Playing about with Value Theory

Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why, and to what degree people should or do value things, whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else.

The Stamford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy describes it as follows:

The term “value theory” is used in at least three different ways in philosophy. In its broadest sense, “value theory” is a catch-all label used to encompass all branches of moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and sometimes feminist philosophy and the philosophy of religion. ...But in a more useful sense, “value theory” designates the area of moral philosophy that is concerned with theoretical questions about value and goodness of all varieties — the theory of value.

We refer to values often in training – corporate values, leadership values, and individual values. But what do they mean, how do they vary from individual and how do you approach the sometimes sensitive issue of personal values in a business context? Well, when I saw ‘Life Lines’ by Chilli Training, I realised how effective using values as the ‘leverage’ in training could be.
Each player journeys across a game board, visiting their personal set of pre-selected values. When a player lands on a value, they must explain their choice of value to the other players before moving on – a communication and ‘sharing’ opportunity in a safe context.

However, just as in life, tasks are never simple when external factors come in to play. Re-routing, discussions, dilemmas and other issues are all interspersed before the game concludes. Then, the team as a whole must prove that they can apply the learning to the workplace by carrying out a number of selected activities. The facilitator has the option to choose which activity they want to gain a specifically focused outcome, whether it is change, communication, conflict, creativity, diversity, leadership or project management.

Though there is a competitive element, the key to the success of the game, in my opinion, is that it gets the participants to talk and share their feelings and thoughts on values – from cascaded corporate values to their own most personal, and perhaps unrecognised, values.

A good facilitator will know what ‘turns on’ their learners – no doubt they will have a mix of preferred learning styles in their group, but using accelerated learning techniques such as board games, music and art – keeping the training interactive – has been proven to increase learning retention.

I really liked this game, and the way it literally plays with value theories. A great tool for trainers and facilitators. I'd like to learn more about value theory too, but I will need my dictionary to hand I think!

Further information:

Life Lines Training Game: http://www.completetrainer.co.uk/Training_Games/Life_Lines
International Alliance for Learning: www.ialearn.org/research.php
Institute for Accelerated Learning: www.mindbodyheart.com/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-theory/