Stephen Billing’s Blog

It makes no sense to derive a set of values in a rational way.

In my previous post I said that writing values on a poster assumes that the values of a group of people can be prescribed rationally by working them out.

It makes no sense to come up with a set of rationally conceived values. By definition, values are not rational.

Values come from a deep sense of what it is right to do. They have an attractive, uplifting, unrestrictive sense of the ideal. There is something compelling about the values that we hold, and yet it is entirely voluntary that we commit to these values. Value commitments arise from key intense experiences that we have and give life meaning and purpose. You cannot decree a purpose in life.

Values are the highest expression of our free will, and are intensely personal.

It is a nonsense to rationally decree a set of values and expect employees to hold to them. Other than that I don’t feel strongly about it.

Sources

Joas – The Genesis of Values

Stacey and Griffin – Complexity and the Experience of Leading Organizations