On the recent anniversary of my birth, I was given a gift by my dear friend, Julie. She handed me a box and told me that without knowing why, she saw this and thought of me. I opened the small box and, to my pleasant surprise, I recognized it as something I consider to be the key to success in business and in having an enriched life. Inside the box was an extremely smooth oblong stone with the word "Quality" carved into it. After sincerely thanking Julie I told her that quality is the one word that I would choose to represent both what seems to be lacking in the world today and also a clue to finding it.

Quality is a buzzword that has been tossed around a lot in recent years; but, I don't think we have given much thought to its true essence. In the most universally applicable terms, I like to think of quality as the degree to which something approaches its true nature. Such a definition may appear to be quite Zen-like, but this should be of no surprise. Quality must go beyond meeting objectives or goals. It must also include the process - the creator, the created and the environment.

As an example, I can successfully manufacture working widgets at a rate of 110% of my anticipated goal. However, if there is absolutely no demand for widgets, how can I say that I make quality widgets? This is akin to the famous Zen saying: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

There is much more to life than merely producing things. It doesn't matter what you do or how much of it you do. If you can become yourself in the process or "be all that you can be", as the slogan goes, you are on the road to self-discovery in realizing your full potential as a human being. Quality is the intrinsic nature of all things. It isn't something we can buy and apply. We have to look inward for it, embrace it and manifest it.

I first began thinking about quality in 1989 when the international, not-for-profit corporation with which I was employed at the time added the newly developed ISO 9000 Standards to its certification services. These standards were developed in 1987 by the International Standards Organization which define requirements and procedures for ensuring that products and services meet a generally accepted level of quality. More simply, a company who complies with these requirements may be thought of as a company of quality.

Shortly after adding this certification service, my former employer implemented its own internal quality improvement program. I'm sure most large US corporations adapted programs with a similar structure: to determine objectives, to establish procedural guidelines, to identify and track defects, to create an action team for the purpose of eliminating defects, and to reward said teams. The ultimate goal being "zero defects". I was not alone in feeling that millions of dollars were wasted on this program in more ways than the direct payment of an outside source for providing the initial two day training for thousands of employees. Once trained, we were required to have regular department quality meetings. Most of my colleagues enjoyed the free bagels, donuts and coffee at these meetings. Beyond that, the meetings seemed unproductive and began to detract from the work at hand.

I felt something was missing and began exploring how I could improve the quality of my own work. I wanted to take responsibility - not for the company, but for my duties specifically. Without digressing into the details of my job tasks, I will just say that my output rose sharply to a consistent level by 200%. It was possible to have even improved my output to 500-800% if I were so inclined. But, quantity was irrelevant here. I was not a commission salesman - I was a certification engineer. Because human productivity is a convolution of factors with quantity being only one, I was more interested in improving my complete work system including my relationship to the work environment and my ethics.

The turning point for me in that business was brought about by a short book titled The Tao of Leadership by John Heider This was a westernized adaptation of Tao Te Ching, the ancient work attributed to Lao Tzu, considered by most to be the founder of Taoist philosophy. Originally Tao Te Ching was written with feuding kingdoms in mind. It has an imperial flare which is not to dissimilar from corporate competition that is quite fierce these days. After my introduction to this work through the book mentioned above, I read a few translations of Tao Te Ching and adapted some of its simplest philosophies to my work ethics Essentially, I explored the primary concepts of the tao, wu-wei, and te. Then, I changed how I analyzed problems and how I worked with others. There was no more finger pointing or placement of blame regardless of where the problems were. If something was within my power to resolve, then I alone took action. If not, then I ignored it. Taking action included my actually creating a solution or simply alerting others to the problem if I could not. Something outside of my power implied that any energy spent would be a vain effort and counterproductive. (For more on Taoist philosophy, I recommend Tao Te Ching, most translations are fine, and Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts.)

In the quality of business matters, there is a definite but often neglected relationship in play, an interdependency among workers, the work process, the environment and the provided product or service. Therefore, improvement is most readily made at the system level. And, the best way to make a systemic improvement is to place emphasis on what must be considered the core of the system. This core is the human factor. The only way to truly improve the human factor is for each individual to take responsibility for his or her own system, all of the elements that are within his or her power.

Since everyone has different needs and thought processes, a generic quality improvement system like the ones I've seen do not function on the system level. They seem to be mostly process-focused. Those who see success are merely treating the symptom and not the cause which is ultimately in human perception. It's like treating a rash with ointment while the cause such as an allergy or ailing organ like the liver goes unnoticed. A quality facilitator should work with individuals in a corporate environment like a holistic health practitioner works with a patient. A holistic health practitioner takes all aspects of a patient's life into consideration during treatment and the treatments will very. So, too, in this manner must the quality of business and life itself be addressed.

Individuals are solely responsible for their own quality. I am not able to choose the fruit that life bears for me. But, if I'm handed a lemon, I can choose to complain or simply make lemonade - no doubt, you've heard this before. If I am unhappy with my job, the unhappiness will manifest in my work. If I love my work, but do not work well with my co-workers, than this will also manifest in my work. I must take action in all cases. I shouldn't fear change and settle for status quo. Change is the nature of the world and I should be willing to adapt to the situation to maximize quality.

So far, I've looked at quality from the perspective of business. Ironically, when I conceived the idea for this article, I had in mind to write about my search for a lifestyle rich in quality. But, as you may see, it is easy to extrapolate quality from the business sector and into the other side of life.

Taoist philosophy is universal. It is not the only way to a life of quality; but, it was the first roadmap I looked at on this life-long journey. It alerted me to the dynamics of the universe and my place in it. It is a salmon's nature to swim upstream for spawning. However, it is not in human nature to go against the current of life. To be most productive, I must discover the flow of my own river system and adapt accordingly.

The key to success in the endeavor is to take ownership for everything. I try to think of others as a part of my true self. When I observe a problem that affects my life and it is apparently caused by someone else, I take responsibility and ask myself, "what can I do to improve this situation". If someone offends me, such as a driver cutting me off on the freeway, the only thing I have power over is whether or not I fume. Though we all often become angry in such a case, it is rather futile. Similarly, in business, an immovable bureaucratic obstacle shouldn't be pushed. It should be circumvented when possible and treated as a monument, something to learn from.

The origin of quality is in the human factor. If I can recognize the quality in myself and apply it, all of the byproducts will manifest quality. When each employee of a corporation recognizes the quality in himself or herself, and applies it, human productivity will manifest quality - in the process and product associated within that person's system.

No one can say whether or not someone else is manifesting quality. Only you can know you. And, not everyone can say "I know myself" because, in fact, most people do not know what they really want out of life. If we as individuals take time to discover our place in the universe and accept responsibility, more people would become self-actualized and the world as a whole would show a remarkable improvement in the quality of all things.