Values - The family jewels by Paul Lemberg.

There is a lot of talk in our society about values.

Family values, personal values, corporate values. What are values and why are they important to creating breakthroughs?

Values are things we strive to gain or keep. They are the expression of what is important to us. Values can be concrete things like money, gourmet food, and fast motorcycles, or they can be abstract things like contribution, challenge, or adventure. Your values are truly “the family jewels”.

Values, along with our beliefs about what will satisfy our values, have a decisive impact on the choices we make. We make decisions based on our values. By definition, we evaluate.

If we believe a proposed action will give us more of what we value, we are likely to take that action. And the degree to which we are likely to take that action is proportional to the strength of our beliefs and how much we think the value will increase.

We are constantly evaluating whether something is good for us or bad for us – in fact, we can’t help it. It’s part of our design as human beings.

A hidden value system will cause you to make choices that are inexplicable – you will choose Option A over Option B even though A seems logical. Why? Because B violates your unconscious value system.

You can use a consciously constructed values system to help turn your venture into a high performance machine. A lucid value system, out in the open – and arranged hierarchically – this is more important than that, and so on – turned into a values statement – serves as a guide in evaluating your options, and inventing new ones.

In other words, if you understand the values that motivate you, you can deliberately choose actions which will satisfy those values. Which make you feel good, and keep you conflict-free, and internally consistent.

You reduce or eliminate your personal friction, allowing you to easily take massive action towards your objectives.

Your values statement also helps you align your various stakeholders, and have them act in that same consistent way.

Your values system also keeps you from making poor choices, which would throw you into personal conflict. Choices which make you unhappy and gum up the works.

(This section on values is the longest section in this book. It is valuable and worth working your way through. Well-understood and clearly expressed values can propel you through the most difficult change periods, and keep you far ahead of the wandering herd.)


Below is a list of common (and uncommon) values. This list is neither complete nor definitive. It is a guide. Please add your own.


Acceptance
Achievement
Adventure
Affection
Art
Beauty
Being Different
Challenge
Change
Commitment
Compassion
Competition
Confrontation
Contribution
Courage
Creativity
Detachment
Ecstasy
Efficiency
Ethics
Excellence
Excitement
Fame
Free Time
Freedom
God
Growth
Happiness
Hard Work
Harmony
Health
Honesty
Integrity
Knowledge
Leadership
Learning
Love
Loyalty
Making a difference
Merit
Nature
Partnership
Passion
Peace
Play
Power
Prosperity
Resilience
Security
Self-awareness
Self-expression
Self-respect
Serenity
Service
Sharing
Sophistication
Stability
Success
Support
Teamwork
Trust
Truth
Wealth
Winning
Wisdom

Copyright 2002-04 ©Paul Lemberg used with his expressed written permission

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