Chapter 02. The Star of the Sea

The Forest In Between the Trees

Every group needs to establish a set of cultural norms that serve as a compass for decision making. Leadership is the careful act of crafting these norms around a vision, values and principles, embedding them into the group's culture. A vision cannot be purely decorative. It gives meaning as to why the group does what it does. It is the North Star : every decision and action must be able to reach this vision. Values supersede individuals and rank. They are the authority. Principles are tools for clarity. They are a set of describable and observable responses to situations that arise often in the group. They are derived from the values. They should constantly be challenged, by members of any rank inside an organisation. They describe "how things are around here". Leaders are not responsible for enforcing principles. They are responsible for clarifying the vision, values and practices and enforcing that everyone can and has to make decisions based on these, just as they would.