Here’s an exercise for participants to explore what their most important values are. It’s done in an fun and rapid way to encourage participants to follow their intuitive feeling rather than over-thinking and finding the “correct” values. It is a good exercise to use to initiate reflection and dialogue around personal values.

Instructions

1. Hand out post-its to all participants.

2. Ask them to write down the ten things in their life that they value the most, one on each post-it, in the form of a value. In other words, rather than the name of a specific person, put down, for example, “friendship,” “family” or “honesty” – something they actually value in the relationship with that person.

3. When everyone has their ten post-its, ask the participants to spread them out in front of them so that they can see them clearly and have a good overview.

4. Tell the participants that they now have 30 seconds to pick the three post-its that are the least important to them, and throw them away. Be hard on the timings and don’t give them more time even if it’s needed; they are to use their gut feelings.

5. Repeat the last step, now giving them 20 seconds to throw away two more.

6. Finally, repeat the last step, giving them 20 seconds to throw away two more; they should now have three post-its left with their three most important values.

Give the participants 15 minutes to reflect individually, then 30 minutes to in pairs or groups of three to reflect on the following questions –

• What do I feel about the values I ended up with? Were they expected or did they surprise me?

• How do these values show themselves in my everyday life?

• What actions do I already take to live by them?

• What actions would I like to take to live by them?

• These actions can be connected back to an action plan, using everyday actions to live and work more holistically.