When in doubt consult the corporate compass or principles.

Is there more to charting the direction than Mission, Vision and Values? I believe you could also add principles. Principles are akin to values, yet somehow at the same time distinct. Principles are your corporate cultural Compass, unwavering, steadfast and always point due north.

This is the Fifth in my series of post on an exploration into the cornerstones of culture. Stephen Covey’s “Principled Centered Leadership” is an excellent book based on the premise that great organizations are governed by principles.
A start-up is typically a leader and team or a peer group. The important characteristics for this size of an organization are personal and interpersonal relations. Covey lists trustworthiness as the most important characteristic at the personal level and trust as the most important characteristic for inter-personal relations. The important implication here is that for a start-up to have a culture of accomplishment and results their people must be trustworthy and the team must trust each other. This is consistent with Jim Collins “get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus.” Trust is an essential ingredient of culture founded in principles.

Principles compliment the trust and trustworthiness linkages in an organization. When in doubt refer to the corporate compass (principles) for direction.

TheCodeFactory adheres to the open source principles of: Open, Transparent and Meritous.

Ian Graham

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Ottawa, Start-up, The Code Factory by Ian
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