AFTER
ROAD AHEAD
Dear VALEdictorians,
The physical part of the VALE Course 2023 has now reached its final destination, and our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude and joy. Together, we created something special. We witnessed your bravery: you dared to jump, to open up, and to show extraordinary growth and dedication. You have made us immensely proud, and you should truly be proud of yourselves too!
When reaching the end, it is only natural to look back and reflect. We highly encourage you to keep doing so and to keep exploring new lessons to take with you from this experience. More importantly, however, is looking towards the future and charting out the road ahead. Your work as value-driven leaders making a real difference in both your micro and macro environments has only just begun.
In the last Spirit Group sessions many of you mentioned how you hope to stay connected with The VALE spirit and keep that positive change going. We strongly encourage you to continue your self-reflections, putting into practice all those new leadership tools, practicing your daily habits, exploring and living by your values, staying in touch with your buddies, your Spirit Groups and the entire class of 2023, and finally, continuously working towards your goal(s) for the future.
To help you on this journey ahead, we will provide you with guidance along the way. Nevertheless, when moving forwards, most of the responsibility now lies on you – both as individuals and as a community – to make sure that the lessons you take with you from these past months are put into practice both in your current and future leadership contexts as well as in your daily lives.
While the course part of the journey is now behind us, we firmly believe that its impact will be long-lasting. Go out there and spread the ripples of The VALE to your friends, families, organisations, schools, workplaces, communities, and the world at large. Start up that project you’ve been dreaming about, have that transformative conversation you’ve been putting off, or maybe hit a break and take that well deserved pause to do some self-care.
Either way, know that you have our full support and that we can’t wait to follow you along your continued path as value-driven leaders. We are excited to see you continuing to put a ding in the universe.
Yours truly,
The VALE Team 2023
/Erik, Riikka, Trine, Tulle, Louisa, Sanni, Vilma, Robert, Aurelia, & Magni
The Final Assembly - SAVE THE DATE
On 10 DEC 2023 from 9-13 CET, we will meet one final time in the virtual world. This will include group presentations on the value-projects, and invitations will soon be send out to our greater VALE Community to join us. Stay tuned for more information!
Post tasks – Obligatory
The Implementation Period of The VALE Course 2023 runs from 22 OCT - 10 DEC. During this time, we have prepared some tasks that we sincerely hope you will feel as enthusiastic about as us. The aim is for us to harvest as much of the learnings from the training in Norway as possible as put to use as soon as possible.
WE HAVE RECENTLY ADDED NEW TASKS
NEW: Post-Course Self-Assessment
Deadline: Friday 17 MAY, 2024
It has been SIX MONTHS since The VALE Course 2023 came to a conclusion. Prior to The Course, you filled in a pre-course self-reflection form. While you may not remember, some of the questions might ring a bell for you. This questionnaire is not meant to be difficult - but to measure changes, impact, and new knowledge related to The Course.
01 Fill in The Reflection Form
Deadline: Monday 6 NOV, 2023
As a first thing, we would like you to fill in an online reflection questionnaire on our week together. As much as this is a gift to us (as we are then able to assess the progress we’re making), this will also be a gift to you. It’s an invitation to take a quiet moment, gather your thoughts, and reflect on the course’s impressions.
02 Your Focus Value (Buddy)
Throughout NOVEMBER
Now it’s time to pick one of your core values - and work with it in your daily life. To support you, we’ve created exercise pages about values in the reflection task bundle (the third section). We recommend “Experiment: Four paths” and “November” page for tracking your core values. Tracking it is optional, but also an interesting experiment! You and your buddy should **schedule a short call around mid- to end-November,** where you share your progress: Are you living in alignment with your value? Have you made changes or progress? Have you addressed disalignments or implemented new actions or habits? By sharing it with your buddy, you’ll both have a check-up opportunity to reflect on the progress made and implement new thoughts for the near future. Please note: your buddy is the person you went on for the final morning walk where you shared your future goals!**
03 Develop A Habit (Buddy)
Throughout NOVEMBER
Changing an individual action is one thing, but changing a habit takes time. We challenge you to implement a new habit into your life. It could be anything, big or small. Ideally, it supports any of your core values. Put in some language practice every day, start brushing your teeth on one leg, take up meditation, or maybe pick up a screen-free morning routine? The choice is yours; the most important thing is that you do it every day! To keep each other accountable, you and your buddy should send each other a picture update / evidence every time you do it. We recommend the month of November. To support you, we’ve created a “Habit Tracker” as the last page in the reflection task bundle.
04 Spirit Group Value-Projects
Deadline: Sunday 10 DEC, 2023
Over the next 7 weeks, your task is to work on the value-projects (kicked off during the course) in your Spirit Groups. The project team work is organised by the group, and the product requirements are described with the case descriptions. The final presentation should be 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, there will be time for questions. We will have the following tap-ins: - After 3 weeks, your Spirit Guide will check in to hear how you are progressing and help you with any issues or questions to support your journey - After 5 weeks, we will have a mandatory “75% complete” Webinar where provide and receive peer-to-peer feedback from another Spirit Group - On 10 DEC, you will pitch your product & conclusions during the Final Virtual Assembly before a jury and your VALE colleagues Additionally, we provide an optional online module on Virtual Team Work - see tasks outlined under “optional” below.
Post tasks – Optional
The tasks below are a gift to you - and for inspiration and guidance. We highly encourage that you make as much of it as possible to enhance your own learning journey.
WE HAVE RECENTLY ADDED NEW TASKS
NEW: Anonymous Feedback
Deadline: Friday 17 MAY, 2024
It has been SIX MONTHS since The VALE Course 2023. This is a final and optional opportunity to provide (anonymous) feedback on anything you have on your mind regarding The VALE or your participation in The VALE Course 2023.
05 The Reflection Pages
Self-paced
There are three chapters of reflection exercises prepared for you. The idea of this exercise is to invite you to focus on one reflective chapter at a time, completing 3-4 of the most interesting (or joy-sparking) exercises. We also recommend that you have a chat about each of the chapters, the general topic, and/or individual exercises, after completing each section. The talk could be with your buddy, your Spirit Group, or another friend. See the first page of the bundle for further instructions.
06 Write Your Personal Code
Self-paced
As mentioned in the Value Elicitation session, you are encouraged to write your own Personal Code. Your Personal Code should include: - Your core values - Your definitions of these values - Your beliefs or key perspectives reflected by these values - A title, date, and a short introduction for yourself. - Write it addressed to yourself and use “I, to me, for me” statements The Personal Code can be a short text, stating a value and your definition of it in a few sentences, or a longer text that reflects on your core values. It should truly encapsulate what you understand as your own core - the words you have selected to represent your values must be clearly defined for yourself. The number of values vary. Commonly, 5-6, but some people may need 3 or 10. If you still feel that you need to work a little further on identifying your core values, you can repeat previous exercises, especially from The Silent Night reflection pages. - Patterns and values that emerge from things, activities, themes, and places that brings you joy - Characteristics and values represented in people you admire - Inspiration from a values list and defining what these words mean to you - Creating a values hierarchy (playing out two values against each other) to identify which values you will not compromise on - Your behavioural patterns: consumer patterns, what other notice about you, what you enjoy in a job
07 An Hour of Coaching
Soon to be open for bookings
As a part of the implementation period, you will be offered the chance to attend a coaching session. This task is not online yet, but we will notify you by email when the links for booking your appointment are on the Pax Portal. Prior to the session, you should already have decided on a topic that you wish to be coached on in order to get the most out of the session. Examples are: - A goal - A difficult relationship or conflict - Self-doubt - Overcoming limiting beliefs - Overall happiness - Increasing contentedness in a specific area of your life Everyone has a reason for why they chose to participate in the course. Our aim is to provide individual support, and an hour that is ONLY about you. This task is not online yet, but we will notify you by email when the links for booking your appointment are on the Pax Portal.
08 Online Module on Virtual Team Work
Self-paced
Nowadays, it has become very common that we conduct much of our work and collaboration online or in a hybrid format - both for events and companies (not least post-pandemic). Outside of “traditional” team working skills, this puts different demands on you, both as a team member and as a leader. For this reason, we launched an online module on Virtual Team Work in 2021, which you can complete at your own pace. It's free, optional, and a good resource to get some useful tips. The topics and leadership lessons covered are aimed to be as concrete as possible, giving you useful tools and perspectives to implement straight away in the work you will be conducting in your Spirit Groups.
