(There wasn't a link at the end of the "Chapter # 3 Clarify Values" reading response that would allow me to respond directly to the posting, so I'm just posting a new blog).

Chapter 3 gave me much food for thought about taking responsibility for knowing what I value and what I stand for in my personal life and in my job. The authors raised some good questions to get us thinking about this. I think it would be a good personal exercise for anyone to write a tribute to ourselves periodically. Much of what the authors write about in chapters 3 & 4 speaks to staying true to ourselves. I think if we did that more often we'd stay present to what is working or not working in our lives, prompting us make adjustments accordingly.

I think many of us, like Todd, have been in organizations doing strategic planning or rethinking mission statements, only to have them largely ignored. Honestly, I couldn't say what the mission statement or the core values are where I work - even though we went through a strategic plan a year or two ago. In part, this is because the process that was used to come up with them only included the senior management of the organization. The rest of us weren't asked to participate, we were only told the results. My response on the "unveiling day" was, "THESE are our core values?!" I think K&P could have used my organization as a textbook example of what not to do.

I admire the stories of the leaders in K&P who are actually living and breathing their organizations' core values by "walking the talk" and who are asking workers to report on how they are bringing core values to their jobs. If these values actually came out of a process that was inclusive, and the workers were asked to keep them in mind as they did their jobs, it makes sense to me that the values would get integrated in the workplace. It seems so easy! But, of course, the leaders must be authentic in their beliefs, and lead by example if the rest of the workforce are also going to get on board.

I thought about what my organization's credo would look like. I realized that there is a difference between what a credo would look like if it represented the way the organization actually is vs. how I would like it to be. I'm sure we all would like to see our organizations doing better in modeling and striving to be the best they can be. It's a conversation that needs to be ongoing in an organization, if it is going to actually stick.