Well done to the Blues on Saturday on winning the Champions League. I had the pleasure of being in the taxi of a Chelsea fan on Saturday afternoon, he had a big dilemma for the game that evening. All of his friends had gone off to Munich without tickets to soak up the atmosphere and be part of the big event. Unfortunately he couldn’t afford to go and now had to decide where to watch the game.
He had two options, one to stay at home on his own with a few beers and watch it on TV, or two go down to one of the Chelsea pubs and watch the game with other fans. This was a very typical London cab driver, no room for a word in edgeways he could probably start a conversation in a funeral parlour.
However, he seemed to have made up his mind to watch it at home on his own. Why? Surely down the pub there would be plenty of banter and opportunity to celebrate with other fans? I didn’t get it. His reason was simple, he liked being with his friends watching Chelsea but didn’t like being amongst people he didn’t know.
If you look at the taxi driver through the prism of values modes his attitude is consistent with that of a Settler, someone who is most content with what they know, a small social circle with ideas and behaviour that they feel familiar with and in control of.
I think I would have made the other choice, and gone down the pub to experience the atmosphere and mingle with other fans I didn’t know but perhaps he wouldn’t have gotten that either. Luckily for me my team, Kilmarnock, will never hit the heights of Chelsea so I will never have the choice.
Graeme Wilson is the Chief Executive Director at the The Campaign Company. If you want to see what your own primary values set is, why not take the simple Values Questionnaire here.
The Campaign Company works with councils to understand their communities and motivate people to change. They use this values approach to develop an understanding of how a target audience sees the world, as well as a variety of other innovative approaches, including social network analysis.