A Tale of Two Stories

Introduction*  

Everyone has their own personal values and sense of purpose. In your lives thus far, you have likely encountered in school, your community, family, or workplace, situations when your values conflicted with what you were asked to do. Often when your personal values and sense of purpose conflict with others - for example those in positions of authority or even peers - it is difficult to speak up and act on your values. This exercise is designed to help you begin to develop the skills necessary to handle values conflicts in ways that do not compromise your own values and sense of purpose. 

Objectives 

1. To reflect on previous experiences where you successfully and unsuccessfully voiced your values in school, your community, family, or workplace. 

2. To identify personal and external factors which empower you to effectively voice and act on your values (enablers), and recognize those that may inhibit action (disablers). 

Instructions

PART I: Recall a time in your life when your values conflicted with what you were expected to do and you DID speak up and acted to resolve the conflict. For ideas, think back to situations at school, in your community, within your family, or in the workplace. [See NOTE below.] 

Grab a piece of paper and answer the following questions (yes, in handwriting!):

1. What happened? (provide a brief overview of what happened)
2. What specific actions did you take and what was the impact? 
   
3. What motivated you so speak up and act?
4. How satisfied are you? How would you like to have responded? 
5. What made it easier for you to speak or act? And what made it more difficult? Address things within and beyond your own control. 

PART II: Recall a time in your life when your values conflicted with what you were expected to do and you did NOT speak up or act to resolve the conflict. Again, think back to situations at school, in your community, within your family, or in the workplace. 

Grab a second piece of paper and answer the following questions (yes, in handwriting!):

1. What happened? (provide a brief overview of what happened)
2. What didn't you speak up? 
   
3. What would have motivated you to do so?
4. How satisfied are you? How would you like to have responded? 
5. What would have made it easier for you to speak or act? And what made it difficult? Address things within and beyond your own control. 

After completing the assignment bring your Tale of Two Stories to the workshop.

NOTE: A values conflict refers to a disagreement that has an ethical dimension to it. For example, you might disagree with a classmate on ideas for promoting a school sponsored event, but there is not an ethical component to the decision. On the other hand, if your idea proposes to spend money that you were given to market the event ethically, and your classmate’s idea proposes an unethical use of the money, then the disagreement would be appropriate to this assignment. Avoid examples of clear criminality.

* This material is authored by Mary C. Gentile, Professor of Practice and is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum . The Yale School of Management was the founding partner, along with the Aspen Institute, which also served as the incubator for GVV. From 2009 to 2015, GVV was hosted and supported by Babson College. Darden Business Publishing is pleased to present this material in its original form.