Coaching practices for Core Values Excavation
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Core Values Excavation, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- We’ve got nice-sounding values up on the wall and the website, but they do nothing in the room when a real hiring or judgment call is on the table
- If someone asked me what I actually care about, I’m not sure I could answer honestly
- I’m not sure my stated values are real or just the ones I think I should have
- I say I value family, or health, or creativity
- If you ask me what I value I’ll say family, health, honesty, growth
Practices that may help
- Make core values operational, not decorative
Use core values in hiring, recognition, and decision-making — not just on the website.
The Rockefeller Habits: Scaling Up with Rhythm and Focus - Values Clarification, Made Practical
Values clarification is the work of naming what matters most to you, sorting the genuine priorities from the inherited ones, and using them to guide real choices. The methods — card sorts, ranking, value-consistent action — draw heavily on values work in acceptance-and-commitment therapy (ACT), which has clinical support; living in line with your values correlates with wellbeing in observational research. - Values clarification: what matters most to you?
Identify 3–5 core values — not what you should value, but what actually matters when life is stripped back.
Values-Based Action (ACT), Made Practical - Excavate your actual values from your history
Use past choices and sacrifices — not aspirations — to find what you actually value.
Life Review and Reminiscence Therapy - Values clarification through lived evidence
Infer your actual values from your past behaviour, not from what you wish you valued.
Svadhyaya: Self-Study as a Daily Practice - Values Card Sort
A values card sort is a structured exercise — originally developed in motivational interviewing — that forces you to rank competing values by choosing between them rather than claiming you hold all of them equally. The comparison process surfaces implicit priorities that self-report alone misses. Evidence for values-clarification as a lever for behavior change is observational to clinical; the specific card-sort format has good face validity but limited direct trial data. - The forced-rank sort
Write your top 20 candidate values on cards, then sort them ruthlessly until you have a ranked top five.
Values Card Sort - Review the bullseye weekly to track real movement
Re-mark each domain every week and compare — small outward or inward shifts are your feedback loop.
Values Bullseye, Made Practical - Use the eulogy / future-self lens
Imagine how you’d want to be remembered to reveal the values you’d defend most.
Values Clarification, Made Practical - Map your values across the four life domains
Write one core value statement for each domain — work, relationships, personal growth, leisure — before touching the bullseye.
Values Bullseye, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Core Values Exercise
Values clarification is the work of naming what matters most to you, sorting the genuine priorities from the inherited ones, and using them to guide real choices. The methods — card sorts, ranking, value-consistent action — draw heavily on values work in acceptance-and-commitment therapy (ACT), which has clinical support; living in line with your values correlates with wellbeing in observational research.
- Core Values Operational
Use core values in hiring, recognition, and decision-making — not just on the website.
Make core values operational, not decorative
- Define Your Values
Imagine how you’d want to be remembered to reveal the values you’d defend most.
Use the eulogy / future-self lens
- Healthy Expression Of Values
Every vMEME has a healthy and a pathological form — know which you’re expressing.
Distinguish healthy from unhealthy expressions of each level
- How Can I Find What My Personal Values Are
Identify 3–5 core values — not what you should value, but what actually matters when life is stripped back.
Values clarification: what matters most to you?
- How Do I Figure Out My Values
Values clarification is the work of naming what matters most to you, sorting the genuine priorities from the inherited ones, and using them to guide real choices. The methods — card sorts, ranking, value-consistent action — draw heavily on values work in acceptance-and-commitment therapy (ACT), which has clinical support; living in line with your values correlates with wellbeing in observational research.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.