Core Values and Principles

To accomplish our vision of a healthy, humane, vibrant world, the Institute’s work is all rooted in the values at the core of The Pollyanna Principles.

At the Community-Driven Institute, we hold ourselves accountable for creating a healthy, vibrant, humane future for our children’s grandchildren and beyond.

Towards that end:

• Our actions and decisions will begin with the positive desired end results in mind, working backwards to determine the cause-and-effect conditions that will create those results.
• We will favor decisions that create long term improvement for our communities over short term expediency for the Institute or the individuals and organizations we serve.

Towards that end:

• Both our internal work and our work with individuals, organizations and communities will inspire and encourage cooperation.
• The best decision will be the decision that provides the best end result for the highest number of our program participants and the communities they serve. If it is not good for everyone affected, it is not good for the Institute.
• Any action taken at the Institute will treat all parties involved with respect, compassion, generosity, humanity, grace... and fun!
• The Institute will encourage all strata of the Social Sector to work side by side, to share in each other’s wisdom, and effect greater change. The Institute will further encourage reaching beyond the sector, to ensure the whole community shares ownership of and responsibility for the future we are creating.

Towards that end:

• The Institute will model the behaviors we want to see in others in the decisions we make and the actions we take.
• The Institute will be explicit when doing so, to be clear that it is not only practical but creates stronger internal AND external results when we are walking the talk of our values.

Towards that end:

• We will encourage individuals and groups to draw on their own wisdom and experience, acknowledging that most often, people have the answers inside them, waiting to be tapped.
• We will encourage individuals and groups to see the abundance of resources they already have at their fingertips, helping them identify ways to build upon that asset base.

Towards that end:

• The systems we use and teach will aim individuals and groups at their highest potential.
• The systems we use and teach will inspire rather than prescribe. They will encourage and engage rather than “tell.” They will be rooted in high expectations for extraordinary results, rather than assumptions about what individuals or groups “should do.”
• The systems we use and teach will be simple enough that they can be maintained without the ongoing need for consulting or other assistance.

For more detail about what these principles look like in action,

• Read more
• Watch on Video