“If you as a manager provide a template or formula and say ‘go for it’, they’ll do a beautiful job. But id you just say ‘here’s the problem, find a solution’, they’re lost”.(i)
Take advantage of the need for structure and develop templates which show and facilitate pathways for creative thought and action. Templates need to be carefully thought out, because “once a system is in place then it is very hard to change that system”. Part of the reason for this is the (still) relatively long tenure in Japan, entailing “a little bit of complacency and contentment”.
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
“Even if you are an established company like Unilever people still think ‘oooh no, a foreign company….even though they are one of the biggest manufacturers in the world”.(i)
Working for a non-Japanese company is risky. There is not the same cliché status and supposed safety that is associated with Japanese companies, and there is a relative lack of structure and hierarchy – “we don’t say ‘this is what you need to do, this is the checklist’….we tend to say ‘this is you time, we need you to achieve this….and what else can you come up with?” (ii) – Mentoring may need to be a bigger part of a manager’s focus in order to mitigate these perceived risks.
While this may make hiring ‘normal’ employees difficult, the positive flip side is that those that do join may be (relatively) more positively disposed towards risk (but then again, they may just be anti-social misfits).
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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
Japanese employees (unless specifically hired for their flexible thinking skills) are seen as having an innate difficulty with ‘managing something that they don’t have a formula or template for’.
‘Need for structure’ is perceived to be rooted in (1) the education system and (2) the rule-based nature of art/culture of Japan – “If you study Japanese art like sumi-e or ikebana you will notice that everything is run by rules”(i).
This necessitates the provision of security and structure around a creative idea or process. This need could be higher in foreign companies due to the risk inherent in working for them.
****************************************************
This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
“Having a flat organization is an important factor. To help people progress in their careers and to help people feel that they are being recognized we do give people promotions and various titles but in reality it is kind of ‘everybody’ and then two or three people at the top who try to manage the chaos and keep us all going in the same direction.”
****************************************************
This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail
