A VALUE HIERARCHY

Some years ago it became evident to me that asking the Well-Formed Outcome questions presupposed eliciting from the person seeking to create a really smart goal that was well- designed, you simultaneously had to elicit that person’s value hierarchy about that goal. So that’s what we did. And over the years, teaching Meta-Coaching scores and scores of times, and demonstrating it perhaps a hundred times, and supervising coaches doing it another hundred or two times, the idea of a value hierarchy crystalized in my mind. To elicit it is simple.

“Is this goal important to you?” Yes. “Okay, good, and why is it important to you?”

At that point most people say lots of words. But the skill is not in repeating all of those words, but it catching the value that’s presupposed. And often, that is not easy. Ask the value question and some people tell stories, others give an extensive background of context, others stumble for words, using synonyms and metaphors trying to identify the value. But values tend to be single words. At best they are comprised of a short phrase of two to four words. Values also tend to be coded in nominalizations: truth, unity, tranquility, relationship, contribution, success, progress, responsibility, love, health, well-being, etc. Now as nominalizations, values are pretty abstract and conceptual summaries—summaries of what we think important enough and significant enough for what we live for.

Now in the process of generating a value hierarchy, once you get a value term—hold it. Then use that term as your next reference point. “So X is important to you?” Yes. “And why is X important to you?” It’s the same question and you iterate it over and over as you go up the levels of values. Ultimately this generates a value hierarchy.

But don’t be fooled. It is harder than it sounds. Not only do many people not know their values ad/or cannot articulate them, but many people jump levels. Some jump from writing a paper or exercising to an ultimate value—leaving a legacy. When you hear that, obviously, the person skipped a whole bunch of intermediate steps. So you have to back down. “And before ‘legacy’ what is important, but a little bit less important?” Others go round and round, giving you synonyms of the same value. What they give is not the next highest level, but another word for the same value.

Here’s something else both fascinating and wonderful about value hierarchies—they are all different. Start with anything that you know is important but doesn’t feel important, and the first level values will be instrumental values. Getting a job done is important to “complete things.” But jogging three times a week isn’t important for “completing things,” it’s important to “take care of my health.” Every hierarchy for every activity and experience will differ. Well, at the lowest levels. But as you get close to the highest values, a person will tend to end up at the same places. A person’s being-values will tend to be the same regardless of where it starts.

Lower values tend to be instrumental values; higher values tend to be being values. This also means that our values are relative. They are relative to the event, object, or experience that we refer to. It means we have different values—things we consider important about different activities. That’s why asking for a person’s values or eliciting them will not generate a general set of values that transfer to every context.

There’s another elicitation process we use in Neuro-Semantics. By using the Pleasure Pattern, which is a pattern in the APG training (or Secrets of Personal Mastery), you can again elicit a person’s value hierarchy. At the primary level, a person identifies a pleasure—a sensory-based activity or experience that the person enjoys and has fun with. It could be talking a walk, watching a sunrise, eating ice cream, baking, swimming, rock climbing, playing chess, watching movies, etc. Start there and elicit all of the see–hear–feel sensations that make up the sensory pleasures. These are physical, tangible pleasures that satisfy the senses.

Now move to the meta-pleasures which are psychological, intangible and that satisfy the mind. “What is pleasurable about this pleasure?” People will say it gives them relaxation, time alone, rejuvenation, creativity, playfulness, etc. Holding that meta-pleasure in place, ask it again, “What is pleasurable about that pleasure?” The result again will be a value hierarchy for that context. And the highest values that emerge will tend to be that person’s highest values—that person’s way of being in the world.