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Principles (or tenets, team manifests, values etc.) can shape the culture of an Engineering organization.

They can guide Engineers if they apply them in their day-to-day work . When I was promoted to a Director role, creating Engineering Principles was one of the first things I tackled. However, I quickly found out that just having them was not enough - our Engineers need to remember them to apply them. 

Bringing our Engineering Principles up in 1-on-1 conversations I had with my direct reports proved helpful, but I wouldn’t reach everyone I wanted. 

Should I force everyone to memorize our Engineering Principles, and have them take tests? That feels like 4th grade! 

Instead, I came up with a few interactive games that we play as warm-up sessions or team-building exercises. In this talk, I want to share a few ideas that you can copy, or that inspire you to come up with your own games!