What College Campuses Can Teach Everyone About Building Unity
Walk into any college campus and you’ll see a mosaic of difference. Age, race, background, politics, personal histories. On the surface, it can look like a world full of contrast and division. But underneath all that difference? A set of shared values.
At the Higher Learning Commission conference this year, I had the chance to talk about that heartbeat—about what really brings people together. And it turns out the lessons aren’t just for universities. They’re for businesses, for governments, for nonprofits, for families, for cities. For anyone who works with people and wants them to move in the same direction.
Here’s the simple truth: people are driven by what matters most to them – in other words, by what they value. Not by their age. Not by their income. Not by their job title. Values are the invisible threads that guide our actions, our emotions, our decisions, our beliefs. And when we can understand what someone values, we get a direct line to what makes them move.
Shared Values: The Original Superpower
On stage, I told three personal stories. One about being part of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. One about being Métis. One about my gym crew in Vancouver.
For each story I had a prop. A Rainbow flag. A Métis Nation flag. And my old torn and tattered gym gloves. But these labels don’t tell the whole story about who I am, or who any one really is. They never have. They offer a sketch, when we really need a portrait. How similar am I to all the others who fly the LGBTQ flag with pride? Not very similar at all, except for that one label. How similar am I to all my Indigenous brothers and sisters? Not similar at all, except for that one label.
But the group I work out with? On paper, we make zero sense. We span generations, incomes, careers, and orientations. But every single afternoon, we show up together. Why? Because we value personal growth, health and well-being, community, and friendship. That’s the glue. We are all identical, on the inside, in our hearts. That's where it matters.
Not labels. Not categories. Not stereotypes.
Values.
It’s What’s Inside That Counts. Not Our Demographics – Our Values
You’ve Felt It Too
Maybe you’ve experienced this yourself. You’re talking to someone you’ve just met. Ten minutes in, it clicks. You laugh at the same jokes. You finish each other’s sentences. You feel known.
That’s values alignment. That’s fast-friend chemistry. It feels like magic, but it’s science. And when that kind of connection can be identified across a community, a workplace, or a client base, it becomes a kind of superpower. It can be harnessed to make things happen. Here’s how shared values showed up for college and university communities…
The Three Values That Stood Out
For the Higher Learning Commission study, we looked at students, faculty, and staff across the U.S. Three values rose to the top: Loyalty, Creativity, and Community. Let’s dig a little deeper, see what these values mean in this particular context, and explore some ideas on how they might be implemented to give people more of what matters most.
Loyalty
My preparatory research with the Valuegraphics Research Company identified this powerful value as commonly held by all the folks on campus across the USA. It also told me that this kind of loyalty is personal. It’s about the people we already know and care about, not brands, institutions, or flags.
So what can be done with that? Well, for campus leaders, I suggested they think about “kinship clubs.” Small, informal groups that gather around a shared interest—a book, a recipe, a garden, an idea. Mix departments. Mix roles. Let people bond with people, not job descriptions.
Creativity
For this keynote about campus communities, creativity showed up strong, and the meaning was very specific: it's about being true to yourself. It means connecting through ideas. It means being seen.
So I suggested these campus representatives try something as small as a microgrant program. Invite teams made up of different roles to solve a challenge together. No strings, just support. Let the connections form through shared purpose and expression.
Community
The research also identified that the value of Community is over-indexed for campus populations across the USA in two ways. For some, this is about specific, identifiable communities they can point to: clubs, teams, associations. But it's also, for others, a more broad-based feeling of belonging to a community: people studying the same thing as me, people who go to sporting events, etc.
I proposed they set up "We Tables." A table (or tables) where people from different walks of life can sit down together. Eat together. Talk. Share something ordinary and real.
Maybe it’s a weekly walk. Maybe it’s music. Maybe it’s art. Choose something human. Let that be the container.
The Truth About Unity Regardless of Where You Are
We don’t need to agree on everything. We don’t need to share the same background. We just need shared values—and space to express them. It can happen on campuses, and it can happen anywhere. Values give us the clearest, most actionable data available about what matters most to people. They’re the roadmap. And when we follow that map, everything becomes possible.
Your Role In All This
Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, this is within reach. Start with simple questions like these:
Why do the people around you show up every day?
What gets them excited?
What do they want more of in their life?
Ask questions like these and people will inevitably end up talking about their values. It's not a scientifically accurate way to identify values like the work we do at the Valuegraphics Research Company, or the data I deliver in my keynotes, but still, it will get you started. And any conversation about values is good, no matter what tools you have to work with.
Now imagine what could happen if your culture, your team, your product, your message—your world—aligned with what matters most to people. Imagine what might grow out of that.
Values are the answer. Let’s put them to work.
