#Progress2017 gave us a map for values, courtesy of Mark Chenery – Co-Director at Common Cause Australia. Common Cause provides a frame to start thinking about how we communicate within territories of values, how to bridge perception gaps, and harness the spillover effect of turning neighbouring values into generosity – which is quite handy when it comes to giving. By Lyndal Stuart.

First of all, watch this. Mark finished the session on values at Progress 2017 with this video from Denmark. It’s an ad for television, I grant you that, but I think it’s better to start with this because it packs a punch on the themes of empathy and understanding. It also speaks volumes when it comes to transforming thinking about ‘the other’. This beautiful (IMO) piece of communication makes us feel a connection with people we may not otherwise identify with. It’s a challenge to ingrained perceptions, and a story of people finding compassion. It breaks down boundaries.

When you’re in the business of communicating a reason to give you need to go through a very similar process (with less budget…and no film crew). Here are a few of the hoops we need to jump through to bring people on the journey of corporate community investment and giving:

• You need to convince people that there’s a problem, or that people are in need – and then you need to show people that they actually do care about that. For some that’s a no brainer. Others take a lot more persuading – and that’s the tricky bit.
• You have to then convince people that these organisations over here (those with a social or environmental purpose) can help solve this problem – and that the company you’re working for wants to solve it too. And here’s how you can play a part in achieving that goal.
• Then you have to tell them that again. And again. And again.
• Then you have demonstrate this with evidence – that if they too were to give or support this cause in some way – with time, treasure or talent – that it would make a difference. Look here, we have some examples.
• Then you have to make it really easy for people to donate their money, or their time, or their intellect or resources.
• If they do – you really should say thank you and show them how their contribution helped.
• You need to ask them what difference this made to them, and celebrate that.
• You should report on that to their place of employment, so that they continue to provide opportunities for people to donate their time, talent and treasure.
• And repeat.

On point one, Mark Chenery pointed out at Progress 2017 that people all have values. They don’t occur randomly – they are often related to each other and many people share the same values (it’s not like some are void of values) – they’re just prioritised differently. Sometimes they can be of equal priority at the same time, and values have neighbours and opposites. For communicators, its a matter of how you engage with these territories of value to create change and shift thinking and behaviour.

A Map of Values

He shared what looks like a prettier version of the London Underground map, which illustrates ten territories or values groups based on patterns of associations with values. It’s included in the Common Cause Handbook but Mark very generously pointed out that everything on the website was published under Creative Commons, so here’s a snapshot:

To summarise here, the ten classification groups of values are:

1. Universalism
2. Benevolence
3. Tradition
4. Conformity
5. Security
6. Power
7. Achievement
8. Hedonism
9. Self-Direction

So let’s find our way around this for the purposes of corporate community investment…

To convince people to dedicate their hard earned cash, their time or their resources to create a fairer world for all, and a safer, cleaner planet, you need to move people into the green area and to start this transformation in thinking, you can determine where they are now and move them down the line. It’s possible to appeal to the other territories to move thinking into action in a different territory. The prime example is corporate giving, really, where businesses have amassed power, reputation, authority (with government, customers, industry) and can now use the wealth from their success for good. Our clients are prime examples of this.

Shifting Perceptions

One final note I took away from the session on values was on perception. I’m paraphrasing here, and quite crudely, but at the core of Mark’s points on this is that our expectations of others is quite low. Generally we’re not optimistic about the likelihood of others to behave in a benevolent or altruistic way. Yet people’s belief in their own goodwill is high.

This came out of recent Common Cause’s recent research, which involved a survey of 1,000 people in Britain and asked them what they valued in life. There was some really great news: 74 per cent of people place greater importance on compassionate values than selfish values. The downside, 77 per cent of respondents to the Common Cause survey believed that their fellow citizens hold selfish values to be more important, and compassionate values to be less important, than is actually the case – so as a result of that they felt less positive about being generous or feeling responsible for their community.

Why? The report Perceptions Matter offered one explanation: ‘people are repeatedly told by institutions (for example, the media, politicians, and even schools and universities) that most other people are out for themselves’.

So what did I take from that for the world of giving in Australia?

We need to lift our expectations of people – and appeal to the optimistic and hopeful, ask people to give, raise awareness of the causes that matter and consider what territory of values people may be inhabiting on specific issues, then move them to a new place. We need to get the potential of giving in Australia into the green territory.

Good2Give’s Head of Marketing Communications, Lyndal Stuart, attended Progress 2017 – the Centre for Australian Progress’ biennial event for Australia’s leading campaigners, advocates and change-makers from every sector. Lyndal tweeted from the event @Good2GiveNGO #Progress2017.