Thanks for sharing! This seems like a good general guide on how to manage :)
I would just provide a quick caution against over-indexing on culture. There are two issues that can come up: implicit bias, and conflicting values.
Implicit bias exists when you're not explicitly biased against a (typically protected) population. You don't hate women or gays or people with disabilities, but your culture values things that make the environment uncomfortable for those populations. One common example that shows up in gender discrimination lawsuits is that women tend to get worse reviews for being too moody or angry or confrontational, whereas men presenting the same behavior get lauded for being decisive and direct. Even if you disagree with this, that won't stop it from becoming the subject of a lawsuit. The example given regarding Beth and Tom actually fits nicely with this issue, since discrimination claims are often that women are unfriendly. (you might consider switching the personas to avoid this perception)
Another common example that shows up is "would you have a beer with the candidate" type tests. I didn't see this in your guide, but I've heard this a lot over the years. People notoriously prefer having beers with people that are very similar to themselves. That's often not germane to the job requirements, and is an easy way for bias to sneak into your hiring process.
In the same vein, I once heard the founder of a well-known startup in the Bay Area give a talk about forming teams. He said, explicitly, that he looks for signs of anxiety among potential hires (like biting their nails, or too weak of a handshake, or how they talk) and won't hire someone who is overly anxious. If someone with diagnosed anxiety were to apply for that job, get rejected, and hear that talk, they'd have the good start of a lawsuit for disability discrimination. That founder was just talking about what he values in the company, but he's actually admitting to discrimination.
The second issue is conflicting values. The companies I've seen who preach their values the loudest have tended to be the ones which are least likely to exemplify their values in their behaviors. Imagine a company which has values of "integrity" and "we're a team." If an employee were to point out behavior that they don't think exemplifies integrity, will they instantly be met with accusations that they're not playing for the same team? I know of at least one company who painted "Be a team player" on their walls, but when they were acquired, their executive team took multi-million dollar parachutes while everyone in the company got paid around a penny per share. Is that consistent with being team players?
Sorry to be negative here. Things like "culture fit" and "corporate values" can be important, but they can also be yielded as weapons if they're being relied on to fix a fundamentally broken workplace. They're also things that I increasingly hear my employment lawyer friends talk about - so watch out. It seems like the right approach is to demonstrate what your culture is through your actions and not through explicit definition. Your product and team will also likely be more productive and build a better product if it's not a bunch of clones :)
If you're unwilling to ever say what your cultural values are, then your only cultural value is "do what thou wilt". Anything anybody does is automatically your culture, if it's defined in actions only. Somebody brings their dog into the office, your culture is now dog-friendly. And for anybody who hasn't seen your history of actions – like new hires – your culture doesn't exist at all.
The benefit of defining your values is not descriptive, but aspirational. Your values are not "here is how all of us will infallably behave at all times"; it's "here's how we want to be, even when it's hard, because we think it's right and because we need to rely on each other to keep ourselves honest about them."
Shitty people will still manipulate or ignore those values at their convenience, but if you're working with shitty people it'll never matter what systems or values or rules you have.
I think this idea of explicitly stating corporate values is relatively new, but maybe there's a longer history there than I'm giving credit. I definitely hear you that a company can have implicit values, and that's going to happen regardless of if you make them explicit or not, so you might as well make aspirational, explicit values.
I disagree that lacking stated values creates a Wild West environment: if your office building doesn't allow dogs, then it's not a dog friendly environment even if someone brings their dog to work (i.e., bad or improper behavior will be rectified).
The example of a candidate or new hires is a good one. Having aspirational values feels like it could be misleading to the new or potential employee. What happens if they come in to an environment that has stated values of "radical transparency", but finds the realized values are "passive aggressiveness" and "backstabbing"?
I don't mean to come off so cynical, but I think as well intentioned as stated corporate values are, they can very quickly become traps or weapons. This is particularly true in silicon valley, where a growing number of people have figured out that hip values can be used to manipulate employees.
I would just provide a quick caution against over-indexing on culture. There are two issues that can come up: implicit bias, and conflicting values.
Implicit bias exists when you're not explicitly biased against a (typically protected) population. You don't hate women or gays or people with disabilities, but your culture values things that make the environment uncomfortable for those populations. One common example that shows up in gender discrimination lawsuits is that women tend to get worse reviews for being too moody or angry or confrontational, whereas men presenting the same behavior get lauded for being decisive and direct. Even if you disagree with this, that won't stop it from becoming the subject of a lawsuit. The example given regarding Beth and Tom actually fits nicely with this issue, since discrimination claims are often that women are unfriendly. (you might consider switching the personas to avoid this perception)
Another common example that shows up is "would you have a beer with the candidate" type tests. I didn't see this in your guide, but I've heard this a lot over the years. People notoriously prefer having beers with people that are very similar to themselves. That's often not germane to the job requirements, and is an easy way for bias to sneak into your hiring process.
In the same vein, I once heard the founder of a well-known startup in the Bay Area give a talk about forming teams. He said, explicitly, that he looks for signs of anxiety among potential hires (like biting their nails, or too weak of a handshake, or how they talk) and won't hire someone who is overly anxious. If someone with diagnosed anxiety were to apply for that job, get rejected, and hear that talk, they'd have the good start of a lawsuit for disability discrimination. That founder was just talking about what he values in the company, but he's actually admitting to discrimination.
The second issue is conflicting values. The companies I've seen who preach their values the loudest have tended to be the ones which are least likely to exemplify their values in their behaviors. Imagine a company which has values of "integrity" and "we're a team." If an employee were to point out behavior that they don't think exemplifies integrity, will they instantly be met with accusations that they're not playing for the same team? I know of at least one company who painted "Be a team player" on their walls, but when they were acquired, their executive team took multi-million dollar parachutes while everyone in the company got paid around a penny per share. Is that consistent with being team players?
Sorry to be negative here. Things like "culture fit" and "corporate values" can be important, but they can also be yielded as weapons if they're being relied on to fix a fundamentally broken workplace. They're also things that I increasingly hear my employment lawyer friends talk about - so watch out. It seems like the right approach is to demonstrate what your culture is through your actions and not through explicit definition. Your product and team will also likely be more productive and build a better product if it's not a bunch of clones :)