02 — MOTIVATION
Values
The hierarchy of importance that governs behaviour. What matters most isn’t always what people say matters most.
“A person’s stated values and their operational values often diverge. The operational ones — the ones that actually govern choices under pressure — are only visible through behaviour.”
How it works
The structure underneath
Values operate as a hierarchy, not a list. Saying ’I value both freedom and security’ tells you nothing until you know which one wins when they conflict. The hierarchy — not the individual values — drives behaviour.
Elicitation requires specificity. ’What’s important to you about your work?’ produces labels. ’When you had to choose between the safe option and the interesting one, what did you actually do?’ produces operational values.
Values are context-dependent but surprisingly consistent within a domain. A person’s career values may differ from their relationship values, but within each domain, the hierarchy tends to be stable over years.
The most powerful intervention is simply making the hierarchy visible. When someone sees that they consistently choose security over growth — and that this pattern explains their frustration — the awareness itself creates the possibility of change.
What are values, in practical terms?
Values are the criteria a person uses to judge whether something is worth doing, keeping or defending. They are usually nominalisations, single abstract words such as respect, freedom or recognition, that compress a great deal of experience into one label. That compression is why two people can both say “honesty matters to me” and mean quite different things.
Each value therefore has two parts worth eliciting: the word, and the evidence that tells the person the value is being met. Ask “How do you know when you have respect at work?” and one person says “people ask my opinion before deciding”, while another says “nobody checks my work”. Same label, different evidence, different behaviour. The core values list is useful for finding words; the evidence is where the working detail lives.
Values also come in two directions. Towards values describe something a person moves to (growth, connection). Away-from values describe something they move from, often phrased as its absence: “not being micromanaged”, “never being caught unprepared”. Away-from values are just as real, but they tend to produce relief rather than satisfaction when met, and they are a common source of the restlessness people describe as “nothing is ever enough”.
A values hierarchy in action: a worked example
Consider a senior engineer offered a promotion into management. Asked what matters in his work, he lists craft, autonomy, security and recognition, and is puzzled that he cannot decide. A list cannot tell him; a hierarchy can. So instead of asking him to rank the words in the abstract, you test pairs.
“If you could keep the craft but lose some security, would that be acceptable?” — “Yes, I’ve done that before.”
“If you had more recognition but less time for the craft?” — “No. That’s what bothers me about the offer.”
“More autonomy, less recognition?” — “Easily.”
The working hierarchy is craft, then autonomy, then security, with recognition last, even though recognition was the value he mentioned first and most warmly. The promotion offers recognition and security while costing craft. His hesitation is not indecision; it is an accurate reading of a values conflict he had not yet put into words. Seeing that, he can negotiate the role (a technical-lead track, protected time for hands-on work) rather than simply accept or refuse it.
How values conflict shows up
Values conflict tends to appear as delay, irritability or a decision that is reversed soon after it is made. Listen for “part of me wants…, but…” and for the same complaint recurring across different situations. Between people, it often surfaces as a disagreement about method (“we should test it more” versus “we should ship it”) that no amount of data resolves, because each side is protecting a different value.
Eliciting values: what to ask and what to avoid
- Ask about a domain, not a life. “What’s important to you about the way you work?” produces a usable set. “What are your values?” produces a poster.
- Keep asking “What else?” The first three answers are often the socially acceptable ones. Later answers are often less rehearsed than the first few.
- Get evidence for each value. “What has to happen for you to know you have that?” turns an abstraction into something observable.
- Test the order with trade-offs. Ranking words in isolation produces a stated hierarchy. Pairwise trade-offs drawn from real situations produce the operational one.
- Do not argue with a value. Values are not true or false. If a value seems to cause problems, look at its evidence or its position in the hierarchy, not at whether the person should hold it.
The full method, with exact questions and a worked example, is in how to elicit values.
Free assessment · 30 statements · ~6 min
Take the free assessmentFind your own pattern: Values Inventory
What you say matters and what actually wins under pressure are often different. This ranks the six value orientations that drive your choices.
Free assessment · 13 questions · ~4 min
Take the free assessmentFind your own pattern: Motivation Check
Some people are fuelled by the work itself, others by what it brings. This shows where you sit between the two, your top three drivers at work and the two things most likely to switch you off.
Free exercise · Interactive wheel · choose 6–8 values · ~6 min
Start the free exerciseTry it yourself: Values Wheel
Choose the six to eight values that matter most, rate how fully you are living each one right now, and see on one wheel where your life and your values have drifted apart.
Free assessment · 72 statements · ~18 min
Take the free assessmentFind your own pattern: Full Values Inventory
The long form of the Values Inventory: seventy-two statements, six orientations, a steadier ranking and a clear sign when you are moving between two. Progress is saved so you can finish later.
In practice
Where it applies
- Leadership alignment — surfacing the real value hierarchy of a team, not the one on the wall
- Conflict resolution — most intractable conflicts are values conflicts disguised as strategy disagreements
- Career transitions — helping people understand why a role that looks right on paper feels wrong in practice
- Organisational culture — mapping the gap between espoused values and values-in-use
Connections
Related frameworks
Next
Continue the series
Values: questions people ask
What are values?
Values are the criteria people use to decide what is worth their time, effort and loyalty. They are usually abstract words such as freedom, security or respect. Each one is linked to specific evidence the person looks for, and they operate as a hierarchy: when two values compete, the higher one tends to win, and that ordering is what predicts behaviour.
What is a values hierarchy?
A values hierarchy is the order of importance among a person’s values within a particular area of life, such as work or relationships. It matters because values often compete. Someone who holds both security and adventure will make very different choices depending on which sits higher. Testing real trade-offs reveals the hierarchy more reliably than asking people to rank a list.
What causes a values conflict?
A values conflict happens when one choice satisfies one value at the expense of another, or when two people’s hierarchies place the same values in different orders. It often looks like procrastination, repeated second-guessing or a team disagreement that data does not settle. Naming both values, and the evidence each requires, usually makes the conflict workable.
Do values change over time?
Within a domain, a values hierarchy tends to be fairly stable, as it is in the research literature (for example Shalom Schwartz’s work on basic human values), but it does shift with major life events such as becoming a parent, a serious illness or a change of career. The evidence for a value can change more readily than the value itself. Revisiting your values every year or two, or after a significant change, is sensible.
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