Stop Working Backwards: The Sequence That Actually Drives Behavior
The Problem:
Most strategies work backwards. Teams start by asking consumers for a behavior: more clicks, higher usage, faster adoption, or compliance with change. Then they work backwards to justify why people should care. But that's the cart dragging the horse, and we all know how that story works out. Yet we keep doing it.
The right sequence is the opposite: understand what people value, then design the behaviors you want them to adopt around those values. INSEAD research published in AEA Papers and Proceedings proves this works. The study "Individual Identity and Organizational Identification: Evidence from a Field Experiment" by Guadalupe, Kinias, and Schloderer (2020) found that when you start with values, organizational attachment increases significantly. Put values first, and behavior follows naturally…doesn’t matter whether we are talking about consumers or your workforce; in both cases, it’s about influencing human behavior.
The Hack:
Flip the order. Always start with values first. Here's the sequence that actually works:
To understand people, isolate their values. Then you can influence behavior.
Understand what your audience truly cares about – what matters most to them. Then design the choices you want them to make in a way that gives them more of what they value. When you get that order right:
Options to focus on become obvious
Alignment happens naturally…people see that you are on the same page as they are
Speed increases because debate decreases because you know what buttons to push
Guesswork disappears (and risk is mitigated) because direction is clear
You can measure this. When teams work values-first, planning cycles compress and launch timelines shrink. Try it with one decision you are stuck on right now. Maybe it's a feature trade-off that you need to resolve. Or a pricing question. Or a debate over which message to run. Whatever it is, just map each option against what your audience values most.
Rate each one:
Supports their core values
Neutral
Undercuts their core values (this is hardly ever discussed but SO important)
Choose the option that supports their values, and watch how fast consensus forms. This isn't theory… research on organizational change shows that efforts fail when they ignore values, and succeed when values come first. Which is all fine and good but how do you know which values to focus on, other than by guessing? We've got you covered.
Need actual data on what your audience values, not just another brainstorm? That's what The Valuegraphics Research Company exists for. We have the world's only accurate database of what engages and influences any group of people anywhere on earth.
Values are the answer. Let’s put them to work.