Manteca’s elected leaders are participating in a workshop Thursday to identify their collective values in order to form a mission/vision statement to guide the city.

Thursday’s 1 p.m. workshop in the chambers at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St, is a prelude for the upcoming City Council Goals and Priority Session that will — among other things — establish a community/citywide mission, vision, and values statement.

The staff report for the workshop notes developing such a statement “is crucial as it serves as a guiding compass for individuals deciding on a new place to call home, work, or conduct business.”

Instead of hiring outside consultants to lead the workshop effort as the city has done in the past typically at a cost of over $5,000, the workshop is being led by Sterrie McLeod of the Manteca Fire Department and Lea C. Simvoulakis of Community Development Services.

The objective of the workshop, as outlined in a prepared power point presentation is to:

*establish a citywide mission, vision, and/or goals statement.

*get a citywide vision each department and the Council need to have a vested interest in the same value system.

Council members before they proceed in identifying personal, workplace, and organizational values will be advised:

*personal values are for you alone and do not reflect what is expected from others.

*work values are things that you can expect from others.

*the intent of the exercise is not to right perceived wrongs or account for past behaviors.

*If you determine a need to change, modify or update the values in the future you can do so.

*the eventual statement should reflect a current vision of the City.

The reasons outlined why personal and workplace values matter in the process of discussing or creating a citywide mission, vision, and values statement are as follows:

*Before you can understand/identify your organization’s values, you have to understand your own values.

*Knowing what values are most important to you can help you better understand and identify others’ values.

*Once you understand what is important to you and your peers, it becomes clear what should be important to the organization.

*This understanding helps the mission, vision, values, come to life.

The process Thursday will include five steps.

The first is for council members to identify personal values of which the answers won’t be shared.

The questions each council member will explore are:

* What makes you excited to serve the City of Manteca?

*What characteristics do you value most in your fellow Councilmembers and staff?

*What do you think employees value most about the City Council and staff?
*What do you think the local Mantecan values in the City Council and staff?

The second step involves council members writing down 10 core values that are personally important to them.

Then those values are compared to 120 words representing various values that each member will be asked to find the 10 that most closely align to what hey wrote down. That will determine personal values.

The fourth step is coming up with shared group values.

The fifth and final step involves every council members participating in a group session to create a list of five words to form a mission, vision and value statement that identifies organizational values.

The workshop is open to the public. It can also be viewed via livestreaming on the city’s website.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com