This Series:
Part 1 (Intro) | Part 2 (Purpose) | Part 3 (Values) | Part 4 (Roles) | Part 5 (Rhythms) | Part 6 (Goals)
Every company has values, but not every company lives them. Too often, they’re framed, forgotten, or used only in marketing copy. But true values - when they’re alive - shape every decision, every hire, every client interaction. They define who we are when no one’s watching. They drive performance.
At risk3sixty, we believe values are the backbone of culture. They’re the operating system for how we work together and how we serve our clients. They help us answer tough questions: How do we handle setbacks? What does excellence look like here? What kind of people do we want on our team?
Values matter because culture doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built through sustained discipline and consistency over time. Including through the way we behave when things are going well and when things get hard. Our values give us a shared language for what “right” looks like, and they ensure we never drift from who we set out to be.
For context, I think it is important that understand that the entire team at risk3sixty cares a lot about culture. The members of our team come from backgrounds that include college wrestling, two West Point graduates, and 3 Army Officers. As a result, we adopted core values almost from day 1.
At risk3sixty, we have 5 core values that we live by:
One of the things that is important to me is that our values aren’t just a poster on the wall. They need to be built into the structure of how we operate. To bring our values to life we use three main tools to make sure our values show up in our daily work: Hiring, Performance Reviews, and Decision Making.
About 10 years ago I read the book Traction by Gino Wickman. In the book they describe a simple, but effective hiring methodology called "G / W / C / Core Values". It is an interview methodology that helps us ensure that we hire for values alignment first and skill second. And hiring for values alignment is the number one way our team can preserve and reinforce its culture.
During interviews, we’re not just looking for technical expertise, we’re looking for people who embody the same principles that drive our culture. We ask questions that reveal character, integrity, and motivation. When we find someone who shares our values, we know we’ve found someone who will thrive here.
At risk3sixty, we do performance evaluations twice per year. Our performance review process includes the typical elements you would expect like performance to goals and how well you are doing your job, but they also include an opportunity to assess each individual against core values. We do this because it is a helpful way to remind people what we prioritize as a business and it creates space for the individual and managers to have a conversation about cultural alignment.
We have a program at risk3sixty called the Journeyman program. We do cohorts once a year and the program is six months long. We cover a wide range of leadership principles during the program, but one of the most important things we cover is making decisions in alignment with risk3sixty's core values.
That way when faced with a tough call, our values act as a compass. They simplify complex choices by reminding us who we are and what we stand for. Whether it’s how we interact with a client, navigating growth, or setting priorities, our values are a filter to drive the decision.
By building these principles into the mechanics of our business, we make sure our culture is intentional - not accidental.
We also have a handful of traditions we've developed over the years to "live" our values to make them front in center. I think the best institutions have creative ways to live out their culture in tangible ways. It's why we have Independence Day in the United States or why sports team do the National Anthem. Those traditions stand as reminders to reinforce what we are all about.
One of my favorite traditions at risk3sixty is what we call our Annual Grit Event. It’s a chance for us to live our values - especially grit, team, and steadfast - in a tangible way.
Over the years, we’ve pushed ourselves to do hard things together. In the early years at risk3sixty we completed 100-mile and 200-mile relay races as a team - sometimes running through the night, sometimes through pain and exhaustion - but always together. More recently we have done Spartan races and hikes that the whole team can participate regardless of their fitness level.
That’s what our Grit Event symbolizes: we do hard things, together. And that mindset carries directly into how we tackle challenges in our business and for our clients. It is a symbol we can touch. We can grab hold of it. And I think that's why it is one of our team's favorite things we do at risk3sixty.
I hope you see how important values is to our business and why they have become an essential element of our management operating system. Values set the tone for that culture so we fight to keep them alive and healthy.
And while values set the tone for who we are, to bring them to life, we also need to structure our organization that reinforces them. And that where organizational design and governance comes in.
In Part 4: Roles, we’ll talk about how we organize our teams at risk3sixty and how we define responsibilities, eliminate confusion, and empower people to take ownership of their work. It’s how we turn purpose and values into coordinated action.
Read Part 4: Roles –> Here