Principles of Integrity

The ITX Principles of Integrity provide examples of how we make, change, and keep promises. They do not cover every situation, so it is up to the you to use common sense about how to stay in integrity.

Integrity: Honoring our word by doing what we say we will do and taking responsibility for cleaning up the mess when we don’t.

Making Promises

• ITX makes promises, not individual employees – we are all responsible to clients for our team’s promises.
• Promises must be clear and specific and include: a deliverable, a due date/time, and a promisee (the person who will receive the deliverable).
• Understand and communicate the impacts of fulfilling / not fulfilling the promise.
• Expectations, on both sides, need to be part of the promise (understand them when making a promise or a request for a promise)
• Repeat the promise to confirm it.
• Promises must be recorded (as a scheduled event, work order, or project task)
• Communicate priority in person; communicate detail in writing
• Do not make a promise that you do not intend to keep

Changing Promises

• If there is a change in priority or schedule, you must reconfirm the promise to stakeholders.
• If there is a change in responsibility, the person who is now responsible for the promise must reconfirm the promise to stakeholders.
• If we become unable to keep a promise, we must renegotiate with the promisee immediately or at least let them know that we are broken down.

Fulfilling Promises

• Reconfirm with status updates as needed to control stakeholder anxiety
• Confirm the completion of the promise from the stakeholder’s perspective. Don’t count on someone else to tell you when you’ve not fulfilled a promise. Determine for yourself if you are

Escalate To Your Supervisor When…

• You are pressured to make a promise that you cannot reasonably keep.
• You are unable to negotiate or renegotiate with a stakeholder.
• A team member is in danger of breaking, or has already broken, a promise. Of course, first talk to that team member and encourage them to resolve the situation.
• A team member creates a mess and doesn’t clean it up, or is consistently out of integrity.

© 2012 Ralph Dandrea. All rights reserved.