The Principles that Guide Us

All of are driven by the principles we believe, and the actions we practice prove our dedication to these principles.

Several years ago, as part of personal writing processes, and in business consulting, we chose to make the principles that drive our activities professionally and personally, available to our clients and friends. Here they are:

The Twelve Laws of Understanding

Copyright 2003 Creative Team Resources Group, Inc.
Glen Aubrey * All Rights Reserved.

These are Life Lessons: learn them, love them, and live them. Along with a description of Core Team, they are listed in these three books, below, and available through www.CreativeTeamPublishing, or you may access them directly through Barnes and Noble:

• Leadership Is How To Build Your Legacy Pg. 254
  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/leadership-is-how-to-build-your-legacy-glen-aubrey/1104710520;jsessionid=440136F5A8C472584F1F9289739A4067.prodny_store02-atgap11?ean=9780983891987

• Industrial Strength Solutions * Build Successful Work Teams! Pgs. 100 – 115
  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/industrial-strength-solutions-glen-aubrey/1111674870?ean=9780985597931

• Core Teams Work Their Principles and Practices Pgs. 203 – 208, and this book integrates all three books.
  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/core-teams-work-their-principles-and-practices-glen-e-aubrey/1008903091?ean=9780979735806

The reason they are called The Twelve Laws of Understanding: when followed they produce understanding and agreement of appropriate human behavior and help us change our behaviors when we understand the laws and their values. In fact, we call this a Value System. Here it is:

Value System

The Twelve Laws of Understanding

1. Realize I am responsible for my own choices, not other’s; that changing someone else’s behavior is not my responsibility; rather, I need to change me.
2. Seek to understand how the other person thinks and communicates; use his/her language.
3. Model what I want.
4. Set realistic limits on what is acceptable behavior.
5. Impose these limits on myself, first.
6. Desire the best, but prepare for difficulty; seek creative, peaceful solutions.
7. Seek and pray for wisdom.
8. Remember—at all the right times.
9. Encourage always.
10. Think first, listen most, speak seldom.
11. Realize growth involves change, change can mean pain, and patience on the journey is a virtue.
12. Love. Establish meaningful, giving relationships.

Upon development of these maxims, one of the actions taken early on was to publicly post the Twelve Laws so that they were visible to everyone who visited our office. Were all of our actions in perfect alignment with these laws all of the time? No, but diligent efforts were made on a consistent basis to follow them.

There is a difference between a list of values, which every Core Team should create for the team and strive to obey these (remember the ‘O’ in C O R E of Core Team is Obedience to Shared and Agreed Values). A Value System, like The Twelve Laws of Understanding, should naturally flow from the Twelve Laws, illustrating in action what is agreed to in principle. The principles are Relationships (choices team members make about each other’s successes) and laws are Functions (proof actions) which follow these choices.

If you are part of a team, and a writer, let me encourage you to create a list of Values (intangibles, usually) and follow them up with actions (tangible and verifiable actions, or functions). It’s all about establishing how we choose to live and encouraging our lives to be illustrations of what we truly believe.