This thesis aims to improve environmental sensing of institutions by developing a method expressed in a tool that can disclose needs and values in a systemic way. It helps institutions stay attuned to citizens needs and it helps to increase the legitimacy of their policies. The tool is named after its function: the Public Value Disclosure-tool. We show that institutional perceptions are often driven by internal disposition instead of the external stimulus itself. The PVD-tool helps institutions to overcome this impulse by: appreciating complexity instead of trying to simplify situations, understanding situations in a holistic manner instead of reducing them to their loose parts, reasoning from the outside in instead of reasoning from the inside out, trying to measure real impacts through the disclosure of value fulfillment instead of reporting on effects in standardized formats.