Experimenting with Values

Experimenting with Values:
Finding your Meta-strategy
Somik Raha
© 2000-2013 SmartOrg. | Confidential and Proprietary.1
Jul 23, 2014

Poll
When you hear the term “values”, what are you primarily
hearing?
Pick the one that applies the most:
Values as measures: Value functions, utility functions
Value-focused thinking: Distinguishing between means and ends
Values as norms: Cultural norms that are upheld in society and organizations

Values as Meta-Strategy
This is NOT a talk about these three:
This talk is about a fourth kind of listening:
Values as meta-strategy: Your values are your highest-level strategy
Values as measures: Value functions, utility functions
Value-focused thinking: Distinguishing between means and ends
Values as norms: Cultural norms that are upheld in society and organizations

What brushing our teeth can teach us about
values
Systemic Value: Count of # times we’ve brushed
Practical Value: Dental Hygiene
Intrinsic Value: Personal well-being

Two startling conclusions
What can be counted does not really count
What counts cannot really be counted
In the Q&A box, can you share examples from your life that illustrate this?

The great poets of the world speak of this
The one who confuses the label water for water is naïve indeed.
Repeating “water, water,” such a one is destined to die of thirst.
Repeating “fire, fire” produces not a scratch on the lip
An ember on your lip will immediately burn it.
Sufi poet, Zaheen Shah Taji
Note: He is criticizing the conflation of the label with the experience, not the
use of labels themselves

Intrinsic values are about finding your deepest
values, and there are signs to recognize them
Shake
Emotional
Silence
The small truth has words that are clear.
The great truth has great silence.
… Rabindranath Tagore

Intrinsic Values have a quality of uniqueness
Test: Are most people likely to say “me too” for your intrinsic value? If
yes, we need to keep looking.
The focus here is on those values that stir you in an odd and unique
way

What’s your music?
Under the sky studded with the sun and myriad stars, In a
universe throbbing with life, I've received my little
space. In sheer wonder, music springs from the depths of
my soul.
Rabindranath Tagore

We got stuck while doing a traditional DA
consulting workshop
Our remit: Help us double our revenues from $500M
to $1B

XXX
Three slides that went to the board
META-
STRATEGY (or
Purpose)

M&A Strategy
Check opportunity for fit with packaging “traits”
Only if there is fit, let’s look at the numbers
Quote from hard-nosed M&A expert: “I have never seen a soft tool work this well”

Observation
Human mind shuts down when faced with numbers
e.g. goals like double market share, revenues, etc.
Creativity springs forth with inspiration
e.g. Indian branch story, going from $2M to $30M

Applying this at home

Having fun
making
organizations
Smarter
People co-
creating
Magic
Prudential
Intrinsic
Systemic
Making a
Difference
that Matters
Amazing
Capabilities
Awesome
Software:
That inspires,
enables and
empowers
Professional
Experience:
Practical
knowledgeable
staff who can do
and coach
Thought
Leadership:
Show the way
to solve real
problems
Improve:
Build
Customer’s
Capability
Service:
Proactively and
responsively
serve the real
need
Excellence:
High quality
practical rigor
Great Relationships:
Among ourselves, with
vendors, with clients
Whole Person:
SmartOrg is where
personal passion
meets the productive
world
Situational
Leadership:
Follow & lead, with
responsibility and
accountability
VALUES as
NORMS
e.g. SmartOrg
Complete Integrity:
Honesty, openness,
trust and
trustworthiness.
Ongoing
Learning:
Ongoing Personal,
Professional and
Team Development
Impact:
Empowering customers
to achieve their most
important objectives
Financial
Stewardship:
Sustain the
business and the
people in it
Prosperity
Performance:
Accomplishing
what we set out to
do
Enjoyment:
Work enlivens

Mapping your values (as meta-strategy)
© 2000-2014 SmartOrg. | Creative Commons Attribution 3.016
?
?
?YOU
HEAD
The professional field
you count yourself in
HEART
A goal that is deeply
inspiring and an end
in itself for you
HABIT
You show up and this
shows up
Finance-
Business
Partnership
Agile Decision
Support Systems
Restoring dignity
to economic
evaluations
HEAD HEART
HABIT
EXAMPLE:
Somik’s lens on
SmartOrg

Find your purpose (meta-strategy) is an act of
deep listening
Things that have worked for me
You can be a friend to someone
Look for silence, emotion, shuddering
Test the values – if any one is missing, is something big
missing
Look for uniqueness, not universality

Story: Couple’s values
Hospitality
Celebration
SpacesJOHN
HEAD HEART
HABIT
M&A ?
Detachment
HealingMARY
HEAD
HEART
HABIT

Story: Couple’s values
Celebration
SpacesJOHN
HEART
HABIT
M&A
Therapy
Detachment
HealingMARY
HEAD
HEART
HABIT
Before: Mary wondered about helping John in his hotel business. After: Mary is working on a
transition to becoming a therapist
Hospitality
HEAD

CEO’s Values
Energy
Efficiency
Visionary
Change
Building
Ecosystem
Solutions
DOUG/
RETROFIT
Company
HEAD
HEART
HABIT
Helped CEO get clarity on messaging for company

Shin-Gi-Tai
Thanks to Kentaro Nakamichi

In Summary
Values as Meta-Strategy is upstream of all practical
considerations
This is about the mountain you want to climb (distinct
from how you want to walk on the road)
The highest given in a decision
All DA value calculations are
Systemic values
GIVEN
We commit to Strategic
Fit of (e.g. Safe, Natural,
..)
CURREN
T
FUTURE
Decision
Hierarchy

Systematizing to get to the value is essential, but
it is not the value
Systems drive action. (police story)
Public
Safety
Dignity of Client
Education
SUDPS
HEAD
HEART
HABIT
EXAMPLE: Somik’s
lens on SUDPS
values
SYSTEM: Hire highly educated people who
resonate with “dignity of client”

Systematizing to get to the value is essential, but
it is not the value
Systems drive action. (police story)
Criteria for fit is one example of a system. It can get us to
realize the values, but is not equal to the value.
Making multi-attribute models to trade-off these intrinsic
values kind of misses the point (oil and gas story)
Analysis is good when we are confused (Amazon story)
Affects how we view decision quality

Decision Quality is largely head-focused in its
articulation
Head
Frame Appropriate
Alternatives Feasible
Information Relevant, Material
Preferences Trade-offs, Metrics
Logic Clear
Commitment to
Action
High-quality
commitments

Most of us actually prefer a balance of head-and-
heart
Head Heart
Frame Appropriate Meaningful
Alternatives Feasible Inspiring
Information Relevant, Material Decisive
Values Preferences
(Trade-offs,
Metrics)
Noble Purpose
Integration Clear Logic Community
Narrative
Commitment to
Action
Action Plans Leadership,
Followership,
Laddership

Let’s unpack the heart dimension from the
perspective of meta-strategy
Head Heart
Values Preferences
(Trade-offs,
Metrics)
Noble Purpose
Narrative
Commitment to
Action
Followership,
Laddership
Plastic Packaging Story
Oil & Gas Story (Safer and
Cleaner)

heart
Head Heart
Values Preferences
(Trade-offs,
Metrics)
Noble Purpose
Narrative
Commitment to
Action
Followership,
Laddership
Cleaner)

helps individuals, families, and communities struggling with
alcohol abuse, substance abuse, and drug addiction
transform their lives
Capital investment projects had been carefully selected to improve facilities. This caused a
backlash, with employees asking why funds weren’t used to give pay raises.
e.g. redesign spaces to be welcoming, comfortable chairs for clients to feel at home. It
takes a lot for people in that position to trust and reach out for help.
When the decision was explained in the context of their core value of bringing respect and
dignity to the lives of those who have suffered from substance abuse and addiction
problems, employees understood and supported it.

What stories do you have on Integration?
Was there a time when you found the numbers weren’t
sufficient, and you had to share a narrative connecting
your insight to values?
Please type your stories into the Q&A

heart
Head Heart
Values Preferences
(Trade-offs,
Metrics)
Noble Purpose
Narrative
Commitment
to Action
Followership,
Laddership
Cleaner)
Hazelden Foundation story

Leadership: protecting your meta-strategy
Guardian of Apple’s core value of beautiful design
“insanely great products”
Somik’s version:
Think
Different
Zen
Minimalism
Insanely
Great
Products
APPLE
Head
Heart
Habit
Video

Followership: Embracing the meta-strategy
Our culture places too much emphasis on the leader, and not on the
first, second, third, seventh or the seven hundredth follower.
Gandhi VinobaSomik’s
version:
Meta-strategy for Sarvodaya (Upliftment of all)
Head: Satyagraha (Insistence on Truth)
Heart: Upliftment of all
Habit: Ahimsa (nonviolence)
Meta-strategy for Sarvodaya (Upliftment of all)
Head: Daan (Voluntary giving)
Heart: Upliftment of all
Habit: Love
Bhoodaan

Was Vinoba just a follower? Was he a leader?
Perhaps, he was a ladder.
Macho lone hero
who saves the day
Leaders are best when people barely know
they exist. When their work is done, their aim
fulfilled, people say, “we did it ourselves” ..
Lao Tzu in Tao Te Ching
Laddership.org
In business, ladders have been called “Level 5 leaders” (Jim Collins)

Ladders undertake guardianship of the
organization’s meta-strategy
Can you share stories of laddership (in the Q&A box) you
have seen in your career?

heart
Head Heart
Values Preferences
(Trade-offs,
Metrics)
Noble Purpose
Narrative
Commitment to
Action
Followership,
Laddership
Cleaner)
Hazelden Foundation story
Apple, Gandhi, Vinoba stories

Meta-strategy redefines the purpose of a
business
The purpose of business IS to be a business of purpose

The old business leaders understood this
Walt Disney said, “We don’t make movies to make money,
we make money to make movies.”
Henry Ford said, “Business must be run at a profit, else it
will die. But when anyone tries to run a business solely
for profit ... then the business must die as well, for it no
longer has a reason for existence.”

Trusteeship and Meta-Strategy
You are the self-declared trustee of your meta-strategy for
society
If you drop the ball on executing on your intrinsic value,
society won’t get to experience that intrinsic value
What are your reflections on being a guardian of your
intrinsic value for society? What is an intrinsic value that
moves you to guardianship? Type into Q&A.

Where do we go from here?
I don’t know, but…
Knowing our meta-strategy can help us become aware of
misalignments between strategy and meta-strategy
Perhaps clarity on our meta-strategy values can help us
do inspired work
The Neuroscience of Values

Acknowledgments
Robert Hartman – for his work on
“Formal Axiology”
Ronald Howard – connecting me to
Hartman, and supporting research on
Values
David Matheson – supporting
exploration of values in business, and
being a great co-
conspirator/collaborator

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes
you come alive, and go do it. Because what the
world needs is people who have come alive.”
– Robert Thurman

Q&A

Appendix

Fundamental Values and Intrinsic Values
“Values are the criteria that we use to evaluate outcomes. Fundamental values are
those that express our most important concerns.”
Jonathon Baron, Biases in the Quantitative Measurement of values for public decisions
Intrinsic values are about “states of being,” not outcomes. There is a difference
between what we value and how we value. How we value can be mapped by the
emotional affect:
INTRINSIC: Inseparable from who we are. If it is truly intrinsic, you cannot even begin to
describe the value.
EXTRINSIC/PRACTICAL: Separable but we show an everyday-interestedness in these
values. You can talk about this.
SYSTEMIC: The land of objectivity. All of DA’s constructs are Systemic because they are
clear.
In MA, the way fundamental values get used is to quickly turn them into metrics
and establish tradeoffs. My use of intrinsic values has been as a generative force
for ideation and strategic fit, not tradeoffs.
The method of getting to intrinsic values is of great interest to me. Involves
listening for silence.

From Values to Valuation…
Amazon story

3 Periods
1. Colombia
2. Brazil
3. Peru
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Bolivia
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Bolivia
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Bolivia
1. Guyana
2. Peru
3. Brazil
Linda
Mike
1. Colombia
2. Peru
3. Brazil
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Bolivia
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Colombia
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Colombia
Brad
1. Peru
2. Brazil
3. Colombia
1. Peru
2. Brazil
3. Guyana
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Guyana
1. Peru
2. Brazil
3. Colombia
1. Peru
2. Brazil
3. Guyana
Jenny
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Colombia
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Colombia
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Colombia
1. Colombia
2. Brazil
3. Peru
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Colombia
BEST DECISION
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Bolivia

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