The Birth of a Revolutionary Assessment
The Core Values Index, developed by Lynn Ellsworth Taylor, is the first instrument of its kind. Unlike traditional personality assessments that came from academic laboratories, the CVI was developed through real business turnaround projects. Its purpose was to connect people’s inner nature with the work they do.
Lynn Ellsworth Taylor spent decades working with struggling businesses. He discovered a pattern that transformed his understanding of human performance. The common thread in every underperforming organization wasn’t a lack of training, bad systems, or poor management. It was a mismatch between who people were at their core and the work they were asked to do.
This insight led Taylor to ask a different question: instead of measuring behavior or personality (which can change), what if we could measure the unchanging nature that drives everything else?
The Technology Behind the Assessment
Lynn Taylor brought a unique background to assessment development. His experience building speech recognition systems for personal computers taught him that accurate measurement requires rigorous methods. He applied these engineering principles to create the CVI—an assessment that, for the first time, allows companies to objectively screen job candidates at the very start of hiring.
This technological foundation sets the CVI apart from assessments based on psychological theories from the 1920s. While other instruments rely on principles developed by contemporaries of Sigmund Freud, the Core Values Index uses modern computational science to achieve unprecedented accuracy and reliability.
The result is an assessment that dramatically reduces hiring costs and improves productivity, personal satisfaction, and business profits.
Forged in Real Business Challenges
At Taylor Protocols, Inc., the company founded upon the Core Values Index, the team has worked with more than 400 companies and more than 50,000 people. They have created Top Performer Profiles for more than 1,000 positions across many industries.
This extensive real-world application refined the assessment in ways that academic research alone could never achieve. Every insight was tested against actual business outcomes. When companies put the right people in the right seats based on CVI insights, productivity soared. When they ignored core values alignment, the same patterns of underperformance emerged.
The result for companies that adopt these technologies is higher profitability than previously thought possible.
How the Four Core Value Types Got Their Names
The names Builder, Merchant, Innovator, and Banker weren’t chosen randomly. They emerged from studying how human society evolved. As ancient cultures moved from hunting and gathering to farming and trade, four principal types of contributors developed to meet the needs of growing civilizations.
The Builders: Monuments to Human Power
A sturdy, action-oriented group of people became specialists in constructing shelters and shops, building roads, pyramids, and bridges. These builders also formed armies, led expeditions, and served as high-energy workers. Their actions created monuments to human resourcefulness and power—productive farmlands, new businesses, and strong armies.
Because they were builders, they acted on instinct, investing their personal energy in activities that promised positive results. When first attempts didn’t succeed, they threw themselves tirelessly against obstacles until those obstacles yielded to their personal power and energy.
Alexander the Great stands as a powerful example of a Builder in history. He commanded armies and used his considerable personal power to lead hundreds of thousands to risk their lives for his purposes. He built the largest empire the world had ever seen by age nineteen. Alexander also had many Innovator traits, developing strategies for war and government that strengthened his conquered territories.
The Merchants: Vision and Connection
Teams of craftsmen, traders, and shop owners specialized in developing new trading relationships, opening new markets, developing crafts and arts, and creating channels for trade goods to flow. Some merchants also became the storytellers, poets, musicians, and artists. They led in developing culture and literature.
Merchants opened people’s minds to new visions and opportunities. They learned about other cultures and shared stories of discovered societies. They inspired others with visions of what might be accomplished, causing groups to work together and nurture each other for everyone’s benefit.
Throughout history, merchants have been the connectors—building relationships across cultures, finding common ground, and creating networks that allow commerce and culture to flourish.
The Innovators: Wisdom and Strategy
Independent, tenacious individuals became the innovators. They specialized in developing new mechanical and technological devices, business processes, and social solutions that allowed builders, bankers, and merchants to continue progressing. These innovators improved systems of government and economics and advanced systems of theology, philosophy, and psychology.
They devised the systems and mechanisms that hold society together. Because they were innovators at their core, they never stopped thinking, brainstorming, and experimenting until incredible new tools, weapons, and systems were created. They provided wisdom and strategies for their society, lifting fellow citizens to new heights of achievement.
Johannes Gutenberg appeared in history as an Innovator. He developed the printing press and overcame the seemingly impossible obstacle of helping people communicate through the printed word. His press opened the doors of educational, social, and political evolution.
The Bankers: Knowledge and Continuity
People who concentrated their energy on learning and gathering knowledge became bankers. They conserved resources and applied those resources toward projects with the least risk and most opportunity. Bankers analyzed results, reported ineffective efforts, affirmed reasons for success, and recorded the history of society.
The stability that bankers provided supported others and assured continuity. Because they were bankers, they refused to keep silent when danger was near. They proved the presence of danger with their information. They worked to ensure sufficiency and continuity. They learned to do practical work efficiently, with little wasted motion or energy.
Margaret Mead, the renowned anthropologist, might be a historical example of a Banker. She solidified anthropological methods through a lifetime of research and analysis. Her accomplishments are those of a solid Banker who focused her life on gathering, expanding, and preserving knowledge.
The Keepers of the Fire
An ancient image captures how these four types worked together. After the builders brought home food for their village, after the merchants told stories of valor and brilliant strategy, after the innovators developed new weapons to better protect and feed their people, the bankers went into the dark and gathered the hot coals into the center of the fire pit. They covered the coals carefully, ensuring that morning would bring fire for the village without the dangerous challenge of starting anew.
This division of contribution wasn’t random—it reflected the fundamental ways different people are wired to contribute. The CVI captures this ancient wisdom in a modern, scientifically validated assessment.
Why History Matters for Your Assessment
Understanding the history of the Core Values Index helps explain why it works so differently from other assessments. This wasn’t a theory developed in isolation and then applied to business—it emerged from solving real problems with real people in real organizations.
Lynn Ellsworth Taylor discovered that individuals build their self-respect in alignment with their core values. Each of us is driven to make a contribution to society through our Core Values Nature—our innate, unchanging Real Core Values Self.
The names themselves—Builder, Merchant, Innovator, Banker—connect us to thousands of years of human civilization. These aren’t abstract psychological categories. They’re descriptions of fundamental human roles that have existed as long as humans have organized themselves into communities.
From Turn-Arounds to Transformation
What began as a tool for rescuing failing businesses has become a complete system for understanding human contribution. The same insights that helped Taylor Protocols transform struggling companies now help individuals discover their true calling, teams understand their dynamics, and organizations align their people with their purpose.
The Core Values Index stands as the only assessment that characterizes the unchanging nature of a person. It is the first tool to accurately measure the core values that are built into who you truly are.
Discover Your Core Values Nature
Join the lineage of Builders, Merchants, Innovators, and Bankers who have discovered their true contribution style. Take the assessment developed through decades of real-world business success and receive your comprehensive 17-page report.