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The Pain That Wouldn’t Go Away
I was hurting. For over a year, my back was telling me something wasn’t right. I tried everything: acupuncture, massage, stretching, all the usual suspects. Nothing worked. Until I met a physiotherapist who did something unusual, he looked at the front of me. He pressed around and said, “You don’t have a back problem. You have a front problem.”
Turns out, he was right. After a few minutes working on the aftermath of an old surgery, the pain vanished, just like that.
Leaders seeking to understand why their teams are disengaged often treat symptoms rather than causes. This story reveals the real root cause and how to address it.
We Treat Symptoms Because They're Easier
That experience made me think about the rest of my life, and yours, too. Because what if everything else we try to fix, from disengaged employees, fading customer loyalty, and conflict between teams…is also the wrong problem? What if we're massaging the back when the problem is actually in the front?
Here’s what I believe: we spend a lot of time addressing the symptoms of misalignment instead of fixing the root cause. And the root cause, more often than not, is a misalignment of values.
Values Are the Hidden Blueprint
When we feel lost, unmotivated, or blocked, it’s usually because our values (the things that matter most) aren’t in sync with what we’re doing or where we’re going. The same is true for teams, customers, and whole organizations.
In Valuegraphics research, we’ve seen this pattern again and again. People are 8x more likely to be influenced by shared values than by demographic traits. Align values, and you align behavior. Engagement goes up. Trust climbs. Loyalty sticks.
The Quiet Crisis of Misalignment
Here’s a three-question diagnostic I now use whenever something feels off, whether it’s a sore back or a stalled initiative:
- What’s the symptom I’m seeing or feeling?
- What values might be out of sync with what’s happening?
- What action could realign those values with the path forward?
Illustrative Example:
A manager notices her team has stopped volunteering ideas in meetings. The symptom is silence. But the misalignment might be with the value of Respect — maybe people feel their ideas aren’t being heard. The fix is to show that contributions are valued and followed up on. Simple.
From Pain to Possibility
Just like my back pain, the answer might not be as complicated as it seems. Look deeper. Get curious. Realign.
WHAT MATTERS MOST to the people you need to inspire?
Values are the answer. Let’s put them to work.
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