Guiding Principles: Three Initial Suggestions, Please Add More

[Arik Johnson]

Results-Oriented Efficiency: nothing goes on the task list simply for protocol's sake or because it might be less "structured" without it. If we can find a shortcut, we take it; productivity, speed and the comparative influence of ideas are the coin of the realm.

Pay-as-You-Go, No Budget, No Money & Cash Flows to Producers of Value: if there is no organization for the IRS to set its sights on or entity for the IP trolls to sue, then this becomes a movement that also won't force a zero-sum choice to become a member and membership can always be free.

Intellectual Property is Owned by the Producer: unless it's specifically released under a Copyleft or Attribution/Share-Alike (by-sa) license, with the knowledge that the by-sa license will ultimately be the most viral for the propagation of the author's ideas.

[Eric Garland]

FUN: You'll know you're doing the right things when they appear easy and fun.

Intelligence is often sophisticated and difficult. TALKING about intelligence, learning about it, sharing it with new people should be the opposite.

[Arik Johnson]

Yup, I'm all for fun - I think the overshoot in many intelligence conversations results from a pervasive assumption that we've got a target on our chests and need to justify our work by looking smart. This invariably leads to overcomplicated concepts and language most people struggle to understand - I'm guilty of this myself by the way! I'm not saying you don't need a good head on your shoulders to get this stuff, but the TALKING part of your reply above is key - talking with colleagues is not the same as pontificating or putting your ideas out of reach of the layman.

[Arik Johnson]

Blatant Self-Promotion Devoid of Educational Value Looks Desperate: not that we all don't need to sell ourselves and our businesses, but it's our ideas that matter and nobody likes to be spammed, so sell those instead. Pitching for pitching's sake doesn't generally work anyhow, because the more spammy the message, the more desperate it looks and the less likely people are to want what you're selling since you clearly are having trouble finding customers; so let's agree to ignore the messages with a payload comprised predominantly of silly claims for products and services and listen instead to the marketers among us who have something of real value to share that elevates the dialog.

[August Jackson]

STFU AND DO IT: If you have an idea for a program, event, some form of improvement, publication article that is going to require labor then it is on you to get it started, lend your labor to the goal and see it through.

[Arik Johnson]

Right on! Lead by example - delegation is overrated.

[Alli Marshall]

What about:
Transparency

Start small -> focus on ~3 key things to start with that we can all rally around and expand from there

Build a common community around common language -> this would be in my top 3 list, particularly if one of the top 3 goals is to engage other folks from other milieus in this community.

I know we all work with our own pet definitions, but if we could agree to an 80% solution on common vocabulary (which has probably already been written by some of the contributors to this community) that would be a great step towards demystifying our work and how it interfaces with and contributes to other disciplines.

I like the idea of creating some visual aids for communication around what CI is - I saw that Max had put up a diagram and I know there was a mindmap of CI in a previous discussion. Personally I love Tim Powell's Knowledge Value Chain. Perhaps it could be expanded, with Tim's help and blessing, to include specific examples of inputs, outputs and processes that are used in a variety of CI applications, e.g. CTI, marketing, sales, market entry, as well as all the non-business CI applications etc.