Core Compass
A practice for knowing what matters.
The Core Compass is a guided values practice for individuals going through a season of change, and a method for helping teams and organizations see the culture they're creating.
For individuals
Name your three core values
A 1:1 contemplative conversation that follows your own language and uses the Core Compass as its structure.
Explore the practice →For teams & organizations
Make Meaning at Work
Help people understand themselves, one another, and the culture they're creating together.
Start a conversation →For teams & organizations
Make Meaning at Work
What happens when the people inside an organization have a clearer understanding of what matters?
Organizations are made of people. And every person brings their own values, needs, perspectives, and ways of working into the environment around them.
Core Compass creates a way to make those things visible — so individuals and teams can better understand themselves, one another, and the culture they're creating together.
Individual
One person's values become clearer.
Team
Relationships gain language for tension and alignment.
Environment
Culture patterns become visible.
Action
Decisions start from shared understanding.
The Alignment Map
See where personal values meet team culture
The Alignment Map is a simple, lived map of where people's core values overlap with the values the team or organization is currently expressing. It doesn't impose a culture. It reveals the one already there.
From that visibility, conversations that were previously stuck become possible: Where do we agree? Where do we disagree? What do we want to keep, and what wants to shift?
Mind
Clarity of purpose and decision-making
Spirit
Sense of meaning and motivation
Heart
Relationships, trust, and communication
Body
Pace, capacity, and sustainable practice
How we engage
Discover, integrate, act, revisit
Discover
Assess current values and culture through 1:1 and small-group conversations.
Integrate
Bring the language into team conversations and regular rituals.
Act
Run small, real experiments tied to decisions, tensions, or opportunities.
Revisit
Return to the compass as the team, season, or strategy evolves.
Offerings
Ways to bring Core Compass into your organization
Individual Discovery
1:1 Core Compass sessions for leaders, founders, and key contributors who want to lead from a clearer sense of what matters.
Team Integration
Facilitated sessions that help a team name shared values, surface tensions, and build a common language.
Alignment Experiments
Short, structured pilots around a real decision or tension — using the compass to inform action and learn quickly.
Ongoing Compass
Quarterly check-ins, continued support, and a living Alignment Map that evolves with your culture.
Start a conversation
Bring Core Compass to your team
Tell me a little about your team or organization and I'll follow up to explore what might fit.
For individuals
What is a guided values practice?
A guided values practice is a slow, honest look at the values underneath the meaning you make.
Begins with your own words
We start with your life: recent decisions, recurring tensions, moments of unexpected peace. The values emerge from your actual experience.
Light structure, not a script
The four-step Core Compass gives the conversation a shape. Some sessions stay wide. Some go deep on a single value. We adapt to where you are.
Includes the body
Values aren't abstract — they're felt. Simple somatic attention helps surface what the mind hasn't yet given itself permission to say.
Differentiation
How a guided values practice differs from other approaches
There are many ways to approach values work. Here's how this practice fits alongside them.
Values worksheets
Self-directed exercises, often free.
A guided practice responds in real time. Someone hears what you say and asks the next question you didn't know to ask yourself.
ACT therapy
Clinical framework for values-based behavior change.
A guided values practice is contemplative, not clinical. No diagnosis, no treatment plan. Just presence and inquiry.
Core values meditations
Pre-recorded guidance for individual reflection.
A live, responsive conversation adapts to what's arising.
Life coaching
Goal-setting, accountability, strategy.
Values work comes before goals. You can't aim well if you don't know what you're aiming toward.
Why it matters
Values turn abstract ideas into something you can live by.
Find clarity in your choices
Your values help you recognize what is right for you, even when the path ahead isn't obvious.
Understand what's underneath conflict
Many tensions in work, family, and relationships become easier to navigate when you understand the values involved.
Return to yourself
In moments of uncertainty, your values can remind you who you are and what matters most.
The Process
A simple structure for meaningful exploration
Cast a wide net
Choose every value that genuinely resonates with you.
Choose what calls to you
7 of 60 selected
Create three value groups
Organize your values into three distinct categories based on the experiences they cultivate.
Group your values
Refine what matters most
Sort and compare your values through a guided process of reflection and discernment.
Sort into your three groups
Discover your core compass
Through a final series of 1:1 choices, you'll arrive at the three values most central to who you are.
Your three core values
What you'll walk away with
Three values, a framework, a way back to yourself.
- Three clearly defined core values
- A practical framework for decision-making and self-understanding
- Greater clarity around relationships, work, and personal direction
You'll also receive access to your private Core Compass page — a living space that documents your process, reflections, session notes, and current values.
It's yours to return to between sessions as your exploration continues.
The first pass takes about an hour.
We can start it in your first session.
FAQ
Common questions
- Do I need to know my values before we start?
- The practice is designed for exactly that. So don't worry if you haven't even considered values before.
- Is this the same as therapy?
- This is contemplative guidance, not clinical treatment. If you're in active crisis or managing a diagnosed condition, therapy may be the better starting point.
- Can I do this online?
- Yes. Sessions work well over video. If you're in Kansas City, in-person is also available.
- What if I've already done values exercises?
- Many people have! A guided values practice goes deeper than worksheets can. The difference is the living, responsive conversation.