In This Episode…
Last year I did a couple of episodes on the importance of values to developing your productivity. Well I have revisited them again in the last couple of days and have made a few changes following a significant insight that shifted how I think about values.
Episode Show Notes…
Values Revisited
A while back I looked at the importance of values and their contribution to my productivity. In Episode 145 Do Your Values Help You Be More Productive I went through a brief values elicitation exercise and identified these as my values:
- Integrity
- Discipline
- Accountability
- Professionalism
- Learning
- Fun
Well I have been doing some more work on values only this time I followed a more structured approach suggested by Jon Street from www.JonStreet.com.
It’s a 5 step process he suggested:
Step 1 – Review your life’s experiences to see what has been important to you.
Step 2 – Brainstorm everything that is important to me in life i.e. what is it that I value.
Step 3 – Condense your list into a top 10.
Step 4 – Choose their order of priority.
Step 5 – Review and reflect
Whilst I was doing steps 2 and 3 I had a startling revelation. I realised I am driven by two types of values – outcome values and process values.
It was a distinction I’ve never made before. I have done values elicitation quite a few times and it never seemed to sit well with me. I know I am driven by values and can sense the things that are important to me, but it never really landed with me.
But once I made this distinction that I will value things I am trying to achieve (e.g. health, wealth, freedom etc) and I will value the way to go about achieving them (integrity, enthusiasm, professionalism etc) – things clicked.
I had one of those “Aha” lightbulb moments I dream of giving to those who take the time to listen to me.
Now they started to make sense.
Because before I had words like professionalism and wealth on the same values list didn’t feel right for some reason.
But now I have put my finger on it.
One is is about HOW and the other is about WHAT.
So having realised that, working through Jon’s process was much easier because now it “clicked” and I “got it”.
Here is my new/updated list of WHAT values:
- Health
- Confidence
- Growth
- Fun
- Achievement
- Contribution
- Wealth
- Independence
- Freedom
- Choice
He is my new/updated list of HOW values:
- Integrity
- Clarity
- Enthusiasm
- Professionalism
- Discipline
- Precision
- Humour
- Creativity
Now I feel MUCH better about my values.
