A value nobody can name in a sentence isn't a value. It's a poster.
Recognition here answers two questions: what did this person do, and which of your values does it prove? The second is optional — but it is the one that turns a nice message into organisational evidence, so the composer asks it every time.
You load your own values
Not ours. Whatever is on your wall becomes a set of tags — #QualityByChoice, #RadicalOwnership, whatever you actually say out loud.
The composer asks every time
Your values sit right under the message box, one click each. Nobody is forced to tag, and you can pick more than one when an applaud earns it. Putting them in front of the writer is what moves a team from "great job" to "this is what quality by choice looks like".
The evidence accumulates
By quarter end the tagged applauds give you hundreds of specific, dated, attributed examples per value — the raw material for reviews, all-hands and onboarding.
The report that changes conversations
Once every applaud carries a value, you can rank your own values by how often people actually witness them. Most leadership teams find at least one that has quietly died.
Named in 42% of all recognition. Engineering and QA both use it, so it means the same thing across teams.
Growing 11% quarter on quarter — usually a sign a leader started modelling it out loud.
Steady, but almost entirely from two teams. Worth asking why the rest never reach for it.
Down 2%. Often the first value to fade when teams get busy and stop looking sideways.
Twelve mentions in three months. Either nobody knows what it looks like in practice, or it is not how you actually operate.
Performance reviews with receipts
Instead of "demonstrates our values", a manager opens a list of dated, attributed examples written by the people who were there.
Onboarding that shows, not tells
New joiners read real applauds tagged to each value in their first week. That teaches the culture faster than a handbook chapter.
Values you can retire honestly
If a value gets twelve mentions a quarter, you either coach it or drop it. Either decision beats leaving it on the wall as decoration.
A shared vocabulary
When everyone praises in the same terms, "ownership" stops meaning five different things in five different teams.