Core Values Process
Meeting 1 (budget 90 minutes – two hours; 85 – 90% interactive):
- Introduction to Values
- what they are
- why they matter
- how to use them
- disclaimers (e.g. they don’t necessarily make us better than others, but they hold great potential to enable our team to outperform others)
- Process preview: remove the mystery; where are we going & how do we get there.
- Brainstorm about qualities of the work environment that we hold dear to our heart
- Collaboratively identify draft set of general categories which emerge and group proposed values accordingly
- Wrap up
Offline Process: Dunham goes away and reorganizes the master brainstorm list into groups; presents interim results to values process sponsor.
Meeting Two (90 minutes to two hours)
- Discuss and confirm the categories
- The team apportions 25 votes among the values in accordance to the relative importance those proposed value topics hold for them in real time,
- Collaboratively identify those categories and statements that stand head-and-shoulders above the rest
Offline Process: Dunham creates a draft set of values that attempts to capture the salient group sentiment. Presents draft to values process sponsor.
Meeting Three (60 – 90 minutes)
- Review and provide feedback on draft values document vis-à-vis the raw input created by the group.
- Ideally edit and conclude in real time, but if feedback is significant, option for dunham to take feedback offline, redraft and then circulate a follow up draft for approval.
These meetings can be held on three consecutive days or with up to a week between each. Much longer than that, and the process becomes stale. Organizations contemplating a values process such as this are recommended to establish the dates for all three meetings before initiating the process.