Distinguishing Core Values | Hinesight....for Foresight

Core values are those most important to us. To refresh, ConsumerShift defines values as “An individual view about what is most important in life that in turn guides decision-making and behavior”

The revised New Dimensions Values Inventory (NDVI) has 110 values sorted into the four types of traditional, modern, postmodern, and integral. Previous values researchers have suggested that people will have somewhere around a dozen core values that are most important in their lives.

I liked Sidney Simon’s suggested approach to identifying core values[1], which I learned about in a Strategic Planning class at the UH Futures Studies program. His recommended approach is to identify “core” values from a longer list (of all potential values – 110 in the NDVI case), by applying three tests:

do they say they have it
do they feel strongly about it?
and have they acted on it?[i]

I have a very crude “version 1’ that I tested with some students and colleagues that seems to get at it, but needs refining. I am working with colleagues to get the assessment constructed and validated properly. I hope to build a nice set of longitudinal data over time. I’m sure my blog readers will be early adopters…..Andy Hines

[1] Simon, S., Howe, L., & Kirschenbaum, H. (1972). Values Clarification: A Practical, Action-Directed Workbook. NY: Warner Books, 10.

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply