Foundational Values: A Standard of Excellence
How quality and character cut through the clamor of division and raise the bar.
Greetings, Readers!
Thanks for being a part of our Friday morning community. In this edition, we wrap up our inaugural series on foundational values. If you are just joining us, you can get up to speed by reading our introduction, as well as recent topics of Truth and Beauty. This week we delve into the last of our three values, Excellence.
In a world of self-proclaimed “influencers”, participation trophies, and stroke-of-the-keys artificial intelligence, it can seem like mediocrity is celebrated at every turn. Add to that vastly different perspectives around the connotation of equity versus merit, and outcome versus opportunity, and division quickly enters the equation. In the midst of all this, a standard of excellence is a true north that can cut through the clamor. One of the primary reasons it is a core value here at CivicSophisticate is that we place a high importance on the how. What we are after is quality and character. Whether in the workplace or community, these how factors are critical to carrying out our mission.
Let’s consider excellence through a few lenses. To help us do this, we will reference the work of two brilliant minds who have modeled excellence across long and esteemed careers: Booker T. Washington (giant of history, post American Civil War reconstruction, and education), and Dr. Thomas Sowell (renowned economist, scholar, professor, and author).
Excellence is a byproduct.
It does not simply happen. Rather, it demands a whole set of characteristics like hard work, accuracy, quality, knowledge, completeness—the list could go on. This reality is not unique to people. We see it play out in the natural world. Take, for example, the way raw materials like gold go through the crucible to become smooth, pure, and beautiful. Likewise, we must cultivate the quality and character in our lives that produces excellence. Excellence is, by its very nature, exclusive—not all things meet the necessary standard to be deemed excellent. Yet, it can also be one of the most powerful ways to create opportunity for anyone who is willing to devote oneself to putting in the necessary inputs that result in the byproduct of excellence. Both Washington’s and Sowell’s lives are examples of this. While living and working in different eras of history, they both faced significant barriers, including racial discrimination. What makes them models of excellence is the quality and character of their lives and work, regardless of the challenges they faced. They put in the necessary time, energy, talent, pain, failure, and perseverance to result in a consistent pattern of excellence.
However, one of the challenging elements of excellence is that, despite our ability to control or cultivate the inputs, there can still be varying levels of results. Excellent outcomes are not guaranteed. Not only are there vastly different levels of intellect and ability across individuals, but there are also unpredictable outside influences. In his book, Discrimination and Disparities, Sowell describes the complex relationship and variance between sets of prerequisites and their correlation to certain economic or social outcomes—everything from geographic locations to people groups, to select groups of high IQ individuals and their career trajectories.
This reality reminds us that cultivating excellence in our lives and work must remain focused on the how—which, regardless of outside factors still has tremendous value in building quality and character in our lives and communities. This, of course, leads us to the second lens through which we will consider this value.
Excellence is a discipline.
It is a way of doing things. The very process of putting in hard work, learning to do something well, or exercising the mind/body in a way that challenges oneself has an impact—not only on the one doing the work, but also on others who are watching or interacting with the work. In his autobiographical work, Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington said it this way:
“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”
This comes from a man who not only demonstrated this in his own life, but who also impacted the black community by teaching them the importance of cultivating excellence—in their personal care, book learning, and skills training—and revolutionized the way a previously enslaved population thought about the dignity of work. If ever there was a time period where there was no guarantee of a particular outcome for a particular group of people, this ranks near the top. However, the individuals who learned the discipline of excellence were better for it, and so were their families, communities, and workplaces. As we think about our rubric for excellence—quality and character—this measures up, no matter the outcome.
Excellence also requires going through, not around. Think of any of your favorite professional athletes or musicians. They don’t simply walk onto the field, court, or stage and perform at the highest levels—they have invested countless hours of drills and technical work in order to compete with excellence. The word drudgery comes to mind! There is a well known story in classical piano circles about the composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff. It describes a painstakingly slow practice technique which allowed him to play the most technically difficult and virtuosic pieces. Here is the account from fellow composer, Abram Chasins in his book: Speaking of Pianists.
“Arriving at the designated hour of twelve, I heard an occasional piano sound as I approached the cottage. I stood outside the door, unable to believe my ears. Rachmaninov was practicing Chopin’s Étude in thirds, but at such a snail’s pace that it took me a while to recognize it because so much time elapsed between each finger stroke at the next. Twenty seconds per bar was his pace for almost an hour.”
For reference, here is the piece Rachmaninoff was practicing. The beautiful thing about excellence is that, often, it does produce an incredible outcome, and this leads us to our final lens for consideration.
Excellence is an inspiration.
On display and in practice, excellence can inspire others to a higher standard. You’ve likely heard the familiar saying that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” When we strive for excellence, we invite others into the level of quality and character that we demonstrate. No matter your sphere of influence, you have the ability to encourage others toward excellence. It can be both taught and caught. Washington talks about this openly when he notes the life changing impact that his mentor at the Hampton Institute, General Armstrong, had on his life. He describes him as “the best man I ever knew.” Similarly, Sowell talks about this in his extensive writing on education, specifically charter schools, where students from challenging backgrounds consistently rise to higher standards when excellence is both modeled for them and expected from them.
Excellence is core to how CivicSophisticate aims to raise the bar for how we think and engage in our shared workplaces and communities. We seek to model it, foster it, and share it.
Join us, won’t you, in making excellence a byproduct, discipline, and inspiration in your life?
Think on These Things publishes new content every other Friday. Our introductory series of articles will lay the foundation for what is ahead, so be sure to stick around to get a full understanding of our vision. We are hard at work curating some fabulous tastes of music, art, literature, and more to roll out in the coming months!
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