Clients often ask me how we built IDEO's creative culture. For 20 years, I did a lot of hand-waving and gave vague answers. Then, about a year ago, we decided we really should put our values in writing. The result was a slim hardcover called The Little Book of IDEO.

In it, we distilled what makes our workplace tick into 7 human-centered axioms. From “Be Optimistic” to “Talk Less, Do More,” they’re the ties that bind us as a culture.

I spell out all 7 values in the slideshow below, which also lives on SlideShare’s #CultureCode blog, alongside other inspiring companies like Netflix, Zappos, and Fab. Read more about our value system on LinkedIn here and here.