Cohesion, consensus, culture, and community

Culture eats strategy for breakfast and transformation for lunch. Strategic plans that are not built on a foundation comprised of the corporate culture will not be achieved by an organization. Transformations that run counter to the corporate culture will fail by lunch time. What are the core values of the college? And not those crafted with an eye towards external appearances - a list perchance borrowed or based on what other some other institution has crafted. 

A culturally diverse multilingual student body means one can speak five languages on a walk across the national campus; the four state campuses all have a different L1 language

At the recent incentive awards day a question was asked of the gathering along the lines of, "What are the five core value statements for the college?" When no one initially answered, my mind was thrown abruptly and unexpectedly back many years ago to a summit that sought to establish college value statements. In the group I was in, discussion included making the college value statements something memorable. Something every employee could roll off without hesitation.

This led to a set of value statements that centered on four C's: Cohesion, Consensus, Culture, and Community

• Cohesion: We value group cohesion.
• Consensus: We value agreement by consensus.
• Culture: We value traditional culture and the diversity brought by the cultures at the college
• Community: We value connections with the community

The alliteration was by design to enhance memorability. The intent was for every employee to be able to say, "The college values cohesion, consensus, culture, community."  The core values of the college are all C values. There are four of them because four is traditionally a number that symbolizes completeness in some of the cultures of Micronesia, four is also the number of FSM states. These values are four guiding stars of the college.

The group felt that these values also captured what makes the culture of the college unique and different from many other institutions. For example, faculty thrive here when they share those values, faculty who do not share those values may find the culture of the college to not be a good fit for them.

Spathoglottis micronesiaca: an endemic orchid found on campus. Even the plants are unique

At the summit the group's work was set aside. As the day progressed I became increasingly aware that the purpose of the summit was to validate a list of values that had been preselected and which were based on those at another institution. The summit lead was looking to be able to write that the preselected values were generated out of and supported by the summit. The summit lead was particularly concerned about references to culture and custom and had led the effort to strike a phrase from an earlier college mission statement that made reference to the uniquely Micronesian nature of the college. The four C's reflected some of the uniqueness of the college culture. In the spirit of cohesion and consensus - actual corporate cultural values at the college - the group acquiesced to the predetermined list of core values of commitment, excellence, learner-centeredness, professionalism, and teamwork.

The college is unique in the moment to moment variability of the weather and the embracing of rain

The upcoming work on the next institutional master plan must be guided by the unique culture of the college. The culture of the college will be what either enables or disables any strategic plan, any transformational changes the college may seek to make.

As the college begins a new institutional master plan cycle there is value in remembering the four C's, because the college is also a canoe paddling towards a destination. Canoe and college are two more C words and formed the motif that the group I was in designed for their poster presentation - echoing the college seal. A canoe carried forward by valuing cohesion, consensus, culture, and community.