Cornerstones in Action

By Ray White, Public Information Director

Raj Kumar, a trainer from Nepal, recently taught a Cornerstones refresher course with Heifer Asia staff in Kunming, China. Heifer's 12 Cornerstones stimulate group wisdom and personal insights. They keep people's hearts, minds and actions balanced, focused, and productive. The Cornerstones are designed to place positive values-such as sharing and caring, full participation, and gender equity-in the forefront of values expressed in all its projects.

Reminding his class that the Cornerstones aren't just for livestock development planning, Raj pointed out that they can be applied to many situations, even a family problem. When his daughter brought home a poor grade in math, Raj used the Cornerstones model.

Typical parental behavior would be to sit the child down, pointing out how she needed to study harder. The parent might even provide incentives in the form of rewards or punishments. Then the child might complain that the parent hadn't helped her study, hadn't take her to school on time, or had failed her in some other way. In other words, the chat was sure to result in conflict and ill feelings. But using the Cornerstones model, Raj's father-daughter talk went differently.

First, he asked her to apply the Cornerstones to herself - to sit down with a sheet of paper and a list of the Cornerstones and then, thinking of her math study habits, rate herself for each Cornerstone value as a sapling, a tree, or a mature fruited tree. People in villages using the Cornerstones model regularly evaluate their work according to the "sapling, tree, fruited tree" rating system. They then look closely at the saplings to refine and renew their action plans.

Meanwhile, Raj rated his effort to help his daughter learn math against the Cornerstones. Then the two compared their results. She had to admit that she was a sapling when it came to Accountability-she hadn't completed all her homework assignments. And he found that he was a sapling in Passing on the Gift because he hadn't made time to share his math knowledge with her. By looking at the saplings on their list, they were able to form a shared, practical action plan. Each took responsibility for having been less than perfect in some areas. The result was a much better grade almost immediately, without harsh conflict or finger pointing.

Mahendra Lohani, Heifer's Asia/South Pacific director and longtime advocate of Cornerstones training, says, "Values are important, but it must result in an action plan. That is the secret."

Want to learn more about the Cornerstones? Read the complete list.