Living TSA's Values
Who We Are
A 3-1-1 poster (right) featured next to a
three-dimensional poster of prohibited
items that was created by TSA Instructor
Colby Matteand Transportation Security
Operations Watch Officer Arlene Albino.
Photo by Arlene Albino
Soon after the terrorist plot of August 10, 2006 was thwarted, Colby Matte, a TSA instructor at Sacramento (Calif.) International Airport, was at a training session when a 3-1-1 poster caught his attention. It gave him an idea for helping passengers traveling through the airport.
"We wanted to give passengers a three-dimensional visual sign of easily recognizable items" that are prohibited aboard aircraft, he explained. Matte and Transportation Security Operations Watch Officer Arlene Albino also developed the "Save Time, Leave It Behind" posters for prohibited items– which have had an enormous impact on passengers and are still in use today.
Colby and Albino could have kept their ideas to themselves. Instead, they put their ideas into action, demonstrating TSA's Core Values of Integrity, Innovation and Team Spirit. These values guide our actions, improve job performance and build a positive atmosphere for all of TSA.
Those Core Values are the foundation of TSA. Here are the official descriptions of each value:
- Integrity
- We are a people of integrity who respect and care for others.
- We are a people who conduct ourselves in an honest, trustworthy and ethical manner.
- We are a people who gain strength from the diversity of our cultures.
- Innovation
- We are a people who embrace and stand ready for change.
- We are a people who are courageous and willing to take on new challenges.
- We are a people with an enterprising spirit, striving for innovations, who accept the risk-taking that come with it.
- Team Spirit
- We are a people who are open, respectful and dedicated to making others better.
- We are people who have a passion for challenge, success and being on a winning team.
- We are a people who will build teams around our strengths.
Exploring our Values
Over the next three months, we will focus on how we live these values every day. We will look, too, at how values-based behavior helps build a culture that supports each employee's effort to perform at his or her best and where we can depend on each other and take pride in our work.
