Hey @James Frost ! I always like to think about company values as very tangibly connected to real-life business and individual behavior and actions. It's easy to workshop some lofty values that feel good and wholesome in the moment, but they usually don't have a lot of lasting power outside of the workshop constraints. Employees get jaded very quickly if leadership announces values that aren't lived, and don't really give anyone guidance on how to act when it's becoming difficult to make a decisions. This is really what the values should be able to help with. This is why I would always connect the thinking on values on how they are translated into reality. I would also think about values as existing on a spectrum, of which both ends are "value-neutral" (there is no "bad" value, there are only "real" and "fake" values, and you always want the values to be genuine, not fake). For example, a company that is very concerned about IP probably doesn't have "open" as a value. On a spectrum, they are likely more towards the "closed" end, and that is fine. I could imagine creating a few of these spectrums could provide a useful frame to discuss these. I would also think about ending the workshop in a way that identifies how these values would translate into the reality of the buiness: - What is it we are doing we should continue, or do more of? - What is something we aren't doing yet, that we should start doing? - And what are the things we should stop doing, because it doesn't align with our values? This is really where the rubber hits the road, because it's uncomfortable. That could be a good way to close the loop. So just as an idea to start you off, I'd spend some time in the beginning on doing a short retro on how things are going now, what has happened the past 12 months (highlights and low points), then work on the spectrums (where do participants think the business falls now on the spectrum, and where do they think it should be?), then align and keep going back to the work done at the beginning, thinking about how that scenario might have played out with the new value in place.

It was really fun! Thanks to everyone who showed up and the excellent questions! If we didn't get to yours, join the next call and get it in early so we can address it next time 🙂

👀

@Jennie Shiu I still feel like that every time when starting a workshop. I don‘t consider being slightly uncomfortable a bad thing, necessarily. I wouldn‘t look at your nervousness as something negative, or something that‘s a stigma. In a way, it‘s really a good thing. You are in a heightened state of attention because you are in a new situation and want to do a good job. Something that has had a huge impact on how I perceive these situations is if I had the chance to talk to all participants ahead of the workshop (even briefly). It‘s so much easier to facilitate participants you had a chance to talk to before. And again, I would really lean into your nervousness rather than considering it something unpleasant.

@Nils Krüger I don‘t think this is a weird or a conflict of interest at all. It‘s fine to use facilitation when diagnosing client needs. We do this in our role as consultants all the time. And in that role, we aren‘t neutral either. It‘s fine to have a viewpoint and to be opinionated, as long as you are open and transparent about it, and don‘t override client decisions. That, of course, is a no go. But our consulting clients work with us specifically because of our experience in product strategy and design, and facilitation is a means to make that process more efficient and collaborative.