⏱️Quick Win: The 15-Minute Culture Check
Weekly micro-assessment to ensure your values are actually being lived
Hey there,
Most founders spend weeks crafting their company values, pin them to the wall, and then... never look at them again.
Your values become decoration instead of decision-making tools.
Team members can’t remember them.
And slowly, the culture you wanted to build drifts away from the culture you’re actually creating.
During lockdown, while working at a start-up with amazing values, I got inspired to create a simple system for Mane Hook-Up that would keep our values front and centre.
The result? A 15-minute Friday check that ensures our values aren’t just words on a page — they’re actively shaping how we work.
The Problem
Values only work if they’re memorable and consistently reinforced.
Here’s what usually happens:
Week 1: Everyone’s excited about the new values
Week 4: People vaguely remember them
Week 12: Values are completely forgotten
Month 6: You’re hiring people who don’t align with your culture at all
If your team can’t remember your values, they definitely aren’t living them.
Mane Hook-Up’s Core Values
Before I share the check system, here are our values. Notice how specific they are — no fluffy corporate speak:
Aim for remarkable: Worth making a remark about
Focus on the users. Everything else will follow
Look for the answers. Don’t wait for them.
Have the will to win
Be accountable
Take risks
Accept failure. It’s part of the process
Leverage our collective intelligence
I chose these by thinking about the core personality traits I needed people on the team to have for Mane Hook-Up to be successful long-term. A lot of this is about attitude and vision, not just skills.
I rejected anything too fluffy or generic — I want people to know exactly what we expect from them.
The 15-Minute Friday Culture Check
Every Friday afternoon, I run through three simple exercises. You can do this solo as a founder or with your team in 1:1s.
Exercise 1: The Memory Test (5 minutes)
What I do: Ask team members if they can remember our values without looking them up.
Why it matters: If values can’t be remembered, they aren’t being lived.
How to apply this:
In 1:1s, casually ask: “Can you name our company values?”
Don’t make it a pop quiz — make it conversational
If people struggle, that’s valuable data about what’s not landing
Exercise 2: The Values Mirror (5 minutes)
What I do: In 1:1s, I ask two questions:
Which value did you live most this week?
Which values do you see other team members reflecting best?
Why it matters: This creates accountability and recognition. People start noticing when they and others are living the values.
How to apply this:
Make this a regular part of Friday 1:1s
Listen for patterns — if certain values never come up, dig into why
Celebrate when team members call out great examples
Exercise 3: The Win/Loss Reflection (5 minutes)
What I do: I reflect on our biggest win and biggest loss of the week, then ask: “Were our values present in both moments?”
Why it matters: This helps identify where we’re living our values well and where we’re drifting.
How to apply this:
Pick your biggest win: Did you “aim for remarkable”? Did you “focus on the users”?
Pick your biggest loss: Did you “accept failure” and “look for the answers”?
Track patterns in a simple doc (Notion works great for this)
Real Impact
This check has helped us identify moments where we haven’t dealt with situations in a way that lives our values — and moments where we absolutely have.
Example: We had a negative event review recently. Instead of getting defensive, I used the 15-minute check to reflect on our values. “Be accountable” and “Look for the answers” stood out immediately.
So I decided to call the people who left negative feedback to better understand what we could do better next time. That decision came directly from living our values, not from a generic customer service playbook.
The weekly check helps us see where we need to be steered before we drift too far off course. It feeds into hiring (knowing what traits to look for), 1:1s (values as conversation starters), performance reviews (months of data), and decision-making (asking “What would our values tell us to do?”).
Your Quick Start
This Friday:
Block 15 minutes at the end of your day
Run through the three exercises above
Track your reflections in a simple doc
Your timeline:
Week 1: Do the solo reflection to get comfortable with the process
Week 2-3: Start incorporating Exercises 1 and 2 into your 1:1s
Week 4: Review your notes — are certain values consistently missing? Are others showing up strong?
Pro tip: You might start with more values and narrow them down over time. The key is making them memorable and specific enough that people can actually recall and live them.
“I Don’t Have Time for This”
Spending 15 minutes checking your culture each week prevents spending months hiring the wrong people or building the wrong culture. This isn’t extra work — it’s insurance that your most important asset stays intact as you grow.
Try it this Friday and let me know which exercise gave you the most insight!
Ciao for now,
— Jade
P.S. Want a simple Notion template for tracking your weekly culture checks? Just reply and I’ll send it over.