World Values Day 2021
This article will take approximately 2 minutes to read
Published 21 Oct 2021 in Raising Awareness
As a co-operative, our values are what make us different from other retailers. Today is World Values Day and so, to mark the occasion, here’s a little reminder of what we stand for as a Society.
What is World Values Day?
World Values Day is an annual campaign to increase the awareness of values around the world. Our values are what matter most to us: they are our motivators, the things that spark passion in our hearts, and the reason we do the things we do.
The theme for this year’s event is ‘Reconnecting’, focusing specifically on how our values can help to connect us with our sense of self, with others and with the wider world.
Our Chief Values Officer, Pete Westall will be taking part in a UK Values Alliance panel discussion today entitled ‘It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it’ to highlight to a wider audience the way co-operatives are living their values each and every day. If you are interested, you can join by clicking here.
What are The Midcounties Co-operative’s values?
Even if you’re a relatively recent colleague to Midcounties, you will no doubt have heard of our DOES values:
Democracy, Openness, Equality and Social Responsibility.
These values underpin the way we do business across all of our trading groups, how we treat our colleagues and members, and how support the communities we serve.
We actively encourage all colleagues to live these values by doing things such as joining the Young Co-operators Network, putting themselves up for election to the Board or MEC, joining the Colleague Council or a diversity working group, treating one another with respect and taking part in community activity, such as the recent community tidy ups.
You can read more about the Midcounties’ values here and understand how we expect our businesses to live our values by reading the Ethical Co-operative Policy.
Where did our values come from?
Our DOES values weren’t plucked out of thin air. These 4-values form part of the 10 co-operative values that all 3 million+ co-operatives worldwide are based on. While we observe all 10, as a Society we chose the 4 that resonated most with us to focus on more closely.
Creating the DOES mnemonic made it much easier for colleagues and members to remember and understand our co-operative values, and therefore align themselves with them.
Co-operatives also operate according to 7 co-operative principles, which include being owned and controlled by our members and offering education and training to members (such as our Your Co-op Conversation events).
These values and principles can be traced back to the early Co-operative Movement, based on the ideologies of the Rochdale Pioneers who established the first successful co-op in 1884.
You can read more about the co-operative values and principles here or visit the International Co-operative Alliance website for more on the Rochdale Pioneers. If you’d like to get involved in World Values Day, why not use the hashtag #WorldValuesDay on your socials?