Hi Friend
Chicago, my kind of town. I got to be in the Windy City Monday through Thursday. I love that city. The layout, architecture, lake, transportation, food, businesses and the river running through it are all just fabulous! And my son lives there, which multiplies its appeal. I always want to spend more time there.
I got to be back with the Ronald McDonald House Charities again for another year. We did a working day of clarifying values and fleshing out what the demonstrated behaviors look like. It was like two months worth of consulting work compressed into one day. I loved it.
The other event was the Chicago SHRM Elevate conference. It is a unique one day gathering. Out of six sessions, four of them were panels, which gave exposure to a lot more perspectives on one topic. They were good panels. Plus, every session was required to have a 10-15 discussion at their tables about the topic. It was incredibly valuable. It’s true “there is more wisdom in the audience than on the stage.” Their flow magnified that.
In between both those days I got to spend a little time with Lincoln.
Do you have your personal core values defined? The question is not “what do you value?” but “what values guide your life?” When I do value discovery work with teams, I find most have never articulated theirs. What I loved about Chicago SHRM is they defined what they valued – connection and collaboration amongst peers – and then shaped their schedule accordingly.
PROACTIVE ALIGNMENT
Most of us think of values being handy when we find ourselves in a dicey situation. We remain true to them when offered the chance to violate them for a short-term gain. NOT cheating is our expression of values. But values aren’t meant to be a backstop when tempted to lack character. They are a foundation from which we point and direct our lives.
Why do you think values are mostly activated in reactive scenarios, instead of proactively incorporated into our daily existence? It goes back to us not intentionally crafting, in writing, the specific values that define our lives. That exercise is transformative in work environments. It gives language to who we are, how we act, what we feel and what to expect from us. It’s shockingly powerful for creating alignment.
COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE
Everything is dynamic: People, situations, emotions, opportunities – they change from day-to-day. If not consciously rooted in values, we will find ourselves being tossed around mentally and emotionally by every changing tide. We take on a defensive posture instead of an open, leaning-in disposition.
I wonder if some of the soul anguish our society is experiencing is because we’re living misaligned with our values and don’t even realize it? We’ve taken on a collective conscience – externally defined – yet haven’t curated our own inner parameters. My beautiful wife and I, regularly talk about being “settled” on certain things. This eliminates the mental volley that can exhaust you and me. Settling on our values gives us a clear platform to launch our life from, daily.
Instigating Ideas…
1. Consider what values define you.
2. Ask someone about their core values.
3. Write down your core values with a descriptive sentence extrapolating it’s meaning.
4. Go to Chicago.
Our values reveal themselves. Actions, words, behaviors, responses, relationship dynamics, spent money, allocated time – our values define us. Unfortunately, they aren’t always positive. Someone might say they value truth, but if being truthful creates a conflict, they won’t speak truthfully. So what they really value is “avoiding conflict.” No one would ever write that down as their core value, but accidental values exist frequently, because we’ve not been intentional.
SOUL SYNC
What’s funny is that same individual would deny that’s their value. Saying something is our value doesn’t make it so. Living aligned with our values is extremely difficult. Convenience, compromise and “just this one time” are ferocious foes. And if we haven’t put in the work to declare “These are the filters I’m living my life through” we’ll live out of sync with our soul.
Every conference says they want their audience to connect. They say they value it. But only Chicago SHRM REQUIRED every session to incorporate table conversations. Let’s not live lives saying we value something, but not actually structuring our existence around it.
I hope this week you do a lot of self-evaluating. Consider inviting someone close to you to tell you what they think your values are based on your daily/weekly habits and activities. YIKES