David's Blog

Let me tell you a quick story. A few years ago, I was asked to help solve a talent crisis in the skilled trades. The room was full of business owners who were saying, "We can’t find people. Nobody wants to work with their hands anymore." But when we did the Valuegraphics research on people considering careers in the trades, we found something surprising. What mattered most to this group wasn’t money, or status, or even stability. It was a value we call Service to Others. That one insight changed everything for the people in that room.

David Alison

Your property has the amenities. Your reviews are acceptable. Your rates are competitive. And somehow, guests leave feeling... fine. Not delighted. Not converted into advocates. Just adequately served.

David Alison

Nearly 1,400 Greater Toronto residents who say they're extremely likely to buy a home in the next two years told us what matters to them. Then we did something that makes this research genuinely different: we benchmarked their answers against reality.

David Alison

Your AI rollout is stalling, and more training isn't going to fix it. Here's a tool that will: The Values Resistance Audit. Five questions. Takes about ten minutes. Ask yourself these questions about your team before your next AI initiative, and you'll know exactly where the resistance is coming from and what to do about it. I'll walk you through each one in this post.

David Alison

Some of your people can't stop using AI. Others won't touch it. The difference isn't tech savviness, age, or job function. It's something else entirely. I'm going to give you The AI Enthusiast Profile a breakdown of the three values that consistently appear in employees who embrace AI without being pushed. Once you know what these values are, you can start designing AI initiatives that activate them across your workforce. Or, at minimum, you'll stop accidentally suppressing them.

David Alison

Here’s the truth: most of what we do in business is just different flavors of the same challenge. Whether it’s sales, marketing, HR, leadership, customer experience, or any of the other job titles we like to throw around, we’re trying to get people to do something. Buy the thing. Click the link. Apply for the role. Stay with the company. Show up. Get on board. Care.

David Alison

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.

David Alison

It can be difficult to make everyone in a diverse and geographically dispersed company feel like they belong. But if you know what people value, across all roles and locations, you can create a powerful set of strategies to bring everyone together. Here’s an example of how this works for the Loblaw Group of Companies.

David Alison

Every business today should do everything it can to help poor old Mother Earth. But if you need an extra incentive to put in the work, consider environmental advocacy as a sales strategy to attract more customers/clients. Here’s how shared values data can help, from a recent keynote to a wide-range of business owners.

David Alison