you'll never look at a shopping trolley in the same way again...

I was recently invited to guest on the ValuesJam podcast, to reflect on the value of Generosity (which wasn't chosen me, or the series' host, but rather by the universe, after I chose the number '42' - if you want to know more about that tangent, you'll have to listed to the episode!).

As a quick reference point, 'values' are those things that are most important to us in informing how we try and act, view the world and others, define ourselves by, and how we prioritise our decisions.  

The show takes the format of using the ValuesJam card deck, to explore and understand how different values manifest, impact, and can be harnessed to create better understanding between us all (as a group of people trying to share the same planet).

So, after drawing the Generosity card, we started to share stories around the card's prompts. 

You can get the full episode here:

https://youtu.be/MwHkwP0_3Z0?si=lFfRmZ78HmfNI4Bk

But as a brief synopsis of what I took from listening back to it, the themes that we seemed to keep returning to through the discussion were:

• how negative motivations can create public good through the lens of values;
• how talking about values can resurface hidden and lost memories;
• the need for crazies if we're to see movements for change not only start, but also 'take'*;
• how we usually recognise a value more, the more we practice it.

And naturally, my props were never far from appearing on camera - this time, it was the turn of a rubber duck, safety googles, and a trumpet that each seemed a natural artefact to highlight an idea or argument we found ourselves making and exploring...

Overall, we agreed that being generous is a risky business for people to be, and if you listen to the full episode, you may never look at shopping trolleys in the same way again, after we found ourselves constantly returning to them and the influence they create on other people's behaviour as well as our own...

* https://youtu.be/fW8amMCVAJQ