Back to the basics: FEED's Values

If you are anything like me, I have intellectually known the importance of values at work and obviously in everyday personal life- and yet, I have had a hard time formalizing them and articulating them.  How to boil down something so essential into something as concrete as words and phrases?  Over the years, I was encouraged by friends and mentors much wiser and more seasoned that this was a transformative exercise to do as a team. 

In fact, the FEED team attempted this value-setting exercise several times over the years, but it wasn't until the dark days of 2020 COVID times that I enlisted the help of my very good friend, Whitney Voute.  Whitney had recently received her Masters in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and I had already had many walks in the woods (literally and figuratively) with her guiding me- so I knew that Team FEED would be in good hands.  She and her colleague Kit Krugman signed onto the project and thus started one of my favorite things we did as a team during the remote days of COVID.  

I asked Whitney to expand a bit more on the importance of values, and this is what she wrote:

"If you don’t know what your values are you don’t know where your boundaries are. You don’t know how to test whether something is right or true. You don’t know where you are going or why you are going there. 

Values are the structure in which we live our lives and do our work, whether they are explicitly stated or implicitly lived. The thing is, when you work with other people, implicit values are harder to find, and sometimes impossible to know. This creates confusion, anxiety and too little structure. A lack of structure can lead to a lack of trust, a lack of connection and missed opportunities for creativity. Making the implicit explicit allows people to thrive. Boundaries and expectations actually make us all more free to explore and take good risks and responsibility.

I have seen the way organizations that have clear, active, deeply lived values function. Their values are referenced in conversations internally and externally. The values are part of the glue that holds people together, they feed trust and resilience because we feel like we are on the same page at a fundamental level. During difficult conversations, during challenging times, and during moments where people feel at a loss, values bring us back to what we know is true. In good times, they give us momentum, they are aspirational, they help us reach and explore and ask more of ourselves and our teams.

Shared values remind us of how we do the work, why we do the work and what it means to be connected to one another and in it together. Being in it together is the whole point of working in a team."

I am honestly amazed when I revisit our FEED Values today that they still ring just as true as they did when we first wrote them five years ago.  I am proud to share our FEED Values here:

FEED’s Values

Grounded in humanity

We believe that the world is a better place when we are connected. This requires collaboration across our team, with our partners and with the people we ultimately serve.

This type of true partnership only works when we harness compassion, consideration and trust. It requires kindness and honesty at all times. It requires us to be human and consider the humanity of others.

Bravely optimistic

We believe a better world is possible, yet we know we must be bold to achieve our ambition. We believe that embracing courage as a team will help us dream bigger. 

We believe that being brave and optimistic may push the boundaries of our comfort and others, but we believe a better world won't exist without both bravery and optimism.

Curious creators

We believe that in order to change the world we must always be learning and creating. We believe in leaning into our curiosity to solve the problems large and small.

We have a bias for action and take initiative and ownership over our work. We believe in measurable impact, ensuring that our work is relevant and meaningful to our stakeholders.

Driven by purpose

We believe in the importance of our mission and the impact it drives. Our purpose - to create good products that feed the world - motivates and guides us.

We believe that critical to achieving our mission is a commitment to quality and transparency - inside and out.