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Topic
Standards
The quiet promise your company makes to itself about what is acceptable.
Standards are what you enforce when it is inconvenient. Everyone has values. Standards are the values that actually cost you something to keep.
The Operating Lens
How exceptional operators approach standards.
Questions worth sitting with
- 01What are we tolerating right now that a better version of us would not?
- 02Where do standards drop when we are busy?
- 03Which employee's behavior is quietly defining our standard, up or down?
- 04What would it cost to hold the line, and can we afford the alternative?
Signals you may be here
- 01The best work happens only when the boss is watching.
- 02New employees adjust downward to match existing behavior.
- 03You have a written standard and an actual, unwritten one.
- 04Poor performers set the pace.
Practical starting points
- 01Pick one standard you say you have and start actually enforcing it this week.
- 02Address one specific instance where the standard slipped, publicly and fairly.
- 03Ask your best employee what standard they wish you held more firmly.
