The fourth in an introductory series: integrity
by Tim Herd, President
Like the ever-changing standards of beauty, values—as important as they are—remain relative to the beholder’s interpretation, and risky to build a corporate culture on. Tolerance, for example, may sound like a good value—but should we be equally tolerant of artistic expression as human trafficking?
This short article defines the People, Parks & Community Foundation’s corporate integrity to lead productive change in our society and help people and communities flourish.
The first in this series defines our people-focused vision. The second addresses how we empower social capital to effect change. The third explains how our approach to equity-driven initiatives improves our individual and collective wellbeing. This last in the series helps answer two questions you may consider before supporting the Foundation in a shared mission: 1. How does our organizational culture affect our relationships and results? 2. How can we together make a difference in people’s lives?
Values vs Virtues
Certainly, an agreement on shared values is vital for any organization (or society) to function successfully. But to build a diversity of people and places that thrive requires embracing not just variable values, but unalterable virtues.
Virtues aren’t some quaint holdovers from the Victoria Era. By their very nature, virtues are universal and absolute standards that do not change with circumstances, time, or point of view. When practiced, they always support moral excellence and collective well-being.
Unlike disputable values, virtues of honesty, courage, perseverance, kindness, gratitude, courtesy, dependability, and integrity (among dozens of others), are always profitable for mind, body, and spirit.
Truth be told, virtues matter in every leadership decision, every relationship, every strategic plan, every course of action. By embracing virtues in the Foundation’s leadership, guiding principles, and ethical practices, we aim to:
- stimulate personal development, professional competence, and corporate responsibility in our spheres of influence
- model trustworthiness and promote advantageous relationships in our current and potential collaborators, grantees, and donors
- become a recognized difference-maker in our industry, respected among colleagues, partners, and the public alike
- avoid moral entrapments and legal troubles, and recover more quickly and fully from missteps and mistakes
- build an enduring legacy of worthy accomplishments and transformational results
Organizational Culture
Organizational cultures are expressed in the collective behavior of the people within them, and how their actions are perceived and received by others. That group dynamic in turn impacts its corporate and community worth.
However, the critical question is: what does the culture enable? More specifically for the Foundation, what are our overarching beliefs and principles that guide how we act and interact? How does our collective behavior affect teamwork, productivity, quality, engagement, and results? And how are we perceived by our eligible beneficiaries, supporters, and other stakeholders?
In each of the Foundation’s four cultural dimensions, we seek to transparently model the virtues and ideals that enable and empower the vision, social capital, equity, and integrity that drive our mission and ultimate outcomes:
Vision
- We methodically establish and communicate vision, goals, objectives, and strategic direction.
- We envision cleaner resources, less waste, crises averted, problems solved, and healthier lifestyles, and how such investments enrich ourselves and our neighbors, improve the livability of our cities, and ensure a more equitable future.
Empowerment
- We comprehensively engage and equip people, and develop personal and organizational capacity.
- We invest in the social capital of respect, building networks of social connections, interpersonal relationships, and shared ethics that enable mutual cooperation toward shared ambitions.
Equity
- We expansively encourage and empower cooperation, partnerships, and multiple viewpoints and perspectives.
- We support equity-driven initiatives that meet the needs of our communities and ensure that our facilities, programs, workforce, and leadership respects and reflects the diversity of those served, and are equitable, accessible, and welcoming to all people.
Integrity
- We diligently promote, model, and reward integrity, excellence, and other absolute standards.
- We cultivate a prosperous, people-oriented culture, integrating our core virtues into all operations and interactions, seek to function with consistency and unity, and champion those ideals throughout our spheres of influence.
An invitation
Do you value what the Foundation does? If so, we invite you to help grow the Foundation’s capacity to improve our public lands, programs, and facilities that create positive differences in people’s lives. We ask you to consider giving a monthly or one-time tax-deductible gift to the Foundation, with our great gratitude!
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