Tools for Transformation: Values Creation Process
︎︎︎ Return to Phase 1
PHASE 2: Make Values meaningful and relevant in the context of working together
Set the context.
Beyond identifying those core Values that authentically resonate for the entire team/organization, it is also important to create shared definition and meaning for each of them. Each value on any list exists as a word – a word subject to various interpretations and even disagreement.
The Value words begin as an intellectual construct: not really tangible, and meaning nothing other than whatever meaning we choose to give them.
For Values to be effective across our team and over time, we need to be more specific in articulating what they mean and how they are demonstrated.
Example: For the value “Respect,” a counter-culture child of the 60s whose family value was “Respect” might have one picture of what “Respect” means. Someone else who grew up in a family with traditional Christian values or with military upbringing might also have “Respect” as a family value, but a very different understanding of what that value means. Now imagine these people are working together for a team for which “Respect” is a stated value. Team members have to really work to develop aligned understanding of what their organizational values actually mean.
If Values are to inform any team or organization, shared meaning and alignment are critical.
Process:
A) Developing Meaning: Living/Not Living the Values: 45-60 min.
SAY:
︎What we want to do now is create some shared meaning around each of these Values.
︎ For each, we want a small group to spend some time offering distinctions between what living that specific Value looks like in the context of our organization … and what not living it looks like.
Step 1 : Facilitate small group activity.
Place (4-6) flip chart sheets around the room, with one identified Value on each page.
Direct participants’ attention to the three-page handout: “Making the Values Real (Example & Worksheet).”
Have people self-select: “Choose the one Value you would most like to work on.” Try to make sure all Values are covered by at least one team.
To whatever degree is necessary, facilitate an appropriate balancing of the teams.
Have each group select a recorder and a timer.
Instruct the teams to work on providing specific, work-related examples of what “not living the Value” looks like in the current shared culture.
Encourage people to:
︎Draw on personal experience as much as possible, or upon incidents about which they have personal knowledge. o Try to make their descriptions as grounded in relevance and reality as possible.
︎Have each team record at least four solid examples of “not living the Value.”
After 10 minutes, have them shift their attention to what “living the Value” either looks like (drawing on actual observations or experience) or can look like (envisioning a new cultural norm/habit).
Again, encourage people to:
︎Draw on personal experience as much as possible … or upon incidents about which they have personal knowledge.
︎ Try to make their descriptions as grounded in relevance and reality as possible.
Have each team record at least four solid examples of “living the Value.”
After 10 minutes, reconvene as a large group for report outs.
Step 2 : Facilitate Small Group Report Outs and Dialogue.
Have each team present (in turn):
︎ The Value
︎What “not living the Value” looks like in our culture
︎What “living the Value” either looks like or can look like in our culture
For each value, encourage a brief interactive dialogue, in which all participants have the opportunity to contribute personal insights into the culturally relevant distinctions that contribute to a more comprehensive and/or definitive characterization of that Value in the context of working together.
OPTIONAL: Provide each participant with enough “Making the Values Real” handouts for them to capture shared distinctions that are relevant and to continue building the list of distinctions on their own.
Close by allowing participants 5 min. to jot down personal notes and reflections concerning their awarenesses and “take-aways” from the process, the dialogue, and the outcomes.
SAY:
︎ Individually and as a team, we all play a role in shifting from a culture in which “not living the Values” is familiar and commonplace to one in which “living the Values” is the standard by which everyone measures themselves and each other.
︎︎︎ Return to Phase 1
Continue to Phase 3 ︎︎︎