A few weeks ago I had the chance to help a church clarify their values. It honestly was the best ministry I feel I have done in the past 5 years. I loved watching the lightbulb go off for them on who they are, what they are about, and how it matters every day!
Roy, the lesser known of the Disney brothers, did have moments of greatness. One of those moments was when he gave us this quote:
When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes more natural.
It is shocking how many organizations do not have clarity about their values. Values are the spine of your culture. When your values are defined, simplified, codified, and then drilled DEEP into your organization we watch our teams thrive and excel towards our desired outcomes. At this point, they become the rules of interaction between everyone from the Sr. Pastor to the first time volunteer.
Two significant deterrents keep us from living our values. They look like this:
– Misdiagnoses – We confuse values with beliefs. Beliefs are theological, and values are behavioral. Without question, we must be clear on our core beliefs. At the same time, our core values should be active, not philosophical.
– Not Authentic – We create aspirational values instead of creating values built on who we are and what we do every day. Your organization has a culture it is either intentionally created or passively permission. When you create clarity for your values, you reinforce the best parts of who God created and called you to be!
Do you have clarity around your values? Have you sat down with your team and crafted the 3-9 things that are the rules of engagement for your organizations? Once you get them clarified you then go to work simplifying, making them sticky, giving them coded icons to help visual learners, and then work a systematic plan to implement them deep into your organization so everyone from the first time volunteer to your Pastor all know the rules!
Have you included the things that matter most to your culture like leadership development, generosity, teamwork, faith, community? One of the best questions you can ask as you are working on this exercise is – When we are our best version of ourselves, how does that look?
If I can help you bring clarity to this, let me know! I would love that opportunity.
