The Campbell Academy Business Blog

The Value of Values and getting them right

On the road to setting your vision for your business, organisation, football team, charity, life, or whatever it is you want, I think the most important thing you can understand is that it has to align with your values.

Imagine you had to go to work every day to work for a company that you just didn't believe in; imagine that you have to go and work for a boss that you didn't like, who you just couldn't fight for, whose values and authority you simply didn't understand nor feel you were aligned to in any way.

That's what it's like to set up a business without direction and value, and that's what it's like to ask someone to work for a direction with no vision.

And so, the best way that I have discovered to set your values going forward is what I call the Professor John Gibson timeline.

To create your timeline, you simply need a sheet of blank A4 paper, turn it from portrait to landscape, draw a line from the bottom left corner straight to the top right corner, return to the bottom left corner and write the year you were born, return to the top right corner and write the year it is now.

Draw a line down the middle of the paper from top to bottom to dissect the diagonal line. Then, start to draw small vertical lines approximately at the timelines when significant things happen in your life.

That might be starting school or graduating from university, having a child, getting married, going on a special holiday, buying your first car, getting engaged, getting a Rolex, or the death of a friend, or any number of things that have impacted you emotionally, things that have made you happy, things that have made you sad.

Once you've done this for a while, then stop, go for a walk, put the bit of paper away, have a coffee, go out for the evening, and come back to it a little bit later.

When you come back a little while later, try again and once you feel you've finished, then take all the things that you've written on your timeline and classify them into behaviours or values of things that you hold dear.

Maybe they're commercial or monetary; maybe they're valuable in monetary terms, such as diamonds, gold, or jewellery. Maybe they're their experiences, maybe time with friends or family. Maybe they're related to love, perhaps they're related to loyalty, or maybe they're related to respect.

Look at the difficult times you've written, how did you get out of them?

What did you need to do to get out of them?

What are the things that feed your soul?

Once you realise what they are, you can start to dial this into the setting of your vision.

Only when you've done this, would you be able to write something on the wall which will take you past the end point; something which is bigger than you, something which people can flock to and fight for and strive for and share with you along the way.

I would suggest that the timeline is the perfect way to begin the process of setting your own personal values (You'll set your business values later), but they give you the chance now to start to explore the infinite game of your vision and the point of being here for your organisation.