When leaders shape organizational culture, they reflect and reinforce values as the things that matter most. Values are often articulated poorly or misapplied in the local church setting. In fact several writers, including my friend Alan Hirsch, see little value in values because so much of what is articulated in the church is “all talk.” But great leaders don’t abandon the idea of values. Rather, they mine out the actionable and demonstrate-able of their culture’s core identity. And remember, values are one of the five aspects of the Vision Frame that you want to have developed.
In order to show the meaning of values, take one value at a time and run each through these 18 questions as a team. You might consider having one person on team doing some pre-work on a particular value. When I work with teams I generally recommend recording 6-8 of your top “demonstrated by” ideas after each value. This will help other leaders appreciate and “live into” doing more of what your church does best.
Value being discussed: _________________________________
- How might this value be demonstrated in how I communicate each day?
- How might someone lead a planning or small group meeting to better reflect the value?
- How might I integrate this value into decision-making processes?
- How might this value influence budgeting process?
- How might this value influence the way I work when I am by myself?
- What is the single greatest thing I can do daily, although unseen by others, that would reinforce this value in my life?
- How might this value affect my time allocations? (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
- How might this value influence how I spend time with others?
- How does this value get rewarded?
- How do we celebrate this value together?
- How do we talk about it when people “step over a boundary” with this value?
- What practices need to be created, removed or changed to reinforce this value?
- What strategies need to be created, removed or changed to reinforce this value?
- What policy needs to be created, removed or changed to reinforce this value?
- Which one time catalytic mechanism would most dramatically display our organization’s commitment to this value?
- How do we ensure that this value gets talked about regularly and how often should the conversation occur?
- How do we hold peers accountable to this value?
- What other value in the organization creates the most tension with this value?
