Values alignment and leadership training
Last weekend I had the great opportunity of being involved in the Festival of Voices leadership program, which is being done with UTAS. I still have the final assignment to finish, but there have been a few other things consuming my thoughts at the moment - more on that at a later stage though.
The weekend was really interesting, Paul Kooperman did a fantastic job pulling it all together. We had a number of sessions about different aspects of leadership, with 3-4 speakers in each session. These were interspersed with group activities about leadership and possible events that we could introduce to the Festival of Voices.How much is there to learn?I did hesitate about doing the program, mainly because I've done a lot of leadership training (formal and informal, I do include TED Talks in this) and I wondered what else I could get out of the weekend. On the whole there wasn't a lot of new material, but it was a great refresh of some of the things I need to remember. More importantly, it was the anecdotes and storytelling of this sort of event that was the really powerful part.New peopleThe other important aspect was the dreaded 'n' word - yes networking. I met some really interesting people, a few that will try to maintain contact with. I must admit that I was also a little proud of myself because I didn't just sit back and consume, as I generally do in these sort of events. I did voice my opinions, and more than that, I stood up in front of everyone at the end to do a plug for Disruptive - the Festival of Ideas event that I am part of - all without blushing I should add.Vocal challengeOne of the most unique parts of the weekend was the choir activity. I haven't been in a choir since I was 12 years old, and doing it again was great fun. Since the program is part of the Festival of Voices they did the most interesting and effective ice breaker I've ever done in any sort of workshop. We formed a choir, learned a song and performed it. The sense of achievement we all had, combined with the sense of shared experience really set a great mood for the weekend. Of course it was captured with a smartphone, so you can watch the choir here.The problem with clearly knowing your valuesThere was one theme that really struck a chord with me, values alignment. A couple of speakers talked about ensuring that you employ staff whose values align with the organisation, which we all know is key. This made me think the overwhelming feeling that has been growing within me over the last few months. Since I understand my values much more clearly now, it has become clear to me that the culture of the organisation I work in does not share my values. I won't go into any more detail about that here, but it has been causing me a lot of angst.This TED experience has given me a lot of insight into myself, and it really has changed my life in many ways. Maybe what I failed to realise was how much else I would need to change my life, because once you know something about yourself it can't be forgotten or ignored. We'll see what happens from here.How about you? Do your values align with your organisation? Or more importantly do theirs align with yours? I'd love to know whether other people have this disconnect and are able to work through it?