Modeling Excellence

By extension, the purpose of organizations is to support the individual quest for happiness by supplying for basic human material needs, and by providing a forum in which the individual can exercise and further develop his talents. Individual actions, then, ought to always be taken so as to exercise and develop one's natural abilities, and organizations ought to both facilitate the development of its members and meet common needs.

Since there can be no organizations without individuals, it is the individuals within the organizations who have the responsibility to work together to make sure that the organization is performing its function in line with its end. So there are really two conditions of right action:(1) the action must lead the individual toward the fulfillment of his potential, and (2) the action must be consistent with the ends of the organizations of which he is a part. If an action meets these conditions, then the individual is acting rightly; if the action does not meet these conditions, the the individual is acting wrongly. Further, the person who has the habit of acting rightly possesses "arête" (virtue or nobility), and a person with a habit of wrong action has a vice.

Notice that these ethical principles do not identify "wrong" as a list of harmful actions, but simply as "not right." In other words, the emphasis is on enabling the individual to be excellent by cultivating virtue instead of just preventing him from being wretched. Of course, this requires much more commitment and responsibility from each person, but that is what thriving is all about - pushing oneself to the limit so that the human person may break through the level of mere survival to achieve something greater.

At the Institute 4 Priority Thinking, we believe that such a realist approach to ethics has very real and very powerful implications for our company culture and for our clients because it permeates all that we do. We strive to be excellent always and in everything; we do this not simply to avoid punishment, or to make more money, but because we recognize that the quality of the products and services that we offer are a reflection of who we are as people. We don't just have to do the right thing, we want to. The commitment of our entire team to an ethics of excellence makes the Institute 4 Priority Thinking a company that clients can trust.

Cicero (106 to 43 BC)

"It is a great thing to know our vices."

"Advice is judged by results, not by intentions."

"Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him."

Cicero was a Roman author, orator and politician who witnessed some of the most significant events of the Roman Empire.