Developing our values

Feedback and ideas from more than 4,000 staff, students, alumni and stakeholders were used to create our new vision and strategic plan.

One of the most popular themes which colleagues talked about was ‘how we do things’, including the University’s culture and values. This was where we first heard the term ‘Manchesterness’ – that there was something distinctive about our University that staff felt proud to be a part of.

We wanted to find out more about what all of this meant by encouraging as many colleagues as possible to get involved in uncovering our University’s values.

Between April and July 2019 we asked colleagues to share their stories and experiences of what it meant to be a part of our University, what it was like when we were ‘at our best’ and what made their work worthwhile.

More than 750 colleagues took part by filling in an online survey or sending in a postcard. We also used open comments from the Staff Survey 2019 and asked for feedback on the values which appeared in Manchester 2020.

In the end, we analysed 115,799 words from the stories people shared and read more than 500 comments on the existing values.

In September 2019, 55 colleagues representing all parts of our University came together at a workshop to review the findings of this work and begin to draft Our values.

Researchers, teaching staff, Professional Services colleagues and academics with a diverse range of experiences, perspectives and disciplines took part on the day.

Following an intense, but thought-provoking session we began to shape the values which you can find at the heart of Our future. We tested our drafts with Senate, the Senior Leadership Team and Board of Governors until we settled on the words which you’ll find at the heart of Our future.

Huge thanks must go to values consultant Jackie le Fèvre whose wise advice and experience helped us to uncover Our values.