Tenets

For over two decades, I’ve seen engineering teams flourish and flounder. The technical skill is often fairly consistent, but what consistently separates the high-performers isn’t just what they build, but how they build it, and why. That “how” and “why” boils down to culture. But culture isn't some fluffy, HR-driven initiative. It’s a living, breathing system built on a foundation of shared values – and those values need to be explicitly defined. I call these definitions “Tenets.”

This isn't about ping pong tables or free snacks. It’s about the fundamental beliefs that guide your team's behavior, decision-making, and interactions. Think of them as the architectural principles for your team’s operating system.

Why Explicit Tenets Matter

Too often, team culture is left implicit – a collection of unspoken expectations and assumed norms. This works…until it doesn't. When ambiguity creeps in, it breeds inconsistency, frustration, and ultimately, diminished performance.

I once worked with a team paralyzed by indecision. Each member had a different understanding of “quality,” leading to endless debates and delayed releases. It wasn’t a lack of skill, but a lack of shared understanding. Defining core tenets – in their case, prioritizing “working software over perfect design” – resolved the conflict and unlocked their potential.

Explicit tenets provide:

• A Shared North Star: Everyone understands what's truly important, even when faced with difficult trade-offs.
• A Framework for Decision-Making: Tenets become the lens through which you evaluate options. “Does this align with our tenet of ‘Radical Transparency’?”
• A Recruiting Filter: They attract individuals who genuinely resonate with your values.
• A Basis for Feedback & Growth: You can constructively address behaviors that deviate from the team’s core beliefs.

Crafting Your Team’s Tenets: A Practical Approach

Don't pull these out of thin air. Your tenets should emerge from the collective wisdom of your team. Here’s a process I’ve successfully used:

1. Individual Reflection (30 mins): Ask each team member to individually brainstorm what they value most in a work environment and how they believe the team should operate. Encourage them to think beyond generic terms like "respect" and focus on behaviors that demonstrate those values.
2. Group Workshop (2-3 hours): Facilitate a workshop where the team shares their individual reflections. Focus on identifying common themes and areas of strong agreement.
3. Refinement & Prioritization: Combine similar ideas, refine the language to be clear and concise, and prioritize the top 3-5 tenets. We’ve found that prioritizing 3-5 tenets helps maintain focus and impact.
4. Living Document: Tenets aren’t etched in stone. Revisit them quarterly to ensure they still resonate and accurately reflect the team’s evolving needs.

Examples of Powerful Tenets (and what they mean)

Here are a few examples of tenets I've seen work well. Note that the wording is crucial:

• Radical Transparency: “We believe in openly sharing information, even when it's difficult. We default to over-communication, and proactively surface risks and challenges.” This isn't just "be open." It specifies how openness manifests.
  • In Practice: This means sharing project risks openly during stand-up, even if it means delaying a release. It also means proactively posting status updates, both good and bad, to the team’s communication channel.
• Bias for Action: “We prioritize shipping working software over endless planning. We embrace calculated risks and learn quickly from failures.” This isn't just "be proactive." It emphasizes learning from mistakes.
  • In Practice: This translates to releasing Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to gather user feedback quickly, even if they aren’t feature-complete. It also means conducting post-mortems after every incident to identify areas for improvement.
• Ownership & Accountability: “We each take full responsibility for our work, from ideation to deployment and beyond. We celebrate wins as a team, and address failures with honesty and a commitment to improvement.” This isn’t just “be responsible.” It explicitly links accountability to both success and failure.
  • In Practice: This means that team members own their features from start to finish, including monitoring performance and addressing bugs in production. It also means celebrating successes publicly and openly discussing failures as learning opportunities.
• Relentless Curiosity: "We actively seek out new knowledge and perspectives. We challenge assumptions, ask 'why' repeatedly, and embrace continuous learning." This fosters innovation and prevents stagnation.
  • In Practice: This could mean dedicating time each week for “learning sprints” where team members explore new technologies or techniques. It also means actively seeking feedback from users and peers and challenging existing processes.

Bringing Tenets to Life: Beyond the Poster

Simply defining tenets isn’t enough. You need to actively integrate them into your daily workflow. Here are some tactics:

• Team Meetings: Start or end meetings by acknowledging how the team embodied (or didn't embody) a specific tenet.
• Performance Reviews: Incorporate tenets into performance evaluations. Assess how individuals demonstrate those values in their work.
• Decision-Making Framework: When facing a difficult decision, explicitly reference the relevant tenet(s) to guide the discussion.
• Celebrate Examples: Publicly acknowledge and reward team members who exemplify the tenets.

Consider visually representing your tenets as a matrix. List your tenets as rows and examples of behaviors demonstrating each tenet as columns. This could be a shared document or a visually appealing poster that serves as a constant reminder.

The Long Game

Implementing these practices takes time and consistent effort, but the long-term benefits are significant. Building a strong team culture isn’t a quick fix. It’s a continuous process of refinement, reinforcement, and adaptation. Explicit tenets provide the foundation, but it's the daily commitment to living those values that truly makes the difference.

It’s also important to acknowledge that establishing these tenets in an established team can be challenging. Expect resistance and address concerns openly. Focus on the benefits of increased clarity, collaboration, and innovation.

Think of it like building a fortress. You need strong foundations (tenets), solid walls (consistent behavior), and vigilant defenders (everyone on the team). The effort is worth it. A team built on shared values is worth the effort, becoming more resilient, innovative, and ultimately, successful.

Now, I encourage you to schedule a team workshop this week to begin defining your core tenets. Or, share your own examples of effective tenets in the comments below – I’d love to hear what’s working for you!