What Values Conflict Costs You: A TEDx Press Kit
Fact Sheet
Have you ever found yourself at a decision point where every option feels wrong? Not "morally complicated" wrong — in your body wrong. Tight chest. Hot face. Shallow breath.
Shane Lukas — brand strategist, queer activist, human rights organizer, and founder of A Great Idea — has been in those moments. One of them was a jail cell.
In this talk, Shane argues that value conflict isn't a philosophical problem. It's a physiological one. And research confirms it: regular emotional suppression is linked to increased long-term health risk, including higher mortality. Most of us are paying that price quietly, in boardrooms, at dinner tables, and in the silence before we don't say what we mean.
The fix isn't to "live your values" — a phrase as empty as a coffee-mug mantra. It's to know, before the pressure hits, which values are non-negotiable and which ones you can trade. It's a values hierarchy. And it will change how your body responds to conflict.
The Talk
- Title: "What Values Conflict Costs You"
- Speaker: Shane Lukas
- Format: TEDx Talk
- Running Time: 12–15 minutes
- Primary Audience: Changemakers, advocates, mission-driven leaders, anyone navigating competing commitments
The Speaker
- Name: Shane Lukas
- Company: A Great Idea
- Website: agreatidea.com/shane
- Personal Site: shanelukas.com
- Based In: North Carolina (Greensboro and Durham)
- This is Shane's second TEDx talk. Watch his first here.
- Social: LinkedIn · Instagram · Facebook
THE TALK
"When your choices match your values, you feel it — like a steady, unmistakable spark. I learned that the hard way. In jail."
—Shane Lukas, opening the talk
KEY THEMES
Audiences leave with:
- A body-level understanding of value conflict — why misalignment feels like a physical threat, not just a moral discomfort
- The cost of negotiating your values — what regular emotional suppression does to your health, your relationships, and your clarity
- The values hierarchy framework — a three-tier model (Defining / Guiding / Informing) for knowing which values to protect and which to trade
- The difference between "nice" and "good" — and why confusing them is costing mission-driven people their effectiveness and their wellbeing
- A personal practice — a 10-minute writing exercise to identify defining values and what it costs to live into them right now
Recognitions AND Credentials
- 10+ years as a creative and strategic partner to mission-driven organizations
- A Great Idea — boutique creative and development studio with clients in nonprofit, foundation, social impact, healthcare, and education sectors
- Lifelong grassroots organizer and human rights activist
- This is Shane's second TEDx talk. His first is about sex work. Watch his first here.
- Author of frameworks on values alignment, brand storytelling, and advocacy strategy
- Developing forthcoming book featuring the Advocacy Dashboard
- Author of frameworks on values alignment, brand storytelling, and advocacy strategy
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