A year from now, you’ll probably remember having good reasons for the decisions you made. It will be harder to remember what you believed before you made them. That’s a good reason to write it down now.

Say your company believes people do their best work when they’re trusted. Put that in a sentence everyone can understand. You may find that you disagree about what trust means. Does it mean people choose how to do the work? Can they make a decision without asking first? Work through those questions and put the answers in the document. That’s more useful than getting everyone to agree to a reassuring word.

Then keep the document. In a year, read it alongside the decisions you’ve actually made. If every small choice still requires someone’s approval, you’ll have a gap to explain. Perhaps you haven’t given people the freedom you intended. Perhaps experience has changed your mind about what needs oversight. Either way, you have something specific to examine.

Writing your beliefs down lets you see when they change. Without that record, it’s easy to tell yourself this is what you meant all along.