Big News: After 30 years, we are taking a deep dive into understanding our Core Values. And there are some big shifts in how we understand and live our Core Values in the service of one another and our mission. How do we know? You—the workforce—have told us! Here’s what’s happened to date, and how you can get involved in the next phase of this historic project.
Phase One: Creating a First Draft
In March, the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, Master Chief Heath Jones, chartered the Strengthening Service Culture Core Values (SSC CV) Team. The SSC CV Team trained more than 40 Coast Guard members as Core Value Field Experts to conduct almost four hundred of interviews in the fleet. These are not your typical interviews. Our Field Experts asked members to share stories about times when their values drove them to action. What they heard was exceptional. The stories show clearly, without a doubt, that the Coast Guard workforce is the best of the best. You have integrity. You care deeply about our mission and about one another. You want to hold yourselves and others accountable. And you want to be the best you can be, in the service of our noble mission.
From these stories, the SSC CV Team has gleaned powerful insights about what types of behaviors reflect Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty. The stories also offered insights into what helps us live our values, and what gets in the way.
The interviews, conversations and activities were designed by Dr. Annie McKee, who has teamed up with Command Master Chief Jerry Wolf to lead the Core Values Team.
“We’re using research-based strategies to improve the Coast Guard’s leadership practices, team dynamics, and service culture,” said Dr. McKee, a best-selling author and senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. “Culture change starts with the individual, so we’re having authentic conversations with the entire workforce – from non-rates to senior leadership – as a key strategy of our action plan.”
Phase Two: Refining using your feedback
Hundreds of people have already been involved in the initial work to update, modernize, and refine our Core Values. Now, we need every member to get involved!
You might be wondering why we need your help. The answer is simple: These are OUR values. And even though lots of people have been involved already, it’s not enough. We need your voice, your thoughts, your reactions, and your insights. And we need you now.
So, starting today, you are invited to participate fully in defining our Core Values. Go to the Strengthening Service Culture – Core Values website. Here you will find ways to give us your great ideas directly. You’ll also find a couple of questions to answer. And don’t miss the three contests!
This is just the start. Every Monday for the next three weeks, we’ll post new questions, surveys, and games designed to gather your input and normalize conversations about our lived values.
We will refine the Core Value definitions as we go, sharing the updates with you via MyCG and the Core Values site. Using your input, we plan to finalize the updated definitions this winter.
Phase Three: And wait, there’s more!
This Thursday, the Commandant and MCPOCG will visit Sector Miami for the first of many unit visits where they’ll be hosting workshops and conversations about core values and service readiness. (Visit MyCG tomorrow to hear more!) The Commandant and MCPOCG will go back on the road early next year, to visit even more units. And in the spring, the Core Values team will help commands host their own Core Value Workshops.
In these sessions, you will have the chance to build the kind of culture we all want and need. We will share tools you can use to help improve your unit’s culture, so that our workforce will become more unified and supportive of each other – from deckplate to leadership.
The final Core Values Model will be included in the Enlisted Performance Qualifications, as well as the Enlisted and Officer Evaluation Systems. The updated model will also be incorporated into all Coast Guard leadership courses.
Thanks to this intentional work – and your help to carry it out – our shared understanding of how we put our Core Values into action will guide our Service for decades to come. For years, culture has ‘just happened.’ Just imagine what a great culture we can have at every unit for every person if we’re intentional about shaping it to what we want.
Culture matters, and this is your chance to get involved! “It's OUR Coast Guard,” said ADM Linda Fagan. “And so together we – WE – make the changes. Together we create the opportunity and together we create the culture that we aspire to.”
Are you in? If so, jump over to the Core Values site and let us know what you think about the initial definitions!
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