Why Values Deserve a Seat at the Table – Findings from Our Dinner Table Series

As a leader, you know you want to inspire action rooted in your values – but it can be easy to get bogged down in tools and best practices. While each tool adds to the development of people and teams,  understanding the threads that tie people and organizations together and working to uncover deep motives led us down a path of exploring values – specifically how our values shape, align and move us as individuals and teams.

Enter: the updated Live Your North® Values Sort

Our Live Your North® Values Sort has helped hundreds of individuals and teams uncover their values – what guides and inspires their core beliefs in their approach to work and life.  In its fifth year of life and continuous improvement efforts, in partnership with Harvard’s The Good Project, the values sort helps leaders in a diverse range of industries make transformational change by giving voice to their values and leading with action.

We were excited to hear feedback on our updated sort at a recent dinner of community catalysts and leaders. We listened to these leaders share with us why values are so meaningful and how values take shape in the daily lives and decisions of individuals and teams. We also heard the lived experiences, connections and curiosities as to the impact of values in their work as leaders.

Our findings: why values matter

Are values more than words on the wall? As communicators, we understand the desire to translate values across an organization; this can look like beautifully branded statements in the halls or entries of organizations. While we love to see shared values, our work hopes to uncover the vital function values play in the ecosystem of care, grounding and guidance.

Values can hold deep connections, and allowing ourselves to speak them into existence provides the opportunity for others to learn and connect. One leader at the dinner offered the example of their value of prosperity. While that value may be jarring to organizations or people who view it as financial success, for them, this value espouses the belief that every person is capable, and should have access to a life that encourages them to prosper. This furthers our experience of seeing how discussing values can spark discourse that encourages understanding of diverse perspectives.

Values also tend to show up in how our work is guided and executed; they inspire people and organization’s actions and operations. An example given during the dinner was if my organization values community, you may see more of our time, talents and treasures directed at community building initiatives. Explicitly defining values has helped organizations get clear on their priorities and approaches, often drawing positive engagement from value-aligned interest groups.

How values impact experiences

We believe that values drive influential functions, like internal and external communications, strategy development and implementation, and engagement, grounding them all in shared rooted beliefs.

They also help you perform one of the key elements of leadership, leading change. Dinner participants shared that leaning on values can equip leaders with shared language that increases transparency and understanding. One leader shared an example of the value of impact and a strategy they learned from working with local native tribes – approaching strategy and change with a seven generations lens.

What’s more, values can help leaders and teams maintain a shared language and understanding when conflict arises. We’ve seen this play-out as teams discuss values and teammates who may have countering views on an issue are able to gain a greater understanding as to why the other person may or may not be aligned. At PointNorth we often use our value of “Keep It Real” to address crucial conversations; i.e. “in the spirit of keeping it real, I would like to share my experience with…”.

Have a thought? We encourage you to spark conversation about values around your dinner tables. We’d love to hear what you learn. Have a dinner table topic worth exploring together? Reach out to us at welisten@pointnorthinc.com to pull up a seat and join the conversation! We will always make space. All are welcome :)