The NICW values
Values are important to us as individuals, and to organisations. They help us define the things that are important to us. They guide our activities, shape prioritisation of limited personal and institutional resources, and can help people understand why we do the things we do.
This iteration of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales is just under a year old. We have spent some of the last year discussing how we operate, including the way we interact with each other and with our partners and stakeholders. We have been supported in this work by individual Commissioners, by external expertise, and by frameworks such as the Inner Development Goals.
In our most recent discussion about the topic we became aware that we have established our internal values by acting them. We have developed a supportive and inclusive working culture where Commissioners feel respected and valued. We work – as far as possible – in the open, by putting as much information in the public domain as possible, including a comprehensive list of meetings we hold with external bodies, and a pilot project of a ‘near-real-time’ database of daily activity.
In our recruitment process we emphasised the need for people who wanted to step outside their comfort zones; to challenge and be challenged. Our Commission has adopted this approach in our work. A linked concept is our aspiration. We believe that Wales can do much more to plan and prepare for the future, in a way that will improve well-being and reduce costs.
We frequently encourage ourselves and others to think, do and ‘be’ radical. Business as usual will not solve problems of the scale facing Wales within the coming generations. We must be bold and give strength to others who are being, or would like to be, bold in their own spheres.
Finally we understand that the outcomes of our work must be actionable; they have to be grounded in the everyday realities of the people and communities of Wales. Our engagement with a wide variety of groups and organisations helps ground us in the need for practical solutions.
In living these values, we have been able to define them for ourselves and others. Our values are:
- Inclusive; creating a warm and friendly environment within which people feel supported, and confident to express their views
- Transparent; pushing the boundaries of reporting in near-real-time on our engagement, and demonstrating publicly how we deal with internal disagreements
- Radical; Commissioners have committed to working out of their comfort zones; we aim to deliver advice, opinions and recommendations that diverge from ‘business as usual’ in order to alleviate the nature and climate emergencies and deliver on our remit
- Challenging; The Commissioners challenge the status quo with the needs of future generations and an aspiration to do better for the future citizens of Wales
- Practical; The Commission’s work is focused on actionable recommendations that move us towards a more sustainable infrastructure for the needs of the people of Wales