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A Few Words From Debbie–Values? What Are They, and Why Are They Important?

A Few Words From Debbie
Values? What AreThey and Why Are They Important?

As we execute our mission, reach toward our vision and implement our goals and strategies, our guiding principles and values surround us and are core to our behavior and decision making. I firmly believe they hold us accountable and define the culture of our organization. We use values to determine how we treat each other and how we want arts and culture to be viewed in our community. The Arts Council’s values should be visible and should define the actions and commitment of the board, the staff and the members, providing a framework for achieving and increasing our effectiveness and distinguishing us from other organizations.

For the past month, the board and staff have brainstormed our internal and external core values. We’ve narrowed our list from over 500 values to less than 20. At this time, some of those that rose to the top include: Diversity and Inclusion, Embracers of Change, Transformers of Community and Creative and Innovative. But we are not through yet.

As those who are closest to the Arts Council of Greater Lansing, your opinions are important, so we would like to solicit your feedback as we mold and shape new value statements. The board and staff recognize that we need to develop and embed a set of values into our organizational culture, personnel policies, board development efforts, community outreach initiatives and programming decisions. We also recognize that we cannot do this alone and are seeking your input as valuable stakeholders of the Arts Council. We hope that you’ll take 5 minutes out of your busy day to respond and complete our survey.

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07edzr9x9fj0tymw4u/start

Your input is valued.

 

Deborah E. Mikula
Executive Director