How things are said is just as important as what is being said. The language used to express values not only needs to inform, but to engage and serve as a call to action.

These two gems (not) were plucked from a random online rummage of New Zealand companies.

Our people are real Author's comment - good to know and down to earth. Author's comment - better than being up in the air I suppose.

We challenge the impossible by turning the impossible into reality. Author's comment - I hope this wasn’t the outcome of three workshops and sign off from the senior management team.

Here are a few more.

Pride – we are proud of what we do and who we are.

Teamwork – we work together, across boundaries, to meet the needs of our customers and to help the company win.

We are genuine in our approach, with each other and our clients.

If the role of values is to engage, unify and inspire these ones are unlikely to stir the juices.

Say it with meaning

Here are the values of Disqus, ‘a global comment system that improves discussion on websites and connects conversations across the web’.

These are values we're all familiar with, but the language used is emotive and the tone is colloquially expressive which elevates the meaning of the values and engages their employees.  

Disqus uses its brand’s tone of voice to talk about itself. Tone of voice isn't about the message, but how the message is conveyed. Using language in this way to express the brand, helps audiences to understand what a company stands for and what makes it different.