TIBs (This I Believe) were written by Bill Caudill between April 2, 1964 until
his death in 1983. The CRS Archives contain over 4,000 TIBs on all kinds of
subjects. Originally, TIBs were distributed by memo to members of the CRS firm.
We are emailing one TIB each week via a LISTSERV to those who may be interested
(See subscription instructions below).
TIBs are also available on the web. To search for and view TIBs, please see
TIBs
Search.
In October 1984, CRSS published a small sub-set of Caudill's TIBs in a book
entitled "The TIBs of Bill Caudill." This book is no longer in print. However,
in the Introduction to this book, Thomas A. Bullock, then-Chairman of
the Board, provided some insight into Caudill's TIBs.
Bill was a great communicator and a caring teacher. For almost 20 years,
he wrote memos he termed simply "This I Believe," or TIBs for short. He averaged
a TIB a week, and each was distributed to the company's leaders and displayed
on office bulletin boards.
Why did he write them?
'Good question,' he once replied. 'To pinpoint things we really believe
in? To encourage and express the openness that characterizes our company?
To communicate thoughts on current issues? To produce responses? To carry
on a continuous writing of our history? Paper therapy? Perhaps all of these.'
Probably the best answer is that he wanted to improve his thinking by
expressing himself regularly in clear, simple thoughts. 'Most of us need to
write/think,' he said.
'Maybe they should be like Kleenex--use them and throw them away. Maybe
they should be recorded--so that some future historians can delve into the
'60s (and '70s) to see 'how those old guys were thinking in those days.' Maybe
I should write a book and make them essentially the leaves. Maybe they should
be made into working-training pamphlets to be used in a school for training
new employees.' . . .
We have two readerships in mind for this work: first, the CRSS employees,
new and old, who can use TIBs to uncover and identify those shared values
so critical to our Quality Consciousness Program; second, the students and
teachers in schools of architecture around the country who can discover--and
in some cases, rediscover--Bill Caudill, an incredibly warm and human person
who believed that learning never stops.
To know Bill was to have hope and enthusiasm for the future. We hope you'll
share in that hope and enthusiasm, that joy of human experience and professional
enterprise, which this volume seeks to convey.
To Subscribe
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by the CRS Center]
For More Information
To learn more about Bill Caudill, please visit the "people" archives.
> People Archives
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