Core Values and Noble Cause Discovery Process
A tribal method for uncovering the shared values that align a group and the noble cause that give...
This framework provides two complementary methods for discovering shared values and a process for identifying the tribe's noble cause. The first values method is storytelling: ask tribe members to share stories of pivotal moments in their careers, then listen for the values embedded in those stories. The second method uses the Big Four Questions: (1) What's working well? (2) What's not working well? (3) What can we do to make things that are not working, work? (4) Is there anything else? Values emerge as patterns across many individuals' answers. The noble cause is discovered through a follow-up process of asking 'In service of what?' repeatedly until the tribe arrives at something that makes their work feel vital, not just important. A noble cause is aspirational (never fully achieved), values-based, and requires the tribe (no individual can accomplish it alone). The framework distinguishes between alignment (everyone pointed in the same direction) and agreement (everyone thinking the same thing), arguing that values create alignment while agreement is neither necessary nor desirable. It also warns against 'rogue tribes' that use non-core values (values that do not apply to everyone) to create dangerous insularity.
- Values cannot be imposed from above; they must be discovered through the tribe's own stories and experiences
- Values create alignment (same direction) not agreement (same intellectual understanding); alignment is far more powerful because it accommodates diversity
- A noble cause is something the tribe would work toward even if it could never be fully achieved; it is the direction, not the destination
- Core values are universal: they apply to everyone, everywhere, at all times. Non-core values that apply only to an in-group create rogue tribes
- The question 'What are you proud of?' followed by 'What values does that reflect?' is the fastest path to authentic values discovery
- Shared values are the fuel for extraordinary long-term performance; they produce the kind of motivation that had dot-com employees working twenty-hour days on Twinkies and power naps
- Values are tested under difficulty; a value that is abandoned when things get hard was never truly a value
- Create the Storytelling SpaceCreate the Storytelling Space
- Ask the Pride QuestionsAsk the Pride Questions
- Validate Through the Big Four QuestionsValidate Through the Big Four Questions
- Discover the Noble CauseDiscover the Noble Cause
- Test for Core vs. Non-Core ValuesTest for Core vs. Non-Core Values
- Embed Values in Daily PracticeEmbed Values in Daily Practice
Amgen needed to articulate the values that had made it successful so they could scale the culture as the company grew rapidly.
NASCAR under Brian France needed to align a sprawling sports organization around a shared identity.
The values discovery process emerged from extensive interviews across organizations. Gordon Binder, CEO of Amgen, provided a key example: Amgen identified eight core values through systematic inquiry across the company, then used those values to guide every hiring, promotion, and strategic decision. The researchers found that organizations like IDEO, Gallup, and Griffin Hospital had all independently developed similar values discovery processes. The Big Four Questions were refined through recorded interviews with over 1,000 people, using Kenneth Burke's cluster analysis method to identify which words appeared together. The 'in service of what?' technique for finding noble cause came from observing how effective tribal leaders helped their groups articulate purpose beyond profit.