What does it mean to "live your values?"
G’day from Sydney, Australia …
A recent controversial performance on American Idol provides a great example of the power generated by being clear about what you value (your motivation code) and what action you are willing to take to express that value fully in your life.
The performance triggered a massive number of postings and responses on YouTube. Here’s what happened … on April 9 American Idol closed with a performance of Darlene Zschech’s contemporary Christian worship song, "Shout to the Lord."
Just one small oversight … they changed the lyrics without the composer’s permission. Their version started with "My shepherd …" instead of "My Jesus …" Here’s the April 9 version
So Darlene, being true to her highest core value (worshiping Jesus), contacted them and pointed out their error. Not because she wanted any recognition or to wield power, but because she believes that the lyrics were given to her by God to inspire Christians around the world to heartfelt worship, and because she would be denying her most deeply held value if she lay down and played doormat to such a blatant dilution of the lyrics.
The result? On April 10 Idol presented a revised arrangement and included the God given lyrics of "Shout to the Lord". In my opinion (and I’m not a musician) the second version was a much more inspired and inspiring arrangement. Here’s the April 10 rendition
The big question is: what motivated the producers of American Idol to take liberties with the lyrics of a copyrighted song?
In exploring the possibilites the first thing we need remember is that our values are our primary motivators, our lifestyle priorities and preferences, our motivation code. What we value is what we want more of in our life. So we make decisions and take certain actions in an attempt to get more of what we want. When we get more of what we want, we are living our values.
The second thing we need to recognize about values is that our values compete with each other for our attention, sometimes causing value conflicts within ourselves.
A third and very significant factor is that our core values can create powerful passions that call for a deep emotional response when threatened or stifled.
So here’s my educated guess about what led the American Idol producers to change the lyrics of Shout to the Lord … a misguided marketing decision, based on a lack of clarity about the core values of a huge chunk of their viewers.
Wanting to reach the widest possible audience, without offending anyone, they assumed the best way of doing that would be to water down the lyrics, to avoid alienating the non Christians or anti Christians in the Idol tribe.
In effect, they tried to represent a worship song as a "generic" inspirational song. The difficulty with that approach is that our values are NOT generic, they are specific and in reality it is impossible to present "value neutral" entertainment, because every decision and action in each person’s life is based on values that are not only specific, but are also personal and emotionally charged.
What the American Idol producers grossly underestimated was the passion of millions of Christians around the world for the core values expressed in "Shout to the Lord", which is the most widely recognized and sung contemporary Christian worship song across the globe.
Responding to the outcry of tens of thousands of viewers globally, Idol producers made the smart marketing move to represent the song with a new arrangement and the original lyrics.
Millions of Christians loved it. Tens of thousands expressed their appreciation in comments on YouTube. Some expressed their opposition. Thank God for democracy! Personally, I’m grateful to live in a democratic society where we have freedom of religious expression.What we all need to remember is that freedom walks hand in hand with responsibility … and responsibility walks hand in hand with respect for the values of others.
Full credit to American Idol for a timely response to what could have been a marketing disaster. They recognized and responded to the values driven call for a change of direction, and the publicity that has resulted from the initial blunder and the subsequent correction could not be purchased at any price.
And full credit to Darlene Zschech for walking her talk (or should that be "singing her song"?)… clearly she has cracked her personal and unique motivation code and is willing to allow her values and actions to shout to the Lord.
An invitation to comment on this post … Is my take on the Idol happenings on the mark? What do you feel was behind it all?
Later, they passed some people who remarked, "What a shame that he makes the little boy walk". So they then decided they would both walk. 