My values on display
Lauren Cook, Founder
Near the end of last year, I hosted a gathering at the COS office called Identifying Our Values & Living From Them. I had done my own “values” work before – where you look at a long list of words and pick the most important ones. Some facilitators say these are things you prioritize or want to get out of life.
Our focus was a bit different. I encouraged the group of eight participants to instead select the values that represent who they are at their core. The values that reflect how they want to show up in the world as their whole and unique selves. Perhaps how your closest friends would describe you. So things like family and nature aren’t on my list, but words like courage, creativity, and compassion are (there are so many good C values!).
My annotated list of values. We started with more than 100, added a few new ones, then whittled them down to the “essential us.”
The exercise was beautiful, and because I hadn’t done this work in years, I participated also. After we narrowed down our values to a core set, we wrote or drew them on a piece of 11”X14” paper. Some participants wrote definitions, synonyms, or colored each word for a visual association (see photo).
Not the prettiest visual I’ve ever seen, but alas, they’re mine.
Sometimes I did notice an alignment – yes, that last-of-the-season Monarch filled me with wonder! Other times, I was aware of a missed opportunity – I wasn’t generous with my attention there and cut that interaction too short.
When the new year found me, I wasn’t intent on making any 2026 resolutions, but one word did bubble up into my head and heart: Embody.
I didn’t immediately connect with Merriam-Webster’s definitions of the word. I scrolled lower, lower, lower on the page and found the Kids Definition section – perfect. Definition #3 says: “To represent in visible form.”
People (and creatures and nature) should see my values. They should be visible. They aren’t just for me, tucked away in my journal, my personal reflection exercises, or on a questionably artistic legal-sized paper in my office. They must be lived.
I hope you, dear reader, are one of those who will see attention, open-heartedness, wonder, zest, connection, and love embodied in me in 2026. And when you don’t, I’m sorry. I may be more aware of the missed opportunities than you are – how the little mice were tugging at my skirt and I shooed them away.
But maybe, just maybe we’ll both show up as our whole, unique selves. We’ll share a moment or a hug. We’ll sense our mutual appreciation via eye contact or laughter or tears. Humanity embodied.
And what about our stories? Our organizations’ stories? What would they sound and look like if they always embodied the unique values we say we stand for? Is your staff attuned to those values? Could y’all list them, draw them, color them?
At Connecting Our Stories, we believe it’s worth it to try. Together. It’s what we do internally – let’s show up again today and try to be REAL – and it’s what we do with clients. What follows is a beautiful thing.
Humanity embodied.
Stories connected.