Guide to Discovering Personal Values
Values are personal beliefs or principles that motivate you to act one way or another. They serve as a guide for your behavior and decisions. Many people operate with values at more of a subconscious level. To consciously live your values with intentionality, it is essential to identify your values and actively apply them to your life each day. Values also change over time so you’ll want to check-in with yourself regarding your values regularly.
Why Use Conscious Revolution’s Values Cards
Your values cards can help you and/or others:
Identify and articulate what matters most to you and learn what matters most to others
Prompt reflection and discussion
Assess your authenticity in living according to your values
Improve the ability to recognize, accept and express values in yourself and/or others
Enhance understanding, compassion, communication and interpersonal skills;
Enhance team collaboration
When to use The Values Cards
Use your values cards whenever you are uncertain or unclear about the way forward, or when you are in conflict with someone else, or you want to understand someone else better.
Start a group or a team discussion to provoke reflection, clarity and a path toward alignment.
Be prepared to be surprised - in a good way! Start with curiosity! Your values cards are a unique way to accelerate understanding the essence of yourself or another person. They open up a world of meaning that may cause you to reassess what you thought you knew about yourself or someone else.
Keep reading for more detailed guidance on how to use the Values Cards as an individual or as part of a group facilitation. Or you can download the instructions as a PDF.
How to use Conscious Revolution’s Values Cards
You can display or share the cards with others and use them as prompts for discussion.
You can use a method of detailed sorting, also called forced choice. In this process you keep choosing cards that matter to you, sometimes sorting several times. What remains after your rounds of sorting are the cards representing your most important values.
Exploring Your Own Values
Throughout our lives there are times when we feel at a crossroads regarding a relationship, a job, a big decision, or a life direction. These values cards can be used throughout your life for support and guidance, leading to clarity and confidence in your decisions.
Clear your mind of everything else as much as you can, and holding the values cards make your values selections quickly and instinctively. No over analyzing allowed.
Sort the values cards into three piles:
Yes (Highly Important)
Maybe (Slightly Important)
No (Not Important)
Discard the Maybe and No piles
Take the Yes pile and sort them according to what is most important to you. Sort until you have your 10 most important to you cards. If it seems you are missing a value, write the value on a blank card.
Spread out your cards in front of you and arrange them in any order that makes sense to you. Some may be connected so put them near each other. Determine which value is the higher level or “parent” value versus a “child” value.
Now select again, down to five cards.
And then select again, down to three. These three are your core values.
Finally, pick one, your number one, most important card, the most vital value in your life. This card represents what is most important to you personally, whether it be about a relationship, work or life.
How do you feel now? Does this recognition help you with a decision or cross-roads you are at? Does this clarity change your plans? Where to from here?
Group Facilitation (Sorted Method, 45-60 minutes)
Ask participants to go through the Values Cards and put them into three piles - Yes (Highly Important), Maybe (Slightly Important), No (Not Important). The sorting should take about 10 minutes. Instruct them that they should not think too much about each value and go with their instinct. (at the end of this they often have many in the yes pile, too many to remember).
Once this round is completed, instruct participants to put their Maybe pile and their No pile back into the box. Those didn’t make the cut!
Share that we are seeking five values in total. That doesn’t mean that the other values in their Yes pile aren’t important, however we are seeking a set of clear values that are memorable and can be used each day for guidance, clarity and decision making. Most people can’t remember more than five for this purpose. (if someone insists on a sixth value then fine, no magic to five).
Tips for using Conscious Revolution’s Values Cards
★ If you find a particular value is not represented in the pack, there are three blank cards included. Write your value/s using a non-permanent marker on the write-on/wipe-off laminated surface.
★ Your values cards can be used in many different settings: in programs, in organizational teams for coaching team members, or on your own.
★ If you are using the cards to discover your values, or the values of someone else you are likely to get the best results by using the detailed sorting method, details noted below.
★ If you are using the cards in a team, you can use the detailed sorting (this will take longer), or you can use the cards as prompts for discussion.
★ To use the cards as prompts, a group facilitator can select the values they think are needed in that particular setting. They can display the cards in full and invite others to choose the cards that appeal to them, discussing their choices and what they mean.
★ In a group setting, always give people an option to pass when it is their turn. Not everyone feels comfortable in sharing their values in a group.
★ If you have a virtual group or some members are virtual, there’s an online tool. It doesn’t match the cards process exactly, however the online version still leads a virtual participant to select their values, so the outcome is the same.
Request that participants sort the Yes pile into Big Yes, which should be a very strong feeling pulling someone toward that value, and Little Yes, which are values that didn’t resonate as strongly. Share that this part is about discernment and is not all intellectual. They should pay attention to how they feel when reading or thinking about this value to determine whether it’s Big Yes or Little Yes.
Instruct participants to pay attention to connections between the values in their Yes pile. Often there is a Big Yes value that links to a Little Yes value and can make this sorting easier. Sometimes it helps to say that you may have a parent value that links to a child value. Examples are Joy being the parent to Happiness or Adventure being the parent to Nature. The connections are highly personalized and there is no right or wrong answer. The point is that someone is discerning what’s important to them and identifying and clarifying their values.
Once the five values are selected by each person, pair them up for 20 minutes (10 minutes each) to discuss their values with each other with these prompts: Why did you choose that value? What other values were connected for you? What was this process like for you?
Bring the full group back together and ask some or all of these prompts: Who would like to share what that process was like for you? How will you apply the values you chose in your daily life? How will you keep your values alive and relevant for you now that you’ve chosen them? How often do you think you’ll need to check-in to see if your values have changed?
It’s important to allow enough time to do this exercise and for people to talk to each other. People enjoy talking about their values. The above timing of 45-60 minutes is highly dependent on the group size. You may need more time.
Now that you’ve done individual values, the group is primed to think about selecting organizational values! We find that doing the personal inquiry first makes for the best organizational discussion. For guidance about discovering organizational values, check out our Guide to Discovering Organizational Values.