Big Think
@bigthink·8.8M subscribers·10.1K videos
Lesson 1: Make Values Your Organization's DNA | Steve Stoute
Posted
February 3, 2026
February 3, 2026
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
4:55Now PlayingIf you’re ever in Seattle, you might stop by the infamous Gum Wall. What started with a few stray pieces eventually grew into a 50-foot stretch of brick completely covered in old chewing gum. Apparently, even the most conscientious people thought, “Well, everyone else is doing it.”
The Gum Wall serves as a sticky reminder of how bad behavior can spread, a phenomenon CEO Steve Stoute has witnessed. In this video lesson, he stresses the importance of defining your values and identifying people who can uphold them.
What Values Define
Values guide you to your North Star (your ambition). They provide the framework your company operates in.
To come up with core values, ask yourself: What are the top 5–7 guiding principles every employee should understand and embrace?
If people start ignoring the values, that bad behavior can become contagious. You might:
Lose the “A-players” who took them seriously.
Become a company you didn’t intend to be.
Who Should Uphold Values
The CEO can emanate the values and create momentum.
Long-time employees can continue the tradition and hold new people accountable.
Human Resources can reinforce the values through performance reviews.
Hiring managers can pass on the values through the people they hire.
© Freethink Media Inc., All Rights Reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Youtube Member
Get exclusive classes and early, adfree access to new releases without leaving Youtube.
►Become a Big Think Web Member
Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more.
►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack
Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Steve Stoute:
Steve Stoute is an advertising and music industry entrepreneur. Stoute serves as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of UnitedMasters and Translation. With funding from Alphabet, Andreessen Horowitz and 21st Century Fox, the companies are converging music, technology and storytelling.
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
