We believe every organization or team needs to construct a foundation of common purpose and build their principles, practices and processes on the foundation of that common purpose. We call it the Four Ps:

Purpose—Why do we exist? What is our overarching purpose for being (e.g., our vision/mission)?

Principles—What are the underlying values and operating principles that are important to us? From our experience, what do we want to be sure to include as a value or principle? For example: sustainability, competency, collaborative spirit, standardization, excellence.

Practices—What behavioral norms or practices/activities will we commit to engage in to ensure we keep our values/principles intact? For example: practice two-way trust, employ constructive contention in conflict, structure a way to hear the diversity of opinions, revisit our norms to see how we're doing, etc.

Plans—How will the business plans and planning we use to get our work done model and exhibit our purpose, principles or values and practices/norms? For example: operate in accord with our principles and practices in all business interactions, both internal and external; structure reports, visuals and written materials so that they exhibit the spirit behind our principles and norms/practices, etc.