Our code has no beginning or end. It lives and grows as we do.
#1 Be yourself. We aspire to be the best version of ourselves. We are mindful of our impact on others at all times.
We help each other be comfortable to be our true selves selves at work and we hold each other up to this ideal.
These two gentlemen certainly made their mark on Wiley, and were committed to their individual integrity. Both spent significant time at Wiley as well as boomerang-ing out and returning back to the company. This is Paul Phillips who was at Wiley from 1963 to 2013, and Keith Browning at Wiley from 1975 – 2015.
#2 Be prepared. We believe in preparing ourselves through previous thinking out and practicing how to act in any situation. This way we are never taken by surprise. Like the scouts, we are in a state of readiness to do our best.
We maintain awareness of our surroundings. We actively seek knowledge of what’s new to ensure informed decision making. We arrive early for meetings. We deliver before a deadline. We have a backup.
“Always have a pen knife and a roll of duct tape nearby.” Tom Wiley
#3 Jobs for people. We believe in jobs for people, not people for jobs. We hire for character first, then drive, then skill. Skill can be grown, values comes from within.
We do not compromise on culture fit. Even if the need is great for the skills or experience, we recruit on culture fit first. We are unreasonably selective and have extraordinarily high standards.
#4 Diversity kicks arse! We seek different backgrounds, perspectives and opinions. We also energetically encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply to join our team. We value diversity in our workforce, free of prejudice and discrimination. You will always be surprised by the variety within each of our people – professionally, personally and geographically. Diverse everything and everyone combined with our team culture is how we make a difference and create a better future.
Everyone should be respected equally.
#5 Two is one, one is none. It’s who we are together. We practice this belief to work in pairs for a number of very important reasons. It ensures we are always watching each others backs and maintaining a safe approach to everything we do. It maintains our very high level of quality. It ensures clear empowerment, accountability and ownership of our work by our people. It helps us to always seek a better way, learning and growing from each other’s experience and maintains a supportive community orientation with a mate by our side. It also ensure sustainably in our work if someone becomes unavailable.
#6 If its worth doing, its worth doing well. We value process and we reward following it. This is everyone’s responsibility. We follow process to achieve consistent and quality results. We appreciate these processes have evolved from many years of tried and tested experience. We follow our processes and improve them as we go.
#7 We love data. We believe in basing decisions on data. The best decisions are made from detailed accurate data analysis. We focus on growing our culture of data driven continuous improvement. Debates should be won with better data, not with egos and bigger titles. Just like Billy Beane did with the Oakland A’s base ball team.
#8 No blame. At Wiley, we don’t tolerate blame. We are one team. We share our successes and our failures. To grow you have to take calculated risks and learn from making mistakes. Blame is the opposite of who we are. We own our mistakes. A poor workman always blames his tools.
Mistakes are an important part of life. It’s okay to make mistakes. Take ownership of them and learn from them.
#9 Work hard, play hard. We value people who dream big, get shit done and have fun. Work is a big part of life and should be productive, fulfilling and completely awesome.
#10 Grow. We have a growth mindset. We challenge boundaries. We hold each other to stretch our comfort zones and take reasonable risks to grow from doing, mentoring and learning. We set very high standards, however we hold no expectation of anyone to arrive fully formed. We are all a work in progress. We value passion, dedication, growth and learning.
“To grow our business, we grow our people.”
#11 No dickheads. The point of this code is to weed out inflated egos and make everything about the team.
“A dickhead makes everything about them.”
They are people who put themselves ahead of the team, people who think they’re entitled to things, expect the rules to be different for them, people operating deceitfully in the dark, or being unnecessarily loud about their work.
At Wiley we love honouring other teams and their successful ways, we thank the All Blacks for this one. Click here to read more
#12 Plan – Check – Deliver – Review.
The Plan, Check, Deliver, Review cycle is our model. It is an essential part of our philosophy and a key prerequisite for continuous improvement of our people and processes. “We pride ourselves on taking the time to plan in everything we do.”
#13 Work is what we do and not a place we go.
We give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform superbly, connect & collaborate freely and be where they need to be for their role and their life.
This honours our value of “Empower our people”.
#14 No triangles.
We build teamwork through no triangles. The best way to deal with an issue is directly and authentically with the other person. We all face difficult or troublesome situations from time to time. Your own experiences will tell you that when you make the effort to deal directly with the other person the chances of a good outcome increase tremendously.