Welcome to the initial post of the Process Values blog. This weekly blog will look at issues of methodological, or process, values. A term from Action Research, it is a foundational value of all meeting facilitation, group facilitation, and facilitating collaborative work.

There are natural laws that determine how - and whether - a universe forms. There are natural laws that determine how - and whether - atoms and molecules form, and whether life forms live or die.

Less understood is that there are natural laws that determine how societies form, operate, thrive, or fall apart, from the simples ant colonies to packs of predators to human societies. These natural laws are so primary, so fundamental, that every religion takes what they are able to discover and understand about these natural laws and make them sacred. They could collectively be called the Word of God - however you define "God." These laws determine what works and what doesn't work in cultures, societies, group, teams, even meetings. And yes, I consider all forms of human cooperation sacred and spiritual. I consider all religion to be about how to work together in cooperation and love and the best definition of "God" to the source of knowledge on how to do that.

In any meeting, there are many values, but they fall into two groups that stand on opposite sides of a paradox. On one side are the substantive values.[1] These are the interests: the considerations, concerns, and constraints that participants bring in with them and hope to see reflected in the result of the meeting. Because of this desire that their values will become part of the content of the solution, these are also called “content values.”

Content values often have strong emotions around them. They are the source of conflict in the group. Conflict is good. Without conflict everyone is thinking the same and there is no reason for a meeting. But conflict must be managed to move the group forward, and that cannot be done by someone perceived as being on one side or the other. That is why the group facilitator must let go of their content values.

On the other side of the central paradox from the substantive (content) values are the methodological values. Methodological values have to do with the ways in which conflicts should be settled in making and remaking decisions or policies which are valid and mutually acceptable, at least ideally, to all parties to a conflict. Methodological values include placing value on:
·        The quality, validity, and reliability of evidence used in settling the issue.
·        The inference processes (reasoning and logic) by which meanings are derived from the evidence by various participants (how people climb the ladder of inference).
·        The human effects of the means of persuasion used, such as coercion, group pressures against minority opinions, and exploitation of anxieties and fears.
·        The quality of the communications: the listening and the empathy participants show towards one another.
·        Whether the parties learn anything from the process.
·        Whether people invest imagination in creating solutions that integrate existing substantive values and generate new, shared values in the exchange.
·        Not having energy invested in trying to impose rigid, prepared positions upon one another. Strengthening, not destroying, whatever moral community has existed among the parties.

Because methodological values often define, even dictate the process that a meeting facilitator will attempt to follow, these are also called “process values.”
 
But process values go beyond meetings. They should be the basis of all political debate. Weekly we will look at process values, at how they can be applied, and at what gets in the way.


[1] Benne, Kenneth et. al., The Laboratory Method of Changing and Learning: Theory and Application. Palo Alto, CA. Science and Behavior Books. 1975. Much of this chapter is adapted from Chapter 2, “Conceptual and Moral Foundations of Laboratory Method.”


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