Explore Your Values
Explore Your Values is a reflective exercise that helps participants identify their core values through a rapid prioritization process. It fosters self-awareness and encourages dialogue around how these values manifest in daily life.
Use this method when you want to initiate a conversation about personal values within a team, especially when aiming to align individual values with team or organizational goals.
Solves: Lack of self-awareness regarding personal values, misalignment of values within a team, difficulty in making values-based decisions.
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Step 1: (5 min) Distribute sticky notes to each participant and instruct them to write down ten things they value most, one per sticky note, framing them as values (e.g., 'Friendship,' 'Integrity').
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Step 2: (2 min) Ask participants to spread out their sticky notes in front of them for a clear overview.
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Step 3: (30 seconds) Instruct participants to quickly discard the three least important values based on gut feeling.
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Step 4: (20 seconds) Repeat the discarding process, eliminating two more values.
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Step 5: (20 seconds) Repeat again, discarding two final values, leaving three core values.
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Step 6: (15 min) Allow individual reflection on the remaining values: 'What do I feel about these values? Were they expected? How do they show up in my life?'
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Step 7: (30 min) Facilitate paired or small group discussions using the following prompts: 'What actions do I already take to live by them? What actions would I like to take?'
- Emphasize the importance of gut reactions during the discarding phases to avoid overthinking.
- Create a safe space for sharing reflections, reminding participants that there are no right or wrong answers.
- Provide a pre-defined list of values for participants to choose from, especially useful for large groups or limited time.
- After individual reflection, have participants create a personal values statement.
- Link the values to team behaviors and create a team charter based on shared values.