Principles
Principles
These are the principles of the strategy program. The same fourteen apply across the program’s courses and clubs, here applied to running a club.
Each principle carries a scripture reference, collected at the end of this page.
The sources they draw on, following Brigham Young’s admonition to gather up all the good and true principles wherever we find them: the BYU Marriott mission and values, the standard works, Christlike Attributes from Preach My Gospel, Amazon’s leadership principles, Bridgewater’s original philosophy, McKinsey’s purpose, mission and values, John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, and Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II.
Why They Are Written This Way
Most codes of conduct list principles to be maximized: be excellent, be truthful, be bold. Stated that way they have two problems.
The first is that almost any good quality can be taken to excess. Truthfulness can overshoot into cruelty. Excellence can overshoot into perfectionism, or into standards that humiliate people. Initiative can overshoot into recklessness. A list of maxims gives you no way to say “you are doing too much of a good thing,” so the only correction on offer is to abandon the principle, which nobody wants.
The second is that two good principles collide. Speed collides with rigor. Candor collides with charity. Excellence collides with a deadline.
Aristotle solved both with the golden mean. Every good quality of character sits between two failure modes, one of doing too little and one of doing too much. Courage is not the opposite of cowardice; it sits between cowardice and recklessness. Generosity sits between stinginess and waste. The failure is never the quality itself. It is having too little or too much of it, at the wrong moment, toward the wrong person, for the wrong reason.
The mean is not fixed by a formula. It is found by judgment, and judgment is built by practice. Each principle below is written with both of its failures named, because you cannot aim for the mean if you do not know the extremes.
These are aspirational. Everyone misses, often, in both directions. We keep striving, and over time develop true wisdom.
Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.
John Wooden
1. Hold to the truth, and use it well
| Principle | Too little | The golden mean | Too much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Act with integrity | Deceitful | States it plainly, including the part that costs something | Self-righteous |
| Be discerning | Repeats what was said in confidence. Says the true thing that only wounds | Tells the person who needs it, in the way they can receive it | Calls it discretion when it is avoidance |
| Be courageous | Goes along | Challenges, then commits | Fights for ego |
2. Think hard and stay teachable
| Principle | Too little | The golden mean | Too much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Be curious | Accepts the brief as given. Stops at the first answer | Asks the question behind the question | Chases the interesting question instead of the one that matters |
| Be rigorous | Accepts what sounds right. Trusts the output without checking the reasoning | Reasons from first principles | Rederives what is already settled. Demands proof past the point the decision needs |
| Choose humility | Defends the position instead of testing it. Ties ego to being right | Asks what they missed, then changes | Hedges. Defers when they know better |
| Seek personal improvement | Hears the feedback and files it | Asks for the critique, then acts on it | Works on themselves instead of the work. Makes every review about their growth |
3. Do great work
| Principle | Too little | The golden mean | Too much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Act in faith | Waits for certainty. Needs the risk gone before starting | Moves on incomplete information | Skips the preparation and calls it faith |
| Strive for excellence | Settles for what passes. Mistakes activity for achievement | Raises the bar, then clears it | Polishes past the point of value. Wields the standard to shame |
| Demonstrate high agency | Waits to be told. Explains why it was not theirs | Sees the gap and closes it | Takes what was not theirs to take. Carries it alone instead of raising it |
| Show patience | Forces the answer before it is ready. Quits when it gets hard | Presses where it can move, waits where it cannot | Waits and calls it patience. Tolerates what should have been escalated |
4. Make each other better
| Principle | Too little | The golden mean | Too much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Respect others | Talks past people. Dismisses the junior voice | Listens before answering | Trades candor for comfort. Plays favorites |
| Forgive quickly | Keeps score. Lets it color the next interaction | Says it once, then lets it go | Forgives before anything is named, so the pattern repeats |
| Develop others | Keeps what they know. Treats a teammate as a pair of hands | Hands it over and explains the why | Does it for them instead of with them |
For Some Things There Is No Golden Mean
Almost everything above is a matter of degree. A few things are not. Aristotle is explicit that the doctrine has limits: some acts “imply by their names that they are themselves bad,” and of those “it is not possible, then, ever to be right with regard to them.” There is no correct amount of them, so they are not on the scale.
When Principles Collide
They will. Rigor says check it again; the deadline says ship. Courage says say it now; discernment says not in this room, not in front of these people. Excellence says raise the bar; patience says this is not the week.
There is no rule that decides. Aristotle says the judgment “rests with perception,” meaning the read of a person who is actually present and has done this before. That is why the answer to a hard call is usually a conversation rather than a lookup.
Three practical aids.
Name the collision out loud. “I think rigor and the deadline are fighting here” is a faster route to a decision than arguing the merits as though only one principle were in play.
Correct against your own pull. Aiming straight at the mean undershoots, because your own habit is already bending you. Learn which way you personally miss, then overcorrect. “We shall get into the intermediate state by drawing well away from error, as people do in straightening sticks that are bent.”
The red face test. When a situation is genuinely ambiguous, ask whether you could explain the decision to a respected leader without being red in the face. If not, do not do it.
Which Way Did I Miss?
The most useful question you can ask a peer, given how this page is written, is directional: which way did I miss, too little or too much?
That is far easier for a teammate to answer than a rating, and it is the only kind of answer you can act on. Use it in your feedback conversations, and use it after any meeting or event you ran.
Scripture References
Each entry names the commitment or principle it belongs to, so this section can be read on its own. These are not proof texts. They are the older statement of the same idea, and in several cases they name both failures at once, which is the whole reason this page is written the way it is.
Commitment 1. Hold to the truth, and use it well
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.
Act with integrity
Alma 53:20 And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all, they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
Proverbs 11:3 The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.
Doctrine and Covenants 124:15 And again, verily I say unto you, blessed is my servant Hyrum Smith; for I, the Lord, love him because of the integrity of his heart, and because he loveth that which is right before me, saith the Lord.
Be discerning
Proverbs 11:13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
Proverbs 25:11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Be courageous
Doctrine and Covenants 121:43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy.
Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Commitment 2. Think hard and stay teachable
Doctrine and Covenants 88:118 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
Be curious
Proverbs 18:15 The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.
1 Nephi 10:19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.
Be rigorous
Doctrine and Covenants 9:8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Choose humility
Alma 32:16 Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe.
Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
Proverbs 11:2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.
Seek personal improvement
2 Nephi 28:30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:12-13 And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness.
Commitment 3. Do great work
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Act in faith
Ether 12:6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Strive for excellence
Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.
Doctrine and Covenants 4:2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.
Demonstrate high agency
Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-28 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
Show patience
Mosiah 4:27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.
Doctrine and Covenants 123:17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.
Commitment 4. Make each other better
Doctrine and Covenants 88:122 Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let not all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be edified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.
Respect others
James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
Forgive quickly
Doctrine and Covenants 64:9-10 Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Develop others
Luke 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Ephesians 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.