Values onboarding aligns employees around a set of organisational values and expectations, says contributor Greta Bradman. Left to their own devices, individuals may apply their own evaluative landscape to what they should be.
I recently introduced you to threat-based values. I mentioned that many people talk about values but what are they, really? Achievement, Beauty, Contribution, Family, Love, Being a Good Human, Work Ethic, Wealth.. As values are so deeply personal, there is an almost infinite array of them at the individual level.
Say you and I both value Family – it’s likely there will be similarities between our interpretations of this value – but it’s just as likely there will be differences, too. This is because your values (and mine, for that matter) bring together your beliefs from past experiences, with your current needs, and your future goals and aspirations.
With that in mind, it makes sense that our respective interpretations of a value like ‘Family’ will differ.
“Understanding your values empowers you to make more intentional choices—ones that move you forward.”
Greta Bradman
Say Steve and Sarah both hold the value ‘Family’ as extremely important. For Sarah, ‘Family’ is associated with close relationships with siblings and other family members, regular catch-ups, living in close proximity of one another, and maintaining regular contact. For Steve,‘Family’ means maintaining the connection with a close-knit group of long-term friends who he considers family, even if they don’t regularly see each other in person.
Neither Sarah nor Steve are ‘wrong’ in their interpretation, but their values and actions toward Family might not be in alignment.
What about when multiple people are meant to prioritise the same values in some context? That is, they’re meant to understand what a certain value looks like in action, and adhere to that as best they can. This is, in essence, the ask when it comes to organisational values.
Yet, left to their own devices, individuals are likely to apply their own evaluative landscape to their organisational values. This is why values onboarding and regular tending to ‘values-in-action’ at work is so important.
It is a way of aligning a large number of people, who have individually distinct values profiles of their own, around a set of organisational values and expectations around how they show up in action.
Aligning actions and values
When you align your actions with your values, or you witness someone else aligning their actions with your values, you may feel joy or satisfaction. When you witness misalignment in yourself or others between what is being done and your most important values, this can trigger negative emotions – anywhere from mild annoyance to outrage or disgust.
This may be conscious or subconscious – your values affect your experience whether you consciously know them or not.
As for how to know your values, it’s a process of elimination – revealing what is left behind after discarding the values that aren’t in your prioritised Top 5. Doing this work to find the values that fit you, can lead to eudaimonic (longer-term, deeper) happiness and fulfilment.
Values identification is an iterative and ongoing process because as your needs and goals evolve with your life stage and priorities, so too will the values you identify as most important.
With this in mind, the next time you think of someone as a values fraud because their actions don’t align with the values they claim to hold, consider this. More often than not, what I’ve found is that this gap between what a person is doing and what they purport to value represents suffering rather than disingenuity.
That is, when you act way out of alignment with what matters to you, it elicits negative emotions and suffering over time, as a gap appears between the version of yourself you seek to grow into, and the person you see in the mirror.
Values work goes further than simple values identification; it can get into exploring needs associated with actions that conflict with some core values, where those same actions might be fulfilling another value. Then comes the tough, intentional work of determining quite consciously what you seek to prioritise.
Sometimes, the discomfort of conflict between two values is inevitable. But at other times, we can find ourselves acting out patterns that serve neither our values nor ourselves. In this scenario, tools like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help.
To recap, when you act out of alignment with your core values, even when you don’t know what those core values are, you can feel miserable. The larger the gap between what you value and how you act, the greater your suffering.
This disconnect between a person’s values and actions can drive a growing sense of “I should be happy, but I’m not”. Oftentimes, values alignment doesn’t necessitate a complete life overhaul. Instead, try making more intentional choices when it comes to small moments; for example, where we focus our attention, how we show up with others, and what we prioritise.
Whether you’re an individual or are focusing on values refinement for an organisation, understanding your values empowers you to make more intentional choices—ones that move you forward, even in light of today’s pressures and challenges.
My message is that in your quest to go after what matters to you, it is worth identifying your values – whether it be to support your growth or help alleviate your suffering.
Greta is a psychologist and AI researcher who heads up People Science AI at Culture Amp. She is author of What Matters to You: How Your Values are the Key to Transforming Your Life and Work (ABC Books & Harper Collins, available 19 March, 2025).
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