Values are...

Think, if you will, of a huge, wall-filling meta-Venn diagram here at orangecairns HQ. In this nobly mathematical picture, the central overlapping sweet spot at the core of our ongoing journey through culture, leadership and purpose is values. Right there in the middle, at the heart and base of all three areas. Paint this bit orange in your head if you like simple visual cues as much as I do.

Once we have clear, unblinkered understanding of that orange bit - on what’s important to us and, crucially, why it’s important to us - everything else becomes that much clearer on our map.

Values are our ground zero, and yet also the red thread tying us into where we have come from. Going forwards, they are our compass and our north star. They are at the root of our why and the base of our cultural iceberg. They guide our leadership decisions, needs, and ambitions. If spiritual is your thing, they’re there at the foundational core of our soulprint, as Vishen Lakhiani terms it so well in The Buddha and the Badass.

It's that simple.

And so, on a professional level, I typically bring the values question upfront into any discovery work with others. If the basis for development is self-awareness, then being mountain spring-clear on our values is a great place to start.

There are lots of ways to do this. Depending on the person and the issue at hand, I quite like the old card exercise from Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Challenge. You whittle down a deck of cards with values words written on them until you have your five primary drivers. It can be brutal, but it really does force you to examine each word and your interpretation of it, and then cull all but five. In his version of the task, Vishen above is a gentler sort – he allows four categories of values.

The meanings and associations of these five words are specific to each of us. In essence they constitute our unique self-concept, our unique contribution, our unique way forward.

Facile as such an exercise may seem, it almost always proves surprisingly successful. As with any such activity, the true, sorry, value of the work is the accompanying dialogue and reflection.

It sparks many reactions. I've seen tears, laughter, nods, shrugs, surprise… Individuals talk of their grandparents, schoolteachers, childhood friends, role models, parents, and more. Joining the dots as they speak, understanding where they have come from, whose voices they're hearing in their heads.

And with teams I've seen colleagues who’ve worked together for years suddenly looking at each other in a completely different light. Visual cue - light bulb.

If only because of this, I’d recommend some careful thought and planning if you are thinking of doing this with your team. Uncovering someone’s values goes to the very core of their being. Your team may not be ready for the reactions triggered. Especially if people are sharing strongly held convictions coming from places of trauma or loss.

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“Our value is the sum of our values,” Joe Batten

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On a personal level, I come back to this exercise every so often to see where I am and what has shifted if anything. Values don’t tend to change dramatically unless we have gone through some significant life event or transition. Yet I’ve found that certain nuances resonate more or less given what I’ve been doing and, equally importantly, what I’ve not been doing. For example, I always end up having to choose between freedom or autonomy or independence. Working through what each of these words means to me – and whose voices I’m hearing in my head when I reflect on these - helps me determine where I truly am and where I need to recalibrate.

Visual cue – journal. September 2023. My five primary values are growth, creativity, freedom, service, and open-mindedness.

Try the exercise if you haven’t, and with those five words in front of you, some starter questions:

·????? Where do these values come from?

·????? How do they play out in my culture, my leadership, and my purpose?

·????? How fully present are they in my life currently?

·????? What needs to change?

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Be well.

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Julian

I help people lead their own way forward

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