Principlev1

Examine the last ten significant organizational decisions to

Examine the last ten significant organizational decisions to identify whether actual decisions aligned with stated values, paying particular attention to decisions where values conflicted with performance.

Why This Is a Principle

Derives from When espoused values and basic underlying assumptions (basic assumptions win over espoused values) and Actual behavior reveals operative values more reliably than (actual behavior reveals operative values). This prescribes decision archaeology as a diagnostic method. It's actionable, specific, and derived from axioms about value-behavior gaps.

Source Lessons

L-1643

Culture is built by repeated behavior

Culture is not declared — it is deposited, one behavior at a time. Every repeated action adds a layer to the cultural sediment: what gets rewarded, what gets tolerated, what gets punished, and what gets ignored. Over time, these accumulated layers become the bedrock assumptions that shape how everyone in the organization thinks and acts. Changing culture requires changing the behaviors that deposit it — not once, but consistently, until the new behavior becomes the new sediment.

Connections

Derived From (2)

AxiomActual behavior reveals operative values more reliably than AxiomWhen espoused values and basic underlying assumptions

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