Faith – A Seed of Excellence

“In genuine cultivation of practice, in the end there is just one road: carrying out vows.” Master Nan Huau Chin expresses my beliefs about faith well. A belief system that is not practiced has little value. My wife and I were talking recently about marriage. Like most couples, we wonder why we got together and why we’ve stayed together for thirty-six years.

I told her that, for me, it has to do with the wedding vows – the richer, poorer and the sickness, health and the other promises. Faith in someone or self or something requires making a serious commitment. I do not make many vows, but the few I make determine how I live daily.

I have to practice all the time. The practice is imperfect. It can also be frustrating, exhausting, and boring. When I vow to do something, the vow leads to goals, plans, actions, and evaluations. These are necessary to know how well I am keeping faith with my philosophy, my mission, my values.

Faith, as a seed of excellence, works the same in all of life, including work. When a company or a person has faith in an idea or a change for improvement, that is the first step. A biblical verse says, “Faith without works is dead.” What does that mean, when applied to business?

It might be that all involved must believe in the new idea or change; have faith that it will work and vow to make it work. The understanding and acceptance of anything new or different is a huge step, and takes time. Making the idea work is ten times harder. Most companies declare that the new idea or change is the way that work will be done. Then they forget to develop an implementation plan, thinking that the vow is sufficient. Saying something is so doesn’t make it so.

Faith as a seed of excellence for me involves the vision, the vow, the quixotic journey to help others understand and accept, practicing what I believe all the time, and the humble realization that it takes all involved collaborating in practical ways to keep the faith(and do the real work).

Posted January 6th, 2007 in Seeds of Excellence

A Decision Only Starts A Process

We’ve been working on a renewed website for over a year. It’s amusing and amazing how long it takes from an initial decision to the launch of something new or renewed. As I read in the paper this morning, “a decision is but a beginning.” The quote is from Soren Kierkegaard, one of my favorite, gloomy philosophers. He knew that growth requires more than a belief; and taught that one must take “a leap of faith.”

As 2007 begins, I’ll take a leap(maybe it’s more of a hop) into writing articles regularly that interest me and that might be helpful to you in practicing what matters. My interests are many, but these articles will be about excellence and how to achieve operational excellence.

The decision is made and declared to you. Hold me accountable by reading the articles and letting me know what you like and what you dislike. Check out the other pages on the website. Look at the older articles that I have added during the website development.

Posted January 6th, 2007 in Observations, Operational Excellence