> Our organisation is in the process of developing Core Institutional Values
> - which we have tentatively defined as 'how we will conduct ourselves in
> transforming our mandate/mission/vision into reality'. Has anyone gone
> through such a process before?
>
> At this point we have scheduled a brainstorming session with
> representatives from senior management, union reps and a diversified
> representation of staff to begin the process.
Aloha Suzanne:
Yours was an interesting question, and gave rise to a plethora of issues
identified by other respondants (e.g., impact to org; stakeholders;
practicality; relationship to output/other). The response below is, I
believe, different and is an example of one organization's experience
(ongoing) in defining itself through the implementation of "core
values."
I work for ALU LIKE, Inc., a statewide private non-profit organization
that provides social / employment / educational / and economic
development-types of services to the native Hawaiian community in
Hawai`i. We are currently in a process of increasing our
self-sufficiency through "social entrepreneurship" in in effort to move
towards self-sufficiency. One of, if not the first task that was
undertaken, was the defining of core values... as an organization, and
as individual staff within the organization, in commitment to the
community we serve.
ALU LIKE's mission is "to kokua native Hawaiians committed to achieving
their potential." [The Hawaiian word kokua means to assist, or help.]
Our motto - e alu like mai kakou, e na `oiwi o Hawai`i - is a call to
"work together to be of assistance, people of Hawai`i."
At ALU LIKE the identification of "Core Institutional Values" resulted
in a set of culturally-identified traditions and values indigeneous to
defining who we are as a people [as manifested by our behavior and
priorities]. The values were "identified" by a work group comprised of
representatives from each of the projects, with members selected by
their administrators for their level of cultural awareness/experience
rather than job position. This process took several months, and
resulted in the identifying of "core values" at the staff-level; with
the group's recommendations then endorsed by both the P/CEO, and adopted
by the Board of Directors. Without going into too much detail, these
values are capsulized in one-word phrases in Hawaiian, and begin with
the word aloha (connection of man in spirit to "ha", the breath of life,
related in a Western-sense to agape-love); pono (righteousness, proper,
upright); ha'aha'a (humility); lokahi (balance); `olu`olu
(graciousness); ho`iho`i (a giving-back or repaying); ahonui
(patience)... in all, there are ten values that have been deemed as
"core." We are now in the process of providing staff with in-service
training. This consists of a cultural orientation to the values and
their practical application, presented as a workshop session that is
lead by a staff member of the original work-group. The first core
values training was conducted this spring at the corporate management
retreat. Note: this in-service training consisted of staff-level
presentation delivery to administration- and management-level
recepients. In addition, it should be noted that the majority of ALU
LIKE's staff are of native Hawaiian ancestry.
I believe this is a significant and unusual example of an organization's
intentional use of an inverted pyramid. In addition, from an
ethnographic viewpoint, it stands as an example of an entity's
establishing corporate values that are based on
behavior/competency/beliefs of an indigeneous non-Western people.
Focus and process. When speaking of "core values," it often helps to
ask-then-answer... Why are we here? What is our mission? Who do we
serve? Who are we? And, least we forget, What makes "what-we-do"
answer the question "why-are-we-here?" In this way, regardless of the
language/culture (corporate or otherwise), the identifying of
what-is-core is really a process of articulating the deeper narrative of
vision/mission. And, as a process, it lends itself to directed
inclusionary participation in the articulating of what those values are,
which logic reasons will significantly shorten the learning curve to
"operational institutionalization" (whatever the hell that is!)
Just a few thoughts as I followed your thread - Brenda Wong
<hoopono@pixi.com>
--Brenda Wong <hoopono@pixi.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>