Growth

One Hour, One Value, One Change

This one-hour workshop was initially developed seven years ago by the UK Values Alliance, in collaboration with the Forward Institute, the RSA (the Royal Society for Arts) and PwC, as a simple, effective and practical way for groups and organisations around the world to focus on their group or organisational values for just one hour. It is simple to run it and does not require any specialised facilitator.

Since then, we have had very positive feedback from many different kinds of groups and organisations, telling us that the one-hour session had been highly effective for them and they would recommend it for others.

Why are values so important for your community group?

Whatever kind of group you belong to, whether it is a club, a youth group, a group of volunteers, or maybe a group of friends getting together regularly to share a common interest, it will be based on values. But often those values are held unconsciously, or else taken for granted and forgotten about.

Groups that are clear about their values, where those values are aligned with their members’ values, and where people make a consistent effort to practice those values, will tend to produce a culture which is collaborative and resilient and where members are well motivated, happy and productive.

Groups which don’t consistently practice their values will be less able to stand the stresses and strains that affect any group of individuals who spend time with each other. Whether it’s tackling external problems or internal disputes, or planning ahead, or getting things done – everything is more difficult without shared values to rely upon.

Not sure what your values are?

If your group does not have an official set of core values, please download our Values Guide for Community Groups from this page to help you identify the values that are most important to your group.

What is the values gap and how to address it?

Most groups or organisations have a clear statement of values. But the reality for many of these is that great sounding values can get trampled on in everyday life. It happens everywhere. There is a gap that grows between how we could live those values and how we actually behave – ‘the values gap’.

Printing out a group or organisation’s values and only hanging them on the wall is not enough. The chosen values need to be brought to life and turned into daily habits and behaviours. These habits and behaviours need to extend to all the organisation’s stakeholders, including the communities that it is connected to. This needs consistent effort, constant encouragement, and ownership of the values throughout the whole group.

If your group would like to take part in the Values Challenge, please sign up by clicking on the Take the Challenge button below and receive a free pack of resources which includes all the material and information you will need to run the workshop.