Engaging with Imperial community

To help make the strategy a reality, the Provost's Board wanted to develop a set of Values and Behaviours. The Provost's Board tasked the Organisational Development and Inclusion (ODI) team to develop a set of Values using these principles:

• Co-created with the Imperial community
• Provost's Board's active involvement
• A culture where 'how things are done' is as important as a result achieved
• The process as important as the outcome
• Set the tone for change
• Deal with inconsistent behaviours
• Explore what connects us - shared beliefs/assumptions
• Faculty-led

Focus Groups

A team of facilitators designed 90-minute focus groups to draw out and listen to views directly from Imperial staff. The focus groups started with a definition of what values are before diving into the big questions:

• What makes/would make Imperial a great place to work?
• What behaviours do you value from colleagues at Imperial? (and would they be different for leaders?)
• What are the values that you think are important for Imperial?

The focus group attendees then voted on the top five values, enabling the ODI team to gather perspectives from Imperial staff.

Summary

Overall, we listened to the thoughts, ideas, and suggestions of over 400 staff members. They submitted a list of 360 values, 86 of which were unique. The top 12 most-suggested values were developed into five themes.