What do you truly value, and how do you know?
We are often told to live by our values, lead with our values, and make decisions that align with our values. But this advice skips over a surprisingly difficult question: How do we discover what we actually value in the first place?
Invaluable: Achieving Clarity on Value takes that question seriously.
Drawing on decision science, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, poetry, and stories from everyday life, Invaluableexplores how we can achieve greater clarity about what truly matters to us, and use that understanding when making difficult decisions.
Three perspectives on what you value
The book explores three very different places from which our values emerge.
Heart reveals values through emotion. What moves us, disturbs us, delights us, or evokes a powerful response can tell us something about what matters.
Habit reveals values through action. What we repeatedly choose to do can reveal values that we may not consciously recognize.
Head allows us to reason about value: to examine what we think we ought to value and why.
What we feel, what we do, and what we think we ought to value provide three distinct perspectives on what matters. Invaluable brings these perspectives together in a framework called the Three Goddess Braid, helping us inquire more deeply into our values rather than simply choosing them from a list.
From clarifying your values to making better decisions
Why does clarity about values matter?
Decision-making usually focuses on alternatives: What should I do? Which option should I choose?
But before asking what to do, there is a more fundamental question: What matters?
The ideas behind Invaluable grew out of Somik Raha’s doctoral research in Decision Analysis at Stanford University, where his dissertation explored the problem of achieving clarity on value before attempting to achieve clarity of action.
The journey culminates in the Values Blueprint, a way to map your values and explore the relationships among them. Rather than beginning with a list of attractive “core values,” the process helps you inquire into the values already present in your life.
The result is not a formula that makes difficult decisions for you. It is a way of seeing more clearly what is at stake.
What might you discover?
Invaluable is for anyone curious about questions such as:
- What are my core values?
- Why do some decisions feel so difficult?
- How can I make choices that are genuinely aligned with what matters to me?
- What makes work meaningful?
- How should values shape leadership, organizations, and the purpose of business?
This is not a book that tells you what your values should be. It offers something more useful: a way to discover them for yourself.
Are you ready for a counter-culture voyage? Wait, be warned, the journey is dangerous.
