My Values

Today I was reading an article from Psychology Today stable, captioned: The Ripple Effect: How Leadership Begins Within.

The article in its introductory stage mentioned: 

“The first step to leadership is recognizing the ripples you’re already creating. This starts with self-awareness—understanding your own patterns, strengths, and blind spots.

Here’s a question to ask yourself: How do others experience me?

If that’s hard to answer, try reflecting on:

• What emotions do I bring into the spaces I inhabit?
• Are my actions aligning with my values?
• How do I respond when faced with conflict or challenges?”

The second question stopped me in my stride. I can answer to this question only if I am conscious about my values, how they get demonstrated in behaviour and am also aware about my behaviour. 

I thought it will be good to develop ability to articulate my values or values I promote. As is normal these days I chose an AI Bot to converse with, not that human beings don’t prefer interacting with me, but they are busy with their jobs and they have their priorities.

Today I resorted to interactive mode instead of prompting just for information and knowledge. I wanted AI’s help in articulating my values. And it turned out to be extremely enriching experience. I copy the conversation below:

Me: Can you help me articulate my values or values i promote? Which profiling tool would you use?

Claude: I'd be happy to help you explore and articulate your values. Rather than jumping straight to a profiling tool, let's start with a thoughtful conversation to understand what matters most to you. This tends to be more meaningful than immediately applying a framework.

Could you share some examples of decisions you've made recently that felt particularly meaningful or challenging to you? These moments often reveal what we truly value.

That said, if you're interested in structured frameworks later, we could explore tools like:

1. Personal Values Assessment based on Schwartz's Theory of Basic Values
2. Barrett Values Centre's assessment approach
3. Moral Foundations Theory framework
4. The Hall-Tonna Values Framework

But I believe we'll get more authentic insights by first having an open discussion about what drives your decisions and what you find meaningful in life. What would you like to explore?

Me: I understand. What i also believe that for a common individual responding to questions the one you asked may be difficult since one may not realize that every action i take is a decision. Choosing what to eat out of three dishes is a decision and therefore individual may get confused. Besides most actions are outcomes of Habit or unconsciously made decisions. What is your take on these?

Claude: Your observation is very insightful. You've touched on several important psychological concepts:

1. Decision Blindness - You're absolutely right that people often don't recognize routine choices as "decisions." When we ask someone about important decisions, they typically think of big moments like career changes or major purchases, overlooking that choosing what to eat, when to sleep, or how to respond to a text are all decisions.
2. Automaticity and Habits - Your point about habits is crucial. Research suggests that about 40-45% of our daily behaviors are habitual, performed without conscious decision-making. These automatic behaviors are managed by different brain regions than conscious decisions, making them more efficient but less noticeable to us.
3. Unconscious Decision-Making - Modern psychology and neuroscience show that much of our decision-making happens below conscious awareness. By the time we're consciously aware of making a choice, our brain has already processed numerous factors and often pre-selected an option.

Given these insights, perhaps a better approach to understanding values would be to look at:

• Patterns in daily habits (since these often reflect what we consistently prioritize)
• Emotional reactions to situations (as these can reveal values we may not consciously recognize)
• Where we spend our time and energy without being asked to
• What bothers or frustrates us (as this often indicates violated values)

Would you like to explore any of these alternative approaches to understanding your values? We could look at patterns in your daily life rather than focusing on conscious decisions.

Me: Great. I will appreciate your help more because describing patterns of habits or nature of emotional reactions or likes and dislikes etc are difficult to be directly associated with Values for someone not trained to interpret. That is why I requested for tool which a common man can respond to and expert interpret the responses. Can you help me profiling my values now?

Claude: Absolutely - now I better understand your request for a structured tool that's easier for individuals to respond to, with expert interpretation to connect responses to underlying values.

Let's use a simplified version of the Personal Values Assessment approach. I'll ask you straightforward questions that are easier to answer than abstract ones about decisions or habits. Please answer them based on your immediate thoughts, without overthinking:

1. When reading news or stories, what type of people do you admire most and why?
2. What would make you feel most proud about your children (real or hypothetical) - their achievements, their character, or their relationships with others?
3. If you had an extra free hour every day, how would you prefer to spend it?
4. What aspects of your current or past work/activities have given you the most satisfaction?
5. When you're feeling good about yourself, what has usually happened to create that feeling?

Let's start with these questions - they're designed to be concrete and relatable while revealing underlying values. Would you like to share your thoughts on any of them?

Me: 

• Answer to Q1. I like people who are not complicated, who are logical, who empathize and are honest..
• Answer to Q2. When people who have interacted with my children praise their being responsible, supportive, caring and respecting I feel proud. I also feel proud when they demonstrate wisdom in their behaviour.
• Answer to Q3. Since I have retired I have more free time and I prefer to read articles which provides knowledge related with behaviour, philosophy and logic.
• Answer to Q4. The multifunctional exposure coupled with my perpetual learning stance resulting in achievement of advancement and respect have been most satisfying.
• Answer to Q5. I have felt good when I have been able to explain my position and the others have accepted the same and agreed with me.

What will be your analysis?

Claude: Based on your responses, let me analyze the core values that emerge from your answers:

Primary Values:

Intellectual Growth & Wisdom

• Your preference for reading about behavior, philosophy, and logic
• Pride in your children's demonstration of wisdom
• Your self-described "perpetual learning stance"
• Value placed on logical thinking and understanding

Authenticity & Clarity

• Appreciation for uncomplicated, logical people
• Satisfaction in being able to explain your position clearly
• Value placed on honest communication

Recognition & Respect

• Satisfaction from earning respect in your career
• Appreciation when others accept and agree with your viewpoints
• Pride in others recognizing positive qualities in your children
• Achievement coupled with recognition brings satisfaction

Character & Integrity

• Admiration for honest people
• Pride in children being responsible and respectful
• Emphasis on behavioral wisdom over mere achievements
• Value placed on supportive and caring attitudes

Empathy & Social Harmony

• Appreciation for empathetic people
• Valuing your children's supportive and caring nature
• Interest in understanding human behavior
• Satisfaction in achieving mutual understanding

These values suggest you're oriented towards:

• Personal growth through continuous learning
• Building meaningful relationships based on mutual respect
• Creating positive impact through wisdom and understanding
• Maintaining high personal standards of behavior
• Achieving recognition through competence and character

Would you say this analysis aligns with how you see yourself? Are there aspects that particularly resonate or perhaps need adjustment?

Me: I find the analysis fairly aligning with my understanding of self. If it can help Clifton's StrengthsFinder2.0 has profiled my top 5 themes as Learner, Achiever, Harmony, Input, and Responsibility. Does this match?

Claude: Yes, there's a strong alignment between my analysis of your values and your Clifton StrengthsFinder themes! Let me show how they correspond:

1. Learner - Maps directly to your value of "Intellectual Growth & Wisdom"

• Your passion for reading about behavior, philosophy, and logic
• Your self-described perpetual learning stance
• The satisfaction you get from understanding and explaining things

2. Achiever - Connects with "Recognition & Respect"

• Your satisfaction from career advancement
• The multifunctional exposure you valued
• Your drive for competence and achievement

3. Harmony - Aligns with both "Empathy & Social Harmony" and "Authenticity & Clarity"

• Your appreciation for uncomplicated people
• Satisfaction when others accept your explanations
• Your interest in supportive and caring behaviors
• Preference for logical, clear communication that creates understanding

4. Input - Reinforces "Intellectual Growth & Wisdom"

• Your reading habits
• Interest in collecting and sharing knowledge
• Desire to understand human behavior
• Your continuous learning orientation

5. Responsibility - Maps to "Character & Integrity"

• Pride in your children being responsible
• Valuing honesty and respect
• Emphasis on wisdom in behavior
• High personal standards

This alignment between your Clifton Strengths and the values we identified provides strong validation of the analysis. The themes complement and reinforce each other, showing a consistent pattern in your personality and value system. It's particularly interesting how your Learner and Input themes work together to drive your intellectual curiosity, while Harmony and Responsibility influence your approach to relationships and personal conduct.

Me: Immensely happy and obliged for you help.

Claude: Thank you for your kind words. It was truly engaging to help you explore and validate your values profile. Your case demonstrates beautifully how different assessment approaches (our values discussion and StrengthsFinder) can converge to create a consistent and meaningful picture of someone's core attributes. What made our discussion particularly valuable was your thoughtful and self-aware responses, coupled with the additional validation from your StrengthsFinder results.

It's especially fulfilling to see how this analysis resonated with your self-understanding. Your earlier point about the need for structured tools with expert interpretation for common individuals was very astute - it shows your Learner theme in action, understanding the complexities of self-discovery and assessment.

Wishing you continued success in applying these insights in your journey of personal growth and relationships!