Values toolkit
Learn more about our values and how to put them into action.
Our values toolkit is designed for individuals, teams, managers and project leads to learn more about our values, and to initiate values-led conversations with colleagues to enhance the delivery of our work and to create a culture of feedback and growth.
In the toolkit you’ll find information, activities and resources that you can use to help develop understanding of our values and what they look like in practice for you and your teams. The activities are designed to help identify and establish behaviours and ways of working aligned with our values that help to connect people and clarify how we work together to achieve our goals.
Let's get started...
Step 1: Learn about our values
Download and share the ‘Introduction to our values' PowerPoint presentation with your team, it provides information about our values, how they were chosen, why they are important and how they can help us to create a culture at our university that enables us all to thrive in whatever work we do.
How and when might I use this:
- To support team development activities at a team away day or team meeting.
- As part of induction or training for new staff.
- To develop my own understanding of the values and why they are important.
You can watch more about our values in our video.
Find out from our Vice-Chancellor and why he thinks our values are important.
Ask yourself questions about our values. Use the values reflection guide to reflect on your own practice and your team and explore how your values align with the University’s values. Think about which questions resonate most with you and your team and modify these as needed to support reflection or discussions.
How and when might I use this:
- Use this activity to support with preparations for PDR.
- Include them as part of regular conversations or one to ones.
- To support professional development plans.
Step 2: Talk about them and what they mean for you and your role
Engage with colleagues you work with in a discussion about our values and behaviours.
Talk about and lead discussions on how the values are reflected in the work you do and where there may be opportunities to enhance this. This could be part of one to ones, team meetings, project planning or away days.
We’ve designed some activities and resources to help you get started.
Step 3: Lead by example
We all have a responsibility to 'walk the talk', otherwise our values are simply words on a page. This applies to us all and not just those in leadership or management positions. By embodying our values in all the ways you work, you set the standard for others to follow.
It's also important to recognise and challenge behaviours that undermine our values to foster and maintain integrity and accountability across our community. Providing feedback about behaviours that aren't aligned with our values can be challenging, but it's important for maintaining a positive and productive environment. We've developed a resource 'Challenging behaviours' that provides some ways that you might approach this.
Our key principles for challenging behaviours:
Choose the right time and place: When you notice behaviour that undermines our values, it's important to consider the best time and place to address this. Taking time to reflect and think about how best and when to challenge behaviour and balacing this with timeliness to prevent negative patterns from taking root.
Provide constructive feedback: Approach the situation with empathy and a focus on improvement. Explain why you think the behaviour is problematic and offer guidance on how to align actions with our values.
Encourage accountability: We’re all responsible for upholding our values. An important part of this is about holding each other accountable in a respectful and supportive way. It’s not about attributing blame because of someone’s actions, but more about how we create the conditions for our values to be lived.
Frequently asked questions
What has happened since the values were chosen?
Our values were introduced in March 2022 as part of our new strategy ‘Creating Better Futures. Together’. They are a key enabler of our strategy and will help us to create a culture where we can all thrive.
Since then, we have engaged people from across our university to identify example behaviours. These behaviours help us all to understand what our values look like in action.
For our values to guide our choices and actions, they must be more than words on a page. They must be reflected in all the ways we work and reinforced by our processes, systems and policies. We are working to embed values in every part of our employee experience. They are a central part of our onboarding and induction process, included as part of ‘Welcome to Loughborough’ and a suite of resources to support local induction process is currently being developed.
In 2023 the University launched the Vice-Chancellor's Awards, our values are a central part of the nomination criteria and in 2024 a new ‘Living the Values’ award category was introduced to help us celebrate and recognise those across our community who exemplify our values in all they do.
We are currently exploring ways to embed our values and behaviours into recruitment activity and work is already underway to ensure our learning and development activities are aligned.
What if my School or Service has its own values?
We recognise that schools, departments, services and teams may have their own unique cultures and may have their own set of values that reflect this. Our central University values are not intended to replace these values, but to live alongside them.
This toolkit provides resources to help individuals and teams understand and communicate how multiple sets of values can live together and align.