Values don’t come alive on posters.
They come alive in conversations.
Values work succeeds when the whole staff gets to talk about what the values mean in their own everyday work. Topaasia makes it gamified, safe and repeatable. At the same time it produces data that takes values work all the way to decisions.
Customer satisfaction
35,000+ participants
Do you recognise these values-work pitfalls?
Values are handed down from above
The leadership team and a consultant define the values in a workshop. Employees hear about them at an info session and never feel the values are their own.
The words stay abstract
"Courage" and "responsibility" mean something different to everyone. Nobody knows what acting on a value looks like in a Tuesday morning meeting.
Silence after the launch
The values are announced, the intranet is updated and everyday life carries on as before. Nobody follows up on whether the values live or not.
What all of these have in common: no real conversation about the values has been held with the whole organisation.
Values become real when they are talked about with structure.
In Topaasia, the organisation’s values are turned into conversation cards. The gamified structure gives everyone a turn to speak and turns abstract words into concrete everyday actions.
Values become cards
Your values are crystallised into your own game content. The cards bring the values down to a concrete level: what does this mean in my work?
Everyone is heard
The structure of the game guarantees that even the quietest participant gets a turn to speak. The values conversation is not left to the loudest voices, and it is not a top-down exercise.
Conversations accumulate data
Card choices, game summaries and Topaasia picks show which themes truly resonate in the organisation and where the gap between talk and everyday reality lies.
Promises are taken into everyday work
In the crystallisation phase, everyone says what they will personally start doing. The promises do not evaporate: they can be taken straight into development discussions and the development plan.
Customer story
How Vastuu Group took its values through the whole organisation
Vastuu Group was updating its strategy and wanted to work through the value questions together with the entire organisation.
Values into cards
The three word pairs crystallised in the culture workshop (courage and entrepreneurship, respect and humanity, caring and taking responsibility) formed the first three suits of the game.
Adding something unexpected
A deliberately disruptive theme was chosen as the fourth suit: growth. In the end, a large share of the cards players chose came precisely from the growth suit, and this gave a new direction to the culture priorities.
A game day for the whole staff
Game leaders trained from the company’s own personnel ran the culture game for the entire staff. At the same time, the game data complemented the company’s culture SWOT.
From conversation to everyday work
The crystallisation questions were adapted so that everyone got to say what they would personally start doing. The promises are taken into development discussions, so playing did not stop at the level of conversation. Customer orientation emerged as the most important theme and became the foundation of the development plan.
96%
of employees wanted to keep playing
I dare, I care, I deliver
the values crystallised into three verbs
A new direction
game data steered the culture priorities
“This is not some top-down thing. It is different, and that is why it works so well.”
Heli Lallukka
Chief People Officer, Vastuu Group
“Playing always draws you in, even when there are not many competitive elements involved. Even the preparation phase of the game pulled us in. In this kind of work, the process and the journey are at least as important as the end result.”
Heli Lallukka
Chief People Officer, Vastuu Group
How values conversations proceed in practice
Works both for defining new values and for embedding existing ones into everyday work.
Scoping call (30 min)
We go through your situation: are your values already defined or still in the works, and what is the goal of your values work.
Book a scoping call →Values into game content
We help crystallise your values to card level and train your game leaders. One hour is enough.
Values conversations under way and results into everyday work
Start with a pilot group or take the game straight to the whole staff. Game data compiles the results of the conversations. You take them into development discussions, culture priorities and the development plan.
How did other organisations succeed?
The HR director: difficult topics surfaced and actions were taken into everyday work quickly.
Read the story →
City of TurkuA large organisation brought its strategy and values closer to people, one conversation at a time.
Read the story →
Aava & BangImproving conversation culture with Topaasia’s games.
Read the story →
Start here
What kind of conversation do your values deserve?
Instead of a poster: a shared conversation across the whole organisation that leaves a mark on everyday work. A 45-minute demo is enough, and there is no commitment.