When we think of values, we typically think of them as nouns. For example, we talk about integrity, honesty, or family as values.
But values as nouns often don’t lead to actions or tell you what you need to do. For that to happen, we need to turn values into verbs.
I recently read a quote by Simon Sinek from his book Start With Why in my morning Readwise highlights.
For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it’s “always do the right thing.” It’s not “innovation,” it’s “look at the problem from a different angle.” Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea of how to act in any situation.”
My first reaction to that quote was, “That’s an interesting topic. Maybe I should experiment with doing that and write a blog post on it.”
My second reaction, arriving a little later, was, “Wait a minute, that’s exactly what I’m doing with the system in the Productivity Field Guide by David Sparks.”
It was almost embarrassing that I hadn’t connected Sinek’s idea to what I was already doing in the Productivity Field Guide.
I was already turning nouns into verbs, but this just names the process. It’s a better way for me to describe it — and a simpler, cleaner mental model that makes the system more teachable and shareable.
Why Your Values Aren’t Actually Guiding You
Describing our values as nouns sounds meaningful, but it really gives no instruction. A noun just sits there. It doesn’t tell you what to do on a Tuesday afternoon.
A typical productivity group exercise is to hand out a list of fifty values and ask participants to circle ten that resonate with them. Then you narrow it to five, and then to the one that supposedly becomes your core principle for everything you do.
This approach never worked for me, and I don’t think it works for most people. It’s way too esoteric and too nebulous. And doesn’t tell you what to do.
I remember participating in one group exercise where one participant decided that “do everything with love” was her overarching value. How does that tell you what to do on a Tuesday afternoon? It’s not practical. It doesn’t readily transfer to specific actions.
The gap between what you say you value and what you actually do is where most people live. Naming a value as a noun makes that gap easy to ignore. When a value becomes a verb, it becomes actionable.
Not “integrity,” but “always do the right thing.” Not innovation, but “look at the problem from a different angle.” The instruction is built in.
Verb-framed values support accountability in a way that noun-framed values never can. You can measure a behavior. You can’t measure a concept.
When a Value Tells You Exactly What to Do
The Productivity Field Guide connection is that its Arete statements (ideal statements of how you want to act in a life role, such as Husband, Friend, Writer, etc) are the “how.”
Sinek gives you the label but not the tool. The Productivity Field Guide gives you the tool.
Every Arete statement in the system follows the same grammatical formula:
- First person
- Plus present tense
- Plus active verb
- Plus specific behavior
Not “I value honesty”, but “I am completely honest with my audience.” The Arete statement format solves a problem that pure verb-framed values can’t: a verb-framed value still needs to know where to show up.
Arete statements scope each value to a specific role. Generosity becomes “I give more than I take” — and that sentence means something different in the husband role versus the writer role versus the friend role.
From Noun to Verb to Role: How It Actually Works
As you work through the system in the Productivity Field Guide, you learn how to progress from noun to verb to role. First, you list your roles. For instance, some of mine are:
- Husband
- Father
- Friend
Then you write an Arete statement for each role entirely in verb form. The values never appear as nouns under roles — they’re fully dissolved into action statements. This is the conversion Sinek describes, applied systematically across every area of life.
According to a values profile that I took, the Core Values Finder 4.0, my three top values are:
- Benevolent caring
- Benevolent dependability
- Self-direction of thought
In this list, they’re still nouns. They don’t tell me how to act on Tuesday afternoon. But when I apply them to my roles and write Arete statements, they turn into verbs.
- Under my husband role, my benevolent caring and dependability values become: I show up for her when she needs me.
- Under my administrative job role, my benevolent dependability value becomes: I slow down and double-check my work.
- Under my writer role, my benevolent caring value becomes: I write about subjects that resonate with me to help my readers reach goals, answer questions, solve problems, and find resources.
Each of those roles is something important to me and corresponds with my values. The Arete statements are how I live them out.
The behaviors are the daily operating layer. The philosophy is the foundation underneath. You don’t have to think about it because it’s already holding everything up.
The Practical Exercise That Makes This Real
Sinek’s reframe makes values actionable and measurable. You can measure a behavior; you can’t measure a concept. The instruction gets built into the value itself.
If you want to turn your value nouns into verbs, the Productivity Field Guide by David Sparks provides the method.
The practical exercise is to take one of your stated values — a noun — and write it again for each of your key roles as a verb. For example, the noun integrity becomes:
- I always do the right thing.
- I keep my promises to my wife even when it’s inconvenient.
- I’m completely honest with my readers.
If you’re already using the Productivity Field Guide system, understanding what you’re doing as “nouns being turned into verbs” brings more simplicity and clarity.
You have a cleaner mental model for what the system is actually doing. That makes it easier to explain to others and easier to stick with yourself.
One Value. Five Roles. Five Sentences.
The gap between what you say you value and what you actually do doesn’t close because you believe harder. It closes because you get specific.
Take one value — any noun on your list — and write it as a verb for each role in your life. See what happens. Most people find it immediately clarifying and occasionally uncomfortable. Both are signs it’s working.
Note: I wrote this blog post myself using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, images and text improvements.
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