co-founder & CEO Airbnb):

“ A shared way of doing things”

Dr. Cameron Sepah:

“Who you hire, fire, and promote”

Culture is what people do when there’s no clear

directives
 What we did first: find some values

Transparency
Because we’re fighting an opaque industry, we’ve decided to be fully transparent internally and
externally

Humility
We’re only humans and we accept to make some mistakes as long as they make us grow
stronger

Grit
We’re resilient. We want to succeed

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Some limits
- Not clearly defined
- Not action-oriented
- Not explicit

i.e. : sentences like this were common “I feel that this

person is not aligned with our culture”. OK, but why
exactly ?
 Values v2.0

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 Values v2.0: our target

01
Authentic 02
Explicit 03
Actionable

Debate: should a value be divisive ?

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 How? (1/4): Founders
Workshop “founders only”* (3H)

During a retreat / neutral facilitator

Workshop starter: who do you put in a

rocket to build comet on Mars?

What does an ideal comet employee

look like?

What does he/she does not look like?

..
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 How? (2/4): Astronauts

Same set of questions*

Unbiased (previous results hidden)

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 How? (3/4): Consolidation

Consolidating results from both

workshops

Brainstorm-mode: no filter!

Differenciating definition vs
“catchphrase”

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 How? (4/4)- Team survey

● role: alignment of entire team + skimming

● Important: separation of titles & descriptions

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 We ended up with these 4 values
01
Give a shit
Care for others and care for the work you do.
Comet is not “just a 9 to 5” you can sleepwalk
your way through. We accept failure, we don’t
accept lack of effort.
03
It’s happening now
comet is a once in a lifetime journey: let’s not
waste our chance. Dreams are only reachable
by taking risks every day.
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02
Human before all
We’re aiming high, and we hire rockstars to help
us get there. But no one is perfect : we’re all
humans making mistakes every day but
constantly learning from them. We not only
accept, but cherish that.
04
Trust by default
Your opinion matters from day zero. You’re here
for a reason, and we let you work your magic.
Be yourself, and trust others!
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Using values in our
People process

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 Using values in our People process

“Culture is defined by who you hire, fire, promote”

-> Hiring (see after)

-> Regular values-alignment reviews
-> Continuous recognition
-> Employee departures
○ ...

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 Focus: hiring

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 Ongoing: posters

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 Key takeaways
01
Don’t wait too long
Defining your values when
you’re a relatively small team is
way easier than when you’re
organization has hundreds of
employees.
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02
Involve everybody
The essence of the culture
starts with the core team, but
eventually, everybody will have
to buy-in and to help the culture
to grow and evolve.
03
Culture is not a shiny
object
Turn your culture into
something actionnable. You
don’t do that just to put posters
on your walls. Use it to hire,
promote, fire, and align your
entire organization.
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 Thanks, and Let’s
stay in touch!

Virgile Raingeard Yoann Lopez

virgile@comet.co yoann@comet.co

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