Committing to Value versus Committing to Stories

I know…this is heresy you are thinking – Stories ARE Value.  How does this even make sense?

I suggest that teams try to think about committing to delivering a full set of value every iteration.  This means focusing in one area, on one thing, and doing that one thing properly so that it is releasable to market.  I may be particularly sensitive to this at the moment because the teams are doing a lot of ad-hoc project work, rather than focusing on shipping new features, but I think the same principle applies.  If the advantage of agile (constantly changing priorities) is to be realised then it is not sufficient to think or execute at the story level.