John E. Jones

Team-Building
In a department or a group-to-group team-building effort, the VC approach helps build
maintenance through the trust and cohesiveness built in VC group dynamics and the
sharing of themselves as they discover and discuss their values. There is especially one
concept and activity that helps a group discover its talents to convert its limitations to
the positive values that may exist in the apparent limitation.
As a team-building activity, ask the members to list the talents that help them work
effectively and their limitations. For example, a person may write:
20 ❘❚
Talents Limitations
I know my job. I’m late to meetings.
I like my work. I can’t be rushed.
I enjoy people.
I am good at organizing.
I get angry when disturbed at work.
The next step is for each individual (with the help of the small group) to determine
the positive value underlying the limitations. In the previous example, the group could
find out that the person gets involved in work enough to lose track of time and be late
for meetings. In this instance, involvement in work is the positive value underlying the
limitation of being late. Or, the apparent limitation of not being able to be rushed may
have as an underlying positive value the person’s concern about the quality of work
done, resulting in careful checking. Underlying the anger may be a deep interest in work
and a desire to pursue it uninterruptedly.
Two things are achieved by using this activity as a team-building effort. First, the
participants get to know one another better. They find out explicitly about the talents
each has to offer to the team, talents they may not have recognized in the person. They
have already begun, through the activity, to learn together how to help one another work
better by helping one another convert their limitations to positive values. Second, the
individual is made more aware of how to put limitations to good use, to accepting his or
her talents and limitations, thus opening to growth as a person and as a team member.
CONCLUSION
The goal of this article has been to give an indication of how value clarification
methodology can be an adjunct tool in an organization development facilitator’s
repertoire. Many facilitators have shied away from considerations of values for fear of
becoming moralistic or philosophical. The VC approach is a methodology that helps the
participant discover his or her actual values and freely choose the value that will foster
growth in the direction he or she wants. An OD facilitator will already, in most cases,
have an understanding of the inductive group process that is used by VC. He or she will
need to become acquainted with the VC theory and methods. With the VC approach and
The Pfeiffer Library Volume 3, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer