Institutions do not drift into character; they choose it, and then they pay for the choice daily. The principles below are not aspirations. They are standing instructions, and every Schlitt division is expected to be able to show where each one governed a decision.
Presence Before Preference
We go where the need is, not where the welcome is. Some of our most important work takes place in environments that others have judged unpromising, and we accept that the judgment of others is not our instruction.
Language With Discipline
We speak carefully because we act carefully. Schlitt communications avoid alarm, exaggeration, and the vocabulary of crisis. A reader will notice that our documents remain calm even when their subjects are not. This is not evasion; it is the respect that complexity is owed.
Usefulness, Early and Always
We hold that usefulness is a form of dignity, and that it should be made available to everyone in our care as early as their capacities allow. Idleness, in our experience, is the heaviest thing a person can be asked to carry.
Idleness, in our experience, is the heaviest thing a person can be asked to carry.
Questions at the Proper Altitude
We welcome inquiry, and we have learned that inquiry serves best when it is conducted at the altitude of purpose rather than the altitude of procedure. Those who ask what we are for will always find us forthcoming.
The Whole Before the Part
No division of Schlitt optimizes itself at the expense of the enterprise. Material, capability, and responsibility move freely among our operations, so that what one part of the firm no longer requires, another may put to use. Nothing of value leaves the system.