I had a great request from my friend Diane about how does one determine their personal values. This comes from my blog post about determining your company's values.
Personal values are a funny thing, you know you have them, they guide your life, your decisions and yet it is often very difficult for us to articulate them.
I am going to reference a great thinker on this subject Peter Senge who wrote the book The Fifth Discipline about learning organizations. I am not an expert in values or determining values, so I wanted to give all credit to Mr. Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner who then produced the book The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook that has exercises to their theories.
Let's get started. (This is your cue to grab a pen and paper and get thinking)
OK not to leave anything on the table - first what are examples of values anyways?
Luckily there is this fabulous thing called the internet and you can do a search for "values". But just incase you want to go straight for the work. Check out this link from values.com. It list a number of values, this will give you a good idea what are values, and notice which values you gravitate towards.
This next process is taken from Charlotte Roberts and the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
1. Write down 10 values that you feel strongly about. You will be surprised where some of these values come from - you grew up with them , or they are the values of people that you respect, or they are something that you developed over your life.
2. The next step is to narrow down these values - this is something important in the business setting because the number of values focuses the company to invest well into a few. As a person you can have more, but try the exercise and see what the process of narrowing is like. For example which of these values you have chosen resonate more than others. Maybe just prioritize them?
3. Another step you might find interesting is articulating your values. Answer these questions with the values you have listed (maybe your top three).
What does that value mean exactly?
How would your life be different if those values were front and center and you lived them?
What would the trade offs be if you were to go against that value?
Give this a try - see if you find the process interesting and helpful to gain more out of living your aligned life?
Personal values are a funny thing, you know you have them, they guide your life, your decisions and yet it is often very difficult for us to articulate them.
I am going to reference a great thinker on this subject Peter Senge who wrote the book The Fifth Discipline about learning organizations. I am not an expert in values or determining values, so I wanted to give all credit to Mr. Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner who then produced the book The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook that has exercises to their theories.
Let's get started. (This is your cue to grab a pen and paper and get thinking)
OK not to leave anything on the table - first what are examples of values anyways?
Luckily there is this fabulous thing called the internet and you can do a search for "values". But just incase you want to go straight for the work. Check out this link from values.com. It list a number of values, this will give you a good idea what are values, and notice which values you gravitate towards.
This next process is taken from Charlotte Roberts and the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
1. Write down 10 values that you feel strongly about. You will be surprised where some of these values come from - you grew up with them , or they are the values of people that you respect, or they are something that you developed over your life.
2. The next step is to narrow down these values - this is something important in the business setting because the number of values focuses the company to invest well into a few. As a person you can have more, but try the exercise and see what the process of narrowing is like. For example which of these values you have chosen resonate more than others. Maybe just prioritize them?
3. Another step you might find interesting is articulating your values. Answer these questions with the values you have listed (maybe your top three).
What does that value mean exactly?
How would your life be different if those values were front and center and you lived them?
What would the trade offs be if you were to go against that value?
Give this a try - see if you find the process interesting and helpful to gain more out of living your aligned life?
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