The Une, Weekly #2 — The Formula

Hi there, welcome to The Une. This week we look at how we can design value principles that shift from belief to behaviour. How to turn what you stand for into something that actually guides decisions?

"We believe in quality."
"We care about our community."
"We are committed to sustainability."

These are value statements that can be found on websites and in culture guides of many organisations. Statements that describe beliefs.

They sound meaningful, but, when the budget is tighter than expected, when the shortcut is available, when new opportunities arise, when a real decision has to be made, they don’t help anyone choose.

They live on paper, but not in practice. That gap is where credibility, trust, engagement, loyalty and, in the end, direction erodes.

In this second newsletter we dive deeper into how we can close this gap by using a different approach to how we define our values.

The Generative Drive
Most people want to do the right thing.

There is an innate human desire to create, contribute, and make things better. In psychology, this is called the generative drive.

It exists in people. And it exists in organisations too.

The problem is that it often can't find its way into daily decisions. It lives in the story but not in the system.
Value Design is a way to make that generative drive operational. It turns the desire to create something genuinely good into a condition that governs choices.

Commercial, Social and Ecological Value as One

With Une we help organisations get clarity on the value they bring. There is a reason why we make commercial, social and ecological value explicit in our model.

They are three dimensions. But in reality, one system.

No matter what an organisation does — whether it sells apparel, educates the next generation, or builds software — it already has impact across all three. The question is never whether that impact exists. It's whether it's intentional.

Social and ecological value are most of the time viewed as something separate from the core. A reporting layer. A compliance obligation. Something that sits in the way of 'progress'. We don't see it that way.

Commercial value doesn't exist without the community that buys, the people who work, and the natural systems that supply. Social value doesn't hold without the economic viability to sustain it. Ecological health is the ground everything else stands on.

They aren't three separate responsibilities, but one system, seen from three angles.

That's why we make the full picture clear. So organisations can be deliberate about the value they create across all three dimensions, every day, in every decision.

That's Value Design.

The Value Design Formula
To design value principles that actually guide decisions, we follow a structure:
{Generative verb} + {what you create} + {the specific condition}

But before we dive into the formula, let's first look are what we actually mean by commercial, social and ecological value.

Commercial: How do we create economic thriving?
What is built, attracted, protected or sustained that has durable economic value?

Social: How do we strengthen communities and relationships?
What actually changes in how people experience belonging, connection and meaning?

Ecological: How do we regenerate natural systems?
What is actively restored, returned or protected at the level of living systems?

Now we find our formula for each of these three, by answering two questions:

1. When you're at your best, what are you actually creating?

{Generative verb} + {what you create}

This is your value creation claim. Go beyond the obvious output and name what genuinely changes: for whom, and in what way.

Note: The generative verb should imply doing, not believing.
Make. Turn. Build. Restore. Keep. Not strive, believe, aspire.

2. What risks being sacrificed, and what can never be traded away?

{the specific condition}

Name the specific pressure that could cause this value to erode — budget, speed, scale, growth. Then draw the line: what are we not willing to sacrifice? What must hold regardless?

The Unifying Intent
The Unifying Intent sits at the heart of the Value Compass, making the three value principles cohere. It is not a fourth principle, but describes what the organisation is fundamentally trying to bring to the world. The transformation it is trying to make.

In other words: it expresses the essence of its generative drive.

Let's look at how this all works in practice.

Example: A Neighbourhood Bakery
Imagine you're a baker.
You could say: 'We stand for quality.' 'We care about the neighbourhood.' 'We work sustainably.'

Sounds good. Until the flour gets more expensive. Or someone says: ‘What if we sell online?' Suddenly those values feel vague.

So we flip it:

Not: 'We believe in quality.'
But: 'Bake bread that makes the neighbourhood proud.’

Not: 'We care about the community.’
But: ’Know every customer by their name.’

Not: 'We work sustainably.'
But: 'Keep the chain short enough to know the farmer.'

And suddenly everyone can make decisions.

Let's use this exanple to explore how we could develop a Value Compass using the value design formula for each domain.

Commercial Value

What are you actually creating?
Of course we sell bread. But if we look at what that means for people beyond that, we offer not just bread, but a ritual in their week.

What's the economic value in that?
People return because this place is part of how their week works.

What risks being sacrificed, and what can never be traded away?
Access can never been traded away. That means we need to keep our products affordable for the whole street.

The Commercial Value: Ritual
Make bread a reason to feel invited, so we become the place our neighbours feel at home.

Social Value

What are you actually creating?
We not only serve customers, but give people a small daily ritual that connects them to their neighbourhood.

What's the social value in that?
The specific feeling of being somewhere you are known. Of being a regular rather than a customer.

What risks being sacrificed, and what can never be traded away?
People should always feel recognised here, not processed. In the store and online.

The Social Value: Recognition
Make every visit a moment of recognition, not a transaction.

Ecological Value

What are you actually creating?
We use ingredients from local suppliers that are part of the community.

What's the ecological value in that?
We are rebuilding a relationship between food, land and place. Every loaf sold through this chain keeps a local farmer viable and the knowledge of where food comes from alive in the people who eat it.

What risks being sacrificed, and what can never be traded away?
What can never be traded away is the direct connection. So the farmer, baker and community that buys the bread all benefit from a healthy land.

The Ecological Value: Relation
Keep the grain chain personal so we all stay connected to the land that feeds us.

The Unifying Intent

Ritual — the place the street returns to.
Recognition — being known, not processed.
Relation — the link between field, farmer and table.

The Unifying Intent: Bake for Belonging
Make every bread a thread that connects the street, the farmer and the land.

Checklist:
Can we derive all three principles from it? ✅
Does it name a transformation? ✅
Would an outsider understand what kind of place this is? ✅

Try the formula
The formula is a tool to surface what most organisations already know, but haven't yet verbalised it in a way that can govern a decision.

The shift from values as beliefs to values as behaviour.

If you want to discover how this could work for your own organisation, we're running Value Design workshops this summer.

👋 hello@une.eco 

Move as one. For the benefit of all. — Laurens & Jorn

Une · @De Groene Afslag · hello@une.eco · Linkedin