If I were in a mart (Tesco is nearby to where I’m staying) to get some essentials for my home and later decided to get few green apples, I‘d just go to the produce section and get me some green apples. The period between the time I decided and the action taken is just a few seconds apart; I could say that it’s an immediate action. However, if I thought of getting the apples and later was distracted by a phone call that lasted for 3 minutes; I might forget about the green apples entirely. Thus, I didn’t take any action at all; of course I might come back later to get the apples.
So, in an organization of 5 people, for example, with numerous kinds of distractions that are present in a typical office environment; getting all actions done immediately after making the decisions are sometimes just impossible. How many excuses for not taking spontaneously actions have you and I heard since we started working? Countless. Right? Is the situation getting better? Well, if you were to ask me; I’d say that it is getting worst. Why? The numbers of distractions are getting more each day. To name a few are, telephone calls, voice messages, cell phones, instant messages, sms, online conferences, online gaming, pod casting, webinars etc. Everyday our involvements and dependence on these new distractions are escalating and more and more actions are being pushed forward or delayed. Hence, procrastination is gradually gaining its ground in our daily activities.
Many managers just don’t realize that the increasing number of distractions in the office environment is in fact slowing down their people from working efficiently toward the goals of their organizations. They never acknowledged that this is the real culprit behind the excuses that they heard from their people for slow and no actions. Something has to be done to curb this bad influence in order to get actions taken immediately when decisions are made.
I don’t have to explain the reasons why decisions have to be followed by immediate actions. It’s imperative. No entrepreneurs or business owners would have the patience of waiting the implementation of an important project was carried few hours or days after a committee had decided just because everybody who was supposed to be on it was one way or another occupied by the office distractions I had mentioned early. Even though one would argue that the distractions on the average is not significant because not everybody would be contributing to the slow action.
Ok, to understand better, let’s do some simple math. Let’s say that 4 persons were responsible to take an action immediately decided by their manager. 2 were not distracted in any way and contributed 100% on the part of the action, the third person got distracted and was reminded by the 2 guys earlier who had completed their part thus his efficiency was cut down to 75%. The fourth person being so engrossed with the pod casting had totally forgotten about his part of action and as a result he could only complete a day later, thus making his efficiency on taking the action dropped to 20%. So, the question is; what was the efficiency of the group on taking the action? Well the answer is not ((100+100+75+25)/4=74%). The group’s efficiency was dictated by the efficiency of the fourth person, that is, 20%. It only takes one person’s carelessness to make the whole organization in efficient.
One solution that have been effective carried in throughout Japan is taking the actions well before that the decision. Some of you guys may have the idea that I am being ridiculous again. Some of you may argue that such a thing it just impossible. How can people take action in advance before it was decided. Well, just as the Adidas advertisement spells out “Impossible is nothing”. How does the Japanese do it? They call this process by the name ‘Nemawashi’. I would recommend you guys to do a Google search and read some explanations about the process. It simply means the act of cutting the earth around a tree making sure all the roots, taking extra care not to injure the roots hairs and wrapping it up gently with straw mattress; when in the process of replanting the tree to a different location. The most important point here is not to destroy the roots hairs because if they were destroyed it would be useless to plant the trees on a new location. By taking extreme care, all the roots hairs are well intact or as they were, the trees will be as there are and will continue grow no matter where these trees were planted.
I give you a simple analogy about the whole notion of ‘Nemawashi’. Lets said that in about 8 months time a couple are expecting a baby, they would be very busy make preparations so that they won’t be having problems when the time comes, such as the money, the schedule for medical checks and perhaps the arrangement to attend exercises for easy delivery. As the time draws nears other preparations are being made like the room, the cradle, the hospitals and even arrangement with the midwife who is going to deliver the baby. All the people who are going to be involved either in the preparatory stages, during the time of birth and also during the time when the baby is in the hospital getting accustomed the his/her new world are all played the people whose role are similar to the root hairs described above. You see, the couple knew that they going to have a baby in 8 months time for sure, so it’s imperative for them to make all essential preparations for the smooth delivery of the baby. In this analogy, the decision is the date when the baby is born and the preparations are the action taken.
Similarly as in the case of the Japanese organizations, most decisions are ‘known’ earlier through the process of ‘Nemawashi’. People responsible for execution of the strategic plans would make their move first by spreading the words to all people who made up the grass roots level. They should expect that implementation of a strategic plan are closing in and are expected to make the preliminary preparations. This is the top-down communication that is not obvious or unnoticeable to outsiders like you and me. In doing so, the members of the organization are well aware and are ready to take the necessary actions when the time comes. Just as the analogy describe earlier, the couple will know what to do when the baby starts kicking as if telling the mother that he/she is ready to see their faces.
The ‘Nemawashi’ makes the Japanese type of organizations ‘living’ just as our body utilizes the body chemistry to fight intruders and spontaneously comes out the necessary action plans to stop the intruders from taking charge. Once the body chemistry is in place the body will make the unconscious move to fight until all the remnants of the intruders are destroyed. Thus, in the organizations where ‘Nemawashi’ is perfected, I found that daily meetings or even the monthly meeting of section managers didn’t actually involved formulating strategies but were designed to monitor and to measure the results of actions the were taken by the members at all levels of the company.
The process of ‘Nemawashi’ in a Japanese organization is conducted by all everyday, collecting information, ‘hearing’ what the members’ opinions, conveying ‘instructions’ and propagate what transpired from the company’s president meeting. All the time these same ‘stories’ are being told over and over again to all the employees in the similar fashion as we were bombarded with the same advertisements on television and radio and lately even your browser.
As we grow accustomed to technological advancement and as the technological gadgetries are going into our flesh and blood, group cohesiveness is breaking as the iceberg of the artic melting in the warm current of the North Sea; hence, I can say the human touch of turning the impossible into most probable are losing its grip in organizations that neglect the dynamics of teamwork.
So, in an organization of 5 people, for example, with numerous kinds of distractions that are present in a typical office environment; getting all actions done immediately after making the decisions are sometimes just impossible. How many excuses for not taking spontaneously actions have you and I heard since we started working? Countless. Right? Is the situation getting better? Well, if you were to ask me; I’d say that it is getting worst. Why? The numbers of distractions are getting more each day. To name a few are, telephone calls, voice messages, cell phones, instant messages, sms, online conferences, online gaming, pod casting, webinars etc. Everyday our involvements and dependence on these new distractions are escalating and more and more actions are being pushed forward or delayed. Hence, procrastination is gradually gaining its ground in our daily activities.
Many managers just don’t realize that the increasing number of distractions in the office environment is in fact slowing down their people from working efficiently toward the goals of their organizations. They never acknowledged that this is the real culprit behind the excuses that they heard from their people for slow and no actions. Something has to be done to curb this bad influence in order to get actions taken immediately when decisions are made.
I don’t have to explain the reasons why decisions have to be followed by immediate actions. It’s imperative. No entrepreneurs or business owners would have the patience of waiting the implementation of an important project was carried few hours or days after a committee had decided just because everybody who was supposed to be on it was one way or another occupied by the office distractions I had mentioned early. Even though one would argue that the distractions on the average is not significant because not everybody would be contributing to the slow action.
Ok, to understand better, let’s do some simple math. Let’s say that 4 persons were responsible to take an action immediately decided by their manager. 2 were not distracted in any way and contributed 100% on the part of the action, the third person got distracted and was reminded by the 2 guys earlier who had completed their part thus his efficiency was cut down to 75%. The fourth person being so engrossed with the pod casting had totally forgotten about his part of action and as a result he could only complete a day later, thus making his efficiency on taking the action dropped to 20%. So, the question is; what was the efficiency of the group on taking the action? Well the answer is not ((100+100+75+25)/4=74%). The group’s efficiency was dictated by the efficiency of the fourth person, that is, 20%. It only takes one person’s carelessness to make the whole organization in efficient.One solution that have been effective carried in throughout Japan is taking the actions well before that the decision. Some of you guys may have the idea that I am being ridiculous again. Some of you may argue that such a thing it just impossible. How can people take action in advance before it was decided. Well, just as the Adidas advertisement spells out “Impossible is nothing”. How does the Japanese do it? They call this process by the name ‘Nemawashi’. I would recommend you guys to do a Google search and read some explanations about the process. It simply means the act of cutting the earth around a tree making sure all the roots, taking extra care not to injure the roots hairs and wrapping it up gently with straw mattress; when in the process of replanting the tree to a different location. The most important point here is not to destroy the roots hairs because if they were destroyed it would be useless to plant the trees on a new location. By taking extreme care, all the roots hairs are well intact or as they were, the trees will be as there are and will continue grow no matter where these trees were planted.
I give you a simple analogy about the whole notion of ‘Nemawashi’. Lets said that in about 8 months time a couple are expecting a baby, they would be very busy make preparations so that they won’t be having problems when the time comes, such as the money, the schedule for medical checks and perhaps the arrangement to attend exercises for easy delivery. As the time draws nears other preparations are being made like the room, the cradle, the hospitals and even arrangement with the midwife who is going to deliver the baby. All the people who are going to be involved either in the preparatory stages, during the time of birth and also during the time when the baby is in the hospital getting accustomed the his/her new world are all played the people whose role are similar to the root hairs described above. You see, the couple knew that they going to have a baby in 8 months time for sure, so it’s imperative for them to make all essential preparations for the smooth delivery of the baby. In this analogy, the decision is the date when the baby is born and the preparations are the action taken.
Similarly as in the case of the Japanese organizations, most decisions are ‘known’ earlier through the process of ‘Nemawashi’. People responsible for execution of the strategic plans would make their move first by spreading the words to all people who made up the grass roots level. They should expect that implementation of a strategic plan are closing in and are expected to make the preliminary preparations. This is the top-down communication that is not obvious or unnoticeable to outsiders like you and me. In doing so, the members of the organization are well aware and are ready to take the necessary actions when the time comes. Just as the analogy describe earlier, the couple will know what to do when the baby starts kicking as if telling the mother that he/she is ready to see their faces.
The ‘Nemawashi’ makes the Japanese type of organizations ‘living’ just as our body utilizes the body chemistry to fight intruders and spontaneously comes out the necessary action plans to stop the intruders from taking charge. Once the body chemistry is in place the body will make the unconscious move to fight until all the remnants of the intruders are destroyed. Thus, in the organizations where ‘Nemawashi’ is perfected, I found that daily meetings or even the monthly meeting of section managers didn’t actually involved formulating strategies but were designed to monitor and to measure the results of actions the were taken by the members at all levels of the company.
The process of ‘Nemawashi’ in a Japanese organization is conducted by all everyday, collecting information, ‘hearing’ what the members’ opinions, conveying ‘instructions’ and propagate what transpired from the company’s president meeting. All the time these same ‘stories’ are being told over and over again to all the employees in the similar fashion as we were bombarded with the same advertisements on television and radio and lately even your browser.
As we grow accustomed to technological advancement and as the technological gadgetries are going into our flesh and blood, group cohesiveness is breaking as the iceberg of the artic melting in the warm current of the North Sea; hence, I can say the human touch of turning the impossible into most probable are losing its grip in organizations that neglect the dynamics of teamwork.
