The Core
The Core is a set of best practices culled from over 25 years of research from Jim and Michele McCarthy and teams they have worked with. It is comprised of commitments and protocols. For more information, read the book Software For Your Head. It’s online, free, and covers the The Core in depth.
The Core Commitments
The Core Commitments are an agreement to create a high functioning environment and to accept the responsibility to maintain it.
Commitments
- I commit to engage when present.
- To know and disclose
- what I want,
- what I think, and
- what I feel.
- To always seek effective help.
- To decline to offer and refuse to accept incoherent emotional transmissions.
- When I have or hear a better idea than the currently prevailing idea, I will immediately either
- propose it for decisive acceptance or rejection and/or
- explicitly seek its improvement.
- I will personally support the best idea
- regardless of its source,
- however much I hope an even better idea may later arise, and
- when I have no superior alternative idea.
- I will seek to perceive more than I seek to be perceived.
- I will use teams, especially when undertaking difficult tasks.
- I will speak always and only when I believe it will improve the general results/effort ratio.
- I will offer and accept only rational, results-oriented behavior and communication.
- I will disengage from less productive situations
- When I cannot keep these commitments,
- When it is more important that I engage elsewhere.
- I will do now what must be done eventually and can effectively be done now.
- I will seek to move forward toward a particular goal, by biasing my behavior toward action.
- I will use the Core Protocols (or better) when applicable.
- I will offer and accept timely and proper use of the Protocol Check protocol without prejudice.
- I will neither harm—nor tolerate the harming of—anyone for his or her fidelity to these commitments.
- I will never do anything dumb on purpose.
The Core Protocols
The Core Protocols help teams better understand and support the commitments.
Protocols
License
The Core is distributed under GNU-PL.
The Core Commitments and The Core Protocols are part of The Core developed by Jim and Michele McCarthy.
The Core is distributed under the terms of the GNU-PL. For exact terms see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt. The Core is considered as source code under that agreement. You are free to use and distribute this work or any derivations you care to make, provided you also distribute this source document in its entirety, including this paragraph.
Software For Your Head
The evolution of The Core can be read about in the books Software for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision (available in paperback and online), and Dynamics of Software Development (paperback).