The Values Gap

The short Values Modes questionnaire on our website has been used by an audience made up primarily of public and voluntary sector professionals.  In the diagram on the right hand side, we can see that the vast majority of these are Pioneers.

This split emphasises a trend that we have found in a lot of our work across the country – a large proportion of senior officers, particularly within the public sector, share the same values.

Why does this matter?

This is a positive in that Pioneers tend to be optimistic about the hope for change and share a motivation to improve society as a whole.  However, if 60% of the population do not share these values, and are not motivated by the same things, this can often lead to a values clash.  If we don’t share, or at least understand other peoples’ values, how can we successfully communicate with them or influence their behaviour?

Common examples of values clash:

Big ideas vs specific issues

Pioneers want to communicate about issues such as economic regeneration, whilst Settlers might want to talk about graffiti or broken glass.

Big community vs little community

Pioneers want to talk about City/region-wide improvements.  Settlers, with a more localised sense of community, just feel like this demonstrates ‘other areas get everything’.

Optimism vs pessimism

Pioneers tend to believe things can improve in an area while Settlers just think that this optimism demonstrates just how little they 'get them' and their reality.

Modernisation vs ‘staying the same'

Whereas Pioneers may see change as a positive, many people see the past, and everything that came with it, as a ‘better’ time.

Last Updated on Saturday, 05 February 2011 23:38

Pioneer

Are you coming out as a ‘Pioneer’? When public sector organisations don’t share the same values as their residents, it can be difficult to communicate effectively or influence behaviour...[more]