MindTech | Try This Values Activity

Try This Values Activity

Discover Some of Your Values

Purpose

This activity will help you discover some of your important values and experience how worthwhile it is to apply values to some of your present work situations. This is not intended to have you discover your five most important values. It takes a more comprehensive process to do that. However, the values you do use will be enough to give you some very useful insights. I hope you enjoy this activity. Please call if you have questions.

Quick Overview of Values

Values help us determine what's right or wrong, good or bad, and what is and is not worthwhile. They guide our decisions and life directions yet very few people are aware of their most important values. Life is wonderful when our most important values are getting satisfied. Life is awful for most people when their values are not getting satisfied. Every individual has many values and those values have different levels of importance in different contexts. Examples of contexts are, Life In General, Work and Career, Family and Relationships. You can probably imagine how Love as a value might show up in the context of Family but will rarely show up in the context of Work.

The definition of a value is anything that someone values, except objects. Values are standards, principles, feelings or inner states that guide our behavior. Examples are:

Efficiency - This value is more concrete and measurable.

Accomplishment - It can also be concrete. In addition, many aspects can be qualitative or somewhat abstract like, improve morale.

Feeling good - Any kind of feeling is abstract.

Inner peace - This is an inner state and very abstract.

Values can also be phrases like "Making a difference" or "Doing the best I can."

NOW YOU'RE READY TO DO THE ACTIVITY

1. Think back to an important accomplishment of yours sometime during the last few years. Step into that experience as if you are really there again in the marvelous peak moments of that accomplishment. Then respond to this question:

What is most important about that accomplishment to you personally? Write down your response.

Next, respond to this question: What else is important to you personally about that accomplishment? Write down your response.

Finally, respond to that last question three more times so you have a list of five responses. Just before you answer this same question each time, step back into that experience as if you are really there again and respond while you are in the experience.

2. Think back to another important accomplishment in the context of work and career, that has a different character than the first one you chose. For example, the content of the first accomplishment may have been mostly technical or logistical. The second accomplishment could be mostly about people or salvaging what was close to being a failure. Repeat the process and get five more responses.

3. You now have 10 responses all or most of which are values. Feel free to add a few more. Choose what you think are the most important five values and rank them according to their importance to you personally. Give some consideration to the guideline that the most important values are likely to be more abstract (with some exceptions.) Write a list of the values in order of priority, with the most important at the top.

Apply your values to your job or assignment.

With your very rough guess of your five important values, ask yourself these questions:

To what degree (high, medium, low) am I getting each of these values satisfied in my present job? An option is to consider a past job or a job you're thinking about doing.

How can I improve my situation?

USE THE SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS AND CHART BELOW TO THINK ABOUT THIS IMPORTANT QUESTION.

Instructions:

List your five most important values in the chart below. Indicate to what degree each of them is present for you in your present job or in a past job, project or assignment. You can also choose one from the past.

H - high
M - medium
L - low
V - violated. Violated means that people are purposely or innocently creating conditions that are the opposite of what you need to get your values satisfied.

Is there anything you could do or negotiate to increase the presence of each of your values?

Would those changes help or hinder the objectives of other people or the organization? What are the implications?

Use the chart below to help you think about your responses.

	Degree (H, M, L, V)	Action to Make it Even better
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

Apply your values to a dissatisfying job or work situation in the present or from the past.

Identify to what degree you're getting your values satisfied. What could you do or could you have done to make it even better.

Instructions - Use the instructions from the previous activity.

	Degree (H, M, L, V)	Action to Make it Even better
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

Apply your values to an excellent work relationship in the present or from the past.

Identify to what degree you're getting your values satisfied. What could you do or could you have done to make it even better.

Instructions - Use the instructions from the first activity.

	Degree (H, M, L, V)	Action to Make it Even better
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

Make a list of what you learned, and especially what you will do differently from now on.

Please call if you have questions.

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