"Values Don't Change", by Pat Dillon, October issue, www.fastcompany.com/online/18/values.html

"Good advice for the University of Minnesota Extension Service", by Todd Mehrkens

This article listed and described the 10 statements that make up the "Values Statement" of Intuit, a software company. I appreciated, as did the author of the article, that the statements are written in plain English. As I read through the statements, I found most of them to be quite applicable to the University of Minnesota Extension Service. I found the following statements to be especially applicable:

1. INTEGRITY WITHOUT COMPROMISE - As a publicly funded institution, we must put intentional effort into making sure that we are making the best possible use of the resouces that we receive.

2. DO RIGHT BY ALL CUSTOMERS - I believe that it is incredibly important to do ALL that we can for the people who walk into our office or we come into contact with in any other way. Even if they are asking for something that is outside the realm of our responsibilities, we need to be as helpful as we can to get them pointed in the right direction. It may take some extra effort, but I believe that it really makes an excellent impression when a governmental office goes the extra mile in meeting a person's needs.

5. CONTINUALLY IMPROVE PROCESSES - As a Program Coordinator working with 4-H, I often find change is slow and hard because of tradition, but there is always room for improvement. This is also very true of some of the processes involved is supporting the 4-H program. We can be very good at burying our club leaders with paperwork, when there may be a way that is less burdensome to our volunteers.

6. TEAMS WORK - We work very hard to teach our 4-H members that competition in the show ring must be put into perspective. In many ways, extension does a great job of cooperation and teamwork - this cohort is a great example - but there can always be improvement.

In summary I believe that value statements are important to help keep all of us moving in the right direction. The process of determining those values statements can be long and hard, but I think Intuit has shown that clearly stated values statements can be a valuable asset to an organization.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 1998

Answers

Excellent job of relating this article to your work with Extension. You integrated this throughout your discussion. Did you have a chance to talk to your colleagues about this article? Please remember to do this, and add a summary of your conversation with them.

Nice work!

-- Anonymous, May 23, 1999