Code of Honour

• In front of your capo, hold your tongue until you’re called. When he asks, keep it short: a long answer sounds like an excuse.
• In front of people, you and your capo are one. Do your arguing in the kitchen.
• Backing a man before outsiders is not agreeing with him on the substance.
• Correct your capo’s opinion in the kitchen. A wrong figure, at once, but let him be the one to say the right one.
• Check the limits of an order. Otherwise it gets done to the letter, and it’s you they shout at.
• Bow too low and it reads as fear. Respect is shown in deeds.
• An order: the goal, the deadline, whom to listen to, who pays. Leave the method to the man doing it.
• He who gives orders all day raises men who wait for orders.
• Let a trusted man do the small haggling.
• A request from a respected man outweighs an order.
• The fewer people in the room, the more honest the talk.
• A meeting’s rules tell you what it’s afraid of.
• Write down figures, deadlines and promises. Keep the rest in your head.
• A code that stands out gives itself away.
• Reading lies on a face is a coin toss. Check with deeds and details.
• If the story has changed in two weeks, go and check the fact. If it matches word for word, go anyway.
• Whoever can’t lie, lies by keeping quiet. Ask what was left unsaid.
• Loose talk lives not where it’s dangerous, but where tempers run hot.
• A code is worthless if you don’t know who’s at the table.
• A note is safe until it’s read aloud.
• The strongest word is the one you never said.