Werner Erhard Quotes

Integrity: Where Leadership Begins – A New Model of Integrity

wernererhardquotes — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:52:21 +0000

“We present a positive model of integrity that provides powerful access to increased performance for individuals, groups, organizations, and societies. Our model reveals the causal link between integrity as we distinguish and define it, and increased performance and value-creation for all entities. And our model provides access to that causal link.

The philosophical discourse, and common usage as reflected in dictionary definitions, leave an overlap and confusion among the four phenomena of integrity, morality, ethics, and legality. This confounds the terms so that the efficacy and potential power of each of them is seriously diminished.

In this new model, we distinguish all four phenomena (integrity, morality, ethics, and legality) as existing within two separate realms, and within those realms as belonging to distinct and separate domains. Integrity exists in a positive realm devoid of normative content. Morality, ethics and legality exist in a normative realm of virtues, but in separate and distinct domains. This new model: 1) encompasses all four terms in one consistent theory, 2) makes the “moral compass” potentially available in each of the three virtue phenomena clear and unambiguous, and 3) does this in a way that raises the likelihood of those now clear moral compasses actually shaping human behavior.

This all falls out primarily from the unique treatment of integrity in our model as a purely positive phenomenon, independent of normative value judgments. Integrity is thus not about good or bad, or right or wrong, or what should or should not be.

We distinguish integrity as a phenomenon of the objective state or condition of an object, system, person, group, or organizational entity, and define integrity as: a state or condition of being whole, complete, unbroken, unimpaired, sound, perfect condition.

We assert that integrity (the condition of being whole and complete) is a necessary condition for workability, and that the resultant level of workability determines the available opportunity for performance. Hence, the way we treat integrity in our model provides an unambiguous and actionable access to superior performance (however one wishes to define performance).

For an individual we distinguish integrity as a matter of that person’s word being whole and complete, and for a group or organizational entity as what is said by or on behalf of the group or organization being whole and complete. In that context, we define integrity for an individual, group, or organization as: Honoring one’s word.

Oversimplifying somewhat, honoring your word as we define it means you either keep your word (do what you said you would do and by the time you said you would do it), or as soon as you know that you will not, you say that you will not to those who were counting on your word and clean up any mess caused by not keeping your word.

Honoring your word is also the route to creating whole and complete social and working relationships. In addition, it provides an actionable pathway to earning the trust of others.

We demonstrate that the application of cost-benefit analysis to one’s integrity guarantees you will not be a trustworthy person (thereby reducing the workability of relationships), and with the exception of some minor qualifications ensures also that you will not be a person of integrity (thereby reducing the workability of your life). Therefore your performance will suffer. The virtually automatic application of cost-benefit analysis to honoring one’s word (an inherent tendency in most of us) lies at the heart of much out-of-integrity and untrustworthy behavior in modern life.

In conclusion, we show that defining integrity as honoring one’s word provides 1) an unambiguous and actionable access to superior performance and competitive advantage at both the individual and organizational level, and 2) empowers the three virtue phenomena.” – abstract for Integrity: Where Leadership Begins – A New Model of Integrity

-Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen, & Steve Zaffron

Results

wernererhardquotes — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:04:36 +0000

In life you wind up with one of two things – the results or the reason why you don’t have the results. Results don’t have to be explained. They just are.

- Werner Erhard

Life is a Game

wernererhardquotes — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:41:05 +0000

Life is a game. In order to have a game, something has to be more important than something else. If what already is, is more important than what isn’t, the game is over. So, life is a game in which what isn’t, is more important than what is.

-Werner Erhard

Leadership

wernererhardquotes — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:42:16 +0000

“Instead of looking for a great leader, we are in an era where each of us needs to find the great leader within ourselves.”

- Werner Erhard

Context

wernererhardquotes — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:48:54 +0000

“Context is the freedom to be…It has no form, no place in time; it allows form and time.”

-Werner Erhard

Being

wernererhardquotes — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:18:35 +0000

“I want you to shift your perspective from living your life to being an actor playing the lead role in a play called your life.”

- Werner Erhard

Making A Difference

wernererhardquotes — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:07:04 +0000

“What we create together is a relationship in which our work can show up as making a difference in people’s lives. I welcome the unprecedented opportunity for us to work globally on that which concerns us all as human beings.”

- Werner Erhard

Werner Erhard on Power

wernererhardquotes — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:16:22 +0000

“Your power is a function of velocity, that is to say, your power is a function of the rate at which you translate intention into reality. Most of us disempower ourselves by finding a way to slow, impede, or make more complex than necessary the process of translating intention into reality.

There are two factors worth examining in our impairing velocity, in our disempowering ourselves.

The first is the domain of reasonableness. When we deal with our intentions or act to realize our intentions from reasonableness, we are in the realm of slow, impede and complicate. When we are oriented around the story or the narrative, the explanations, the justifications, we are oriented around that in which there is no velocity, no power.

Results are black and white. In life, one either has results (one’s intentions realized) or one has the reason, story, explanations, and justifications. The person of power does not deal in explanations. This way of being might be termed management by results (not management for results but management by results). The person of power manages him or herself by results and creates a space or mood of results in which to interact with others.” [more at the Friends of Werner Erhard Website]

- Werner Erhard

Happiness

wernererhardquotes — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:13:27 +0000

“One of the things I am really sure about is nothing will make you happy. Very few things I am really sure about. That is one of things I am really sure about. Nothing will make you happy. It may give you give you a jolt. It may make you gleeful but it isn’t going to make you happy. What does that mean nothing will make you happy.

It means what it says: there is no thing that’s going to make a person happy. Most people think gee when I graduate then life will be great. No. You graduate that’s wonderful but life still ain’t great. When I get married then life will be great. Not true. Well when I get divorced then it will be ok. Or when I get promoted, whatever it is, when I get a new car. When I get a chance to go on this new vacation… All of you have to do is to watch people on vacation and you can see very clearly vacations do not make people happy. No, no, no.

Most people live their lives working towards something, working for something, that they think is going to make them happy. And it’s really the Peggy Lee song “Is that all there is?”. No matter what it is you get that you think is going to make you happy I can promise you that in a very short time after you get it you’re gonna be well “Is that all there is? Is that all there is to that? You mean it’s not filling my life with joy?” Yes, that’s right it, it isn’t.

You have to bring happiness to life. You don’t get happiness out of life. What is there to be happy about? Nothing. When you can be happy about nothing. Just be happy. You know “I am happy” – those words are sacred. It’s like a declaration, it’s like a place from which I come, it’s like a stand I take upon myself. Its not I am pretending to be happy, it’s not I am acting happy. No. I am happy!” – Werner Erhard

Heroes

wernererhardquotes — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:59:27 +0000

“Heroes are ordinary men and women who dare to see and meet the call of a possibility bigger than themselves. Breakthroughs are created by such heroes, by men and women who will stand for the result while it is only a possibility – people who will act to make possibility real.”

-Werner Erhard