Where values are lived, and where they slip.
Facilitated conversation where participants examine the difference between the values they hold and the values they actually live by in their daily working life.
The Values Gap is where the session gets honest. Using the values identified in the previous exercise, participants examine where those values are clearly present in their work and where they tend to disappear, particularly under pressure, in difficult relationships, or in environments that don't support them. Because participants come from different contexts, the range of experiences makes for a richer conversation than a single-organisation session would produce.
Participants identify where their values are most and least visible in their behaviour, and understand what tends to cause the gap.
This opens an honest conversation about where values show up in practice and where they do not. Have people score each of their values privately, then run an open discussion about the gaps and close by drawing the common threads together.
Ask people to look at the values they have identified and score each one out of ten for how consistently it shows up in how they work right now. Give them two minutes to score privately before any discussion.
Open the discussion. Frame it so people can be honest: most of us score lower than we would like on at least one value, and that is normal, and the useful question is why, and what gets in the way. Because this is a mixed group, encourage people to name their context briefly before they share, since different organisations and roles produce very different kinds of gap. Useful prompts: what is the value you find hardest to live by consistently, and what tends to happen when it slips; is the gap about pressure, habit, environment, or something else; and what would have to change for that score to be higher? Keep the conversation on the why behind the gap, and do not let it settle at simply acknowledging that the gap exists.
Draw the threads together and name the common patterns across the room.
Use The Values Gap when a group is ready for an honest conversation about the values they hold and the ones they actually live by day to day. A quick private score makes it concrete, then the discussion digs into where values slip and why.
Using this tool with a skilled facilitator means that discussions are focused, time is used efficiently, and the group moves toward consensus, making the session productive and impactful.
