When joining an organization, it is relevant to consider the organization’s values.
But what’s important is to make sure one isn’t opposed to the way values are lived in that organization. It’s not possible to know everything beforehand, but one can notice if there are details one dismisses, believing that one can handle them.
Ultimately, it is a question of finding a good match.
It’s worth noting that a good match doesn’t require having the same set of values and prioritizing them in the same way the organization does.
Our interpretation of values, how they relate to us, which value is most important to us, and when is unique to us. We’ve built our experience on them, use them constantly, and grow with them as they develop. And we’ve grown attentive to values we don’t agree with or don’t know how to react to.
It enables us to join a group and makes us question our ability to be a member of that group. Not at the same time, but anytime we are confronted with our group’s behavior and thus values. We find ourselves in a tension between wanting to be welcomed by the group and the desire to express ourselves according to our values.
Depending on how the group identifies with some of its values, they will have established rules and push us to behave accordingly. Depending on how we identify with our values, the pressure we find ourselves then subject to can feel like a request to be like the others.
Behavior is on the edge of adjusting to how others act and adapting to the way they are. We know that doing something regularly has an impact on us and how we think. We also know that what is normal for our environment may slowly also become normal to us.
Whenever values are compatible, there is a good chance that we’ll be able to grow in such an environment. Whenever values are incompatible, there is a good chance that we’ll experience ourselves as limited and after a while as too limited.
Our well-being depends on our ability to distance ourselves from those incompatible values. This can happen by choosing a group that fits us better or by determining the space within our control enabling us to live our values.
