1. Values Discussion
Susan Sullivan (CIRES Diversity and Inclusion Program)
Christina Bonfanti/CIRES

2. Values Discussion Introductions Purpose of this part of discussion
Understand what “values” means
Identify potential values to guide your unit
Prioritize and comment upon potential values

3. Values-the “guiding principles”
The boundaries within which the organization will operate in pursuit of its vision
Core value-what you do now, who you are, non negotiable
Aspirational value-what you want to do
Permission to play values-we don’t hire people with fraudulent resumes
Accidental values-we hire hip people who wear black
To be meaningful, values must then be described in clear behavioral terms.
Stanford Business Review
HP (written in the 1950s):
• Respect for the individual
• Affordable quality and reliability
• Collaborative creativity
• Community contribution and responsibility
• Profitable growth

4. Example values
Personal context: Autonomy, Adventure, Meaningful Work, Friendship
Academic context: Diversity, Academic Excellence, Integrity, Community
Ex. Diversity: Commitment to a globally- oriented and diverse academic community
Next step: How would this flow behaviorally through an organization’s actions and policies?

5. Mission statements-the “what”
“your unit’s mission statement”
What makes your unit unique:
[List unique aspects that you discern from mission statements and other foundational documents.]

6. Establishing values
Brainstorm potential core values from the mission statement, goals, and how you know business is done.
Prepare to report out
[Participants brainstorm values individually and in small groups. Each group reports out. Values are written down, themes identified, subvalues identified. Potential values are written at top of big postits by participants]

7. What values are embedded?
Revisit the mission statement and unique aspects slide
Example values list:

8. Gallery walk Categorize and prioritize value possibilities
We will put each value on the top of a big sticky
Put a blue dot on values you think are core values (non-negotiable, practiced now)
Put a yellow dot on values you think are aspirational values (who Earth Lab would like to be, not thoroughly integrated)
Use your small post-its to add comments
How is this practiced?
How could this be practiced better?

9. Debrief
Thoughts on this exercise?

10. Next steps
Unit leadership will take all this input to identify a few core values
The policies and procedures will be changed to reflect values.
Other ideas?

11. Thank you! Susan.Sullivan@Colorado.edu 303-492-5657
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12. Follow up Comments on postits and dots are tallied.
Any individual feedback is deidentified.
Leadership takes input and decides where core values might be missing and which of the generated values are going to be the top core values.
Core values should be integrated throughout policies and procedures. Aspirational values should be integrated as much as possible until they are core.
Results of this integration should be communicated throughout the unit.