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 |

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

The speaker

| | | |---|---| | Name | Shane Lukas | | Company | A Great Idea | | Personal site | shanelukas.com | | Based in | North Carolina (Greensboro and Durham) | | Social | LinkedIn · Instagram · Facebook |

This is Shane's second TEDx talk. Watch his first here.

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
• Two TEDx talks — the first on sex work advocacy
• Author of frameworks on values alignment, brand storytelling, and advocacy strategy
• Author of The Advocacy Advantage (October 2026), featuring the Advocacy Dashboard

Booking and contact

Shane responds personally to all genuine inquiries. Use the contact page and choose Press as the subject.