It is time to reconnect with our values

As human beings, we belong to a society in which we identify ourselves as a kind of person, through the values ​​we show our way of being and thinking and acting in life. These values ​​change over time. In my personal experience, I can say that the values ​​that represent me today are not the same as those that represented me 10 years ago, 5 or a year ago. Even with the issue of the pandemic, I could say that some or other was included in the values ​​that could identify me today as Laura Irazoqui.

Going more in detail, the values are not something that we already have in us since we are born, rather we are adopting them from the family bosom, as we grow, this is how they begin to refine in us. Once we are inserted in society, we make our own those who make us feel more identified as human beings, this happens naturally.

Values ​​are the positive qualities of things or people.

Personal, community, or company projects are determined by values.

Shalom H. Schwartz is a social psychologist, cross-cultural researcher, author of the theory of Basic Human Values ​​(universal values ​​as latent motivations and needs). He contributed to the study of the Scale of Values ​​in the context of Social Learning Theory and Social Cognitive Theory. [1] (https://es.linkfang.org/wiki/Shalom_H._Schwartz)

In his multiple investigations, he poses multidimensional value structures. From the social point of view, values ​​represent cultural ideals: conceptions about what is good or bad, desirable, or undesirable. They underlie social practices, norms, and institutions, and help to fix the preferences, attitudes, and behaviors that individuals see as legitimate or illegitimate — and that is encouraged or discouraged — in different social contexts (Schwartz, 2009). At the individual psychological level, values ​​are motivational goals that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives.

Groups and individuals need to coordinate with each other to pursue the goals that are important to them. To this end, they represent those requirements linguistically — that is, cognitively — as specific values ​​about which they communicate.

Values ​​imply desirable ends that motivate people’s behavior. They are abstract or general so that they transcend specific actions and situations: solidarity or respect for others, for example, are relevant in a variety of contexts (the latter distinguishes them from attitudes and norms, which are associated with behaviors, objects, and particular circumstances). They also serve as criteria for selecting or evaluating people, opinions, government policies, etc.

Furthermore, they are arranged in a priority system based on the relative importance of each one concerning the others. Society as a whole and each individual have a specific system of value priorities.

Jurgen Appelo invites us to introspect on values ​​and in turn guides us to connect with ourselves to give Value to what is worth and what we are as Human Beings, and this is based on what represents us based on our values (See the official site: https://management30.com/practice/value-stories/)

Have you ever stopped to think for a moment about something as simple and valuable as our values? Have you noticed that they accompany us in everything we do? Have you ever identified that your values ​​identify you in everything that you do? Did you know that as a work team there are also values ​​that identify us as such?

This is where the companies in which we work determine certain values ​​that represent them as an organization. But are we aligned with those values?

Management 3.0, under the dynamics of Value Stories, invites us to define or redefine our organizational culture, through a sharing of stories.

Let’s turn the values ​​of our teams into action! Creating our story of value!

And that is how I decided to apply this dynamic with the team “Las Entusiastas”. A very united team that was going through a difficult time. The company they work for was going through a process of layoffs, an economic crisis, the impacts of the pandemic, among others. There was a very oppressive atmosphere. It was common for termination notices to arrive on a late Friday afternoon.

Their mood was down, they had just received the news that one of their teammates was going to be fired. This being the case, it was more difficult to move forward with their tasks, they wondered, why a drop from their team? if everyone contributes to the achievement of the area’s objectives.

It sought to give them a point of return to the nucleus that represents them as a harmonious team. So it seemed like a good experiment, to combine it with the personal maps that we had done in a previous session.

“Las Entusiastas” had shared their core values ​​when they shared their personal maps. So the indications were the following:

From the big values ​​that M3.0 shares with us, they were going to identify three different values ​​to those they had previously chosen in their minds, after this, they would make a little story that when telling it to their classmates would serve as an impetus to try to guess what their partner I was sharing them.

That was how the communication table was opened and the good time they had, when they told the last story and it was guessed as a team, we led to a reflection in which they saw themselves again as people from the same nucleus who assimilate and differ in some values.

Something important that happened was that they deduced that although they have similarities and differences, their work revolves around those values. And that of those who agreed were those who represented “Las Entusiastas.” They concluded that outside the context that surrounded the team the values: Transparency, Sincerity, Responsibility, and Sympathy; They are the ones that always coincide and that I identify them when they resolve a situation to be resolved as a team, regardless of the evolution that the company was undergoing.

They shared that despite not complying with all the company’s values, they could ensure individual values ​​and those of the beautiful team that they formed.

At the end of the session as immediate actions, the team’s mood rose, they valued the space for reflection and thanked the collaboration of all the team members, at the end of the session they concluded with a short general story that groups together the team’s values to close the dynamics.

From this moment, the team began to take care of these values, since they had understood that they represent in the work they do. The team leader promised to review this list again in a few months with an exercise similar to the one we did this time.

As a facilitator of this dynamic I learned:

• These types of dynamics help teams to acknowledge their values.
• Their values ​​can change over some time.
• It is something simple and it is important to give yourself some time of reflection to identify it.
• Help them to acknowledge themselves as members of a team.
• It is important to keep this in mind to avoid losing ourselves in the objectives that we set ourselves as a team.
• My advice based on my experience is:
• Apply it every four months or so.
• Apply it when you see that the equipment is leaving its own established values ​​(it may be that they have mutated values ​​or maybe they need to re-align restrictions on them)
• Apply it with personal maps, or a moving motivator.

My next experiment concerning this dynamic will be to combine it with a moving motivator so that based on what motivates them they can see the relationship they have with their values, and why not? At that table, bring this exercise again to see if their values ​​as a team have changed after the departure of one of their teammates from the area.

As a Change Agent I invite you to give your teams a point of return so that they find the value in everything they are doing, we empower them to build that sense of belonging that is generated between teams once they internalize themselves. the value of everything they do.