In 1980 the Ford Motor Company was facing declining sales, negative public image, and poor employee morale. Japanese cars were making American automobiles, including Ford, look like junk. Ford came up with a new slogan to help boost sales. From 1981-1998 the Ford Motor Company used the slogan, “Quality is Job One.” Early in its history Henry Ford was famous for saying of the Model T, “You can have any color you want as long as it is black.” This phrase implied the quality of the Model T is not in its color but being the best car the middle class consumer could buy. Don’t worry about the color; the quality is in the product itself.
Quality seems a simple concept at first glance. The Oxford Dictionary provides the classic definition of the word: “the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something: an improvement in product quality so people today enjoy a better quality of life.”
This definition, used by Ford, is consistent with how most of us look at quality everyday when we buy groceries, pick a restaurant or doctor, purchase a car, and choose a hat or even a vacuum. We judge the degree of quality against a product or service we can afford (cost to value) and make a choice. “I really can’t afford this, but, you know, you only live once,” or, “In the long run it is cheaper to buy quality.”
It is not uncommon for ‘quality control” to be used through testing a sample of the output against agreed upon specifications. Everything from health facilities to restaurants is judged on objective measureable standards. If quality standards are not met a product can be removed from the marketplace and a service can be closed or not offered until improvements are made.
There is another way of looking at quality that is not bound by the classical definition just discussed. The ancient Greeks provide a hint on what that is. The Greek root word for technology is “techne” that means “art.” The Greek language does not distinguish art from technology.
Back to cars for a moment. I had a hat that read “Friends don’t let friends buy Fords.” My good friend had a hat that read “Friends don’t let friends buy Chevys.” Which one of us was right? Which car had the best quality? Or take a newspaper article. I may think an article is of the highest quality and appreciate the research it took to put it together while my next door neighbor may view the article as nothing but political bias and therefore irrelevant babble. Who is right? One person may say, “She shows strong leadership qualities,” while someone else will view the same “leader” as a controlling dictator. I suppose we could discuss this intriguing question over a drink, but let’s not go to a beer bar because I don’t like beer regardless of how high you insist the quality of a particular craft beer is.
Quality is neither substance nor methodology. Scientific observation does not by itself define creativity, originality, inventiveness, intuition, imagination. Such qualities are completely outside the domain of science. Such quality is experienced through our participation in life, not our observation of “what is” no matter how advanced the technology may be. We know quality when we see it but it cannot be seen…we hear quality but it cannot be heard…we grasp at quality but it cannot be touched…
The quality that can be defined is not the Absolute Quality….
Reaching from mystery into deeper mystery, it is the gate to the secret of life…Quality is all pervading.
Meet quality and you do not see its face….
Follow quality and you do not see its back…
(From the 2400 year-old homily on quality in the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu)
Where we experience absolute quality tells us about ourselves, for quality is inherent in the universe and focused in our individual lives. Some may see it in the activities of small ants building a home while others see only an unnecessary insect. We may see quality living in someone’s eyes, or not. Quality may or may not be experienced in jazz, blues, rock and roll, classical music, or even traditional country music depending on the ears that hear it.
We choose what facts we see out of an infinite number of options. None of us can absorb all we see in just one second let alone a lifetime. What we focus on is what we choose to see. What we see helps define what we value. And what we value has its source in how we view quality. Our values are revealed in what we chose to see and understand.
Ironically, values can become a trap—the most obvious trap is rigidity. This is an inability to revalue what we see because of commitment to previous values. Rigidity is defensive and keeps us from exploring new thoughts and questioning our own. It forces us into a posture that makes caring and therefore quality of living hard if not impossible to find and experience. Rigidity can keep us from seeing truth, value, and quality when it is staring us in the face because we can’t see a new perspective’s importance.
There is a familiar story of the monkey who reaches for a coconut through a small hole in a box. He can’t get his hand out of the box while holding the coconut. He can’t see that freedom without the coconut is more valuable than capture with the coconut.
So how does the monkey discover he is free without the coconut in hand? Well, stop yanking and stare at the coconut for a while. The problem may not be as big as he thinks. What he is holding onto may not be as important as he thinks. Rigidity is keeping him from quality living, he is bound to the loneliness of what he chooses to rigidly value. The monkey is “closed minded.”
As I have aged and become less threatened by thinking different from my own, I have opened myself to questioning my values. Are they values that lead me to care for our world and other people? If not, perhaps I need to let go of the coconut and open my eyes to the obvious.
Such openness is possible when we find quality of life expressed in the value of caring. It is where I care that I recognize quality. It is in caring about what we see and do that we find quality in our lives. A person who sees and feels quality in his work and life is a person who cares. Without caring we have no values and do not experience absolute quality.
When we connect with quality we find value and caring, and are filled with enthusiasm for living. The Greek word “enthousiasmos,” literally means “filled with Theos (God)/Quality.” Caring brings enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is imbedded in the essence of absolute quality.
Socrates described quality as the source of all things. It is in quality we experience the eternal, a mystery that cannot be defined, fathomed, or put in an objectively defined box. Such absolute quality can only be experienced.
Life is full when we embrace the enthusiasm, inner calm, and joy quality brings to our lives.
As we live the time of our lives, may quality be our harbor and our guide.
Footnote: Robert Pirsig (1928-2018) first published Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in 1974. Over 5 million copies of the book sold over the next ten years and it was on best seller lists for decades. Pirsig explored the meaning of “quality”, a word he called “undefinable.” He believed quality is embraced when the subject experiences oneness with the object. It is the blending of the scientific exploration of objects with the non-physical spirit of the subject. Pirsig’s classic book was fundamental in the development of this article.
Written by: Hartzell Cobbs
Hartzell Cobbs is the retired CEO of Mountain States Group (now Jannus, Inc.), a diverse nonprofit human service organization. He is the author of the recent book, RavenWind, that is available through outlets such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Archway Publishing. His first book, Thanatos and the Sage: A Spiritual Approach to Aging, is available through Amazon.
More about Dr. Cobbs’ latest book, Ravenwind…
From ancient lore, down millenniums, traveling through worldwide mythologies, legends, and folktales, the mythical raven is entwined in the history of mankind. Most researchers agree that about twenty thousand years ago the first Americans came from Siberia across the Bering Land Bridge to what is now North America. The Siberians and their shamans were accompanied by the mythical raven who mediated between the physical and spiritual worlds.
With the Siberian influence, Northwest Native American mythology speaks of the raven as creator, destroyer, and trickster. As in Siberia, raven soars on the wind between the great spirit/mystery and the physical world. Raven teaches respect for earth and the oneness of all that is.
In RavenWind, author Hartzell Cobbs offers at look at the raven’s role in world history and in Native American myths, legends, and folktales. He tells how the raven of folklore calls one to follow, to listen, and experience life with all its complexity, insight, ambiguity, contraction, and humor. With an emphasis on Native American tradition, Cobbs explores the presence of mythical raven in the mundane.
