Core Values; Spanish Language Resources; Puppets
As I was reading "Group Genius" earlier this week, and pondering the ways in which we might make use of the information about collaboration, and how creative "sparks" really happen, my brain wandered over to the topic of core values. (You may remember that I have a very short attention span, I'm a hyperlink, Happy Cow (I'm gonna win, I'm gonna...Ooh! Look--dandelions! kind of person, so that's not as odd as it might sound...) The concept of core values is one that, I admit, I don't do much thinking about, at least consciously, in those terms. And I'm thinking that should probably change. In fact, I've talked to my board chair about discussing it at the next couple of board meetings--with the current board, and then again when new members come on board in July. I think that the SWILSA staff and board share the same core values; in fact, I'm pretty sure that we do, but I think it's a good thing to talk about because those core values are the underpinning for everything we do, everything we plan, everything we say. Maybe we need to articulate those every now and then, to remind ourselves of what we're doing, and how we conduct ourselves.
Core values are at the very heart of things; they're more intrinsic than vision or mission. The National Park Service has a pretty good description, which includes: "The core values of an organization are those values we hold which form the foundation on which we perform work and conduct ourselves...The values underlie our work, how interact with each other, and which strategies we employ to fulfill our mission. The core values are the basic elements of how we go about our work. They are the practices we use (or should be using) every day in everything we do."
One of SWILSA's core values, for example is, I think--I hope--Respect: respect for each other in the offie;, respect between the staff and the board, and among the trustees of the board; respect for all of you librarians and trustees, our clients; and respect for colleagues and everyone with whom we work. It's not our mission to have respect for everyone, and to treat everyone with respect, it's much more fundamental than that. As we carry out our mission "to help libraries provide the best possible service to Iowans," it is how we expect to conduct ourselves--how YOU should expect us to conduct ourselves.
I encourage you to give some thought to what your library's core values are, and discuss it with your board. They are so much at the heart of what we do--HOW we do--that it's a discussion well worth having. --Karen
Links from Today's Podcast:
National Park Service on core values
Group Genius: the creative power of collaboration, by Keith Sawyer (Amazon.com)
Spanish language resources
Puppets at SWILSA
No comments:
Post a Comment