The check in activity for this third Values Conversation surfaced a strong sense of curiosity and intrigue across the group. People were interested in hearing from other colleagues about their values and there was a measure of curiosity about what will happen following the conversations. Some people commented that they felt valued and listened to having received the invitation to participate in the session and were grateful to have an opportunity to hear the thinking of others and to understand how the conversation around values will help to shape the future organisation.
The outcomes from the Values Audit didn’t present any surprises for the majority of participants. There was a view that people’s top five values were broadly representative for each person. There was some discussion about the ‘shadow’ side of values. There was an observation around whether the values were a value or a priority for example, family and health. Exploring the idea of how values like health and family ‘show up’ in a work context led to conversations about teamwork, well-being and work life balance. What was clear was that the expressions used represented a foundation for how people operate at, and outside of, work. There was some conversation about how a number of the values fit within a work context however, participants were able to make an interpretation of those values that worked for them in their context. One such value was Family; being linked to teamwork, the principle of trusting others and self and being true to self.
Exploring the values that participants would like to shape the future organisation gave rise to the opportunity to get underneath the top-level understanding of what each of the values might represent. There was an emerging theme of holding others and self to account whilst acknowledging that some people might need additional support to allow them to feel confident enough to do this. Teamwork and Trust were themes that also gave rise to thoughtful conversation. It was acknowledged in some of the breakout rooms, that there had been a lot of change in the organisation and that leaves a legacy that we need to be aware of in this work.
There was a strong theme of enjoyment at the check out of the afternoon. Many people said they found the session interesting, insightful, necessary and timely.