Determining your Values, Vision, and Mission

Video Transcription

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to this lesson on private practice. Here we'll be learning a practical application of personal values, vision statements, and mission statements. Specific content will include discovering values, evaluating values, vision statements, mission statements. Some materials may be needed for this lesson, including paper and pencils, markers or crayons, spray paint and a blank city wall. OK. Kidding on that last one. But we are getting a little bit more serious and digging in a little deeper here. So once these exercises are complete, you may want to show your work to another trusted source for feedback. We're really going to be digging deeper, as I said. So, bringing in some support and objectivity may be helpful.

You'll now have an opportunity to begin the creation of your own values, vision statement, and mission statement. These exercises will begin the process. Actual plans are an iterative process that takes time, considerable thought and research, as well as consultation from others, including peers, other counselors, business professionals, lawyers, and accountants, just for example.

A values list can be a helpful starting point in identifying your own values. So here's a list of values. This is by far not a comprehensive list, mind you. It's just to get you started in the right direction to finding your own values list.

Many similar lists can be found on the internet. Heck, where do you think I got that list? Create a list that works for you and circle the top 10 values in terms of importance. Now eliminate five of the values so that only five values remain circled. OK. Now the five that remain circled should be the values that are most important to you. Now look at the remaining values and rank these. So rank them from five to one, with one being the most important value.

OK. Now turn the sheet of paper over and write one paragraph about why the number one value is most important, and how this will influence business-based decisions. Do the same thing with the next four values, but also taking into consideration as you're writing about these, the fact that these values don't ranked number one.

OK. So now for a coll assignment. Go to the TED website and check out Ruth Chang's talk about making hard choices. This TED Talk is very helpful in understanding a new way to weigh values and helps you determine how to rank the importance of values.

Now review the list of five values after watching Ruth Chang's TED Talk, and see if anything needs to be changed. Either highlight the information that has changed, or write in another pen color, new information regarding the top five values. So highlighting and change in pen color is an example of the iterative process involved in creating and developing the values, vision, mission, strategies, and plan.

The definition of a vision statement is an image of what one wants their business to be. So now get a piece of blank paper and a pencil or a pen, markers, or crayons. Now sketch a picture of what you want your business to be. This sketch doesn't need to be artistically correct, only an image representing what you want your business to be. So the picture can be of anything, as it's a representation of what and how you want the business to look in the future.

Once the picture is complete, spend a moment just looking at the picture and then writing one sentence underneath it, describing the picture. So begin the sentence as, "My vision for my business is--"

So here's an example. My vision for my business is to be the trusted source for mental health care in blank city and blank state. And the accompanying picture may be that game of trust, where one person allows the other person to catch them, or whatever a picture would represent trust for you.

A mission statement can be considered the current purpose of the business. OK. Back to paper and pen or whatever, and write each of the following words on separate lines. What? To who? Where? Why? Consider your business and write brief words that answer what your business does, who it does it for, where it does it, and why it does it.

Now freely write several different words or short phrases in each category. Circle the best word or short phrase that you feel fits each category. Now construct one sentence at the bottom of the page incorporating each of the elements.

So here's an example of incorporating all of the questions. Our business provides effective evidence-based mental and behavioral health services to children, adolescents, and adults in Sunriver, Oregon, for the purpose of bettering our community and strengthening individual life experiences.

So here's what we covered in this lesson. First, discovering values. Next, evaluating values, vision statements, mission statements.

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