CTW Issue #8: Can our values actually guide us through uncertainty?

What do you think of when you hear the phrase "core values"? If what comes to mind is a faceless corporation, I don't blame you. The phrase has gotten a bad rap, probably because of how unlikely it is for a business or organization to actually live by its core values.

It's time to give 'core values' a rebrand.

When faced with uncertainty, our nervous systems go on high alert, braced to react through fight, flight, or freeze. Most of us have been fluctuating through these three potential responses for the last six weeks, attempting to cope as best as we can.

The good news is that there are ways to help train yourself – and encourage others – to be resilient through uncertainty, not just to survive, but to thrive.

“Planning is challenging when you don’t know what two months from now is going to look like, and for a lot of people, that becomes a barrier to allowing themselves to think about their future. We need to understand that grounding yourself in your values and your vision is actually a powerful way to navigate uncertainty.”

[Source]

Can our values actually guide us through uncertainty?

In a world filled with change, your values are constant. Revisiting your core values – and making sure that your goals are in alignment with them – can help you break out of the reactive cycle caused by uncertainty and stress.

In the book The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown, the authors write, “Quite simply, the ability to calmly face uncertainty seems to be related to whether you view your goals as internal (i.e., doing your best, being your best, learning) rather than external (i.e., being the best, being the most famous) and whether you view outcomes as partly outside your control versus completely inside your control.”

Are your goals based on what you believe in or based on what you think the world wants of you? If it's the former, you retain control over your goals regardless of external circumstances, and you'll have more courage to change course when necessary. If it's the latter, you're at the mercy of forces you cannot control, and you're more likely to contradict your own values in order to maintain the illusion that you can.

Let's make this practical.

For Nonprofit Organizations

All of your plans are up on the air, fundraising is more difficult than ever, and no one knows when – if ever – things will feel normal again. When in doubt, go back to your mission, to your core values, to the reason you got into the nonprofit sector in the first place. The problem you set out to solve still exists, and it is necessary to forge ahead.

• Embrace the unknown. Uncertainty is going to be a constant for the foreseeable future, and that is definitely scary. But it is also a tremendous opportunity to shake up a sector that has been grounded in inertia for decades and to strengthen connections that were tenuously held together by ideal circumstances.
• Focus on your mission and your mission only. If you were to judge your efforts honestly, were they really furthering your mission? Or were you relying on gimmicks and tricks as an easy way out? In today's climate, none of that is going to work, or at least not as well as it used to. Only meaningful opportunities to connect with your mission will really resonate with people now.
• Engage in conversation. Everyone is feeling the same uncertainty right now, so there is no use pretending that you've got it all figured out. Engage your supporters, leadership, constituents, etc, in a two-way conversation. Learn what they're thinking and what would be most helpful to them before you make any decisions or attempts to move forward.

Mission Driven Businesses

If your company has never taken the time to draft core values, I highly recommend that you do so now. Core values will help you answer questions you might have right now, such as: how can/should we market our products or services in the current climate? How can we help our clients, customers, and greater community cope?

Real core values are not cliches, and they're also not always easy to adhere to. This old but still highly relevant article spells it out clearly.

"Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values—and sticking to them—requires real guts. Indeed, an organization considering a values initiative must first come to terms with the fact that, when properly practiced, values inflict pain."

If I'm scaring you off, remember this: Not having values leaves you directionless and prone to being paralyzed by uncertainty. That sounds a lot more painful to me.

Here's a great example. ElAl Airlines has been notable in its rapid response to the crisis in Israel (see here and here). If you head over to the 'Ethics' page on their website, they list the following points as part the values they hold:

• We work with the future in mind, striving for perpetual resourcefulness, fast response, creativity and innovation, always placing the customer at the top of our priorities.
• Our inner strength is the result of the true partnership between all of El-Al's people and our ability to work and grapple together, in collaboration and on terms of friendship, during ordinary times as well as in crisis situations.

It is obvious from their actions since October 7 that these values are not just what they say but what they mean.

If you need some help coming up with your own core values, feel free to message me privately or join my Whatsapp community for businesses.

For Individuals

Uncertainty is awful, however, it is also an opportunity. We have lived comfortably for a long time and have not been given the chance to stretch and see what we can accomplish if things are not always easy. Resilience is a muscle that we need to exercise and strengthen, like any other. The idea of tapping into core values to cope with uncertainty is not just for businesses and organizations. What are your own internal values, and how are they guiding you through these incredibly stressful times?

Thanks for reading,

Tzivia Cohen

A few reminders:

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• If you have any suggestions for topics that you'd like me to address in future issues, don't hesitate to DM or send me an email at [email protected].
• You might also be interested in my podcast, where I interview nonprofit leaders, so click here to check that out.
• If you're a mission-driven business leader who is intrigued by the topics introduced in this newsletter, please consider joining my Whatsapp community for businesses, which should be launching in the next couple of months.
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