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On Value and Values: Thinking Differently About We in an Age of Me

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Most books give us something, but land on the shelf never to be read again. Doug Smith's On Value and Values is one that I expect to be returning to regularly. Beautifully written, this provocative and thoughtful book cracks the code of what makes things different in the world in which we live. Finally I understand the profound difference between living in a world of place and one of purpose. It answers the question of whatever happened to WE and provides some direction for how the ME can function in this environment. It's a must read, and a keeper.

On Value and Values is a great book on how to actionably get out of the mindset of Us versus Them; Value to the negation of Values. It's akin to the Lakota "All My Relations" in that it asks us to rethink how we think of ourselves. We are not one citizen/employee of one country/company, but part of an enormous web of relationships. Our actions affect and are affected by everything that we do, even if it seems insignificantly local, place-based, or otherwise. Using real-life examples and with some real prescriptions for how to escape dangerous myopic perspectives, Smith weaves a path out of Us versus Them. Terrific!

On Value and Values took me by surprise-it's so much more than I expected. I was introduced to the book at the outset of an extensive strategic planning project, and I was prepared for another temporarily interesting management book. Instead, I found a persistently thought provoking work of social and moral philosophy that compelled me to introduce it to others in one of the organizations in which I participate.

The arresting image of "the twin towers of market democracies-political liberty and self-interested economics" introduces Doug Smith's thesis that we today suffer from an extremism that has apotheosized economic value and self-gratification, and which imperils our ability to bring to fruition the "best in our natures." The importance of On Value and Values is that it diagnoses our situation, grounds it in a reality that is true for millions of us, and proposes solutions that in part draw on Smith's exceptional organizational and management expertise. This is important because central to Smith's viewpoint is the idea that organizations have supplanted the "world of places" as the venues where people actually are bound together by shared values and fates. And it is thus through organizations that individuals acting together can bring about the change that will reunite value and values.

On Value and Values has been called "A book for our times" and all that. The question is, why? Doug Smith has taken us out of the "once upon a time" world of place being the most important factor in how we relate to the world, and he has brought us to a different reality. It is no longer a world that revolves around our neighborhoods. Our worlds revolve around our jobs, our scools, our politics, our churches, and so on. It is not about where we live; it is about who we are and how we interact ethically with those around us for a better community and life.
This is not a simplistic book nor an easy read. It requires thought and as the subtitle ssuggests, "Thinking differently about We in the age of Me." It is well worth the effort. I have come back to On Value and Values over and over again and each time I go away with another nugget.
This is not a book of Utopian dreams. It is handbook of usable, workable plans on how to relate to each other and build value, material wealth, and physical assests while still maintaining our values as moral individuals. We do not have to screw each other and the planet to be comfortable and happy. We can leave the world a better place. Smith does an excellent job in helping us transition into this new millenium.

On Value and Values is a refreshing breath of fresh air, and a sad but true commentary on the age of me. People all too often think about themselves, and not about others.

I have only one concern about "On Value and Values" - that the author is not a famous celebrity. Because if he were, the book would be a #1 bestseller and its ideas and prescriptions would already be guiding us toward a saner future together.

This book is the wisest, most real and pragmatic description of values - including what's at stake and what you can do about it - that exists in print or any other medium. No wonder others who have read it compare the book to DeTocqueville's "Democracy in America," Aristotle's "Politics," Persig's "Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance" - and, in the case of several readers, the Bible.

Why? Well, perhaps foremost because Smith looks at the subject of values differently. Instead of repeating the all-too-typical `finger pointing' discussion of "you have bad values/I have good values", Smith takes a big step back and demands perspective. This book treats readers like adults not children. Smith asks you to look at what makes beliefs and behaviors - values of all kinds - predictable instead of random on the premise that if you hold a certain set of values as `good', you'd prefer them to be predictably acted upon by others in addition to yourself.

And, he asks that question in the context of the real world you actually live in - a world of markets, networks, organizations, friends and family - instead of an illusory world of neighborhoods and towns that exists more in the movies than everyday life as we live it. He asks you to reflect on your values as consumer, employee and investor - the real roles you play out in your life along with friend and family - instead of neighbor and citizen (still powerful ideas, but hardly ever actual day-to-day roles).

We can not expect predictable and shared values, Smith notes, unless we first understand when we are a `we' in this new world of markets, networks, organizations, friends and family. Hence the subtitle: Thinking Differently About We In An Age Of Me.

From the first sentence, Smith points straight to the hallmark problem of our new age of humankind: the war between our legitimate concern for value (profits, wealth, winning) and our legitimate concern for values (social, political, environmental, spiritual, family, medical, legal and so forth). He asks readers to listen to a cultural drumbeat that has excommunicated the singular - value - from the plural values.

If we are to hand over a sustainable, just and prosperous world to our children and grandchildren, we must restore our pursuit of value to the house of all values - and we must do this our real world of markets, networks, organizations, friends and family instead of the illusory world of feel good movies, TV and political campaigns.

Democracy. Community. Liberty. Civil Society. Self-government. The Common Good. The Greater Good. Capital. Caring. These and other values hang in the balance as hundreds of millions of us transition from place-based human connectedness to purpose-based linkages in markets, networks and organizations. Neither you nor anyone you know can make choices about adhering to and promoting values you hold dear unless you first understand the real world in which you live and how to work as employees, consumers and investors - both individually and in real `we's' -- to make the world one you'll be proud to hand down to future generations.

Like many, I've often asked and heard others ask, "What can I do to make a difference?" On "Value and Values" provides a powerful and profound primer filled with answers to this all-important question.