The archive · Work & Ways of Doing · Operational decision · 2003–2004
IBM's ValuesJam lets 50,000 employees rewrite the company's values in 72 hours
In July 2003 IBM ran a 72-hour intranet forum where about 50,000 employees debated what the company should stand for — the output became its values.
IBM
What it had to solve
IBM had recovered from a near-death 1990s (US$15.9 billion in cumulative losses by 1993), but its inherited values — respect for the individual, best customer service, excellence — felt like relics. New CEO Sam Palmisano wanted a mandate that made 320,000 employees across 170 countries pull in one direction, so he decided they would write the values themselves.
How it works
IBM emerged from its 1990s crisis with a new business model but values that still read as Watson-era relics: respect for the individual, the best customer service in the world, excellence. When Sam Palmisano became CEO in 2002, his challenge was a second act — getting 320,000 employees across 170 countries to work as one company offering integrated solutions.
His answer was to let the workforce write the values. In July 2003, IBM opened a 72-hour intranet forum called ValuesJam; around 50,000 employees joined and generated about a million words of debate. Twenty-four hours in, criticism had turned so rancorous that a senior executive wanted to pull the plug. Palmisano let it continue, and the next day the tone became constructive.
Out of the jam grew three values: dedication to every client's success; innovation that matters — for our company and for the world; and trust and personal responsibility in all relationships. Palmisano then tasked a senior executive with auditing gaps between the values and company practice. The collated feedback made a three-foot stack of paper; he dropped it on the executive committee's table and forced changes, including in pricing, that leaders had long deferred.
Why it lands
- Inviting all 320,000 employees made values a company-wide conversation rather than a C-suite directive.
- Tolerating the rancorous first day let the debate move from venting to constructive definition.
- The follow-up gap audit turned abstract values into concrete changes, such as how IBM set prices.
- The three resulting statements were simple enough for any employee to recite and apply.
What it did
The three values became IBM's operating doctrine. The follow-up gap audit collated employee feedback into a three-foot stack of paper that Palmisano dropped on the executive committee table, forcing long-deferred fixes such as how prices were set. Alumni interviewed more than a decade later could still recite the three statements unprompted.
What you can take
Let the workforce write the rules: values employees co-author create ownership no top-down edict can, and the painful feedback surfaced is exactly the data a leader needs.
Since then
The three values remained IBM's stated corporate values for years afterward, and ValuesJam became a standard example in change-management and internal-communication writing. A 2017 profile of IBM alumni found they could still recite the three statements without prompting, more than a decade later — evidence of how deeply the co-written values had been internalized.
Sources
- How IBM Crowdsourced Its Own Personality
- Leading Change When Business Is Good: The HBR Interview—Samuel J. Palmisano
- Leading Change When Business Is Good
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