back to it: how values connect burnout, flourishing, and two grand old psychologists

with a seaside metaphor to farewell the break

Happy 2023 everyone! We’re back to it, and deep in build mode this week. I mentioned last time that we have a pre-Tank module in the works - it’s a kind of shortcut tool for getting clear on your values and putting what you learn to good use. It’s nearly ready to take out for a test run, so I thought I’d give you a bit of background ahead of inviting you to give it a spin.

Values are tricky. They’re a bit like ocean currents: you can measure them if you make an effort, but otherwise they’re hard to spot. They’re clearest when you find yourself working against them. And they’re complicated - there are lots of them, and there aren’t any “bad” ones, just some that are stronger than others for each of us.

Getting a firm grasp on your values is useful if you’re trying to prevent burnout. It’s non-negotiable if you want to flourish.

When your work is out of alignment with your values, you’re at much higher risk of burnout. It’s exhausting, like swimming against a current. Christina Maslach, the Berkeley psychologist who pioneered burnout research, argued nearly 25 years ago that values mismatch plays a key role in burnout:

“The smaller the overlap between individual and organizational values, the more often staff members find themselves making a trade-off between work they want to do, and work they have to do… The strain associated with an enduring mismatch of values depletes personal energy, reduces involvement, and undermines personal efficacy or accomplishment… Insufficient opportunity to pursue personal values through work requires staff members to overextend themselves in other areas of their lives in pursuit of meaningful contributions."

On the other hand, Maslach points to values alignment as a fast track to the opposite end of the burnout spectrum, which she calls “engagement”: high energy, high involvement, and high efficacy. You’re much more likely to feel all three, she argues, when you get to work on things that are important to you, with the support of the people and resources around you. Bonus points for getting paid for it, too: it’s worth noting that burnout research exclusively focused on paid work until very recently, hence “staff members” rather than, say, “parents” or just “people”. But more recent research makes it clear that unpaid work can just as easily drive burnout vs. engagement as can the paid variety.

Here’s where we meet another grand old psychologist, and play spot the difference: Martin Seligman is the go-to researcher on flourishing. His definition of flourishing comprises positive emotions (i.e., feeling good), engagement (with work, hobbies), relationships, meaning, and accomplishments. The biggest difference between Maslach’s “engagement” and Seligman’s “flourishing” is basically scope: burnout research typically only addresses work (usually paid), while flourishing tries to encompass everything.

Maybe more simply: values are how you judge what’s good; what’s flourishing if not living your idea of a good life?

Where do I begin?

Fair to say, values are important, and that’s been well understood for decades. So, we initially assumed that we’d be able to point out to a nice, neat values tool for Tank users to make use of, if they wanted support to think through how to set boundaries around different activities, or prioritise time within them. And then we went looking at values resources and quickly realised our error.

I’ll spare you the links, but what’s currently available is either a) a research tool (i.e., asks for your data without providing much useful insight), b) a pdf that makes you do all the work yourself, c) hideously ugly and difficult to use, or d) (most frequently) several of the above. So while we were tick-tacking on the Tank MVP designs, we thought we’d give it a shot ourselves.

The app does a couple of things we haven’t seen elsewhere:

• it gives you a research-based structure to guide prioritisation to start with, but then quickly helps you focus on your most important values, and gives you the opportunity to tweak so that the language makes intuitive sense to you

• it helps you assess values alignment with the key things you spend time on during the week, so you can quickly define where your biggest areas of alignment or misalignment are

• it suggests your main opportunities for improving alignment, either by adjusting how you’re spending time (rebalancing towards existing or new values-aligned activities where you can), or by increasing alignment within existing activities

Most of all, it makes what’s important but often unclear and confusing into something simple and actionable. Or at least, that’s what we’re aiming for. We’re really looking forward to setting it free. When we do, you’ll be the first to know.