Leading Through Shared Values at PSHRA25

David Allison, founder of the Valuegraphics Project and two-time best-selling author, began his opening keynote address at PSHRA25 by sharing a secret with the 500-plus public sector HR leaders on hand.

“Every problem at work is, at its base, a people problem,” Allison told the audience gathered in the Hilton Cleveland Downtown’s Superior Ballroom. “We’re all just trying to convince people to do what we want them to do.”

Trying to figure out what motivates employees to perform a given task starts with determining what they value, what matters most to them, he said.

“Our values drive everything we do, everything we are and everything we will become,” said Allison, whose most recent books are Death of Demographics: Valuegraphic Marketing for a Values-Driven World and We Are All the Same Age Now: Demographics, The End of Demographic Stereotypes.

“Show people how doing the things you want them to do will help them [achieve] the things that matter most to them.”

Allison describes the Valuegraphics Project as the world’s first global inventory of core human values, 56 of which “drive everything we do,” he said.

Family, morality, wealth, generosity, equality, courage, leisure and love are just a handful of the valuegraphics that help determine what has influenced individuals to do something in the past and are likely to do again.

Allison’s organization has studied public sector employees, comparing what these workers value to the general U.S. population.

Family ranks high for many public sector workers, Allison said, asking the audience to take part in an exercise designed to get at what might incentivize groups that prioritize family.

For example, a group of employees is asked to complete a project with an especially ambitious deadline.

“This is going to require a lot of time and a lot of work,” he said. “But it has to be done. How do you convince this group that prioritizes family to get it done?”

Some suggested allowing the employees involved on the project to work from home for its duration, to give them more time near family members. Others recommended offering extra paid time off to the team, along with an honorarium that these employees could put toward a fun activity with their families.

The Valuegraphics Project has also identified financial security as a key value for many public sector employees, Allison said, noting that financial literacy courses could be one way to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to helping employees get where they want to go, financially speaking.

“Show employees you care about their financial security. Employees know that you might not have control over raises or whether they have a job tomorrow,” Allison said.

“But if you show them you care about their financial security by offering the training that can help them achieve stability in their finances, that’s a powerful way to send the signal that you and the organization care about this value that’s very important to them.”