Foundational Skills

We gain trust by acting as honest brokers. Our primary concern is mission outcomes. We are not here to sell a specific product and try our best to align that to the mission.

• Understand the mission, process. A good consultant understands their customer. Become curious about the customer needs, business processes, etc. If you will be supporting a given customer for months, then take a day to understand some basics of enabling legislation, other industry groups, etc.
• Build trust. We earn trusted advisor status with our clients. We do not push solutions or try to force extra revenue where there isn’t clear value for the client. More revenue or profit will come if we are focusing on the client best interest first.

Reach-back Support

Pluribus is a company with many people with many skills and backgrounds working across multiple contracts and customers. Each of us is stronger if support each other. We all get stuck on problems or simply want another opinion on an important decisions.

If you are puzzling through something...

• You are obligated to perform some basic research and put in some effort to solve the problem.
• If you are struggling with something beyond that, you are obligated to reach out for help.
• If someone reaches out for help, you are obligated to put in a reasonable effort to help them.

How to get help:

• For simpler quick-answer questions, feel free to crowd-source support (e.g., in the #development or #design slack channels)
  • Example: “Does anyone recommend a python library for generating mock data?”
  • Example: “Does anyone have a good artifact template for a service blueprint?”
• For deeper support, start with your performance manager to triage who would be best to pair with.
  • Example: “I am getting ramped up on Kotlin and need some occasional pointers.”

Inclusion

Each of us have responsibilities to make our fellow team members feel included and able to fully contribute. This is especially true for those from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the field.

• Every employee must be respectful in interactions with team members.
• Every employee should find ways to foster inclusion in their teams.
• Every leader must foster an environment of inclusion and psychological safety, and escalate issues that threaten that environment.

Scouting rule

Pluribus teams and our government customers can always improve the way we operate. In addition to delivering the primary work of a contract, we should always be seeking to “leave it better than we found it.” This is a deliberately vague guidance meant to apply to almost anything: process improvement, technical tools, new artifact templates, tidying documentation, etc.

If you see a spill on the floor, pick up the mop.