Holding on to What Is Sacred: How to Protect Organizational Values and Enhance Mission Vitality

Holding On To What Is Sacred, written by Dr. Randy Haffner, lays out a persuasive vision for how organizations can stay focused on their true values. Dr. Haffner recognizes that a successful service organization is not adequately defined by its balance sheet alone. Rather, he probes for the soul of an organization and the real values that the customers recognize as integral to the products and services delivered. He then proceeds to suggest measurements that can complement the financial section of the organization's scorecard with measures pertinent to the health of the organization's soul. The idea of a Confessional Identity, or the organization's core competencies, is valuable to leaders in both corporations and not-for-profit organizations.

Confessional Identity pinpoints the very essence of mission. It transcends trendy corporate speak and seeks the spiritual heart of an organization's reason for being. Haffner pulls from research on corporations and higher education institutions to reveal how core convictions must be well articulated and be wholistically applied. To have wholistic adherence, the vast majority of associates must understand the core convictions (mind), exhibit behaviors consistent with those core convictions on a daily basis (body) as well as have an emotional connection with the core convictions that brings meaning to the tasks at hand (spirit),

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