Fast Friends at Scale: The Secret to Engagement, Influence, and a Better Way to Think About People
Let’s start with a moment that landed somewhere between science and magic.
We asked a room full of pension and benefits professionals to raise their hands if they wear fitness trackers. The hands shot up like someone had just offered free chocolate. Now take a second and picture that crowd. On the outside? A wonderfully diverse tapestry of age, gender, ethnicity, job roles, and personalities. On the inside? They all shared the value of Personal Growth.
That’s the whole point of what I’m about to share. That there is a better way to understand people.
Values are how humans make decisions. Not just the big, dramatic decisions, but the tiny, blink-and-you-miss-it ones too. What to say. Where to sit. Whether or not to trust you. When you know what someone values, you know WHAT MATTERS MOST to them, and how they decide what to do. And once you know that, you can engage, influence, and inspire them in ways that feel like a no-brainer.
The Three Power Values We Found
This keynote was for a group of professionals who manage or represent employees in large-scale pension and benefits programs across Canada. We used our global database to profile the people they look after in their roles. We found three values that towered above the rest: Financial Security, Personal Responsibility, and Positive Environments. Here’s what each one means for the people they need to inspire, and how they might use that insight.
1. Financial Security
Not about buying yachts or maxing out RRSPs. For this audience, it means long-term stability. They want to know that the future isn’t going to pull the rug out from under them. So if pension and benefit professionals want to engage these folks, they should show them stability. Stories might be a powerful way to do that. Introduce them to “Judy the retired employee who now fosters rescue dogs and travels with her grandkids, thanks to her pension plan.” Frame your programs as Peace of Mind Plans. Because that’s what pension and benefit plan members are truly buying into.
2. Personal Responsibility
This one’s all about that feeling you get when you tick something off your list. Satisfaction through action. These are the folks who believe life is more stable when they’re in control. So instead of handing them a locked-down benefits plan, give them three choices. Maybe five. Enough to feel agency but not too many to cause paralysis. It’s about feeling involved, respected, and responsible.
Someone in the room came up with a brilliant variation: what if plan members could adjust contributions throughout different life stages? Shift between pension and emergency savings depending on what’s going on in their world. That’s values thinking in action.
3. Positive Environments
Pension and benefit plan members thrive when they’re surrounded by good vibes. They will do anything that gives them more genuine positivity, inclusion, and energy. One team started a program where every office received a rubber ducky to take on adventures, post photos, and spark joy. Another shared success stories from members who were living their best lives in retirement. These moments, small as they may seem, are incredibly sticky. They build trust, foster connection, and reinforce alignment with what matters.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
We live in a world increasingly divided by labels. Age. Ethnicity. Gender. Job title. But when you strip those away and look at what people value, you start to see something beautiful. Across the 9 billion people on this planet, we’ve found only 56 core values that shape everything we do. That’s fewer than the number of keys on a piano. Turns out, it’s easier to learn what drives people than it is to learn how to play Happy Birthday.
When you use core human values to understand your audience, everything changes. Programs make more sense. Communication lands better. Engagement soars. It feels easy for them. Like something they don’t even have to think about. Because it aligns with their values.
From Labels to Loyalty
So let’s stop relying on outdated labels that tell us what people are, but nothing about who they are. We’ve all been told that data is the new oil. But if it’s historical data — psychographics based on what people did in the past — then we’re just driving forward while staring in the rearview mirror. Or worse, if it’s nothing but stereotypes based on demographics, then it’s not even worth considering.
Values give us forward-looking insight. They tell us how people will behave. When we build our strategies, messages, and plans around the values of the people we want to reach, we give them a clear, joyful path to say yes. We help them feel seen, respected, and understood.
So here’s the mindset shift I want to leave you with: values are the most powerful blueprint. Whether you’re designing programs for employees, campaigns for customers, or services for the public, values are your starting line, because they show you WHAT MATTERS MOST and therefore how people decide.
Want to know What Matters Most to the people you need to inspire?
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Find out why people call David “The Values Guy.”
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