DEVELOPMENT & VALUES
Leonard Joy
DSA November 2010
Development and Values
Messages:
• Values develop in both individuals and society.
• Values development should be our development
goal.
• Values development has significance for how we
practice.
2
Three elaborations
• Societally, values are expressed as societal norms
that can be seen to progress, or regress.
• Societal development can be measured by
progress on the path of values development.
• Values shifts can be measured.
3
What values are
• Our values are revealed in the priorities we express in
our behaviour—in the choices we make, habitually or
reflectively.
• We might hold a value but:
– it might not take priority in all situations
– we might aspire to it but have not lived into it.
• 125 values have been identified, defined, and ordered
on a values development trajectory by Hall and Tonna.
4
Values develop
• From birth we learn the benefits of
conforming to social expectations—norms—
and the costs of not conforming to them–we
become acculturated.
• As we grow older and assume new roles, new
demands are made on us and we acculturate
to these, too.
• Crises require us to adapt to new priorities.
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We are pulled forward
Thus, while we are driven forward
• by the need to confront new realities,
also, as we come into our own personhood,
we are pulled forward
• by values aspirations—externally or internally
prompted.
We aspire to be better than we are.
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Values require skills
• ~1500 skills identified—instrumental,
interpersonal, imaginal, systems skills.
• Values develop by building on competencies
as values we aspire to become lived into.
• We can distinguish foundation values, lived
values, and aspired-to values.
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Values co-evolve
Individual and societal values co-evolve.
• Society is formative for individual but individual is also
formative for society.
• Think of great teachers: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad,…; and
thinkers: Galileo, Newton, Darwin,…; and reformers who
championed against slavery, apartheid, colonialism,… for
universal franchise and human rights…
• Interactions between societies affect them both—trade, aid
and technical assistance, war, media, tourism—all have
impact on norms.
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Societal development
• As we become internally directed, we might
come to question societal norms and practice
non-compliance.
• Collective non-compliance might become
powerful enough to delegitimize those norms.
9
Values development process
• As we age—infant to adult….—new demands
are made on us requiring shifts in our
priorities. (in West: school, job, marriage…)
• We might also face crises that require us to
adapt to new realities. E.g. chronic disability.
• We might even be shaken by new ideas—an
epiphany that calls us to change our lives, to
reconform our values. E.g. GW irreversibility.
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Phases and stages
• Values cluster into four phases each with two
stages labeled as follows:
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–
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Phase I: Stage 1: Safety; Stage 2: Security
Phase II: Stage 3: Family; Stage 4: Institution
Phase III: Stage 5: Vocation; Stage 6: New Order
Phase IV: Stage 7: Wisdom; Stage 8: World Order
• The transition from Stage 4 to Stage 5 is key—from
externally to internally directed, from ‘me’ focused
to ‘we’ focused and increasingly wider sense of ‘we’.
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Values development in society
• The stages of values development in the individual are
recapitulated in society.
• They can be characterized by the style of
leadership/authority they express:
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–
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–
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Authoritarian
Paternalist
Managerial
Facilitative
Collaborative
Servant leader
Visionary
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… and in collectivities generally
• Collectivities of all sizes move through these
stages
• Support for innovation calls for understanding
the value shift—and hence skills—demands of
innovation
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Whose values?
• While a given value can be expressed
differently in different cultures the values
development path is the same for all.
• Individuals have unique values development
paths, so also do societies. “There are many
paths up the mountain.”
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What it means to be human
• Humans are unique in their capacity for values
development.
• Humans are unique in their urge to find
meaning to guide their lives.
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History as values development
History can be seen as story of values
development and regression.
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Progress as values development
Social progress can be seen as progress in
values development—societal maturation.
Values development the goal of
development practice.
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If values development our goal…
• We would need to walk our talk—model
progressive ‘we-centered’ behaviours. M&E
would monitor this.
• If we aimed to nurture societal progress we
would aim at a relationship of inclusive facilitative
collaboration that modeled progressive values
shift.
• The PNG story.
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The PNG story
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Local team
Senior department officials--stories to system map
Identified concerns
Shared with populace, tested, amended
Identified objectives
Repeat—shared with populace, tested, amended
Identified entry point, means
Collaborative programme design
…and so on for implementation and accountability
Shifted in budgetary process, roles of
ministries/departments
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Values and development practice
If values development were our goal…
• We would note the implications for both
process and content.
• We would note the difference between end
and means… [The Tamil Nadu story.]
• …and ensure that these were congruent.
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Process and ends
• We would:
• Support systems in self-reflection.
• Practice process consultation--allows
modeling of progressive values.
• Coach local teams to do the work. [PNG story]
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Content and ends
The story of chocolate.
Cadbury, Bourneville, Fry—models of successful
corporations acting for the common good:
• Good working conditions
• Time off, holidays with pay
• Child care
• Model townships—Welwyn Garden City
Find, create, other models.
They did not hire a contractor to build factory.
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Progress can be measured
• We can track progress of societal norms.
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Using values analysis
• Values analysis is key to strategizing.
• It tells next steps on development path and
the skills necessary to live new values.
• It shows what values gaps need to be filled.
• It helps in creating functional teams
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Summary recap
• Values develop in both individuals and
society.
• Values development should be our
development goal.
• Values development has significance for how
we practice.
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Sustainability requires
development
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Human survival
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