IN FOCUS: Giving Voice to Values
First Move Productions
Documentary filmmaking, advocacy and adult learning initiatives
"I think we should act?as if... We should act as if the universe were listening to us and responding. We should act as if life were going to win." (Philip Pullman)
Mary Gentile is the woman and professor behind Giving Voice to Values (GVV). Mary pioneered this cross-disciplinary and action-oriented approach to values-driven leadership: she transformed the way business ethics are addressed in academic and corporate settings worldwide. Discussions between Mary and Anny revealed an interesting backstory.?
Mary, can you describe GVV in a nutshell? Most of us want to act on our values, but need to feel we have a reasonable chance of doing so successfully. We must acknowledge a human tendency to rationalise and self-justify inaction in the face of actual or perceived obstacles to effective action when values conflicts arise. We can't deny the risks and complexities involved.? ?GVV raises the odds for success by drawing on cutting edge social science and management research as well as actual experiences of business practitioners. We can normalise the existence of values conflicts and highlight that despite many challenges, some people voice and act on their values effectively. There is much to be learned from this. Such people often make an effort to know themselves and understand others, diminishing the impact of self-justifying rationalisations. They think strategically about how to implement their values, so diminishing risks they face. And when risks are unavoidable, they prepare themselves.??
?After all, life is not always about avoiding risks; it is about anticipating, preparing for and responding to them in ways that mitigate their impact. It’s about understanding our own skills, style and preferences and framing challenges in ways that play to our strengths. Every one of us can learn to communicate about values openly and clearly, progressively ensuring we have access to more and better information with which to make considered decisions. Finally, GVV is about building the “habit”, the “moral muscle memory” so that voicing and enacting our values, skilfully, comes more naturally.?
What impact of GVV surprised you the most? Frankly, I never dreamed that it would be taken up by so many different organizations, educational settings, professions and disciplines in so many different parts of the world. I suppose the welcoming appetite among GVV’s audience has been the biggest surprise. I knew that I, personally, felt a real desire to be more skilful and comfortable at voicing and acting on my values, but I was not sure that the ideas I was sharing would tap that same level of excitement in others. I feared that a natural skepticism might block its attraction. But I think that the accessibility and “common sense” appeal of the ideas behind GVV gave many listeners the encouragement they were looking for to feel more confident that values-driven action was in fact possible. And I think that framing values-driven action as “aspirational” – helping people to act on their values because they want to – as opposed to framing values and ethics as “thou shalt not’s” was a key factor in GVV’s appeal.?
Tell us more about that key success factor: framing! I’ve always seen myself as something of an introvert and perhaps a bit risk averse, certainly not someone who sought out confrontation! And so I feared that I might be the kind of person who recognized inequities or unethical behaviors but was not able or willing to address them. I assumed that you had to be more assertive to act on your values - and sure enough, in the course of developing GVV, I came across people who told me that they identified as risk takers and assertive types so voicing and enacting their values felt natural. But I also came across people who told me that they saw themselves as conservative, even fearful, and for them, acting on their values seemed the safer route. They framed the unethical choice as the greater risk. So I began to realize that anyone can act on their values: the trick is to frame the situation in a way that plays to your strengths, your style, your natural tendencies. That is, there are many ways to voice values and of course, assertion and arguments are among them, but so are asking questions, providing new data, writing memos, talking to someone who talks to someone who talks to the decision maker, finding allies, etc.?
And how does filmmaking come into it? When I was a graduate student, I studied films by feminist filmmakers and even wrote a book about that. My main argument in that book had to do with what I called “critical subjectivity” – or the ability to see beyond what seemed to be “given reality” by spending time in the tensions, the contradictions. This allowed the filmmaker and the viewer to re-construct their realities in ways that allowed for multiple truths, and in some ways, for more control. Now this may seem to contradict a pedagogical approach that begins from a somewhat normative stance, that there are some “rights” and some “wrongs.” But in fact, GVV is very much informed by this critical subjectivity because it requires the actor to consider how others are constructing and viewing their own reality, so that the GVV actor can find ways to best connect with and hopefully influence them. And perhaps most importantly, GVV allows the actor to step outside of the seemingly self-sealing version of organizational reality that often leaves us feeling as if acting on our values is either too dangerous, futile, or both. Finally, I think that my study of narrative was fundamental in the development of GVV. That is, I encourage people to look at the same set of facts or conditions but to craft a “different story” about what may be possible.
Last but not least, what comes next for you, Mary? Well, in May 2022 I leave my academic post as Richard M. Waitzer Bicentennial Professor of Ethics at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, with plans to continue to share GVV widely but also in some new ways and settings. For example, I am engaged in a number of projects in Africa. I am working with a colleague in Jordan who is translating my work into Arabic. I am hoping to find ways that GVV may be useful in discussions of democracy which are so needed in the world today. And, and, and....
Coordinator of CIVIS OpenLab chez Aix-Marseille Université
2 年Super!??
Head of Policy and Ethics at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
2 年What an inspiring and positive story! Thanks for sharing, Anny!
Creator/Director, Giving Voice To Values, Formerly Richard M. Waitzer Bicentennial Professor of Ethics
2 年Such a pleasure to be collaborating with you, Anny!! Mg