Something I’ve noticed high performing teams in a range of contexts have are maxims. You will have come across maxims before even if they’ve not been explicitly called one. A maxim is:

“a ground rule or subjective principle of action; in that sense, a maxim is a thought that can motivate individuals”.

It is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy as: Generally any simple and memorable rule or guide for living; for example, ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be’.

And whilst we all have sayings we like in life maxims take this to another level because maxims help your team know how culturally we operate in our teams.

For example a maxim might be ‘the grass grows greenest where you water it most’ and this is used to make sure we are focusing on the areas we want to see the best results (results being anything).

If you want an environment of risk taking a maxim you might have is ‘mistakes are chances for us to all learn’ or ‘problems are opportunities for growth’. These maxims should become almost like automatic responses to the situations they apply to.

You don’t want a lot of them but you will want a good few that really set out what you are about and help direct your team’s energy and behaviour.

What maxims do you already have in your school?