If you’ve been following along for the past few entries, you know we’re taking some time to revisit who we are as an organization. The week of June 26th we talked about Cornerstone’s mission (see the post here), and the week of July 3rd we talked about Cornerstone’s vision (post here). Then, I took a few weeks off for vacation and let’s be real – I’m not writing blog posts while I’m away. 🙂
But I’m back – all the summer trips are over – and I’m excited to get back into the swing of things and move our focus onto our values.
Before I start with that, I want to tell you a story.
When I was a kid – from the ages of about 9 to 14 – I grew up in a single-parent household. My mom and dad got divorced and although my dad didn’t move far away from us, the extent of my time with him was usually about one fast-food dinner per week. So, it was me, my sister, and my mom (with the outside support of my grandma) figuring out how to make it on our own.
As you might guess, during this time, we didn’t have a lot of money. I don’t think I realized just how little money we had until my mom decided to do some redecorating and throw out all the old furniture she had shared with my dad without the money to replace it. We had no furniture in our living room for probably close to a year. But that’s a story for another time.
During this cash-strapped season, we ate…how should I say it…affordably. Tuna. Hamburger Helper. Chicken Enchilada Casserole that was mostly tortillas and cheese. But mostly I remember a dish that I’m sure had a name but has been blocked out from my memory because I thought it was so disgusting. One piece of Roman Meal Wheat bread, topped with canned Pork ‘n Beans, topped with a hot dog that had been “fileted” (aka, simply split down the middle almost all the way through, but not quite), topped with a piece of American cheese. Broiled in the oven until the cheese melted. Viola! Dinner.
Gross.
I always hated that meal, but as I got older, this meal got even grosser to me. See, to save money we bought Bar-S hot dogs. Not sure if any of you remember those, but they were about .98 a pack at Wal-Mart. And I think it was in a science or a health class where we went through a unit about what was in our food and how cheap hot dogs were typically full of whatever “leftovers” were at a meat processing plant. And all I could think about were these open-face bean/hot dog/cheese combos that we ate on a semi-regular basis…and I couldn’t even handle it.
It was also around this time that I went to the grocery store with my mom when, now that I was paying attention, I noticed the Hebrew National hot dog, with the tagline, “We answer to a higher authority.” What in the world did that mean? That’s when my mom explained the concept of Kosher food to me and I realized that if I had to keep choking down what seemed to be one of my mom’s favorite meals to make, that maybe I could ask if we could do better by choosing something that had a bit of a higher standard than other options on the market. Fortunately, she said yes.
Sooooo, values. What in the WORLD do hot dogs have to do with Cornerstone’s values?
Well, put simply: values matter.
Just like I wanted to eat a hot dog from a company that actually cared about what they put in their product, today I want to work with a group of people who are committed to showing up a certain way in the work that they do. My guess is that because you’re here, you do too.
You may have already put two and two together, but at Cornerstone, values aren’t just words – they define how we engage with each other and with our clients. Values inform how we show up with one another when there’s a rupture in relationship with a co-worker, when a client is difficult or irrational or wants something from us that we just can’t give, when we ourselves are in the midst of a difficult personal season, heck, values even inform how we leave the counseling rooms at the end of the day. If our mission reminds us and informs the world what we aim to do day in and day out (Help people heal, grow, and thrive) and our vision reminds us and informs the world of where we’re headed (We will help bring about a world where people are healed, restored, redeemed and set free), then our values remind us of how we get there without losing the heart behind who we are as things ebb and flow and grow and change in our organization over time.
Earlier this year Directors Team spent quite a bit of time paring what used to be 8 values down to 4, coming up with a fun acrostic to help us remember them in the process:
S – Second Mile Service: We strive for excellence, going above and beyond what’s expected of us.
L – Life To The Full: We believe God redemptively uses both our joys and struggles to help us experience the abundant life Jesus died to give us.
A – Authenticity: We “come as we are,” while honoring the work God is doing in each of our lives with humility and vulnerability, believing in His transformative power.
B – Biblically Sound and Clinically Excellent: We value and employ the wisdom of God’s Word and His general revelation through research and evidence based practices.
Get it? SLAB? Like a slab of rock? And you work at Cornerstone? Hahahaha. Yup. We’re clever like that.
So stay tuned for next week’s entry where we start looking at these values in a little more depth, with stories behind why each of these matter so much to who we are as a counseling group, why they make us different from other places to work, and how they make us exceptional in our field and more effective as a team – in all the right ways. And in the meantime, I’d love for you to think about how our values impact you in the work you do, because I hope to talk about them together a whole lot more going forward from here!
Looking forward to it…
