2. Confidentiality
Tell Us About You
Name
Why you took the class?
What do you want more of in your life?
3. Mission Statement:
Southeast Community College values the opportunity to provide
quality career/technical and academic educational opportunities for
the students, business and communities of our district. To achieve
that purpose, Southeast Community College will:
•Continue to value local governance
•Value and support diversity
•Be affordable and accessible
•Develop and maintain partnerships
•Provide responsive delivery systems
•Respond to emerging technology
•Promote continuous improvement
•Promote student learning through the provision of quality instruction, curriculum and
appropriate facilities
•Embrace lifelong learning
•Maximize and utilize resources efficiently
•Be accountable
•Encourage a positive environment
•Promote recruitment and retention
•Be communicative
•Be fiscally responsible
4. A value is what you feel is
important to you, as a
person or an
organization
A value is something you
naturally do, sometimes
without realizing it
A core value has
strength and a depth that
other values don’t
5. Organizationally, values come
out in the culture and working
environment
Values serve as a compass
pointing to what it means to
be true to oneself
When values are honored, life
is good and fulfilling
6. There is no sense of morally right or
wrong behavior
Although ethical and moral
behavior may be a value
Values are not principles
They are not standards of behavior
Values are qualities of life lived fully
from the inside out, creating a
unique harmony
7. Important decisions are
easier to make High High
Performance Performance
Outcomes are more
Low Value High Value
fulfilling
It becomes easier to Low Performance Low Performance
understand alignment
Low Value High Value
with your vocation and
choice of employers
8. When a value is not
honored, internal tension
and dissonance occurs
It is possible to absorb a
tremendous amount of
discord, but there is a price
to pay
Selling Out
A life of toleration or
betrayal
9. Pick a moment in time when life or
work was especially rewarding or
poignant
What was happening?
Who was present and what was
going on?
What values were being honored in
that moment?
Expand on the first word that comes
to you – what elaborates on your
value?
10. Pick a moment in time when life or
work was especially frustrating, or
made you angry or upset
What was happening?
Who was present and what was going
on?
Name the feelings around the upset
Now flip it over and look for the
opposite of those feelings
What values were being suppressed in that
moment?
Expand on the first word that comes to
you – what elaborates on your value?
13. Pick several values expressed by Southeast Community
College and you, as an individual, and ask yourself these
questions:
•Where does this value show up?
•What values do you sometimes neglect?
•Which are the values you will not compromise?
•If you can take only ten values with you into a strange and
possibly dangerous territory, which are the ones you
absolutely must have?
Editor's Notes
Hi! How are you?My name is Georgia Feiste, and I’m here to talk to you about values… about who you are, and who SCC is.Let me tell you just a bit about me.I am a recovering corporate workaholic. Because I’m a slow learner, it took me a little over 30 years to figure out this just wasn’t working for me, but I finally found the light about three years ago, and decided to share my experiences through training and coaching others to dare to be different. I believe that everyone has the ability to be a leader, regardless of what they do to earn money, and it is my mission in life to share the concept of what it means to be a transformational and character-based leader. So, in August of 2008, I founded Collaborative Transitions Coaching, and began consciously and intentionally choosing my next right step as a Personal Growth and Leadership Coach.
I’d like to spend a bit of time getting to know you. And, before we go around the room, let me speak briefly about confidentiality.I am a huge proponent of workshop participants being in integrity with who they are, and this requires them to open up and share their thoughts and feelings – and feel safe doing so. So, I always ask that personal statements that are made be kept confidential, and that we honor the risk that others take in letting you know them.Now – lets go briefly around the room – please share your name, why you took the workshop, and tell us what you want more of in your life. (5 minutes)
Before we get deep into our discussion today, let me read SCC’s mission statement to you – along with what is being promised. As I do so, please jot down the values that you believe show up in these promises.Southeast Community College values the opportunity to provide quality career/technical and academic educational opportunities for the students, business and communities of our district. To achieve that purpose, Southeast Community College will:Continue to value local governanceValue and support diversityBe affordable and accessibleDevelop and maintain partnershipsProvide responsive delivery systemsRespond to emerging technologyPromote continuous improvementPromote student learning through the provision of quality instruction, curriculum and appropriate facilitiesEmbrace lifelong learningMaximize and utilize resources efficientlyBe accountableEncourage a positive EnvironmentPromote recruitment and retentionBe communicativeBe fiscally responsibleGiven that, let’s go around the room - what do you think are the most important core values for SCC? Let’s write these down so we might use them later in our discussions. (5 minutes)
Everything we do in life is a choice. And we get to choose whether we orient our lives around our needs, our wants, those things we “should” or “ought to” do. Most of the time when we choose to do this, we may have limited success, but may not be happy.However, if you are clear on what you value in life, and create your life priorities around that, the chances are that you will not only be successful, but you will be fulfilled, as well.Values are what we feel are important to us, on a personal level, and within an organization. Oftentimes, we naturally behave in a certain way, portraying our values without even knowing it. Based on what I have observed in my lifetime, there are differing levels to our values. Some are important, and others have a strength and depth that sometimes makes us catch our breath. They could be: financial success, beauty, family, honesty, spirituality, friendships, music, art, theater, being a coach, minister, teacher…..
Values are Who You Are…They are not who you aspire to be, or who your parents, teachers or others have told you that you should be. They are who you are in your lives, right now. When your values are honored, you are in integrity, and life flows.Have you ever been in a boat on a river? You know how hard it is to row against the current and get where you want to be? But, when you allow the boat to flow with the current, you might row a bit to help it along, but everything becomes much easier. This is what it is like when you are in integrity with who you are. When you are engaged in activities that honor your values, you are most like yourself: well, connected, excited, glowing – effortless.Let’s take this one step further to your work environment – We looked at SCC’s mission statement, and their promises – and we discerned values from that. Is SCC showing up as who they say they are? What values are coming out in the culture and working environment? Does it feel like the organization is in the flow?I don’t want to take more than a couple of minutes, but lets put check marks next to the values that are showing up in the culture & work environment.
Let’s talk just a bit about what values are NOT>They are not morals – There is no sense of morally right or wrong behavior when talking about values. That is why when looking at a list of values, you may see the following “to be right”, “to be powerful”, “gamble”, “be hedonistic”, “dictate”. A lot of people struggle with this, but it is as important to acknowledge “shadow” values as well as those that many would consider more “positive”.Values are also not principles – they are not standards of behavior. These would be “shoulds” based on what someone else wants you to be.They are not needs – which is something you just can’t live without. When you don’t get it, it affects your attitude and your ability to concentrate. It has an urgency to it. When you get this met, you feel content. I’m reminded of my granddaughter when she wakes up hungry. Her whole body shakes with the urgency of it. It is not a want – if it is something you crave or desire, it is a want. It could be a new house, a new car, a promotion, new clothes. Once you get these things, you feel pleasure, but it doesn’t last. When you fulfill a value, you feel satisfied, happy and in harmony with all of life.
Why do we want to be clear about our values?I don’t know about you, but I get so very tired of vacillating back and forth, spinning wheels when a decision needs to be made about a course of action. My husband is a true master at this – and we can go for months just talking about things, but never making a decision. Because of this, we have defined our values as a couple and a family. And, what I have found is that when we lay the decision up against our top 5-10 values, it becomes much easier to make, and we are happier. This also works with organizational values. Have you sometimes wondered about which direction to go with a decision here at work? Have you thought about laying the question up against SCC’s values to see how that plays out? Even more important, lay it up against your values as well – do you get the same result? If not – flip slide….
You may begin to see some discomfort, and possible internal tension and stress…We all can absorb a lot of discord – but what begins to happen is that if you don’t align with the stated, or real, values of the organization you work for, you will begin to feel like you have short-changed yourself; you will feel like you are living a life of toleration, or that you have sold out.There are three ways to resolve discord – leave the organization, or work to change the organizational values so they are more in line with yours by bringing your values in to the job – or review what you believe to be your values to make sure they are not needs and/or wants so that you might be absolutely true to yourself.
The next two slides give you two distinct exercises you can walk through to determine your values. When you are clarifying what you values are, it is sometimes difficult to define them in one word – so word strings are very appropriate. For example:Inclusive/Equity/Embracing/Connectedness/OneWhat I would like you to do is pick a time where you felt exquisitely in the flow and answer the questions OR
Pick a time that was very frustrating for you, and made you angry, upset or both. And answer the questions.I’m going to give you a few minutes to write down your values string, and then we will partner up and share what you discovered.3 minutes – value string4 minutes to pair share4 to group share
Here is a list of values I have pulled from a variety of sources. If you have difficulty coming up with the words to describe your values, these might help.
Any questions?
And, I bet you didn’t think you’d have homework?I am hoping that you don’t just leave this workshop and dump the papers, but that you take some time to do these exercises and discover who you really are.In addition to the exercise on this last slide. I have some values clarification exercises in your handout you can do at home, share with co-workers, your spouse, your children or a parent. You may be surprised at what you discern. These will also help move you in to the next two workshops in September and October.