Quality and Ethics

Human desire is the driver of human existence. The desire and need for basic goods such as water and food, warmth and protection, relationships and things, power and wealth. That is why it says in the ancient Law of Moses from Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 5,21) that you “should not desire your neighbor’s wife, or your neighbor’s house or land, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

In order to control “desire”, man is from the beginning equipped with an “inner voice”, or what we call “conscience”. The interaction of different voices of conscience in turn created different ethical models to deal with the difficult challenges on a higher level, while common sense and different forms of religious life created moral rules for human interaction and development. All of it — for hundreds of years — surrounded by national and international legislation that was supposed to promote and protect the community’s interests.

In this diversity of voices, ethics, morality and law, a leader must show the way towards common goals and success. Skilled people want to achieve a lot, but far too many do not anchor their ambitions in their own values and in their own self. Then what happens is, according to old wisdom, described as:

“Up like a lion, and down like an old blanket.” Because: “A tree that wants to grow high must grow deep”.

The egg as a symbol and as an illustration tells step by step about how the external process at all times must be anchored in a corresponding internal process.

Interested? Go ahead! Let us ask: how is your tree?

Intro film coming

The place for this secret’s intro film is reserved here. It fills in when the recording arrives.

The Quality Ladder must be understood in light of the figure-eight loop described in Secret 3. The colours carry the same meaning, but here double-loop learning is translated into a stepwise progression across six levels. Each step represents a distinct level of quality. The next level can never be reached unless all requirements at the underlying level have been fulfilled. The terminology used will be familiar from Total Quality Management (TQM). As in the figure-eight loop, the Quality Ladder distinguishes between two different “universes”: one below and one above the waterline. Below the surface, work is governed by planned development and controllable procedures. Above the surface, it is driven by continuous improvement, dynamic work processes, and emerging goals.

Above the waterline we encounter a qualitative shift — a small quantum leap in leadership philosophy. Leadership moves from being controlled by a single authority — a captain, director, or general — to a distributed model, where responsibility is shared across multiple leadership processes. These must be coordinated, like a flock of birds, to move in the same direction.

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Lesson 11,2 · Egg Symbol

More about core values in Secret 11,2 — Egg Symbol.