Dr Rob Archer

Finding True North: How to Clarify Values (part 2)

Posted on November 1, 2011October 11, 2015 by Dr Rob Archer

In my previous post I talked about exploring values and looking for patterns across a number of different tests.

Over the years I have taken countless values exercises and tests. Below are some of the best and I’ve interspersed my results to demonstrate the variability involved – and the risks of doing just one!

1. The Obituary Exercise

The classic and probably still the one that has had most impact on me. How do you want to be remembered? Try it here.

My values in this test always include doing meaningful work first and foremost. This means using my skills and talents to actually make a difference to other people and to ‘dent the universe’ in some way. Another top value (for me and others) is courage. I don’t want the fears I experience day to day to hold me back.

2. Values in action questionnaire

I have taken this test 6 times over a period of 8 years. Although my top 6 values vary each time, there are some which remain consistent. The values which have made it in every time are:

Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness
Curiosity and interest in the world
Social intelligence
Fairness, equity, and justice

3. Your Values by Franklin Covey

I think this is an excellent resource which asks different questions to elicit values. My values here include growth and development, curiosity, humour and freedom.

4. Values Sort Task by Goodwork Toolkit

Having said I don’t like ranking values, it can be quite revealing to ‘sort’ them for importance. This online values sorting tool is quite fun and works well. My top values here turned out to be honesty and integrity, social concerns and professional accomplishment.

5. Career Values by Stewart Cooper & Coon

Another values sorting exercise, but the sorting is done differently and so it is interesting to observe differences. I find this kind of test more difficult because it is hard to know how to assign importance to values without comparing them to other values. Therefore, I think you respond differently to the values at the beginning of the test than the end.

The values that came top in this test were freedom, security, helping others, recognition, honesty and integrity.

6. Valued Living Questionnaire

This test is used extensively by the ACT community, along with the similar Bull’s Eye. This test identifies 10 different life domains and asks you to identify key values in each. Clearly, this test deals with broader values than those which simply relate to work. Nevertheless, this in itself can be useful to identify any conflicts or tensions between work-related values and values in other life domains.

My work-related values in this test include doing meaningful work (again), making a difference to others, collaborating with excellent people and acting with integrity.

Conclusion

There’s a huge range of different values tests out there. The ones listed above are really good and all of them are free. However, they do tend to yield different results and this can be disconcerting. However, remember that you do not have a single set of values – too much depends on context. So take these tests and look out for patterns. And when you have your list, hold it lightly and aks yourself in this moment, which way is True North?

Finding True North: How to Clarify Values (part 1)

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

Rachel wrote previously about how to get clear about values and that post helps explain how values can be tangibly defined. But once you have a clear definition, what then?

I’ve had huge problems defining my own values in the past and I’ve tried many, many different ways of doing so. I can bore for Britain about values. So what have I found?

Look for Patterns

I don’t think any single test or exercise has proved more illuminating than another, and I also think none has been a waste of time either. So I’ve concluded the best way of exploring values is to do just that – explore. That means being willing to commit to a period of reflection and to look for patterns across values exercises. (In part 2 of this post, I will list a number of different ways of doing this).

Think ‘Core’ and ‘Satellite’ Values

My experience (both personally and with clients) is that spotting patterns in values tends to lead to two sets of values – what Richard Blonna calls ‘core’ and ‘satellite’ values. The core values come up again and again, in nearly every context. The satellite values are also important but depend more on the situation.

Some of my core values include doing meaningful work, learning, integrity, loyalty, being physically active, fairness, equity and justice. Some of my satellite values include health and wellbeing, courage, creativity, security and competition.

Find True North

Unlike Blonna (and many other ACT theorists) I have never felt comfortable ranking values in order of importance. After all, even core values depend on context. I’ve never felt that having a ‘number 1’ value actually helps either me or my clients to move forward.

I prefer to take a list of core values and group them together as ‘True North’. That is, a direction in which to travel which encapsulates what’s really important for that person. I then like to use the matrix to guide moment to moment action. The matrix asks us to become really ‘present’ to our situation and then to ask:

Right now, in this moment, are you moving towards True North or away?

Why Values in the Workplace Don’t Work

Posted on September 29, 2011September 29, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

Since identifying and following my own values my life has changed immeasurably. Not happier necessarily, but I am now truly engaged in what I do and experience a lot of meaning. If you asked me today whether this life is what I would choose I would not hesitate to say yes. 6 years ago, I would have been stunned into silence.

My experience of values in the workplace is very different. The usual approach is for a management team to identify the organisation’s values in a darkened room or at a ‘team away day’ in a hotel just off the M4. Then, the values are declared via an exciting combination of communications experts, office posters and mouse mats.

What follows is the ’embedding’ phase. This means identifying what behaviours the organisation wants to see to demonstrate each value. Very often they will identify what ‘good’ behaviour looks like and what ‘excellent’ behaviour looks like. These behaviours will be embedded into competency frameworks, which are then used to assess each member of staff at appraisal time, and help the organisation find the right cultural ‘fit’ with new recruits.

That, in my experience, is best practice. And it is utterly useless.

The result is usually a sense of incomprehension (at best), and at worst cynicism. It leads not to engagement, but a sort of dull compliance, coupled with an acute sense of injustice if a manager breaches the behavioural code.

From an ACT perspective, this is easily understood. Because these are not values being implemented, but what is known as pliance. Pliance is where…”wanting to be good or please others dominates over one’s direct, personal experience of what works.” Pliance (taken from the word compliance) is therefore a form of rule-governed behaviour which does not take into account context.

Rule governed behaviour may be useful in some contexts, but it also leads to a kind of insensitivity to the environment which can harm performance and rob the individual of a sense of autonomy and control – both critical to engagement.

Put simply, values work in organisations is usually not values work. It is a form of managerial control masquerading as values work. It is more accurately described as pliance, or rule-governed behaviour, which leads to disengagement and an insensitivity to one’s environment. Both of these will harm performance and wellbeing.

And both can be avoided.

Ken Robinson and The Element – Holding Passion Lightly

Posted on August 1, 2011May 22, 2021 by Dr Rob Archer

On my career psychology blog I wrote about Ken Robinson’s excellent video about finding and connecting with your passion. I love this talk, and his book ‘The Element’, but I think there are a number of problems with his viewpoint from the perspective of finding one’s passion at work.

Your passion does not always translate into a career.
As Seth Godin once argued, some things are best left as hobbies. For example, my early talent was in sport, but I could never make it professionally and turning that passion into something sport-related is not going to meet the other criteria I have for a job. A passion is one element of many that needs to be considered.

Passion is learned
It’s rare for us to have a truly natural, God-given talent or passion. More often, the things for which we have a ‘natural’ capacity are in fact learned. If they are learned, then unless we have already learned them we will not know what they are. Therefore, searching for your passions is misleading – we should be creating passion.

Passion is contextual
The things we love are loved for many different reasons, and for those in difficult jobs the things they love are loved because they are a release from their troubles. Very often, ‘what we love’ is simple behavioural reinforcement of the relief we experience when not working. That’s why so many of us want to run B&Bs or cafes.

The flipside of what we really value is what we really fear.
For example if I value counselling people, I will fear the consequences of failing to help them. Following a passion often comes with higher states of anxiety and fear. In my experience it can also come with higher states of uncertainty. ‘Is this really my passion’?

Exploring passion is a fantastic exercise. But if we cling too rigidly to the idea of passion, then we risk getting stuck right where we are.

What’s the answer?
We need to hold all thoughts – what we love, what we’re like, what we need to do to succeed – lightly. Thoughts can help us and imprison us. Far better to focus on identifying broad, valued directions to move towards, and developing a willingness to keep moving towards these.

Following your passion means bargaining with life that you must or should feel passionate about something. When we subsequently do not feel passionate about something we conclude we have lost our way. In contrast, following our values is a moment to moment choice, that is available to us all right now.

How Using ACT in the Workplace Could Transform….Well, Almost Everything

Posted on July 8, 2011July 25, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

Rachel and I will shortly presenting at the World ACT conference in Parma, Italy.

We’re jolly excited by it and have had a lot of fun working out our messages, putting our slides together and generally telling each other how brilliant we are. (p.s. Rachel, you ARE brilliant).

To support our presentation, we’ve put together a number of supporting documents and handouts. These will be available for download on the ACBS website, but for now they are available here:

Buying Happiness

Posted on June 29, 2011June 29, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

In ACT, we try to undermine efforts to control our emotional or mental experience in exchange for focusing on valued directions and actions.

That means, we try to rebalance peoples’ focus on what they think and feel more towards what they actually do with their hands and feet.

I say rebalance because there’s nothing wrong with mental experience. It’s just that, humans being humans, we tend to experience more and more of life indirectly, or mindlessly, and this has the effect of robbing us of vitality and purpose. And in the workplace, it tends to mean repeating the same old routine, even when that routine is ineffective.

Trouble is, ACT is counter-cultural. The culture says you do not need to feel bad, ever. The culture says you can feel good if only you try harder, think better…or make the right choices.

If you doubt me, take a look at this:

View this document on Scribd

On the Dangers of Psychometric Testing

Posted on May 10, 2011May 10, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

Rachel wrote compellingly (below) about our three selves, and how the things we believe about ourselves can help us and limit us. I agree, but as an occupational psychologist this presents me with a dilemma.

Psychologists are very keen to put people into boxes. We like to label people – ‘schizophrenic’, ‘depressed’, ‘anxious’. For occupational psychologists we like labels such as ‘ENFP’, ‘conscientious’, ’emotionally intelligent’ and even ‘resource investigator’. Of course, most of these labels are useful because they have good reliability and validity. For example, if you are recruiting, the most powerful predictors of performance in the job are:

Cognitive ability
Integrity
Conscientiousness

Source: Robertson & Smith (2001).

Clearly, objective measurement of knowledge, skills and personality preferences such as these is preferable to the far more subjective unstructured interview of old. (And certainly preferable to graphology – apparently still used extensively in France!).

However, when we use labels such as these on ourselves we must also be mindful that we are creating a reality as much as describing one. And, particularly in the field of career decision making, I think there’s a danger when thinking of ourselves as being a certain way that we are reinforcing ideas which reduce psychological flexibility. By extension, this reduces our capacity to notice and take advantage of opportunities to change.

As Freedman and Combs (1996) write: “Speaking isn’t neutral or passive. Every time we speak, we bring forth a reality [which] gives legitimacy to the distinctions that those words bring forth.”

Anyone who’s seen the TfL advert will know we tend to see things that confirm what we look for. In career decision making, we tend to see behaviours or judgments which confirm our existing views of ourselves. We tend to believe psychometric tests, yet these are only modified versions of what we have told ourselves in the first place.

That’s why even very good psychometric tests (and there are lots of very bad ones) need to be held lightly. The unquestioned use of labels and categories can consolidate problems that the client is experiencing and reify something which perhaps did not exist – or half existed in the messy, ambiguous reality of being a human.

The Certainty Bias

Posted on May 1, 2011May 1, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

A fantastic interview with neurologist Robert Burton highlights the mind’s Certainty Bias.

The mind evolved to help us make sense of the world around us, because without that understanding it’s pretty hard to know how to act. Not many of our ancestors had time to make a list of pros and cons before making important decisions.

But in today’s context the mind’s pull for certainty has different consequences. The mind likes nice, uncomplicated beliefs which can help us make sense of a situation. Yet these beliefs often leave us trapped by our own perceptions:

“I must get this right”.

For important events and decisions, our mind will tell us how important it is to get this right. Yet the mind will be far slower to identify what ‘right’ is. The unspoken assumption is that right is perfect. Perfection is hard to achieve… so procrastination ensues.

“I need to know the likely outcome / if I can cope before I start”

The mind likes to dictate terms and the terms are – no movement towards a new project unless certainty is guaranteed! The trouble is this often stops us from taking action on the things we value most. Result: the mind’s goal will be achieved…by doing nothing.

“I need to have all my things around me / complete silence / the right people to work effectively”

The trouble is we rarely get the ‘right’ environment. Deep down we know this and that we need to start right now – even if it is with the wrong pen.

“If I was good at doing this it would be easier / life is about enjoyment”

The great happiness myth! The problem is life isn’t meant to be enjoyable in the sense that we should enjoy each moment. Our most fulfilling moments weren’t preceded by feeling good – far more often they were preceded by the most dreadful doubt and fear. Our intolerance of ambiguity keeps us stuck – which eventually makes us miserable.

So what can we do about it?

As Burton acknowledges, the most important thing with such thoughts is to recognise them. After all, you do not need “the right result” so much as you are having the thought that you need it. Even recognising this as just a thought – not reality – is effective.

Once you’ve noticed your thoughts, bring your attention back to your behaviour. The mind often leaves behaviour unspecified, because perfection is more certain than an imperfect first step. This makes purpose hard to find.

So try to counteract this by getting specific about what it is you will do:

I’d love to get the right result – so I will make a list of what that result looks like in practice.
I’d love to know more about the outcome I can expect – and the most important things I need to know are what the client really wants and why they want it.
I don’t want to fail – and the main risk to failure is that I don’t revise properly. Therefore, I will make a revision plan.
I want better working conditions – so I will make a specific list of improvements I could make, starting right here and now.
I want to enjoy myself – but I am willing to experience uncertainty now in order to make progress towards my goals.

The Cult of Busyness

Posted on April 18, 2011April 18, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

Are you busy?

It feels almost unnatural to think of answering ‘no’, and it is this which Ian Price, a former telecoms CEO and now business psychologist, explores in his excellent book called The Activity Illusion.

Ian’s main thesis is that we are driving ourselves to distraction through technology, and that this is hitting productivity. I agree, but would go much further. I think distraction impacts mental health too.

Which further impacts performance.

I have been speaking to Ian about ACT, and how I think it’s essential to help people cope with information overload. Without some means of dealing with intrusive thoughts and the uncomfortable emotions they can provoke, all we are left with is a bunch of time management strategies and some vague promises not to copy too many people into our e-mails. Oh and the perennial favourite, employee engagement.

Ian is interested. He is even showing interest in including elements of ACT it in his training. Another sign that the business world is beginning to see the extent of the opportunity here.

To give you a flavour of his style, have a look at his talk at the Ted x Granta event earlier this year.

ACT in the Workplace

Posted on April 15, 2011April 15, 2011 by Dr Rob Archer

So many leadership courses are based on the idea that to improve performance we must firstly sort our thinking out. So we focus on motivation, confidence, self-belief or ways of controlling or removing anxiety and stress. Sounds logical enough.

The problem is whilst this approach makes such intuitive sense, the evidence does not support it. Our minds are expert problem solving machines which evolved to scan the environment for threat, propose hypotheses, and then prompt action to avoid, control or get rid of any threats. But when we try to apply the same techniques to our own thoughts, beliefs and emotional states, the evidence is that we make the problem worse, not better.

As Paul Flaxman said at a recent BABCP event, what works outside the skin does not always work inside the skin.

This may sound like a small distinction, but it has profound implications for the way we learn, teach and improve performance in the workplace. In short, the evidence suggests that focusing on trying to alter, control or avoid emotional and cognitive states as the means to improving performance is flawed.

From workplace stress to task concentration, innovation, learning, anxiety and even chronic pain management, all are showing that attempting to regulate our own internal states IS the problem.

In contrast, the alternative – psychological flexibility – gives people control over their lives, ironically by letting go of the struggle of trying to control their emotional states. It is the ability to focus on task-relevant stimuli whilst feeling negative emotions that drives better performance and reduces distress (see Gardner and Moore, 2008).

One recent participant said to me that defusing from his thoughts – treating them with a degree of distance – had been the single most effective change he has made in attempting to build a safety culture in his team.

Rather than more rules and regulations to live by, ACT can help people get unstuck from where they are, and take control of their working lives. If ACT can reach more people in organisations, it could benefit us all.