Insights
Ideas on living by your values
Research, guides and reflections on values, identity, work and wellbeing.
Why Purpose Makes Hard Things Feel Lighter
Why does identical work drain you one week and energize you the next? The research on purpose as a buffer against stress — and what our global data shows.
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Gratitude: Why It May Be the Most Important Value for Well-Being
Global data on 9,656 people, decades of research, and centuries of wisdom traditions all point to one value: gratitude. Here's the case, and how to practice it.
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The S.P.A.C.E. Method: Using Your Values When It Matters Most
Between what happens and how you respond, there’s a sliver of freedom. In that sliver lives your future. When pressure spikes—an email that stings, a meeting
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How Values Enable Antifragile Teams
Resilient teams survive disruption. Antifragile ones grow from it. Here's why shared values, not agility training, are the real engine behind it.
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Finding Fulfillment in the Age of Intelligence
As AI answers every question but one, this essay asks what fulfillment means when machines can do the work — and why your values still have to.
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What are Elon Musk's Core Values?
Elon Musk is one of the most influential figures of the 21st century, shaping industries from electric vehicles to space exploration, artificial intelligence,
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How Core Values Support Mental Health
Mental health is more than the absence of illness. It is the presence of fitness—clarity, emotional regulation, and resilience. Just as physical health requir
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What is Values-Based Leadership?
Leadership isn’t about power; it’s about responsibility. A leader assumes accountability for a group’s direction, ensuring progress while fostering trust and
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How Can Leaders Create a Culture of Innovation?
Innovation isn't a slogan on a wall. It's what leaders model daily. Here's how psychological safety, risk, and values combine to make creativity possible.
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What Are the Core Values of the United States of America?
The United States of America is a nation built on values. These values have been a compass, guiding the country through moments of triumph and challenge. But
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What Are the Core Values of China as a Nation?
China is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, and its values are deeply rooted in history, philosophy, and governance. Today, China’s values shape its pol
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How to Create a Culture of Well-Being at Work
Wellness perks don't build well-being. Here's why a real culture of well-being at work requires values-driven leadership, not apps or gym vouchers.
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Rethinking AI Ethics: Why Core Values Must Come First
Regulation can't outpace AI, but values can. A case for anchoring AI systems in human values before ethics and law even enter the room.
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The Core Values of the Clown Archetype: A Mirror to Society
Clowns are paradoxical. They make us laugh, yet some terrify us. They bumble and fall, yet they hold profound wisdom. Throughout history, clowns have played a
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Rethinking Christmas Values for Modern Times
Christmas has drifted from faith to consumerism. Here's how to reclaim it around three values that actually nourish us: connection, peace, and gratitude.
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How to Deal with Uncertainty by Using Your Values
Uncertainty isn't new — only our stories about it are louder. Here's how clarifying your values gives you a stable center when the world won't sit still.
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Don’t Set New Year’s Resolutions: Start With Values Instead
Resolutions rely on willpower and fade fast. Here's why starting from your core values gives you a steadier, more honest way to change.
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How Social Media Shapes Our Values and Beliefs
Social media has become one of the most powerful forces shaping our lives today. It influences what we believe, how we engage with the world, and the way we f
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Voting Based on Values: A Guide to Making Informed Choices
In the complex world of politics, voting based on values rather than beliefs or promises can be a more effective way to choose leaders who truly align with wh
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The Core Values of Kamala Harris: A Balanced Examination
Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, is a figure of significant influence and scrutiny. Her career, marked by various positions in public s
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The Core Values of Donald Trump: A Balanced Examination
Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, remains a polarizing figure in American politics. His core values have guided his policies and actions,
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How to Refresh Your Company Values: A Comprehensive Guide
A practical, psychology-informed guide to refreshing company values from the inside out, starting with what your people actually care about.
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How to Lead With Values in the Workplace
A practical guide to values-based leadership: how to use language, build trust, and turn core values into decisions your team can actually feel.
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From Woke to Awake: Tracing the Evolution and Future Path of Wokeness
How a term born from African American vernacular became a cultural flashpoint - and a values-based path for moving past the backlash, from woke to awake.
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Why are Core Values Important?
Values act as your internal compass. Here's the psychology behind why living in line with your core values leads to less stress and a clearer, calmer life.
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How to Select and Rank Your Top 3 Values
Leonardo da Vinci said, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of "The Little Prince," said, "Perfection is achieve
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How to Discover Your Core Values
Getting clear about your core values can and will change your life. When you are tuned into what matters, you will make clearer decisions, reduce ambiguity, a
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The Values Pyramid: A Hierarchy of Core Values
In any academic or philosophical endeavor, the crafting of models and frameworks is an exercise in simplification. The aim is to distill abstract or complex c
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How to Understand the Core Values within Your Team
Personality tools show how your team behaves. Only values reveal why. Here's how to map the values driving your team and lead with that knowledge.
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A Brief History of Human Values
Sometimes, being alive can feel lonely, daunting, alien, or beyond our control. We think we were born into this world as if we came from someplace else. But t
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"The Road to Character" by David Brooks
David Brooks contrasts resume virtues with eulogy virtues through ten lives, arguing character is built by facing your own weaknesses, not broadcasting your strengths.
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"Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts." by Brené Brown
Brené Brown's research-backed case that vulnerability, not armour, is what makes leaders effective, credible and worth following.
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What are the Core Values of Mainstream Media?
In an era saturated with information, mainstream media stands as a beacon of news and narratives that shape our understanding of the world. But what exactly d
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What are the Core Values of Jordan Peterson?
Jordan Peterson, a figure often cloaked in controversy yet undeniably influential in modern cultural discourse, stands as a beacon of complex and often polari
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Navigating the Digital Age: How Smartphones Are Redefining Our Core Values
Smartphones haven't just changed our habits — they're quietly reordering what we value. A closer look at connectivity, patience, and presence.
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A Guide to Traditional Christmas Holiday Values
As the festive lights twinkle and carols echo through shopping malls, you might wonder whether there is more to the holidays than shiny baubles, tinsel, and c
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How Values-based Micro-habits can Transform Your Life
Why starting from your values, not an identity or a goal, makes tiny habits stick — and how a two-minute daily practice can reshape your life.
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A Guide to Free Values Assessments
I've spent the better part of two decades working with values — running workshops with organizations like PwC, Shell, Electronic Arts, building the Values Ins
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What are the Core Values of Aliens Visiting Earth?
We live in a time where many of us don't even flinch when UFOs or UAPs are reported on the news. Are we really so jaded that extraterrestrials don't get us ex
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How to Embed Core Values into AI and Robotics Software
A thought experiment on giving AI a conscience: could a shared values layer, and a global values server, keep machines aligned with human ethics?
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What are the Core Values of Transhumanism?
Transhumanism is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates for the use of technology to enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological cap
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How to Discover Your Purpose Through Core Values
Finding one's purpose in life is a universal quest. A strong sense of purpose can bring meaning, fulfillment, and motivation into our lives. But where do we b
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The Core Values of 10 of History's Most Influential People
Throughout history, certain individuals have made an impact so profound that their legacies continue to shape our world. From ancient civilizations to the mod
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How to use Visualization to Support Values Alignment
Our core values guide us through life, offering purpose and direction. The journey from recognizing to living these values can be daunting. Visualization is o
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What are the Values of a Corporatocracy?
Power dynamics continue to evolve in our globalized world. As a result, the concept of corporatocracy is not just theoretical but is of real concern to many.
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The 6 Core Values of RFK Jr.: Does He Have What It Takes to be the Next US President?
A values-based look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — how childhood trauma, addiction, and activism shaped the six core values driving his politics.
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What are the Core Values of Living Organisms?
The mystery of life's origin, purpose, and meaning has intrigued minds from various disciplines, such as philosophy, religion, and science throughout the ages
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What are the Most Common Company Values Worldwide?
A tour of the values companies actually share worldwide, why employees see through fake ones, and how real organizations discover values that stick.
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Navigating Difficult Decisions: Let Your Values Guide You
Big decisions trigger the same stress response as real danger. Here's how to use your values, not fear, to find your way through uncertainty.
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A Guide to the Values of 9 World Empires
Common values that have been associated with many global empires include military strength, strong leadership, cultural or religious unity, economic prosperit
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The Unfolding of Netflix's Exceptional Company Culture
There's a moment in most organizations when someone asks a quietly devastating question: "Do we actually live our values, or do we just display them?" I've sa
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A Guide to Oura's Company Culture
Wearable technology has become a quiet force in the ongoing conversation about health and well-being. Oura, in particular, has distinguished itself—not just t
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4 surprising ways AI is transforming human values in the near and long-term
AI won't replace human judgment, it will reshape what we value. Four near-term shifts underway, and whether AI can ever really learn our values.
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Clash of cultural values: Epic expansion and merger fails
Developing and growing international operations involves a delicate balance of grasping cultural nuance and timing. As the epic expansion and merger fails pre
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When Corporate Values Backfire: 7 Examples of Value-Based Failure
Culture is driven by values and behaviours. Employee fulfilment is driven by culture. When employees feel fulfilled at their workplace, customer satisfaction
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What are military core values?
When it comes to organizations, core values are a set of beliefs that the members of the organization hold to the highest degree. Members of the organization
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The Effects of Personal and Workplace Values on Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a critical, consistently and deeply explored aspect of organizational behaviour. Aggregate research in the US has shown that dissatisfied
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Why we should value sustainability
What do core values have to do with the environment? The connection may be more intimate than it first appears. Evidence suggests that when we identify and ac
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Where do our core values come from?
There's a difference between a need, a want, and a value — and it matters more than most people realize. We need water. We want the whiskey. But what we value
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How the most successful companies live their values
Hugely successful, universally recognizable companies like Microsoft and Apple uphold teamwork, integrity, and innovation. However, these cookie-cutter values
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A guide to destructive core values
Destructive core values can quietly shape our thinking, emotions, behaviors, and relationships—often without our full awareness. When these values take hold,
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Shared values in the workplace: cultivating the right values in your team
Every company already has values, whether it names them or not. Here's how to surface yours, close the gaps, and stop them living only on a poster.
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What are the values of Artificial Intelligence?
Originally published 2023. Updated March 202 6. We Asked Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, and Gemini For many years, I’ve been fascinated by core values. Not the polish
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Stay Calm: How Values Change When You are Stressed
Ideally, we would live by our values effortlessly. They would dictate our thoughts and actions without conscious intervention on our part. When we are under p
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What are the core values of the world's richest people?
The world’s richest people are a source of inspiration for many. It’s fascinating to learn what makes them different from the moderately rich and so very diff
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The Best Values Matrix for Management
Jack Welch was one of the most successful CEOs in history. He managed to raise GE’s market value from $14 billion to $410 billion, or around 30 times! One of
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Conservative vs Progressive Values: What is the Difference?
Before we talk about conservatives and progressives, let's talk about something more fundamental: why people hold the values they do. Because beneath the poli
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How typical core values change based on age
Values have remained largely unchanged since the end of WWII. The most common values are security, safety, love, family, and financial security. There are man
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A guide to professional values
Most conversations about professional values start in the wrong place. They treat values as a list of behaviors to demonstrate — honesty, reliability, account
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Leadership styles and values based on Myers-Briggs personality type
Of all the personality frameworks that have made their way into organizations over the past few decades, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator remains one of the mo
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A guide to ESG values and how to implement them
What ESG really means, why boards can no longer treat it as optional, and a practical path for embedding environmental, social, and governance values.
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A Guide to Family Core Values
Family values are similar to personal and professional values, but they include your whole family. No matter what and how many members your family has, these
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The top 10 values training tools and programs
Our values shape our behavior, whether we realize it or not. A business or an individual that behaves in misalignment with their values will feel dissatisfied
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What is the difference between values, purpose, mission and vision?
Values, purpose, mission, and vision are four interconnected yet quite distinct concepts. The purpose of an organization is why it does what it does. The valu
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How to Run a Workplace Values Workshop
A company’s values are a critical component of its identity. Regardless of company size, establishing clear values is critical for building a unique, cohesive
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Values alignment supports high-performing teams: here's how
Why the highest-performing teams aren't the most talented ones, but the ones bound by shared values, trust, and a common purpose.
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Morals communicated in fairy tales: how accurately are they depicted?
Historically, fairy tales have been critical to children’s values and moral development. Their goal is to communicate a value. You can learn quite a few thing
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How does the media affect the values of children and adults?
The excessive brevity of news cycles of media today combined with commercial pressure by corporations has led some to bemoan a “disturbing” lack of morality i
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How to communicate values at work
Naming your values isn't the hard part. Here's how leaders actually make values visible, memorable, and lived out in day-to-day work.
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10 ways to remember and align with your values every day
Values are key to all aspects of life. They define what people achieve and how they achieve it. If you don’t live by your values, you risk being dissatisfied
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How to align a team to a common set of values
Why noun-based values fail, how to source values from your team instead of a marketing deck, and eight ways to make them lived habits, not posters.
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What are the benefits of identifying core values?
Academic studies increasingly highlight that knowing and affirming your personal values has profound psychological benefits. In clinical psychology and counse
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Quotes about Values
We've compiled a list of quotes about core values. Mahatma Gandhi's perspective “Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your word
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How Values Shape Identity
Identity is one of those words we use constantly and understand imprecisely. We say things like "that's just who I am" — as if the self were a fixed object we
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A History of Research into Core Values
In 1969; Toffler, a prominent scholar, made an interesting observation by stating that "values are so inextricably woven into our language, thought and behavi
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Examples of Core Values in Action
Examples of core values include honesty, fairness, and justice. They correspond to a central belief that we need to abide by certain principles. Once we have
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Ethics, Morals, Principles, Values, Virtues, and Beliefs. What is the difference?
There is a good amount of literature discussing ethics, morals, principles, values, virtues, and beliefs particularly in the fields of moral philosophy, organ
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What are Core Values, and Why are They Important?
Core values are subject to a value framework, which we see as a universe or network of interconnected meanings. Their aspects can change with time. Researcher
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A Guide to Values-based Decision Making
Human values provide a powerful mechanism for decision-making. When we align with our values, life seems to flow. When there is misalignment, things can start
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How to Align with Your Values
A practical guide to closing the gap between what you say you value and how you actually live, from self-discovery to daily habit change.
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4 Obstacles to Values Alignment
There are many factors that can undermine our ability to act in alignment with our core values. These include social pressure, inconvenience, fear of rejectio
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The Values of Duke Kahanamoku
Saying that we should live in alignment with our values is easy, but how do we align in everyday life, both through times of opportunity and times of challeng
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Two Comprehensive Lists of Core Values
Core values are the compass points of our lives. They inform our choices, shape our relationships and guide how we respond to challenges. Unlike goals, which
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