During our initial Vision Building days, our team tends to get highly defensive and intellectualize every decision. How do you help us break through this specific form of collective Resistance so we do not end up with watered-down, compromise-driven Core Values?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Collective Resistance often manifests as intellectualization, where a team uses complex language and abstract debates to avoid the vulnerability of committing to real, defining statements. When defining Core Values, this leads to generic, watered-down words like integrity or excellence that mean absolutely nothing.

To break through this, I enforce strict rules of engagement during our session. We do not design Core Values in a vacuum. Instead, we look at the real, flesh and blood people in your organization who represent the absolute best of your culture. We identify their actual behaviors, not aspirational theories.

If the team begins to argue over thesaurus definitions or tries to merge five different concepts into one meaningless sentence, I will stop the conversation. I will ask you to identify the specific behavior you are trying to champion or eliminate. We will use plain, simple language that is impossible to misunderstand. I will push your team to the point of discomfort, forcing you to choose values that you are actually willing to fire a top performer over. That level of clarity requires cutting through the intellectual defense mechanisms and focusing entirely on raw, operational truth.