Peace of Culture: The Magic of Impeccable Agreements

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a magical company where everyone did everything they said they were going to do. And if they couldn’t do something they committed to, they were quick to note it, take responsibility for it, update their projected timeline or actions, and get back to work. Every person interacted with a deep trust in one another. And what’s more, goals and projections were always trusted because people were constantly transparent about where things were at. The company moved faster, performed higher, and felt better for everyone involved.

What was the fairy dust this organization ran on? Conscious Living & Conscious Leadership Group’s simple concept of Impeccable Agreements. In working with my clients, this tends to be both the item that people are most hesitant to implement (because it feels foreign) and most transformed by when they do (because it brings peace of mind, team trust, and higher performance).

Photo by Shane Rounce

What are Impeccable Agreements?

A cultural value of doing what you say you’re going to do.

This transforms companies because it leads to more trust, higher morale, and more productivity.

How would we implement them?

I recommend chapter 12 in The Great CEO Within for a more holistic read (~10 min read)

Write up your own version (or use Matt Mochary’s version from The Great CEO Within) of what Impeccable Agreements are. Share that with management. Do a trial first with your management team (or even just 1–2 people on the team) to get a feel for its benefits. Here’s how it works:

1. Start using the language of ‘agreements’. When someone commits to something in a meeting, 1–1, planning cycle, or even casual conversation get in the habit of asking if it’s an agreement. If it is an agreement, it should be precisely defined (clear deadline, outcome, or action), agreed to be the person/people involved, and clearly noted where everyone involved can see it. Example: in a meeting, a team member says they can take the lead on fixing that specific issue. Ask if that’s an agreement. If they say yes, ask what exactly they will do by when. They might note they will spend 15 minutes thinking about it and get back to you by tomorrow on the right next step: it doesn’t have to be a huge action, but it should be something that they feel is realistic and well defined. Then, note it somewhere everyone has access to (meeting notes, shared planners, etc).
2. If someone needs to modify an agreement, they absolutely can! To create a high momentum, high trust culture agreements should be modified as soon as the person realizes they will be missed with clear next steps and if relevant system updates to prevent similar misses in the future. Example 1: I know I committed to getting you the customer feedback report by tomorrow. I realize now I overcommitted myself this week, and would like to get that to you by next Tuesday instead.
3. Be on top of it. If people are making ‘sloppy agreements’ (saying they’ll do something, not doing them or updating their agreements), call it out immediately. This will quickly catch on but often takes a strong leader to set the tone and ‘nag people’ a bit for them to realize this is being taken seriously.

But…

This feels really far away for our current culture.

If that’s the case, you likely also feel far away from the feeling of trust in your team, peace of mind that people will take care of the things they said they’ll take care of, and high momentum productivity. All of those things are worth going out of your comfort zone to get, right? Start small by implementing this with just 1 team member that you feel comfortable with. Then, if you are seeing the results, roll it out.

Won’t this take a lot of time?

The only extra time this will require is when someone has to ‘update’ an agreement they made, which can easily and quickly be done on slack/email, in a conversation or in a meeting in 1 minute.

Implementing it may take some time and focus from the internal leadership, but it is a 1 time investment that will lay a strong foundation for the rest of your company’s life.