From Values to Our Ways

When it comes to incorporating values into our daily practices, it's more than just a matter of listing them in documents or displaying them on walls. Instead, it's about breathing life into these values by integrating them into every process we undertake. If we view values as dynamic processes that require active engagement, they can truly become ingrained in the culture.

Why do we start with Values?

Beginning with Whanaungatanga involves understanding where others are coming from. The reasons we make this an upfront focus are related to:

• Understanding about where another person is coming from - through observing their values and ways of knowing, doing and being.
• Working in partnership and through power sharing from the beginning to steer away from top-down behaviours (unless that's what you want).
• Relationships and authority or agency over one's self.

Cultivating a Culture by Putting Values into Action

It's not just about having values; it's about actively embodying them to create a culture. Being accountable to this culture means using values as a compass, especially when faced with challenges. When things aren't going smoothly, we like to encourage people to refer back to Our Ways, seeking alignment and drawing attention to them as the ways we agreed to from the beginning.

The Role of the Naive Inquirer

Interconnected with relationships and avoiding the dominance of personal ideals and opinions, the role of the Naive Inquirer is to gather insights and information before making judgments. It's about allowing values and worldviews to shine through. Often, decisions are made on behalf of others, stifling their voices, perspectives, thoughts, and feelings. By asking open-ended questions, you create the space for one’s identity and ways of knowing and doing to be valued.

Having Shared Values Does not mean you give up your own values

This is an important concept to share. In working towards shared values, they remain for the purpose of working towards a common goal or desired outcome. When you’re not working towards that outcome, then you revert back to your values. Shared values have to have everyone’s input otherwise they will never be shared, but forced upon people by default.

Walk Together’s Our Ways

In keeping Walk Together’s core values grounded and centred in the work we do, we separate these out as part of the process that guides the facilitator as well as the process groups are going through. Shared values can co-exist simultaneously and so as we create Ahi-Kā - Home Embers for Walk Together with our new system navigators, we are creating shared values over time until everyone can participate and agree that these values are worth holding on to.

System Navigators Snapshot - Week 2 and 3

If you haven't caught up with our last episode, Walk Together NZ has expanded this year inviting in 8 Systemic Navigators learning the WT ways over 2024. We are also collectively envisioning and co-designing the future of WT together. This blog will share insights and updates of our shared learning journey over the next 10 months.

Co-Creation of Our Ways:

We have begun the objective of co-creating a set of shared values or Our Ways for this systemic navigators kaupapa [journey]. Through Learning by Doing, our navigators will learn the process of facilitating a group to share values, while they create Our Ways collaboratively with our collective.

Focus on Process first, and Outcome Second

It is not a race to get them done and ticked off, but for the group to get to a point of where they feel good and have shared agreement on them. By spending a short time each week over several weeks, this allows space for thinking, feeling, and consideration.

Whanaungatanga

Moving through whanaungatanga - relational connecting with each other and creating an environment that is warm, flexible, and where power-sharing is a way has occurred over the last few weeks. We have been moving between drawing attention to all the processes being used, as well as co-creating the foundations which we call The Gathering Canopy or Pre-Readiness.

Yarns about Values

We shared the values and ways that we wanted to add into potential System Navigators Our Ways - A set of shared values and ways of working we agree to. Examples of input from our navigators included:

• Respect. The goal in terms of the value to be held to where you can feel it and it's present.
• Having a balance of Structure and co-creation.
• Flexibility
• In a learning space, curiosity and the group staying curious about what's happening. The opposite of that would be like stonewalling or shutdowns e.g people defending rather than inquiring.
• Engagement and committing as members of this whānau.

Need Help Refreshing or Co-Creating Our Ways?

Book a cuppa here and we can chat about what your needs or ideas are.