Following on from all the wonderful work undertaken during consultation with our members, I am pleased to announce our agreed organisational values – safety, respect, integrity, together and adaptive. Based on members’ feedback, these values represent behaviours which will help guide us in how we approach our roles and each other at CFA.
Reviewing our values has been a key priority for us as CFA leaders. Last year, the results from our culture surveys with members showed us that we needed to do more to improve our culture. We knew a big part of organisational culture is influenced by values, and so we began asking members for ideas and suggestions about the values which they felt truly represented us as an organisation.
Over a four-month period we received hundreds of responses from many of you, including ideas, suggestions and feedback which were used to shape our final five values:
We put Safety first
- We actively pursue zero harm
- We want everyone to get home safe and well
- We have a harmonious workplace
- We encourage discussions on safety matters
We Respect each other
- We acknowledge each other's ideas, opinions and contributions
- We welcome diversity
- We show empathy and understanding
- We respect the time of our people
We act with Integrity
- We do what we say we will do
- We are honest, open and act fairly
- We make transparent and timely decisions
- We are accountable and will hold one another to account
We work Together as one
- We unite to deliver on our mission
- We work in and promote inclusive teams
- We work collaboratively with the community and the sector
- We communicate openly
We are Adaptive and agile
- We are open to the challenge of change
- We are proactive and make it happen
- We challenge the status quo and recognise innovators
- We learn from each other and our community
For CFA, identifying our core values is only the beginning. Our challenge and opportunity now is to live the behaviours associated with each value. This means we must hold each other to account, including us as CFA’s leaders.
Some of you may already be living our values. By articulating them, we are also saying there is now a more tangible expectation to do so. We all bring different backgrounds and influences to our organisation - as a member of CFA, you are expected to approach and interact with each other in a way that is supportive, positive and safe.
To help illustrate our values, we have been looking at ways to best reflect them and what they mean to CFA. The design (on our Culture Program intranet page) is an evolving process as we want the image to resonate with all members.
You will soon see the values acknowledged in a more formal sense when we incorporate them into our recruitment processes, position descriptions and our performance review system. We are also looking into the introduction of official recognition programs to acknowledge members who demonstrate the spirit of our values.
These values complement our Fire Service Star virtues rather than replace them. The star is an important part of our history and will continue to be part of CFA tradition.
As CFA leaders we know we play a key role in living our values. However, to be truly successful, we know our values must be built from the ground up. In the coming months, we will be working with teams at the local and district level. A working group is currently developing flexible, team-based activities which can be tailored to suit local needs.
You will be hearing more from us on our values in the coming weeks.
Regards
Michael Wootten
CEO
Author: Michael Wootten