What is Your Unique Value Add as a Human?

What is Your Unique Value Add as a Human?

Unique

Every day, we all have the opportunity to add value to one another and our world.

We know if this value we’re offering is valuable by the way it’s received. By the way people engage with it and respond.

There's potential to add way more value than we have time for. A seemingly infinite number of possible ways to deploy our time, energy and attention.

So we must prioritise.

Focus.

Niche.

A question i've been reflecting on recently is that of unique value add. What is the unique contribution I can make to the people around me and the world?

This strips the options right down. A husband. A father. A son. A brother.

Beyond that, I have friendships and my work/vocation.

And there's only a handful of friends and work opportunities that I could humbly say that I, Mark Dombkins, could add unique value to (ie other's aren't in a place to do what I could).

It's interesting that my priorities - especially my allocation of time and energy - would ever reflect something different to those areas that I can add my unique value to.

So why does it happen so often??

Partnerships

There's the value that we can add to people and our world.

Our contribution.

What we have to offer.

Then there's the value that others want.

What they - as individuals or organisations - are seeking out and have decided is valuable to them.

Economically, it comes down to value supplied (by us) and value demanded (by others). There's a whole tangent here related to putting a price on this value we offer, but that's a separate rabbit hole.

I often think in nerdy maths diagrams about all of this stuff, and in this case... it's the good old Venn diagram!

No alt text provided for this image

Diagram 1: The unique value we have to offer is a subset of the total value we have to offer

This first diagram flows from the above reflections on unique value add. Most of us have the potential to work in hundreds or thousands of jobs. But there are very few if any we could say we're in a unique position to do.

Same goes for relationships, friendships and connections... of all the people we have the potential to spend time with, how many would say we play a unique, almost irreplaceable, role in their lives?

This brings us to partnerships, which can range from non-existent, to weak, to mediocre, to strong, all the way to flourishing.

Let's assign a new dotted circle to the value this partner (again, it could either be an individual or an organisation) is seeking out. Obviously there are seemingly infinite partners out there of varied sizes, but for now, we'll keep it simple and consider just one.

No alt text provided for this image


Diagram 2: A potential partner enters the scene on the hunt for some value

In the above situation, there is zero value exchange because there is no intersection between the value they seek and the value we offer.

A company we aren't qualified to work for.

Someone we can't connect with for whatever reason.

A store we don't want to buy from.

However, once there is at least some intersection and the circles begin to overlap, a partnership is established.

No alt text provided for this image

Diagram 3: The value exchange begins

When their circle starts to significantly overlap with ours, we're making a significant contribution to their journey, and our partner really values us.

No alt text provided for this image

Diagram 4: Filling our partner's value tank

But how does this leave us feeling about our contribution?

With limited time, energy and attention, and a zillion other circles floating around demanding our time, energy and attention, would the strongest partnerships for our world exist when we begin to provide what we believe is our unique value?

No alt text provided for this image

Diagram 5: We begin to add our unique value

The greater the intersection of these circles, the more we experience the kind of relationships and vocations we're uniquely here to give ourselves to.

No alt text provided for this image

Diagram 6: Maximising our unique value contribution

Is this the place where we experience that buzzword flow?

Or is it more connected to selflessness? A giving of ourselves in unique ways regardless of what we think, feel or receive in return.

Or is is it flow and selflessness?

And how does one's ego fit into it all?

Hmmm.

Empathy

There's the value we think we're adding to another person or organisation. But that may not actually be what they wanted.

Our value might not be as valuable as we think it is!

Empathy helps us see the world through another's eyes. By trying to stand in their shoes, we have the potential to move closer to appreciating what they see, feel, think, and value.

This year I have all of Wednesday off from my job at school. From term 2 onwards, i'll use that, with some other half-days throughout the week, as another opportunity to work on growing Forever Projects. But in term 1, i'm enjoying a day with my youngest son Max, who's just started Kindergarten and gets Wednesdays off during the first term.

We're calling them Daddy Maxy days.

Last week was the first one. I've had all of these ideas about what we could do together... climb Mt Kembla, go to Port Kembla beach for the day, get a train to Stanwell Park and watch the hang gliders off the coast, enjoy a nice coffee and hot chocolate at a cafe in town, finally teach him to ride a bike without training wheels.... the options in my mind are endless!

But when I asked him what he wanted to do...

"Let's stay home!"

His top 3 ideas were (1) me to read him a Star Wars book, (2) jump on the trampoline together in his pyjamas and play his favourite game 'round and round', and (3) play limbo with a random piece of string that's tied to a door inside our house.

Talk about squandering an opportunity!

But is this about me, or him?

I'm not saying we should let our 5-year-olds decide what we do all day. But I am saying I shouldn't kid myself when the options are perhaps more about my ideas and future memories than his.

So we kicked off the day with his list, and he loved it.

Then we went into town and rode his bike, and he was thrilled with how quickly he learned to ride without the training wheels!

But we started with him.

This principle of empathy has implications for every aspect of our lives and the value we're actually adding.

What value do you think you're adding, and how could you find out if it's actually valuable?

Seasons, shipping and self-awareness

Once we’re more closely tuned into the unique value we have to offer, and, starting with empathy, we're clearer on what other people find valuable, we can participate in an endless game of generously offering our value, noticing how it's received, reflecting, iterating and repeating.

That's it.

A few things to consider on this movement towards adding unique value...

1. Seasons - inevitably, periods of time will come and go when, for whatever reason, we can't add what we believe is our unique value. If we can adopt a longer and deeper view of time, then we'll be open to the possibilities that present themselves during these seasons, as opposed to being blinded by a longing for somewhere or sometime else.

2. Shipping - the fastest way to actually learn how valuable your value involves putting it out there into the world. Sharing your ideas and value in a way that another human interacts with it. Their response will determine how much value you provided. Perhaps it would have been more valued by someone else? Or maybe you need to tweak your value offering. You'll never know until you get actual feedback. As Seth Godin says when riffing on shipping.... don't save as draft, ship!

3. Self-awareness - how much of your own ego and identity is tied up in this? How much uniqueness is actually unique to this value you're adding, and how much of it is a convenient story you tell yourself? Are you really irreplaceable? The only one that can do xxxxx? Or is there another storyline beneath the surface you're willfully ignoring?

Boundaries and Friction

So what forward movement can come from all of these reflections on value?

Once we’re aware of the value we can create (including our unique value add)....

And we’re committed to adopting an empathic posture as we anticipate the value others seek...

We can make more focused and intentional choices about the way we deploy our time, energy and resources.

We can establish boundaries around both the value we can and/or are willing to add....

And the value we either can’t or choose not to add.

We consciously lean into the former and purposefully withdraw from the latter.

This leads to meaningful and effective partnerships, and also significantly reduces the friction that comes from a set of misaligned values.

The list of implications flowing out of all of this for us at Forever Projects is long, and includes:

1. Being clear on the value we add as a charity. From a fundraising point of view, when someone donates $50, what was valuable from their perspective? What story or emotion? What about $500, $5,000 or even $50,000?

2. Ensuring our written/spoken/published values actually match (1)

3. An ongoing process of tuning and retuning our radar to the kind value we believe our donors, partners, potential staff and volunteers are seeking.

4. Sticking to our boundaries, trusting that over time, we’ll make increasingly accurate choices around where, when and for whom we attempt to add value, such that our overall impact is maximised.

Because every time you say yes to something, you’re saying no to something else.

What are you saying no to so, that you can say a yes to adding your unique value into the world?


要查看或添加评论,请登录

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了