Values and Experiences Mapping

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit persefonecoaching.substack.comPlease note the video content differs from the text below. You can also find a downloadable Values and Experiences Mapping PDF Worksheet at the end. Before you can effectively engage with anyone who holds fixed beliefs, you must understand the foundation of your own thinking. This is not optional preparation. This is essential groundwork. Most people enter difficult conversations completely unaware of their own assumptions, blind to how their experiences have shaped their views, and ignorant of the gaps in their information diet. They see their own positions as obvious truth and cannot fathom why anyone would disagree. This makes persuasion impossible. You cannot help someone examine their reasoning if you have never examined your own.This comprehensive self-audit guides you through a systematic examination of the values, experiences, and information sources that have shaped your worldview. Complete it honestly. The purpose is not to feel good about yourself. The purpose is to map your intellectual terrain so you can navigate difficult conversations with precision rather than fumbling in the dark. You cannot identify the assumptions blocking productive conversation if you do not know which assumptions you carry. You cannot find common ground if you do not know where your own ground sits.Part A: Identify Your Core ValuesYour core values are the principles that guide your political and moral judgements, the foundations from which your policy preferences flow. This exercise is harder than it appears. You have likely never articulated your value hierarchy explicitly, which means you argue from unstated premises you yourself have not examined.Your values might include individual freedom, collective responsibility, fairness, security, tradition, progress, compassion, accountability, or dozens of others. The critical task is ranking them honestly. Which matters most to you when values conflict? You might value both freedom and equality, but which takes precedence in your mind when policies that increase equality require restrictions on freedom? You might value both compassion and personal responsibility, but which guides your thinking on welfare policy when you must choose?If you place individual freedom at the top of your hierarchy, this value will influence your thinking, but how it translates into your specific policy positions depends on many other factors: how you define freedom, what you see as threats to it, what other values interact with it, and what trade-offs you are willing to accept. You might support strong environmental regulations because you see pollution as restricting people’s freedom to live healthy lives. Or you might oppose those same regulations because you see government intervention as the primary threat to freedom. The same core value can lead you in different directions.If you place collective responsibility at the centre of your moral thinking, you face similarly complex questions. What does collective responsibility require in your view? How much individual freedom can be preserved whilst meeting collective obligations? When do community needs outweigh individual choice in your judgement, and when is the reverse true?The point is that understanding which values matter most to you helps explain why certain arguments feel compelling to you whilst others feel irrelevant. When you argue about healthcare policy, you might be emphasising evidence about health outcomes and equality of access because those connect to your core values. The other person might be emphasising evidence about innovation and personal choice because those connect to theirs. You are not disagreeing about facts alone. You are weighing different considerations according to different priorities.Part A Worksheet: List Your Five Most Important ValuesInstructions: In order of importance, list your five core values and explain why each matters to you. Be specific. If you write “freedom,” what kind of freedom? Freedom from what? Freedom to do what? Similarly, if you write “fairness,” explain what fairness means to you. Equal outcomes? Equal opportunities? Proportional rewards for effort?1. Value 1: ________________________________Why this matters to me: ___________________________________________________2. Value 2: ________________________________Why this matters to me: ___________________________________________________3. Value 3: ________________________________Why this matters to me: ___________________________________________________4. Value 4: ________________________________Why this matters to me: ___________________________________________________5. Value 5: ________________________________Why this matters to me: ___________________________________________________Part B: Map Experiences That Shaped Your ViewsYour political and moral positions feel like rational conclusions from evidence, but they are constructions built partly from specific experiences you happened to have. Someone else, equally intelligent and well-intentioned, had different experiences and may have constructed different views. But right now, focus on your own experiences.Think about your economic views. Did you grow up with financial security or insecurity? Did you see your parents work hard and prosper, or work hard and struggle? Did you witness unemployment as temporary misfortune or long-term devastation? Did you experience social support as helpful safety net or humiliating dependency? These experiences are not abstract. They are visceral memories that influence how you interpret economic data and policy proposals today.Perhaps you grew up watching your parents build a business from nothing. What conclusions did you draw from that experience about entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and the relationship between effort and reward? Did you also witness other businesses fail despite equal effort? Did you recognise advantages your family had? Did you see ways government policy helped or hindered? Your experience matters, but what conclusions you drew depends on many factors beyond the experience itself.Or perhaps you grew up in a community devastated by factory closures. How did you process that devastation? Did you conclude that government intervention is essential to protect communities from market forces? Or did you conclude that communities must adapt more quickly and that government protection delays necessary change? Your experience shaped your thinking, but it could have shaped it differently.The same principle applies across all your political views. Your experiences with healthcare shape how you think about medical systems. Your encounters with crime influence your views on criminal justice. Your experiences with different cultures shape your views on immigration. Your educational experiences affect your views on schooling policy. Each experience provides data to you, but you interpret that data through your existing framework.Map your experiences honestly. Recognise that whilst these experiences shaped your thinking, they could have shaped it differently. Once you see how experience influenced your own beliefs, you can better understand how different experiences influenced the beliefs of people you are trying to reach.Part B Worksheet: Identify Experiences That Shaped Your ViewsInstructions: Think about 3-5 significant experiences that have influenced your worldview. For each experience, describe not just what happened to you but how it shaped your thinking about political or moral questions. Be specific about the connection between the experience and your current views.These might include:* Your childhood experiences* Cultural exposure or travel you undertook* Your education* Your work experiences* Your relationships* Challenges or hardships you faced* Moments of realisation or significant change you experiencedExperience 1:How this shaped my views:Experience 2:How this shaped my views:Experience 3:How this shaped my views:Experience 4:How this shaped my views:Experience 5:How this shaped my views:Part C: Audit Your Information SourcesThe information you consume determines what you believe to be true about the world. Where you get your information about political and social issues shapes which facts you know, which expert opinions you trust, and which aspects of complex issues you consider most important.You probably consume information heavily weighted towards sources that confirm your existing views. This is not because you are closed-minded. This is because algorithms serve you content similar to what you have engaged with before, because you naturally trust sources that share your values, and because information that challenges your core beliefs feels actively unpleasant. But this creates a distorted picture of reality.If you get most of your information about immigration from sources that emphasise economic and cultural benefits, you will encounter different facts and framings than someone who gets most of their information from sources that emphasise social cohesion challenges and public service pressures. Both sets of sources may be reporting real facts, but they are emphasising different aspects of a complex reality. Neither you nor the other person sees the whole picture.Take your views on climate change. Do you read the scientific consensus from climate researchers, see reporting on melting ice sheets, track increasing extreme weather events? Or do you read analyses questioning the economic models, see studies about solar cycles, track failed predictions from decades past? You believe you are following the evidence. So does the person who disagrees with you. You both have sources you consider credible supporting your view.This happens because even high-quality sources emphasise different aspects of complex issues. One newspaper might foreground the humanitarian crisis in a conflict whilst another foregrounds the security implications. One analysis might stress short-term disruption whilst another stresses long-term benefits. You are forming beliefs based on accurate information, but incomplete information. You are seeing part of the elephant.The gaps in your information diet are gaps in your understanding. These gaps make persuasion harder because you cannot address arguments and concerns you have never seriously encountered. If someone argues that immigration levels should be reduced, and you have never engaged with serious analysis of community cohesion research, of public service capacity constraints, of labour market effects on specific sectors, you cannot address their actual concerns. You can only address the version of their argument you imagine, which is likely weaker than their real reasoning.Part C Worksheet: Audit Your Information SourcesInstructions: List honestly where you get your information and perspectives. Resist the urge to list sources you think you should follow. List the sources you actually use regularly. This audit only works if you are rigorous about distinguishing between sources you occasionally glance at and sources that genuinely shape your thinking.Primary News Sources (newspapers, news websites, television news you watch regularly):Social Media Sources (people, accounts, channels you follow regularly and actually read):People Who Most Influence Your Thinking (friends, family, colleagues, public intellectuals):Books or Authors That Have Shaped Your Views:Podcasts or Long-Form Content You Consume Regularly: