# The Values Sort — Facilitator Guide

> Folder: `the-values-sort` · Category: self-assessment · 1–8 people · 20 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack
> License: CC BY 4.0

You can name "nice" values all day; you only find out what you actually value when you're forced to choose. Sort a deck of value cards into Core / Important / Not mine — with a hard cap of five on Core — then check one real recent decision against your five and close one gap. A value that costs nothing isn't yours.

**How this differs from `the-advantage-compass`:** The Advantage Compass asks where to *deploy* — strengths crossed against vision, audited through your calendar. The Values Sort asks what you'd actually *pay for*: the cap of five makes every kept value cost something, and the decision test checks whether your recent behavior spent them. Run the compass to find direction; run this sort to find the line you keep crossing when direction is already known.

## Objectives

By the end of the activity, participants will have:

1. Sorted a deck of value cards into **Core (max five) / Important / Not mine** and felt the cost of each cut.
2. Cut Core to exactly five — and read the flinch: relief meant it wasn't yours, pain meant it was.
3. Checked one real recent decision against the five, named the value it quietly traded away, and committed one dated change to close that gap.

## When to use this activity

- Before a decision with no obvious right answer — offer A vs B, take the promotion or keep the craft — where "what matters most" is doing silent work and has never been written down.
- A team that quotes the same values deck but keeps making different trade-offs; sorting alone and comparing the Core fives shows where the friction actually lives.
- An annual or quarterly personal check-in: last year's five, this year's five, and the gap card tell you what moved without a diary.

## Setup

**Clock:** twenty minutes end to end. The cut-to-five minute (4–8) is the engine — do not borrow time from it.

**Space:** a table or shared board with room for three piles; five marked slots for Core.

**Materials per person:**

| Item | Source |
|---|---|
| 3 × zone cards — Core · Important · Not mine | `the-values-sort-prop-cards.pdf` |
| 1 × "The test" card | `the-values-sort-prop-cards.pdf` |
| 1 × value card deck (starter set) | `the-values-sort-prop-cards.pdf` — the printed values |
| 2–3 × blank cards | `the-values-sort-prop-cards.pdf` — for values the deck is missing, and for the dated gap change |
| A pen | the five get written; the gap card gets dated |

**Grouping:** 1–8 people. It works solo at a desk or as a peer group each running their own sort — nobody sees anyone else's piles until the compare.

**Roles:** everyone sorts their own deck; you hold the cap at five, demand a real recent decision, and keep "Not mine" honest rather than polite.

## How to run it

| Time | Phase | Facilitator does | Participants do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | Sort | Deal the deck. "Core, Important, or Not mine. Core is capped at five — you'll have to cut. 'Not mine' is a real answer, not a failure." | Place every value card into one of three piles |
| 4–8 | Cut to five | Watch for the flinch and name it: "each cut that stings is information." | Cut Core down to exactly five; write the five |
| 8–14 | The test | Hand the test card. "One real decision from the last month. Not the one where everyone got what they wanted." | Lay the decision beside the five; find where it aligned and where it quietly traded one away |
| 14–20 | Close a gap | Demand the date on the change card. | Name one change — more of a value kept cutting, or one upcoming decision made differently — write it, date it |

Then run the debrief — see `the-values-sort-debrief.md`.

## The card

The zone cards define the three legal piles and the cap — the printed five slots on the Core card are what make the cut real; without a hard limit, everything stays "important" and nothing is yours. The value deck is a starter set precisely because the blank cards matter: the values that decide your life are usually the ones no printed deck contains. The test card exists to keep the exercise from ending as a poster — a value untested against a real decision is a wish in a nicer font.

## Failure modes

1. **Can't cut to five.** The pain of the cut is the finding — five is the point, not a suggestion. Rescue: force it anyway; make them say each removal out loud.
2. **Every value feels "important."** The sort is running too comfortably. Rescue: move more into "Not mine" until Core gets uncomfortable; comfort means nobody is choosing yet.
3. **A Core value is there because it sounds good.** Rescue: "what has this value cost you in the last quarter?" — if nothing, move it out of Core.
4. **The test decision has no tension.** A decision where everyone got what they wanted isn't a test of what you value. Rescue: pick a harder, more recent one — the one you avoided is usually the right card.

## Variations

- **Career crossroads:** run the test against the actual choice in front of you (offer A vs B), not a past one.
- **Team alignment:** everyone sorts alone, then compare Core fives; the disagreements are where the friction lives.
- **Annual check-in:** keep last year's five and the gap card; re-sort and see what moved.
- **Online:** the three piles are three board columns and the cap is enforced by a counter; the compare round happens with screens shared only at the end.

## Facilitation notes

- Core is capped at five. A value that costs nothing isn't a value; the cap is what makes you pay.
- The test must be a real, recent decision — not a hypothetical, not the one where everyone got what they wanted.
- If a value you cut to reach five made you wince, that wince is the gap to close — say so out loud when it happens; the room needs permission to grieve a card.

## Put it on the wall

Print `the-values-sort-activity-poster.pdf` to keep the two rules — "Core is capped at five" and "the test must be a real decision" — visible through the whole sort.

## Props in this folder

- `the-values-sort-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): three zone cards, the test card, the starter value deck, blank cards, branded backs
- `the-values-sort-guide.md` — this run sheet
- `the-values-sort-debrief.md` — the debrief questions and the failure modes of the debrief
- `the-values-sort-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks
- `the-values-sort-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole tool on one wall sheet: the run, the two rules, the watch-outs
- `the-values-sort-start-here.md` — one page, thirty seconds, then print and go
- `SKILL.md` — machine-readable manifest for AI agents
- `*-Letter.pdf` — US Letter editions of the print documents

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the deck, the debrief and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version needs nothing but a table, three piles and a cap that doesn't move.