Leadership program
From Words
to Values
Values-driven work for leaders.
In one day.
An in-house program for management teams and groups of leaders.
Request more information“What really matters to us together?”
“How does that show up in our work?”
“How do you involve employees?”
“And what does that ask of you as a leader?”
In this one-day program, you explore how organizational values become meaningful in everyday practice. You work with stories and dilemmas from your own organization, practice leading conversations, and develop a concrete approach to shaping organizational culture with your team.
The starting point
The values are defined.
How do you work with them?
This day is relevant when you recognize any of these situations:
- Core values have been established, but employees see them as something that belongs to senior management.
- Leaders want to work with values but do not know how to start the conversation with their teams.
- The organization asks for ownership, while employees feel they have little say.
- You want a leadership day to lead to concrete follow-up within teams.
Everyone knows the words.
But do we share their meaning?
Trust. Professionalism. Connection.
Many organizations have defined their values. Yet people can use the same words to mean very different things. Values become meaningful when people explore and share what matters to them together.
As a leader, you have a particular role in this process. You connect your employees’ lived experience with the formal structures and systems of your organization.
How do you connect what matters to the organization with what employees experience every day? In this program, you learn to bring the organization’s story and employees’ experiences into conversation.
What you take away
What will you bring
to your team?
During the day, you develop three concrete applications for your own work.
A first team conversation
An outline and questions to explore what matters to employees and how it shows up in their work.
An approach to involvement
Concrete choices about how to invite employees to participate, give them room to contribute, and involve them in what follows.
A recurring conversation
A ritual that fits your everyday work, with an initial commitment to keep the conversation about values going.
What we do in one day
You create meaning together.
We connect insights into values-driven work with conversations, exercises, and concrete applications for your own team. We follow six steps.
Words
What do we say matters to us?
We start with your organization’s values. What are those words intended to express? What do they mean to you personally? And how do they relate to what matters to employees?
Experiences
Where do we already see or feel this in practice?
You explore concrete experiences in which values became tangible. A moment of pride, a difficult choice, or a situation where something important came under pressure. We connect the words with everyday work.
Stories
Which concrete moments make it meaningful?
You practice gathering and sharing meaningful stories. By asking, listening, and asking further questions, you discover what an experience reveals about what matters to someone. You learn how to have this conversation with your employees.
Meaning
What does this tell us about who we want to be together?
We consider the stories alongside one another. What do we recognize? Where do we differ? And what does that mean for how we work together? You practice facilitating a conversation in which people give meaning to organizational values together. You turn this into an outline for your first team conversation.
Ownership
How do you involve your team in this conversation?
You explore how employees can actively participate in the conversation about what matters. That means challenging people while also listening.
You make concrete choices about how to keep employees involved in recognizing and acknowledging values.
Rituals
Which habits keep the conversation alive?
You design a recurring moment to give values attention within your team. For example, in a meeting, when making a decision, or during a review. You decide how to begin, when to have the conversation, and how to involve employees in what follows.
Experiences of my work
From abstraction
to practice.
About an earlier management gathering
“Through his message, Stephan Ummelen invited national leadership to reflect: who are we, and what do we stand for?
How do you truly reach employees, and how do you move shared values from abstraction into practice?
Not only his ideas, but also his practical examples and interventions immediately hit home.”
Your facilitator
Stephan Ummelen
I help organizations explore what matters to people and how it shapes their collaboration. In this program, I connect insights into values, trust, and organizational culture with your daily practice.
We work with your own experiences. That means the conversation starts with the work you actually face.
More about StephanPractical information
For your
organization.
- Who is it for?
- Leaders and management teams who want to give values a meaningful place in everyday work. This includes organizations that have already defined their core values and those that want to deepen the conversation about what matters to them together.
- Format and group size
- A one-day in-house program for a management team or a group of leaders from the same organization. We agree on group size, activities, and location based on your needs.
- Adapted to your practice
- Before the day, we discuss your organizational values, your reasons for the program, and the situations that need attention. These form the starting point for the conversations and exercises.
- Preparation
- Participants bring a concrete experience or dilemma from their everyday work. We adapt the preparation question to your organization.
- Investment
- On request. After an introductory conversation, you receive a proposal tailored to the group size and preparation required. You will know in advance what the program includes and what it costs.
Arrange an introductory conversation
What does values-driven work ask of your organization?
Tell me briefly what is happening and which group you have in mind for this day. In an introductory conversation, we discuss your needs, the outcomes you want, and the shape of the program.
stephan@waardengedreven.nl