rETHinking our culture and values

The culture at ETH Zurich shapes all of us, and all of us shape ETH’s culture. After all, the culture of an institution arises from the values, norms and thought patterns that everyone collectively shares. It also manifests itself in the kinds of decisions we make – from decisions on the Executive Board level all the way down to the individual decisions that we make on a daily basis.

Most organisations and companies set out their cultural values in written mission statements. Of course, this doesn't mean that they actually live up to these values, as we are reminded when we hear about institutional and corporate misconduct in the news.

Culture and values at ETH

For half a year now, a group of around 20 people from different units within ETH has been tackling the topic of our institutional culture and values. This core team from rETHink's sixth workstream was able to use the work of the Strategy Commission as their basis. In a roughly two-year process to formulate ETH's strategy for 2021–2024, the commission defined the values that should guide the future decisions of the university. With the goal of paving the way in a complex world, ETH Zurich should build on five core values: responsibility, openness, diversity, team spirit and excellence.

Cultural development: starting the dialogue

Values cannot simply be mandated from the top, of course: developing the values and culture of an organisation is a two-way process. ETH has taken the first step towards starting this dialogue by approving the 2021–2024 Strategy and Development Plan, which sets out the university's mission and values as part of the ETH charter. There was a feedback process which led to some aspects of the charter being adapted – particularly the values, which need to be embedded in their full spectrum of meaning in order to be understood and expressed in the unique context of ETH as an institution. After all, when taken alone, the five words chosen to describe ETH Zurich's values could also apply to a screw manufacturer or a leading global insurer. The Strategy Commission ultimately decided on this formulation of ETH's values:

Starting the discussion

The core team of Workstream 6, which includes members of the Strategy Commission, has decided to start a discussion across the institution about ETH's culture and the five values above  – meaning that these values are not set in stone, but should rather serve as a starting point for further exploration. When reflecting on values and culture at ETH in their full scope of meaning, it is possible that one stated value gets changed or discarded – or that entirely new values come to the surface.

The core team has already started asking themselves some key questions, for instance: Are these the right values for us? Are these the words that come to mind when we describe ETH? Do we already live up to these values? Were these values expressed during the lockdown? Where do we have big discrepancies between our stated values and the reality on the ground?

In order to hear more perspectives, some project group members put these questions up for discussion in various teams, administrative departments and cross-organisational groups. Seven discussion sessions were held to explore the topic of values at ETH and to come up with ways to involve the entire university community in future conversations – the latter being no easy task, considering the 500-plus professorships and nearly 30,000 employees, doctoral candidates and students that make up our institution.

The first voices make themselves heard

While four of the five values were mostly uncontroversial, the value of "excellence" proved to be contentious and sparked the most discussion. Can excellence rightfully be called a value, or is it more the mission of the university? Is excellence compatible with team spirit and responsibility? Or is it rather the result of the other four values combined? Regarding diversity, several critical comments were made about ETH being a male-dominated institution.

Suggestions were made for other possible values, including interaction on equal footing, trust/empowerment, a culture of performance, curiosity/innovative spirit, passion/enthusiasm, and humility (as the complementary pole of excellence).

In several discussion sessions, participants said that the values should be broken down for individual units in order to reflect the heterogeneous character of ETH as an institution. Participants also wanted to have more concrete examples, role models and best practice scenarios for future discussions. The question of discrepancies between values and behaviour also came up. Where should ETH draw the line, for instance? Might it be necessary to enact disciplinary measures?

Taking the discussion to the next level

During the sessions, everyone agreed that ETH should engage in a wide-ranging and multifaceted exchange of ideas that goes beyond the traditional approach of working out issues in committees. This approach should include as many members of the ETH community as possible in order to start a university-wide learning process. Participants emphasised the need to hold honest and open discussions on the question of values and repeatedly warned against having ETH members participate as a formality.

People also expressed the desire to have a solid framework for discussions, as it could be difficult to find a common denominator in a purely bottom-up approach. Conversations that cut across organisational units were also mentioned as a good idea in order to include as many perspectives as possible. In one discussion session, someone made the critical remark that students have had insufficient involvement in the process thus far. Participants also pointed out the importance of communication at all points in this process, particularly when it comes to informing people about opportunities to make their voices heard.

Next steps

The statements and suggestions yielded by the discussion sessions largely overlapped with the conclusions of the core team. The team is now working on the content and format for further discussions, which will be held in pilot groups through the end of the year. Using the results of the pilot groups as a basis, the discussion will be expanded to include the entire university in the first half of 2021.

In the meantime, all members of the ETH community are invited to reflect on the values on an individual level. A blog on ETH's internal news site is being established for this purpose and will be mirrored on the student portal. The core team is also planning a university-wide survey to get a fuller picture of the current situation. The call to tender for the survey will be published in September.