Values

The superior man understands what is right- the inferior man understands what will sell - Confucius

The present system of global cooperation is not working sufficiently. [We need to] look at all issues on the global agenda in a systemic, integrated and strategic way. We have to rethink our values- we are living together in a global society with many different cultures. We have to redesign our processes- how do we deal with the issues and challenges on the global agenda? - Klaus Schwab, founder World Economic Forum, 2010

The individual pursuit of happiness as defined by consumer culture still absorbs much of our time and energy, or else the threat of being shut out of this pursuit through poverty, unemployment, incapacity galvanises our efforts . . . and yet the sense that there is something more presses in. Great numbers of people feel it: in moments of reflection about their life- in moments of relaxation in nature- in moments of bereavement and loss- and quite wildly and unpredictably - Charles Taylor

The four cardinal virtues- courage (andreia), moderation (sophrosyne), wisdom (sophia) & justice (diksiosyne) are ordered by practical wisdom, realised by interaction within the world, the capacity for knowledge in action - Dave Snowden, KM Australia 2009 presentation

Does humanity only value thing in pounds, dollars and euros? Or can we get to a new era of value- one where our happiness, our ability to be creative and where the knowledge that you are working with Nature and not destroying the future of the next generation to come is given a value much greater than that which can reside in a bank account? - Mark Boyle, http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/blog.php?id=834

Within a generation, we in the West will become very familiar with Confucian values - Martin Jacques on the rise of China http://www.markvernon.com/friendshiponline/dotclear/index.php?post/2009…

We have elevated money from a means for the exchange of goods to an eroticised and totemistic symbol of something that lies beyond human interaction and to which humanity is subordinated. Riches these days come not from the production of goods, but from trading in an artificial and virtual world of money. In this world betting on failure (a put option) is elevated to the level of the sacred despite the simple fact that it encourages people to force failure on others, to destroy society. Value should surely be based in production of goods that benefit the tribe? - Dave Snowden, http://www.cognitive-edge.com/blogs/dave/2011/10/gifting.php

Values come from a deep sense of what it is right to do. They have an attractive, uplifting, unrestrictive sense of the ideal. There is something compelling about the values that we hold, and yet it is entirely voluntary that we commit to these values. Value commitments arise from key intense experiences that we have and give life meaning and purpose. So there is a sense of voluntary compulsion about the values that we hold. You cannot decree a sense of purpose in life - Stephen Billing,http://www.changingorganisations.com/2009/05/corporate-values-exercises…

Values are the highest expression of our free will, and are intensely personal. They are an intense idealisation of an imaginative turn on how life would be if there were no restrictions. Efforts to work out a group or organisation's values cut right across the imaginative and experiential nature of values. This is why I say that you cannot work out the organisation's values through a rational process in a workshop - Stephen Billing,http://www.changingorganisations.com/2009/05/corporate-values-exercises…

True values are not taught and declared, they evolve through the acts and interaction of the living, they are understood at a near tacit level by those who live them - Dave Snowden, Founder & Chief Scientific Officer - Cognitive Edge