This manual is tailored for professionals in the UN or international system who want to better align the behaviours, relationships, processes and policies of the system with the UN’s universal values. It aims to help participants to get clear on the gaps between reality and rhetoric, and take concrete action individually or collectively to bridge those gaps. The manual is primarily for individual use, particularly participants of GVI’s webinars.
What it covers:
The manual guides you through a basic personal and group values assessment exercise and follow up coaching. It can be adjusted to fit your needs and available time, but we encourage participants to cover all the parts of the training – personal values assessment and related values framework, group values assessment, and coaching questions.
Why you should do it – the evidence base:
There are extensive well-documented case studies on the impact of values orientation on the functioning of organizations.
At Global Vision Institute, in a project in India funded by the World Bank, the work of GVI team member Leonard Joy in February 2012 entailed evaluating success in shifting values and behavior. The programme was effective in addressing desired shifts by bringing individuals from all departments together to come to a shared view and concern for what needed to change and to what. Individuals reported deep impact on their personal and family lives and sustained personal values awareness and desire for further personal and bureaucratic values development. Projected impact further included enhanced collaboration and coherence to enable effective service delivery responsive to communities’ needs.
The Barrett Values Centre, whose personal values assessments participants will be encouraged to take, has links to case studies of private sector companies, non-profits, and even whole countries, that show how measuring values translates into improved cultures and achievement of objectives. See case studies here.
The University of Brighton’s “We Value” Project used indicators to demonstrate the impact of values-related changes such as greater communication, increased involvement of participants in decision-making, and organizational values alignment on project success among civil society organizations in Mexico. See here .