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Share your stories and experiences\u00a0<\/a>of what it means to be part of our University<\/p>\n Dear colleagues<\/p>\n When we asked you for your Big Ideas as part of Our Future<\/a>, one of the most popular themes you talked about was \u2018how we do things\u2019. You mentioned our processes and systems, but you also talked about our University\u2019s culture and values. Many of you said there was something distinctive about our University and felt proud to be a part of it – this was sometimes articulated as \u2018Manchester-ness\u2019.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like as many colleagues as possible to get involved in helping us to understand more about this and uncover our University\u2019s values by sharing their stories and experiences of what it means to be part of our University.\u00a0 As part of this work we\u2019d also like your views on our University\u2019s existing guiding principles and values<\/a> \u2013 these are also outlined at the end of this message.\u00a0<\/p>\n We will use what you tell us to uncover a single set of University values which will form a core theme of our next strategic plan<\/a>. You can get involved by sharing your stories online<\/a>.\u00a0 There will also be opportunities to discuss values in existing staff meetings and events taking place throughout May and June.<\/p>\n The more people that take part by sharing their stories and thoughts on our existing values, the more certain we can be that what results represents the whole of our University. All of your responses will be treated in confidence and anonymously.\u00a0 Decisions about the values we take forward will be made by the University\u2019s governance groups, culminating in endorsement by the Board of Governors later this year.<\/p>\n Every organisation has values, whether it consciously decides to uncover them and live them or not.\u00a0 These values influence the way that we make decisions and work together to get things done.\u00a0 Where there\u2019s a strong sense of shared values we can work more effectively, deliver our best, and as an organisation be more resilient during change.<\/p>\n Uncovering our values is just the first step, the next challenge will be bringing them to life across the whole University in a consistent way. Sometimes we will have to call out things that we see or experience which don\u2019t align with our values and I\u2019m not saying that this will be easy to do.\u00a0 But I do believe that it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n