Reinforce the standard or it lowers.

principle — attributed to Seth Moulton

The Marine maxim Moulton lives by is unsentimental. The first time you walk past someone doing something below the standard and do not correct them, you have just set a new lower standard. Establishing mission and values is the easy part. Continually reinforcing them is the discipline most leaders skip. The reinforcement is daily, granular, and often awkward. It is also the only mechanism through which a stated standard becomes the actual standard. Without it, the values document on the wall describes a place that does not exist.

For senior leaders responsible for organizational culture. The principle is most useful as a daily check on the leader's own willingness to make small corrections in the moment.

standards, marine-corps, vigilance, leadership-discipline