Turn values into observable behaviours.
A practical individual exercise where participants articulate their personal values as specific behavioural commitments they can apply immediately.
Values and Behaviours closes the session by translating values into action. For each value they have identified, participants write one or two specific, observable behaviours that express it. The test for each behaviour is whether a colleague could see it happening. The result is a personal values document that is genuinely useful, grounded in the specific work each person does.
Each participant leaves with a clear personal values statement: a short list of values with the concrete behaviours that express each one.
This gives each person a concrete personal values statement they can use and refer back to. Display or hand out the template, give people time to work through it individually, invite a few to share, then close with a practical instruction to take it into their working life.
Give participants ten minutes to work through the template individually. For each of their three to five values it asks: my value; what this looks like when I am living it well; what this looks like when I am not; and one thing I want to do differently as a result. The what this looks like when I am not column is the important one, because most values exercises only ask people to describe positive expression, and naming the failure mode makes the commitment more honest and more useful. Push people to be specific there, because I get defensive is more useful than I lose sight of this value.
After individual time, invite two or three participants to share one value and its associated behaviour. Keep this brief and voluntary.
Close with a practical instruction: take this document back to your working life, share it with someone you trust, and ask them whether they would recognise these behaviours in you.
Use Values and Behaviours when values are feeling abstract and you want each person to pin them to specific, observable actions. Everyone writes the concrete behaviours that show each value in practice, leaving with a personal statement a colleague could recognise.
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.
