The 5th Golden Rule?

The 5th Golden Rule?

True Productions is proud to be committed to our core values. They hang in our workspace. We talk about them every day. We start every company meeting with a review of these values. When a project gets tough, we remind ourselves: “We finish what we start.” We don’t just just talk about these values–we live them. 

Our Core Values

We do what we say. You can feel confident that if we tell you we’re going to do something, it will get done. 

We finish what we start. We only provide value for you if we complete the projects we start. Accountability is ownership. 

We show up on time. We value our time, which means we also value yours. Punctuality is the key to high performance in our office. 

We say please and thank you. We treat you and ourselves with respect. Common courtesy is a little something that makes the work days brighter. 

 
Our 4 golden rules

In anticipation of our quarterly meeting next week, I’ve been thinking about whether these values are all still relevant and important to us. I honestly didn’t have to think about that long at all. They are relevant and important. End of discussion.

But I also found myself considering whether there were any omissions to this list, and I think I may have found one. If the True Productions team had a 5th Golden Rule, I think it would be a simple one. “Give.” You may have noticed that our email signatures read “In Your Service.” That’s meant to capture a spirit of giving and overall commitment to service. We’re here to help. We give our time and expertise to help make your project a success. So we give back to our clients on a daily basis. But we also take time every week to decide  together how to direct the company’s monthly charitable donations. Every month, we each present a cause that’s important to us, and we decide together how True Productions will give back to those in need.

In the past year, we’ve donated to the following organizations:

  • SOS Children’s Village
  • Poverty Alleviation Charities
  • Greater Chicago Food Depository
  • Breakthrough Chicago
  • Give India
  • St. Leonard’s House
  • Jackson Chance Foundation
  • Anti-Cruelty Society

 As we meet as a team later today, we’ll decide where to direct our charitable giving for the month of March. We’re a small company, so maybe these donations aren’t as impressive as a massive corporation’s would be, but we know that in the end, ever bit helps. 

We’re tracking these charitable foundations on our about page now, so you can watch that space for updates if you’re interested to see what we choose next.