Distictives vs mission?

I think we should craft a list of distinctives rather than values for our organization. I think the values can go in a staff covenant or charter. Things like punctuality, professionalism, and innovation are expectations that a number of firms share, but they don’t really define a culture or help set an organization’s DNA.

The place work has 17 staff values, but struggles to clarify it’s DNA. It’s not because we don’t hold the values (confession: I’m not really all that punctual, so there’s one I could hold better), but that they don’t define us because “punctuality and professionalism” are ubiquitous. I think I should sign something where I commit to those things to work here, so they can fairly expect those things from me and the rest of the staff.