The tie that binds ... the power of Values!

One of the great songs of the church has a first verse that goes:

Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.
As I have a new Principles of Management class beginning Monday, and cannot wait to meet these thirty new students and become part of their lives for a quick fifteen weeks, my mind a couple of days ago went on a journey. That journey was in assessing the world into which these young minds are now residing and preparing to be part of commercially in a few years and how this perspective is so very different than the time when I sat in those seats listening to a professor teach.  So the question, when that old song came to me is, what is that tie that binds our hearts, the fellowship of kindred minds?  Worthy question I think you will agree!

As my mind probed that that binding tie individually and organizationally, the power of Values came into focus and thus became the rudder on this great ship of life and learning.  The ship's rudder is relatively small but has power influence in the direction of the vessel which I think is a wonderful analogy for Values.  Values define who we are. Values establish our boundaries. Values determine direction and velocity.  Values are, then, that tie that binds us into the sum total of our behaviors which I define as Culture.   So I guess we could assess that you can have Values without Culture but you will never have a Culture without Values, right?

So the question .... if you had to write down three values that define you, what would your list be?  Go ahead and develop that list.  My class will hear much about Values in the upcoming semester for how can you manage effectively if you are irrelevant to the Values, right?  It is amazing that the longer I live the more inquisitive I become about things that just "were" most of my life but in questioning and probing, I begin to see the depth of the boundary markers in our world. 

Make this day a day of seeking to understand yourself better; that will always make for an interesting dissertation and I challenge you to embark on that journey!  Be blessed!!!