Culture Connection: How Developing a Winning Culture Will Give Your Organization a Competitive Advantage

Chapter 8What’s Your Reason for Being? How Credos and Belief Statements Reinforce Culture

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and wordand deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughtsand everything will be well.

—MOHANDAS K. GANDHI

ORGANIZATIONS THAT HAVE figured out how to make a link between their past and their present and those that have been able to understand and communicate their fundamental reason for being have a strong tool at their disposal. In fact, as we touched on briefly in Chapter 3, “The Few and the Mighty,” either approach is a great tactic for aligning culture.

Credos and Mantras

Often these tools take the form of credos or mantras. A credo is a statement of belief; historically, these were used in religion (for example, ...