Download - 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 brushedPractical Value: Dental HygieneIntrinsic 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 lipAn 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


ShakeEmotional

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 numberse.g. goals like double market share, revenues, etc.

Creativity springs forth with inspiratione.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 MattersAmazing

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

problemsImprove:

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 NORMSe.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

?

?

?YOUHEAD

The professional field you count

yourself in

HEARTA goal that is

deeply inspiring and an end in itself

for youHABIT

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 meYou 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

HEADHEART

HABIT

Story: Couple’s values


Celebration

SpacesJOHN

HEART

HABIT

M&A Therapy

Detachment

HealingMARY

HEADHEART

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 Ecosyste

m 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, ..)

CURRENT

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

EducationSUDPS

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© 2000-2013 SmartOrg. | Confidential and Proprietary.24

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


Decisive

Values Preferences (Trade-offs, Metrics)

Noble Purpose

Integration Clear Logic Community Narrative


Action Plans Leadership, Followership, Laddership

Let’s unpack the heart dimension from the perspective of meta-strategy


Head Heart




Decisive


Noble Purpose




Plastic Packaging Story


Oil & Gas Story (Safer and Cleaner)



Head Heart




Decisive


Noble Purpose








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




Head Heart




Decisive


Noble Purpose







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 Minimalis

m

Insanely Great

Products

APPLE

HeadHeart

Habit

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joFCH9SKaA4

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 allHabit: Ahimsa (nonviolence)

Meta-strategy for Sarvodaya (Upliftment of all)Head: Daan (Voluntary giving)Heart: Upliftment of allHabit: 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?



Head Heart




Decisive


Noble Purpose







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. Colombia2. Brazil3. Peru

1. Brazil2. Peru3. Bolivia



1. Guyana 2. Peru3. Brazil

Linda

Mike1. Colombia2. Peru3. Brazil


1. Brazil2. Peru3. Colombia


Brad1. Peru2. Brazil3. Colombia

1. Peru2. Brazil3. Guyana

1. Brazil2. Peru3. Guyana

1. Peru2. Brazil3. Colombia

1. Peru2. Brazil3. Guyana

Jenny1. Brazil2. Peru3. Colombia



1. Colombia2. Brazil3. Peru


BEST DECISION
