Beyond the equity statement
A mini-series on creating
core values and living by them.
In 2020, when COVID-19 threatened our health and livelihood, and civil unrest forced us to reevaluate our privilege, we could no longer ignore the "brokenness" of our field and the art form we love. Developing equity statements was important, but for ASI, it was time to become outward-facing about our values and to live by them.
Like many nonprofits, we didn't have the resources to spend hours digging into these topics all at once. So, with grace (and privilege), we permitted ourselves to do this over time. Not to keep pushing this back on the to-do list, but by eating the elephant one bite at a time and making sure this work could go beyond a nicely designed piece of paper.
We hope this mini-series sharing our process will inspire others to create a culture of care within their organizations and put actions behind their equity statements.
Part I: Looking Inward, Crafting Our Vision Statement & Core Values
Looking Inward
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What do we want to see in our organization and field?
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Why do we do what we do?
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How do we achieve and track our goals as an organization?
Inspired by Ken Foster’s book Arts Leadership: Creating Sustainable Arts Organizations, we decided to articulate our own Vision Statement (why?) and Core Values (how?) and to reconsider our Mission (what?). Once developed, we wanted to ensure each could become part of our organizational ecosystem.
Crafting Our Vision Statement & Core Values
In May 2021, we held a brainstorming session with Amy Seiwert, Sarah Cecilia Bukowski (longtime ASI collaborator and writer-in-residence), Ben Needham-Wood (Artistic Fellow 2018-2021), and myself to unpack these three components. After we revisited our Mission Statement (what?), we used the following prompts to craft our new Vision Statement (why?) and Core Values (how?).
Vision Statement
To draft our Vision, we used the following prompts:
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What role in the world do we want to play?
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What impact do we want to have?
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What is the idealized future state we want to create?
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What would you like our organization to become?
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What words or phrases depict the type of organization and end goals we want?
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What do we want our organization to look like? Culture? Ethos? Mood? And how is this reflected in the lives of staff, board, and dancers?
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How will people live differently if our organization is successful?
From these answers, we created a one-sentence Vision Statement articulating what ASI is working to accomplish (without revealing how).
Core Values
Next, to draft our Core Values, we answered the following questions:
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What values would I stand by, no matter what?
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What values do I demonstrate in my own leadership?
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What principles are most important as our staff, dancers, and board make daily decisions?
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What values support our current Mission and Vision?
Three months later, we did a similar exercise with our Board and Staff during a three-hour Equity Training led by Reggie Harris of InContext Advising. We finalized ASI’s Mission, Vision, and Core Values with the ideas generated during these two meetings.
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In the second part of this series, we will share how we tried to ensure these values are integral to our day-to-day operations and embraced by everyone collaborating with ASI.
Resources
*There are many excellent resources available online to guide similar discussions in your own organization. Here are a few of my favorites:
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Smartsheet: Vision statement worksheet
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Diggles Creative: Brand vision worksheet
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Whole Whale: Nonprofit vision and mission statement worksheet
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Lone Star College System: Worksheets for developing mission and vision statements