Chinese traditions and values are obstacles to modernization as claimed by not only westerners but also Chinese in the early 20th century. Many Chinese intellectuals not only denounced Chinese civilization, in addition they also called for disassociation of the past.
One century later, after the overthrow of Qing dynasty, a rejuvenated Chinese culture and civilization has re-appeared. Taiwan is celebrating the 100th anniversary of establishment of Republic of China in 2011.
However, Chinese story must still take place in the mainland. The blooming Chinese economy with her huge foreign reserve is counting the day when she will over take USA as number one economy in the world. There are more and more unheard Chinese names in the Fortune 500 and in the Wall Street. Some may even notice the emergency of Chinese soft power, with the ballooning establishments of Confucius Institutes all over the world.
What a change in 100 years!
Have Chinese culture, traditions and values changed over 100 years? No, or not much. Are they relevant in 21st century? Yes, most likely. 100 years are short times to Chinese history. A dynasty usually lasted more than 200 or 300 years. So, Chinese could “afford” to be a “sick man of Asia” for a while during late Qing dynasty and the early days of Republic of China.
To Chinese philosophy, especially Yi Jing, they believe there are repeating ups and downs in life, those born in the first half of 20th century (or closing years of Qing dynasty) were unlucky. They were in the wrong place, wrong time and with no help from heaven and earth. It has little to do with Chinese civilization. In fact, no matter what political system whether communist or nationalist, China economy will pick up as far as Chinese maintain her cohesive society and community.
This is why Chinese wisdom is practically useful and continues to influence Chinese in their decision makings. It may start with complications as they are influenced by thousand years of Chinese civilization and ancient Chinese thoughts. However, once a decision is made, the implementation will be simple and fast, just like the high speed train projects. By the logic of Yi Jing, this process will take the pattern of change, unchanged and simple procedure.
Chinese decision process can also be a confusing one. It may change from time to time and there seems to be no standard procedure. Furthermore, one may find no logic to explain it. For a same project, due to different people, time and place, the decision process is different. The difference is due to the interaction of Heaven, Earth and Human Beings. Any new inputs will make new changes.
This course is designed specifically for executive who want to understand practical Chinese wisdom and its application to today’s business world, i.e. the application and relevancy of Chinese thoughts, wisdom and philosophy for business excellence and corporate cultures.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will:
• Understand basic Chinese philosophy and its application
• Understand the formation of Chinese wisdom
• Be able to tell the timeline of Chinese history
• Be able to identify some applications of Chinese philosophy
• Understand Chinese wisdom and business excellence
• Understand Chinese wisdom and corporate cultures
• Identify basic Chinese characteristics and behaviours
• Identify possible future developments
• Learn and understand changes and alternative thinking
• Learn and understand Chinese thinking process
Course Outline
1 Introduction
1.1 Practical management wisdom
1.2 Knowledge and intelligence
This section introduces how Chinese wisdom can be practically used in management. Besides the widely and overly used “The Art of War”, other Chinese wisdom is as good as Sun Zi if not better. Ancient Chinese philosophers believed only intelligence, not knowledge, can be the foundation of wisdom. There is a distinction between knowledge and intelligence that will make difference in business excellence and corporate values.
2 Formation of Chinese Wisdom and Thoughts
2.1 Dynasty as management learning
2.2 Change, Unchanged and Simplicity
2.3 Business excellence and strategic thinking
2.4 Chinese characteristics and crisis management
This section provides a brief history of China as the basic formation of Chinese wisdom. The ups and downs of different dynasty are management learning and experience. The Chinese civilization can be explained from the Yi Jing perspectives. “A book of changes -Yi Jing” is considered the first and oldest book of China. It is also the origin of the Hundreds Schools of Thoughts. Thoughts, strategic thinking and philosophy are keys to business excellence and values. However, China’s development is always up and down, division and unity, hence crisis management is unavoidable and solving crisis has become a routine decision making. So, how do Chinese and their characteristics react to crisis and crisis management?
3 Chinese Wisdom and Business Excellence
3.1 Singapore Quality Class – Business Excellence
3.2 Leadership
3.3 Planning
3.4 Information
3.5 People
3.6 Processes
3.7 Customers
3.8 Results
The relevancy of Chinese wisdom in business excellence is discussed here. All 7 factors of the Singapore Quality Class (Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Process, Customers and Results) are discussed using the thoughts of Confucianism and Daoism. Examples are quoted from Mengzi and Zhuangzi to explain how business excellence can be achieved in the balance of ying and yang. This shows the application of Chinese wisdom and philosophy in practice.
4 Chinese Wisdom and Corporate Cultures
4.1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
4.2 Corporations are communities, not machines
4.3 Management is service, not control
4.4 Employees are peers, not children
4.5 Motivate with vision, not fear
4.6 Change is growth, not pain
4.7 Computers are servants, not masters
4.8 Work is play, not toil.
The management of actions is reflected in corporate values. This section explains how Chinese wisdom can also apply to modern corporate cultures in the form of Silicon Valley business model. However, the moving away of traditional business mindsets (battlefield, control, fear etc) to modern business practice (ecosystem, service, vision etc) cannot deny the involvement of Chinese wisdom. Chinese wisdom is a living philosophy which can apply to corporate cultures and values. Examples again are drawn from the 2 founders of Confucianism and Daoism, Confucius and Laozi. Their wisdom is still relevant and refreshing in corporate cultures.
4 The Stone Story of Red Chamber
A case study of business excellence and Corporate Cultures
4.1 Imperfection is great
4.2 Business Excellence
4.3 Corporate cultures
4.4 Relevancy and development
Famously known as The Dream of Red Chamber, it is hardly used as case study for management. However, the unique situation of its authorship, publication, and version issues can server as a good example for business excellence and values. Red Chamber is not perfect, not complete and has many names and versions. However, it is a representative of Chinese characteristics and culture. We can use the non-literature aspect of Red Chamber as a practical approach to business excellence and cultures. A book published more than 200 years ago is still relevant today and is still popular. Hence, Chinese wisdom and its future development have even a higher growth potential.
Thursday 30 December 2010
Thursday 23 December 2010
The Stone Story of Red Chamber
The Stone Story of Red Chamber
A case study of business excellence and corporate culture
The Dream of Red Chamber is one of the 4 top Chinese novels and few have used it for business analysis. Similarly, Yi Jing as the first book in Chinese history is seldom used for management and organization change. Why?
Red Chamber is very different from the other 3 top Chinese novels (Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and The Journey to the West). Three Kingdoms is very popular for strategy and war study. Water Margin and The Journey to the West too are used for business and management case studies although at a lesser extent. Red Camber is different from the others in many ways: family and female centric, hidden meaning, political implication, cultural reflection of the time, different version etc. No wonder Mao Zedong valued and placed Red Chamber higher than the other 3 novels.
What can a love story teach us about business management? Also few will associate Red Chamber as a case study for business excellence and corporate culture. Perhaps like what Geoffrey James (see below) has described we are moving away from traditional business model (Three Kingdoms and Water Margin) to Silicon Valley business model (an inclusive type of family and community). This is how the soft power of Red Chamber will play a role.
Famously known as a book for romantic story and basically a love story with concentration of female characters (in surface), in what way can this book be a case study for Chinese wisdom in business? This will be discussed in the following sections.
Here comes a little background about the Red Chamber. It does not have a complete version and the commonly read version in fact is far from the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
This case study will not discuss the literature contributions, the content of the book, the beauty of the story, and the female characters. However, it will focus on the development of the Red Chamber as a publication, the writing experience, the up and down of the publication, and how it becomes popular and famous and now a master piece of Chinese literature. The study of Red Chamber will continue and the book is well read and commented by many famous writers, historians, and even politicians.
1. Imperfection is great
The Dream of Red Chamber is not complete. And its imperfection makes the book even greater. That leaves many rooms for study, discussions, improvements and corrections.
Many names: There are many names for Red Chamber. It is originally named Story of A Stone. Red Chamber’s story is about a stone in the heaven travelling to the earth and when it returns, its experience is recorded on back of the stone. Due to many female characters, the book is also called Twelve Beauties of Jinling. In total, there are 108 beauties as a comparison to 108 heroes in Water Margin. And because of some lustful descriptions, it is also being called “Masterpiece of wind and moon”. Wind and Moon have a double meaning of sex and love in Chinese. For example, the place of wind and moon is referring to bar, night clubs, etc. This is why Red Chamber also creates moral controversy and sometimes bans from reading.
Many versions: The now popular version has 120 chapters; however, it is widely acknowledged that Cao Xue Qin only wrote the first 80 chapters. Even the now remaining 80 chapters are not complete with many verifications and changes. Few chapters are even missing. The last 40 chapters were completed by another writer. So the widely popular book that we are reading is not the original masterpiece, and how come it can still be so popular? Some have argued that the complete version has only 108 chapters. Not only the number of chapters is an issue, the contents are also a great debate. There are many changes due to different copying, printing, editing, and re-writing, no one single known version can be considered as the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
Many people involved: Since its publication more than 200 years go, many people have read comments, researches, and study on various aspects of Red Chamber. Some look at it from the literature view points. Some link it to political development in Qing dynasty. Some uses it to study customs, food, culture and social development. Almost all famous people involved in Chinese literature of the 20th century and today have given their comments, opinions and researches on Red Chamber. Not to mention it has made into movies, plays, drama, TV series, and many other performing arts.
Many comments and hard work: The success of Red Chamber can be considered as an effective team work. Cao got many feedbacks and comments from others to perfect his writing. Every piece and every word used is careful studied and analysed. On top of that, he has to avoid the possible conflict with the authority. It takes 10 years, after 5 drafts, to complete the Red Chamber. At the same time, Cao was poor and under very difficult conditions. It must be a great determination to complete the work under hardship.
A reflection of Chinese characteristics: Red Chamber as a family unit is the refection of the society and nation of early Qing dynasty. No other Chinese writings have given a complete picture of the time as Red Chamber. Red Chamber provides the first hand knowledge of the living, customs, family life/relationship, official and government politics and life of lower class people. Their behaviours and how they mange life and face the political outcome are also well covered in the book. From here, you will see different faces of Chinese, how they react under crisis, how they become poor and how they get promoted, how they do bad things, and how they mange a family. All these show us the positive and negative aspects of Chinese characteristics.
2. Business excellence
Leadership:
Senior Executive Leadership
Organisation Culture
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Senior Executive Leadership
Red Chamber may be an accidental success, or at least never expected to be so successful. Cao wanted to make it a great book as he had spent 10 years writing it. But what he left behind is an incomplete publication. He may end up finishing the final draft but the final draft was never published in full. Nevertheless, even an incomplete version has made Cao a great contributor to Chinese literature.
As what he had said it was made up of blood and tears. He had demonstrated his leadership with assistances of others to envisage and vision the whole project.
What he may not anticipate is Red Chamber could be so successful and so popular. In such a way, he has shown the soft power of a leadership.
Organisation Culture
He had set his vision, mission and value very clear - to make Red Chamber a great book, to take a long time to write even under financial hardship, to make impact in Chinese culture and literature.
He was the master mind of the Red Chamber project and he was assisted by his group of family members and friends. It was a team project as relatives and friends had made comments, feedbacks and struggle together with him. He was not alone and his team was supporting him in one way or another, some even providing financial assistance.
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Qing dynasty was very sensitive about writings and wrong phases or words will bring troubles to the writers. Judging from the contents, the story involves a family from rich to poor and the cause and background were the political development of the time.
When Cao engaged in the Red Chamber writing project, he had made it clear that the story background, times, places, and male/female leads are all artificial. It looked true and untrue. This was to prevent conflict with the authority. Perhaps, it was because of this type of formats that make Red Chamber even more interesting as readers have to use his/her own judgements to find out the true/false and fact/smoke of the story.
Another interesting theme is Red Chamber is telling the story of women. Cao wanted to highlight them in the family. He valued them, gave equal right to them and stressed their importance in daily life.
In terms of writing responsibility, Cao was committed to his best and wanted to present the best to readers. One can see the life style and habit of the rich and famous during the early Qing dynasty.
There were many restrictions in writing such a book as the contents might offend the ruler. However, Cao had cleverly used his talented writing skills to complete the job.
Planning:
Strategy Development & Deployment
Strategy Development & Deployment
To write a great masterpiece, Cao knew he needed to have a long term plan and inputs from others. He had to evaluate the suitability of the structure, made corrections, added new comments and changed drafts after drafts. However, his core value and objective had not changed –to make Red Chamber a great book.
The story line and development is an excellent work. It takes 10 years for Cao to complete the writings. Cao’s strategy is very clear and wants to make it a record that will have impact in history and literature.
Due to careful planning, Red Chamber was never banned or got into troubles with the authority. If the book was banned, it will be a great loss to Chinese literature.
In the very first beginning, Cao had realized the possible consequence if the book angered the authority. Even he wanted to implicate some political events, he had to adopt the hidden tactics or use other past historical events to cover up. In fact, this book was widely circulated among officials and people were willing to spend high price to get it. This proved that even the government had agreed with its publication.
He had not benchmarked his book with others but believed in his own performance and improvement through blood and tears.
Information:
Management of information
Comparison & Benchmarking
Management of information
Red Chamber is a reflection of Chinese characteristics. A Chinese has a combination of 3 characteristics: Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. The book is a rich collection of these characteristics. In order to have Chinese characteristics in the book, Cao needed to have a rich understanding of the Chinese history and literature. He himself must acquire all these knowledge before writing.
In the process of writing, he will have to get help from other team members as well as research for more information to enhance his writing.
Comparison & Benchmarking
Cao had never clearly indicated that what he would like Red Chamber to be compared with others? However, he had clearly stated that he wanted to make a difference. Differences from the male centric of Chinese novels (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms), moving away from the historical events (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms),
People:
HR Planning
Employee involvement & Commitment
Employee Education, Training & Development
Employee Health & Satisfaction
Employee Performance & Recognition
HR Planning
To make an impactful book, Cao understands he needs inputs from others (relatives and friends). He had selected a group of friends and relatives who could contribute to the making of Red Chamber. He shared his drafts with them and asked for their comments to improve the writing.
Employee involvement & Commitment
Equally impressive was his group of supporters. His supporters were very engaged in their work and gave due feedbacks, for example, the arguments on the words used, the political sensitive issues, the story lines and developments, the hints etc.
Employee Education, Training & Development
Cao had very good foundation on the Chinese history and literature. This enabled him to use a lot of historical events, poems, arts, writings etc of other people.
Employee Health & Satisfaction
His team members were satisfied and willing to provide feedbacks to him. However, due to his financial condition, Cao had never maintained a good health. However, he too was satisfied with his achievement.
Employee Performance & Recognition
Inputs, feedback and comments from his team were valued and recognized. Cao had very good commentators on his book. They gave valuable inputs to him so that he could avoid conflicts and prevented sensitive subjects. Cao also appreciated their assistance. In the drafts or even published Red Chamber, readers can easily find the different comments given by different supporters. Few books were published with comments.
Process:
Innovation Process
Process Management & Improvement
Supplier & Partnering Process
Innovation Process
The process of writing Red Chamber is a very innovative one. Red Chamber may be the only Chinese book that you can find the comments, notes and other feedbacks from readers and commentators. Cao listened to the comments and input them into his drafts.
Process Management & Improvement
This is why only after at least 5 drafts/corrections; the final version of Red Chamber was out. Cao welcomed inputs and feedbacks so that he could improve his writings.
The process also involved suitable selection of words, chapters, story developments, arrangements of female characteristics (position of 108 of them).
Supplier & Partnering Process
This was a weak point. The original scripts went to too many hands for comments and advices. There was no proper control. Some readers did not return the drafts and some even lost them. Some liked it so much and refused to return.
The printing of Red Chamber is also not very smooth. The book as a draft form was “hand” copy and circulated around. It becomes more popular and achieved huge success after the addition of the last 40 chapters (after Cao dead) and entered commercialised printing and copying.
Customers:
Customer Results
Financial & Market Results
People Results
Operational Results
Customer Results
Customer Requirements
There is a demand for high quality publication. Readers are interested to know the romantic story, the hidden political meanings, the culture and literature of the Qing dynasty, etc. Red Chamber is able to fulfil these demands.
Customer Relationship
Although Cao has no direct relationship with readers, especially, readers after his death, Red Chamber is well received by many people, from young to old, from educated to uneducated, from rich to poor.
The relationship is established naturally and the readership base becomes bigger and bigger. There are people spending their whole life studying, analysing and researching the Red Chamber.
Customer Satisfaction
Red Chamber attracts many high quality readers. When it was first published, it was an immediate success. Many readers paid high price to get a copy. A lot of scholars, powerful families, wanted to collect the Red Chamber. It became a business to get people to copy the Red Chamber and sold it for a profit. The discussion of Red Chamber among officials after office hours was a hot topic and educated people who did not know about Red Chamber found no topic for discussion.
Even today, there is no lack of readers and they continue to spend time to re-read and research on Red Chamber.
Financial & Market Results
There were no financial results for Cao as we do not pay copy right to him. In fact, Cao was financially very poor. Most likely, he died in hardship.
However, Red Chamber was well known not only in China but all over the world as a masterpiece of Chinese literature and culture. Its market expansion has reached beyond China. Red Chambers was made into movies, TV series, drama, opera, books, etc. It is also a representative of Chinese literature.
People Results
Scholars are still studying Red Chamber from different aspects. “Hong xue” or the study of Red Chamber is an important branch of Chinese literature. Seminars, research papers, conferences, are held regularly. Red Chamber has become part of Chinese culture as a performing art, literature, research and study.
Operational Results
The innovation process of Red Chamber may not be easy to match for future writers. It is also hard to get so many qualified people to contribute to a book. The qualification and knowledge of Chinese customs, literature and history that Cao possessed is even hard to match.
However, it shows how a great a masterpiece is done and with better and improved technology, the drafting shortfalls can be verified.
3 Corporate Cultures
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
The publication of Red Chamber, due to its hidden political sensitivities, could lead Cao into great troubles. This was especially true in the early Qing dynasty as there were many resistances from Han people. There were many tragedies that buried the whole family. Some people got into troubles because of a sensitive and double meaning word. Some suffered because of other people ill intention.
Cao had to use many hidden tactics and reflection writings. He had to carefully select his words not only for the beauty of literature but also for political considerations. There were some chapters that he had to make changes or even sacrifice the writings.
He is in the battle flied and yet seeking a balance to live in an ecosystem.
2 Corporations are communities, not machines.
Red Chamber is “life” story of a family, a community. It is a reflection of the whole nation in terms of Chinese customs, culture, literature and history. Many of the thinking, behaviours, customs mentioned in the book are still valid in today’s China. You can find the Chinese characteristics there. It is not a history book but a book that readers can have interactions, exchanges, and associations.
As a creative work, Red Chamber cannot be written like a machine – standard operation procedures. Otherwise, readers will suffer form boring and discard it after few pages. Red Chamber is a life story of the writer, from rich and famous to poor and disgrace. The background is a family. It shows people staying in the big family and how they react to changes in life.
3 Management is service, not control.
The publication of Red Chamber is to serve the readers. The book has no intention to control or influence readers. However, it wants to engage readers and share with readers about the life and the sad story of a rich family. Readers can choose to read their favourable chapters based on their own interest. For example, poems society for young, old lady entering the big garden, burying flowers etc. Each can form individual piece for interest reading or research purpose.
Cao wanted to service the readers and presented a story that reflected his family, his period of Qing dynasty and the Chinese characteristics.
4 Employees are peers, not children.
Red Chamber comparing to the other 3 great Chinese novels (Three kingdoms, Water margin and The Journey to the West) has given equal right to female and poor people. In an old traditional Chinese society and family, Cao has projected a positive image for women (in terms of management, intelligence, knowledge and power) and poor people (sincerity, honesty and pure). For example,
• The most powerful figure is the grand mother.
• The best CEO is a female (Wang Xi Feng).
• There are many intelligent ladies in the family but men are projected as stupid and ugly.
Cao also treated his supporters or teammates as equal and accept their suggestions and advices.
5 Motivate with vision, not fear.
Cao had set a clear vision for himself. He also understood the consequences if the writings got into trouble with the authority. He was motivated by his belief that his work would become the most influencing writing of his time. He continued to write even under hardship and poor condition. Some times he not even had enough food. However, he was still committed to write the book. There were difficulties, fears, and hungry during his writing.
6 Change is growth, not pain.
Red Chamber made a lot of changes as compared to other Chinese writings. Some changes are
- female centric
- family as a reflection of a nation
- hidden political story
- up and down of a family from rich to poor
- hidden, negative and positive writings
- a collection of Chinese customs and arts.
However, the writing is a painful process.
7 Computers are servants, not masters.
Red Chamber used a lot of ancient Chinese idioms, history, the philosophy of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism and many hints.
However, Cao cleverly used his writings to combine all these into his book. His writing was never restricted or obstructed by the heavy historical past and the teaching of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism.
The past information was used to enrich his writing and not become his masters. In stead, Cao made use of these rich information and materials as backup to enhance his writings.
8 Work is play, not toil.
Although the process is a painful and difficult one, Cao never complained about the difficulty of the writing. He enjoyed writing it and especially, when he could share his writings with others and getting their feedback.
If Cao had never enjoyed in his writing, he would certainly abandon his work.
He must have found the happiness in the blood and tear of the stone story despite of the physical condition.
A case study of business excellence and corporate culture
The Dream of Red Chamber is one of the 4 top Chinese novels and few have used it for business analysis. Similarly, Yi Jing as the first book in Chinese history is seldom used for management and organization change. Why?
Red Chamber is very different from the other 3 top Chinese novels (Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and The Journey to the West). Three Kingdoms is very popular for strategy and war study. Water Margin and The Journey to the West too are used for business and management case studies although at a lesser extent. Red Camber is different from the others in many ways: family and female centric, hidden meaning, political implication, cultural reflection of the time, different version etc. No wonder Mao Zedong valued and placed Red Chamber higher than the other 3 novels.
What can a love story teach us about business management? Also few will associate Red Chamber as a case study for business excellence and corporate culture. Perhaps like what Geoffrey James (see below) has described we are moving away from traditional business model (Three Kingdoms and Water Margin) to Silicon Valley business model (an inclusive type of family and community). This is how the soft power of Red Chamber will play a role.
Famously known as a book for romantic story and basically a love story with concentration of female characters (in surface), in what way can this book be a case study for Chinese wisdom in business? This will be discussed in the following sections.
Here comes a little background about the Red Chamber. It does not have a complete version and the commonly read version in fact is far from the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
This case study will not discuss the literature contributions, the content of the book, the beauty of the story, and the female characters. However, it will focus on the development of the Red Chamber as a publication, the writing experience, the up and down of the publication, and how it becomes popular and famous and now a master piece of Chinese literature. The study of Red Chamber will continue and the book is well read and commented by many famous writers, historians, and even politicians.
1. Imperfection is great
The Dream of Red Chamber is not complete. And its imperfection makes the book even greater. That leaves many rooms for study, discussions, improvements and corrections.
Many names: There are many names for Red Chamber. It is originally named Story of A Stone. Red Chamber’s story is about a stone in the heaven travelling to the earth and when it returns, its experience is recorded on back of the stone. Due to many female characters, the book is also called Twelve Beauties of Jinling. In total, there are 108 beauties as a comparison to 108 heroes in Water Margin. And because of some lustful descriptions, it is also being called “Masterpiece of wind and moon”. Wind and Moon have a double meaning of sex and love in Chinese. For example, the place of wind and moon is referring to bar, night clubs, etc. This is why Red Chamber also creates moral controversy and sometimes bans from reading.
Many versions: The now popular version has 120 chapters; however, it is widely acknowledged that Cao Xue Qin only wrote the first 80 chapters. Even the now remaining 80 chapters are not complete with many verifications and changes. Few chapters are even missing. The last 40 chapters were completed by another writer. So the widely popular book that we are reading is not the original masterpiece, and how come it can still be so popular? Some have argued that the complete version has only 108 chapters. Not only the number of chapters is an issue, the contents are also a great debate. There are many changes due to different copying, printing, editing, and re-writing, no one single known version can be considered as the original work of Cao Xue Qin.
Many people involved: Since its publication more than 200 years go, many people have read comments, researches, and study on various aspects of Red Chamber. Some look at it from the literature view points. Some link it to political development in Qing dynasty. Some uses it to study customs, food, culture and social development. Almost all famous people involved in Chinese literature of the 20th century and today have given their comments, opinions and researches on Red Chamber. Not to mention it has made into movies, plays, drama, TV series, and many other performing arts.
Many comments and hard work: The success of Red Chamber can be considered as an effective team work. Cao got many feedbacks and comments from others to perfect his writing. Every piece and every word used is careful studied and analysed. On top of that, he has to avoid the possible conflict with the authority. It takes 10 years, after 5 drafts, to complete the Red Chamber. At the same time, Cao was poor and under very difficult conditions. It must be a great determination to complete the work under hardship.
A reflection of Chinese characteristics: Red Chamber as a family unit is the refection of the society and nation of early Qing dynasty. No other Chinese writings have given a complete picture of the time as Red Chamber. Red Chamber provides the first hand knowledge of the living, customs, family life/relationship, official and government politics and life of lower class people. Their behaviours and how they mange life and face the political outcome are also well covered in the book. From here, you will see different faces of Chinese, how they react under crisis, how they become poor and how they get promoted, how they do bad things, and how they mange a family. All these show us the positive and negative aspects of Chinese characteristics.
2. Business excellence
Leadership:
Senior Executive Leadership
Organisation Culture
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Senior Executive Leadership
Red Chamber may be an accidental success, or at least never expected to be so successful. Cao wanted to make it a great book as he had spent 10 years writing it. But what he left behind is an incomplete publication. He may end up finishing the final draft but the final draft was never published in full. Nevertheless, even an incomplete version has made Cao a great contributor to Chinese literature.
As what he had said it was made up of blood and tears. He had demonstrated his leadership with assistances of others to envisage and vision the whole project.
What he may not anticipate is Red Chamber could be so successful and so popular. In such a way, he has shown the soft power of a leadership.
Organisation Culture
He had set his vision, mission and value very clear - to make Red Chamber a great book, to take a long time to write even under financial hardship, to make impact in Chinese culture and literature.
He was the master mind of the Red Chamber project and he was assisted by his group of family members and friends. It was a team project as relatives and friends had made comments, feedbacks and struggle together with him. He was not alone and his team was supporting him in one way or another, some even providing financial assistance.
Responsibility to Community & Environment
Qing dynasty was very sensitive about writings and wrong phases or words will bring troubles to the writers. Judging from the contents, the story involves a family from rich to poor and the cause and background were the political development of the time.
When Cao engaged in the Red Chamber writing project, he had made it clear that the story background, times, places, and male/female leads are all artificial. It looked true and untrue. This was to prevent conflict with the authority. Perhaps, it was because of this type of formats that make Red Chamber even more interesting as readers have to use his/her own judgements to find out the true/false and fact/smoke of the story.
Another interesting theme is Red Chamber is telling the story of women. Cao wanted to highlight them in the family. He valued them, gave equal right to them and stressed their importance in daily life.
In terms of writing responsibility, Cao was committed to his best and wanted to present the best to readers. One can see the life style and habit of the rich and famous during the early Qing dynasty.
There were many restrictions in writing such a book as the contents might offend the ruler. However, Cao had cleverly used his talented writing skills to complete the job.
Planning:
Strategy Development & Deployment
Strategy Development & Deployment
To write a great masterpiece, Cao knew he needed to have a long term plan and inputs from others. He had to evaluate the suitability of the structure, made corrections, added new comments and changed drafts after drafts. However, his core value and objective had not changed –to make Red Chamber a great book.
The story line and development is an excellent work. It takes 10 years for Cao to complete the writings. Cao’s strategy is very clear and wants to make it a record that will have impact in history and literature.
Due to careful planning, Red Chamber was never banned or got into troubles with the authority. If the book was banned, it will be a great loss to Chinese literature.
In the very first beginning, Cao had realized the possible consequence if the book angered the authority. Even he wanted to implicate some political events, he had to adopt the hidden tactics or use other past historical events to cover up. In fact, this book was widely circulated among officials and people were willing to spend high price to get it. This proved that even the government had agreed with its publication.
He had not benchmarked his book with others but believed in his own performance and improvement through blood and tears.
Information:
Management of information
Comparison & Benchmarking
Management of information
Red Chamber is a reflection of Chinese characteristics. A Chinese has a combination of 3 characteristics: Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. The book is a rich collection of these characteristics. In order to have Chinese characteristics in the book, Cao needed to have a rich understanding of the Chinese history and literature. He himself must acquire all these knowledge before writing.
In the process of writing, he will have to get help from other team members as well as research for more information to enhance his writing.
Comparison & Benchmarking
Cao had never clearly indicated that what he would like Red Chamber to be compared with others? However, he had clearly stated that he wanted to make a difference. Differences from the male centric of Chinese novels (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms), moving away from the historical events (like Water Margin, Three kingdoms),
People:
HR Planning
Employee involvement & Commitment
Employee Education, Training & Development
Employee Health & Satisfaction
Employee Performance & Recognition
HR Planning
To make an impactful book, Cao understands he needs inputs from others (relatives and friends). He had selected a group of friends and relatives who could contribute to the making of Red Chamber. He shared his drafts with them and asked for their comments to improve the writing.
Employee involvement & Commitment
Equally impressive was his group of supporters. His supporters were very engaged in their work and gave due feedbacks, for example, the arguments on the words used, the political sensitive issues, the story lines and developments, the hints etc.
Employee Education, Training & Development
Cao had very good foundation on the Chinese history and literature. This enabled him to use a lot of historical events, poems, arts, writings etc of other people.
Employee Health & Satisfaction
His team members were satisfied and willing to provide feedbacks to him. However, due to his financial condition, Cao had never maintained a good health. However, he too was satisfied with his achievement.
Employee Performance & Recognition
Inputs, feedback and comments from his team were valued and recognized. Cao had very good commentators on his book. They gave valuable inputs to him so that he could avoid conflicts and prevented sensitive subjects. Cao also appreciated their assistance. In the drafts or even published Red Chamber, readers can easily find the different comments given by different supporters. Few books were published with comments.
Process:
Innovation Process
Process Management & Improvement
Supplier & Partnering Process
Innovation Process
The process of writing Red Chamber is a very innovative one. Red Chamber may be the only Chinese book that you can find the comments, notes and other feedbacks from readers and commentators. Cao listened to the comments and input them into his drafts.
Process Management & Improvement
This is why only after at least 5 drafts/corrections; the final version of Red Chamber was out. Cao welcomed inputs and feedbacks so that he could improve his writings.
The process also involved suitable selection of words, chapters, story developments, arrangements of female characteristics (position of 108 of them).
Supplier & Partnering Process
This was a weak point. The original scripts went to too many hands for comments and advices. There was no proper control. Some readers did not return the drafts and some even lost them. Some liked it so much and refused to return.
The printing of Red Chamber is also not very smooth. The book as a draft form was “hand” copy and circulated around. It becomes more popular and achieved huge success after the addition of the last 40 chapters (after Cao dead) and entered commercialised printing and copying.
Customers:
Customer Results
Financial & Market Results
People Results
Operational Results
Customer Results
Customer Requirements
There is a demand for high quality publication. Readers are interested to know the romantic story, the hidden political meanings, the culture and literature of the Qing dynasty, etc. Red Chamber is able to fulfil these demands.
Customer Relationship
Although Cao has no direct relationship with readers, especially, readers after his death, Red Chamber is well received by many people, from young to old, from educated to uneducated, from rich to poor.
The relationship is established naturally and the readership base becomes bigger and bigger. There are people spending their whole life studying, analysing and researching the Red Chamber.
Customer Satisfaction
Red Chamber attracts many high quality readers. When it was first published, it was an immediate success. Many readers paid high price to get a copy. A lot of scholars, powerful families, wanted to collect the Red Chamber. It became a business to get people to copy the Red Chamber and sold it for a profit. The discussion of Red Chamber among officials after office hours was a hot topic and educated people who did not know about Red Chamber found no topic for discussion.
Even today, there is no lack of readers and they continue to spend time to re-read and research on Red Chamber.
Financial & Market Results
There were no financial results for Cao as we do not pay copy right to him. In fact, Cao was financially very poor. Most likely, he died in hardship.
However, Red Chamber was well known not only in China but all over the world as a masterpiece of Chinese literature and culture. Its market expansion has reached beyond China. Red Chambers was made into movies, TV series, drama, opera, books, etc. It is also a representative of Chinese literature.
People Results
Scholars are still studying Red Chamber from different aspects. “Hong xue” or the study of Red Chamber is an important branch of Chinese literature. Seminars, research papers, conferences, are held regularly. Red Chamber has become part of Chinese culture as a performing art, literature, research and study.
Operational Results
The innovation process of Red Chamber may not be easy to match for future writers. It is also hard to get so many qualified people to contribute to a book. The qualification and knowledge of Chinese customs, literature and history that Cao possessed is even hard to match.
However, it shows how a great a masterpiece is done and with better and improved technology, the drafting shortfalls can be verified.
3 Corporate Cultures
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
The publication of Red Chamber, due to its hidden political sensitivities, could lead Cao into great troubles. This was especially true in the early Qing dynasty as there were many resistances from Han people. There were many tragedies that buried the whole family. Some people got into troubles because of a sensitive and double meaning word. Some suffered because of other people ill intention.
Cao had to use many hidden tactics and reflection writings. He had to carefully select his words not only for the beauty of literature but also for political considerations. There were some chapters that he had to make changes or even sacrifice the writings.
He is in the battle flied and yet seeking a balance to live in an ecosystem.
2 Corporations are communities, not machines.
Red Chamber is “life” story of a family, a community. It is a reflection of the whole nation in terms of Chinese customs, culture, literature and history. Many of the thinking, behaviours, customs mentioned in the book are still valid in today’s China. You can find the Chinese characteristics there. It is not a history book but a book that readers can have interactions, exchanges, and associations.
As a creative work, Red Chamber cannot be written like a machine – standard operation procedures. Otherwise, readers will suffer form boring and discard it after few pages. Red Chamber is a life story of the writer, from rich and famous to poor and disgrace. The background is a family. It shows people staying in the big family and how they react to changes in life.
3 Management is service, not control.
The publication of Red Chamber is to serve the readers. The book has no intention to control or influence readers. However, it wants to engage readers and share with readers about the life and the sad story of a rich family. Readers can choose to read their favourable chapters based on their own interest. For example, poems society for young, old lady entering the big garden, burying flowers etc. Each can form individual piece for interest reading or research purpose.
Cao wanted to service the readers and presented a story that reflected his family, his period of Qing dynasty and the Chinese characteristics.
4 Employees are peers, not children.
Red Chamber comparing to the other 3 great Chinese novels (Three kingdoms, Water margin and The Journey to the West) has given equal right to female and poor people. In an old traditional Chinese society and family, Cao has projected a positive image for women (in terms of management, intelligence, knowledge and power) and poor people (sincerity, honesty and pure). For example,
• The most powerful figure is the grand mother.
• The best CEO is a female (Wang Xi Feng).
• There are many intelligent ladies in the family but men are projected as stupid and ugly.
Cao also treated his supporters or teammates as equal and accept their suggestions and advices.
5 Motivate with vision, not fear.
Cao had set a clear vision for himself. He also understood the consequences if the writings got into trouble with the authority. He was motivated by his belief that his work would become the most influencing writing of his time. He continued to write even under hardship and poor condition. Some times he not even had enough food. However, he was still committed to write the book. There were difficulties, fears, and hungry during his writing.
6 Change is growth, not pain.
Red Chamber made a lot of changes as compared to other Chinese writings. Some changes are
- female centric
- family as a reflection of a nation
- hidden political story
- up and down of a family from rich to poor
- hidden, negative and positive writings
- a collection of Chinese customs and arts.
However, the writing is a painful process.
7 Computers are servants, not masters.
Red Chamber used a lot of ancient Chinese idioms, history, the philosophy of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism and many hints.
However, Cao cleverly used his writings to combine all these into his book. His writing was never restricted or obstructed by the heavy historical past and the teaching of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism.
The past information was used to enrich his writing and not become his masters. In stead, Cao made use of these rich information and materials as backup to enhance his writings.
8 Work is play, not toil.
Although the process is a painful and difficult one, Cao never complained about the difficulty of the writing. He enjoyed writing it and especially, when he could share his writings with others and getting their feedback.
If Cao had never enjoyed in his writing, he would certainly abandon his work.
He must have found the happiness in the blood and tear of the stone story despite of the physical condition.
Friday 17 December 2010
Chinese Wisdom and Corporate Culture
Geoffrey James’s “Success Secrets from Silicon Valley – How to make your teams more effective” introduces a new corporate culture for Silicon Valley companies, as compared to the traditional business model. He also mentioned 8 key differences between Silicon Valley and traditional corporate culture:
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
2 Corporations are communities, not machines
3 Management is service, not control
4 Employees are peers, not children
5 Motivate with vision, not fear
6 Change is growth, not pain
7 Computers are servants, not masters
8 Work is play, not toil.
The former is adopting a pro-humanity approach as employees are different from machines. However, traditional business mindsets are still under the dark crowd of industrial revolution and believe in treating employees like a product, equipment or machine. The traditional corporate culture is very close to Legalism in China. Legalism promotes disciplines, rewards, control, fear and expansion to make a country strong.
Hence, can Chinese wisdom apply to his new corporate culture? How can Chinese wisdom be relevant to modern corporate culture in a practical way?
In the previous discussion, Chinese wisdom and business excellence was discussed. And we use Mengzi and Zhuangzi as representatives of Confucianism and Daoism to represent the yang and yin aspects of Chinese wisdom.
For corporate culture, it contains yin and yang and both are co-exiting in the keys and strategies. For Confucianism and Daoism, Confucius and Laozi respectively will provide inputs to illustrate and explain the new Silicon Valley corporate culture. We cannot divide yin and yang from a culture. The corporate culture should include both yin and yang, i.e. Confucianism and Daoism. However, the proportion of Confucianism and Daoism in each key is not equal, some keys have more yin and less yang, or vice visa.
Key 1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
Strategy 1 Encourage diversity
Strategy 2 Launch new generations
Strategy 3 Build symbiotic relationship
Daoism: The principle of Dao is nature (Chapter 25 道法自然). Daoism always stresses the co-existence of human beings with nature and we should leave things moving naturally without intervention. Daoism in principal is against war. In Laozi Chapter 77, the difference between human way （人道）and heaven way (天道) is heaven way uses the surplus to compensate the deficit. But the human way is doing the opposite.
Confucianism: Thousands of things live and grow in no contrary (万物并育而无相害). Although never mention about nature, Confucianism stresses all living things co-exist and live in harmony. Things do not hurt each other. Again, Confucianism is against war.
This key and its strategies are very Chinese, especially from point views of Daoism and Book of changes. Daoism stresses on no intervention (wu wei) and leave the environment develop itself. This natural movements and changes will reach its optimal level at the end under a non-intervention environment.
Key 2 Corporations are communities, not machines
Strategy 4 Communicate directly
Strategy 5 Create opportunities for social interaction
Strategy 6 Encourage hands-on charity work
Confucianism: Human nature is to stay together, but not with birds and animal (鸟兽不可与同禽，吾非斯人之徒与而谁与？). In his comment about the Daoism no interest in politics and society, Confucius felt that as human beings we should serve the community and get involved in the social movement. The difference between Confucianism and Daoism is one is to engage the society (入世) and the other is to move away from society (出世).
Daoism: Small community is the best (chapter 80, 小国寡民). The ideal society or nation is a small country, uses no machines or technology and moves back to the past and simple life style. Neighbouring countries do not contact each other until dead. Laozi wants to keep the community small and has less influence from outside.
This key and its strategies are more related to Confucianism. In Confucianism, the emphasis is Gentlemen who are honest, straight forward, concerns about the poor and society. Their aim is to serve the people and country even under difficult circumstances.
Key 3 Management is service, not control
Strategy 7 Increase power by dispersing it
Strategy 8 Encourage creative dissent
Strategy 9 Build autonomous teams
Daoism: Do not disturb people’s life and put pressure on their business (chapter 72，无狎其所居，无厌其所生). If there is no pressure, there will have no hate. Rulers understand/know themselves but they will not show off. They value themselves but will never intentionally raise their status. Daoism opposes control, and believe in natural cause.
Confucianism: Extend wishes to others (己欲立而立人，己欲立而立人). If leader wants himself to be successful, he should also extend this to other people. If leader wants to have improvements, he should wish other people having improvement. Leaders should think of others if he wishes to be successful, he should also help others to achieve their goals.
This key and its strategies are more towards Daoism – less is more, thinking out of the box, no intervention. They want to have no control and believe “less” is “more”. On the other hand, Confucianism is more structure and looks for compromise.
Key 4 Employees are peers, not children
Strategy 10 Hire the self-motivated
Strategy 11 Eliminate fancy perks
Strategy 12 Sacrifice the sacred cows
Confucianism: In harmony but keep the difference (和而不同). Confucianism always mentions 2 types of people: gentlemen and ordinary people. Gentlemen always want to live in harmony but still keep individual differences. However, ordinary people are of the same kind but not in harmony.
Daoism: Let it be naturally (chapter 57 我无为而民自化). One of the key concept of Daoism is no intervention (wu wei). Because of no intervention, people will develop themselves. Because of doing nothing, people self create their wealth.
The key and its strategies are more towards Daoism. Because of no intervention, people are self motivated and self developed. Laozi is against wastage and promotes saving and thrifty.
Key 5 Motivate with vision, not fear
Strategy 13 Create climate of trust
Strategy 14 Build a shared vision
Strategy 15 Compensate for missions accomplished
Strategy 16 Ruthlessly prioritize
Confucianism: Generals can be lost but not ambition (三军可夺帅也，匹夫不可夺志也). Confucianism places high priority and emphasis on ambition. A person without ambition will not succeed in life and make contributions to society. This is why during the war you may lose a general but the ambition (to win) must always be there. Once you have no ambition, even a great general will not win the war.
Daoism: “Way” for different people (Chapter 41 上下闻道). There are 3 attitudes toward Way. Talents that learn about Way will try their best to achieve it. Middle level talents only believe half of it. Lower talents just laugh it. Laozi comments that if lower talents are not laughing, then the Way is not the way. Different people have different opinions about vision, only those appreciate and believe it will aim to achieve it.
The key and its strategies have the mindsets of Confucianism or even legalism. To build a strong country, have a vision, award equally and build royalty are things that Confucianism and Legalism want to do.
Key 6 Change is growth, not pain
Strategy 17 Have long-term vision, short-term plans
Strategy 18 Keep jobs fluid and flexible
Strategy 19 Make decisions quickly and broadly
Strategy 20 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Confucianism: The original character is quite similar when born; however, learning makes the difference (性相近，习相远). Confucianism believes from young, the character of individuals is about the same, but later after education and learning, it makes a person different from others. Hence, Confucianism stress human beings must have ambition to learn and to improve.
Daoism: Not satisfied then replace old with new (chapter 15, 夫唯不盈，故能蔽而新成). Only when things are not full, for example, a cup of water, then there is a possibility to achieve fullness. People who believe in the (right) Way understand that they need to make changes replacing the old with the new thing to get perfection (full).
The Key and its strategies are linked towards Daoism. Daoism notices changes and believes changes in the natural way will produce the best outcome. Due to no intervention, hence, there is no pain. Laozi likes water and sees it as flexible and powerful. However, for vision, Confucianism has a clear mission.
Key 7 Computers (Technology) are servants, not masters
Strategy 21 Use electronic mail to flatten management
Strategy 22 Humanize electronic communications
Strategy 23 Reduce information pollution
Daoism: Simple and humble, reduce selfishness and desires (Chapter 19, 见素抱朴，少私寡欲). Daoism stresses on learning less and not more. They want people to act simple, maintain humble, reduce selfishness and has less desires. This is also in line with the principle of no intervention (wu wei). More information means giving more things for the people to digest. Laozi emphasises on reduction philosophy (减法哲学). He believes the more people know or learn, the more burdens they have.
Confucianism: Knowing one also knowing the other 3 (举一隅不以三隅反，则不复也). In a (square) room, having the knowledge of one corner enables one to know the other 3 corners. A learner should know how to figure and imagine the other 3 corners when he or she already has information of 1 corner. Continuing to depend on more information to find out the image of the room is overwork and that will make information the master.
The key and its strategies are closer to Daoism. Daoism believes in simplicity, back to basic, and no (intervention) control of information. They believe human beings should reduce their knowledge and do not burden by knowledge, i.e. understanding or leaning more by dropping more and more knowledge
Key 8 Work is play, not toil.
Strategy 24 Cultivate constant challenge
Strategy 25 Encourage informality
Strategy 26 Create a sense of balance
Confucianism: Sing together and in harmony. (子与人歌而善，必使反之，而后和之). Confucianism may be the only philosophies in China that emphasises music, arts, protocol in education and politics. Here, Confucius sings along with other people, when he is happy, he invites them to sing again and he himself will sing one more time. Confucius likes singing and only stops singing when he cries on a particular day. Confucianism focuses on the balance of work and life.
Daoism: Like a baby (Chapter 55 含德之厚，比于赤子). Daoism describes the Way is like the mother and the baby is the one understanding the Way. Mother is rich and forgives everything and baby has no desires. Hence, baby has no external demand and only wants to be with the mother (way). However, when baby grows up day by day, he or she has more desires, demands, and become less simple (pure). This means he is moving further and further away from the mother (Way). While working, work like a baby.
The key and its strategies are related to Daoism and Confucianism. Daoism is against formality. Confucianism believes in happy learning and working. Confucianism wants to keep on reminding people to be alert and face challenges.
1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
2 Corporations are communities, not machines
3 Management is service, not control
4 Employees are peers, not children
5 Motivate with vision, not fear
6 Change is growth, not pain
7 Computers are servants, not masters
8 Work is play, not toil.
The former is adopting a pro-humanity approach as employees are different from machines. However, traditional business mindsets are still under the dark crowd of industrial revolution and believe in treating employees like a product, equipment or machine. The traditional corporate culture is very close to Legalism in China. Legalism promotes disciplines, rewards, control, fear and expansion to make a country strong.
Hence, can Chinese wisdom apply to his new corporate culture? How can Chinese wisdom be relevant to modern corporate culture in a practical way?
In the previous discussion, Chinese wisdom and business excellence was discussed. And we use Mengzi and Zhuangzi as representatives of Confucianism and Daoism to represent the yang and yin aspects of Chinese wisdom.
For corporate culture, it contains yin and yang and both are co-exiting in the keys and strategies. For Confucianism and Daoism, Confucius and Laozi respectively will provide inputs to illustrate and explain the new Silicon Valley corporate culture. We cannot divide yin and yang from a culture. The corporate culture should include both yin and yang, i.e. Confucianism and Daoism. However, the proportion of Confucianism and Daoism in each key is not equal, some keys have more yin and less yang, or vice visa.
Key 1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
Strategy 1 Encourage diversity
Strategy 2 Launch new generations
Strategy 3 Build symbiotic relationship
Daoism: The principle of Dao is nature (Chapter 25 道法自然). Daoism always stresses the co-existence of human beings with nature and we should leave things moving naturally without intervention. Daoism in principal is against war. In Laozi Chapter 77, the difference between human way （人道）and heaven way (天道) is heaven way uses the surplus to compensate the deficit. But the human way is doing the opposite.
Confucianism: Thousands of things live and grow in no contrary (万物并育而无相害). Although never mention about nature, Confucianism stresses all living things co-exist and live in harmony. Things do not hurt each other. Again, Confucianism is against war.
This key and its strategies are very Chinese, especially from point views of Daoism and Book of changes. Daoism stresses on no intervention (wu wei) and leave the environment develop itself. This natural movements and changes will reach its optimal level at the end under a non-intervention environment.
Key 2 Corporations are communities, not machines
Strategy 4 Communicate directly
Strategy 5 Create opportunities for social interaction
Strategy 6 Encourage hands-on charity work
Confucianism: Human nature is to stay together, but not with birds and animal (鸟兽不可与同禽，吾非斯人之徒与而谁与？). In his comment about the Daoism no interest in politics and society, Confucius felt that as human beings we should serve the community and get involved in the social movement. The difference between Confucianism and Daoism is one is to engage the society (入世) and the other is to move away from society (出世).
Daoism: Small community is the best (chapter 80, 小国寡民). The ideal society or nation is a small country, uses no machines or technology and moves back to the past and simple life style. Neighbouring countries do not contact each other until dead. Laozi wants to keep the community small and has less influence from outside.
This key and its strategies are more related to Confucianism. In Confucianism, the emphasis is Gentlemen who are honest, straight forward, concerns about the poor and society. Their aim is to serve the people and country even under difficult circumstances.
Key 3 Management is service, not control
Strategy 7 Increase power by dispersing it
Strategy 8 Encourage creative dissent
Strategy 9 Build autonomous teams
Daoism: Do not disturb people’s life and put pressure on their business (chapter 72，无狎其所居，无厌其所生). If there is no pressure, there will have no hate. Rulers understand/know themselves but they will not show off. They value themselves but will never intentionally raise their status. Daoism opposes control, and believe in natural cause.
Confucianism: Extend wishes to others (己欲立而立人，己欲立而立人). If leader wants himself to be successful, he should also extend this to other people. If leader wants to have improvements, he should wish other people having improvement. Leaders should think of others if he wishes to be successful, he should also help others to achieve their goals.
This key and its strategies are more towards Daoism – less is more, thinking out of the box, no intervention. They want to have no control and believe “less” is “more”. On the other hand, Confucianism is more structure and looks for compromise.
Key 4 Employees are peers, not children
Strategy 10 Hire the self-motivated
Strategy 11 Eliminate fancy perks
Strategy 12 Sacrifice the sacred cows
Confucianism: In harmony but keep the difference (和而不同). Confucianism always mentions 2 types of people: gentlemen and ordinary people. Gentlemen always want to live in harmony but still keep individual differences. However, ordinary people are of the same kind but not in harmony.
Daoism: Let it be naturally (chapter 57 我无为而民自化). One of the key concept of Daoism is no intervention (wu wei). Because of no intervention, people will develop themselves. Because of doing nothing, people self create their wealth.
The key and its strategies are more towards Daoism. Because of no intervention, people are self motivated and self developed. Laozi is against wastage and promotes saving and thrifty.
Key 5 Motivate with vision, not fear
Strategy 13 Create climate of trust
Strategy 14 Build a shared vision
Strategy 15 Compensate for missions accomplished
Strategy 16 Ruthlessly prioritize
Confucianism: Generals can be lost but not ambition (三军可夺帅也，匹夫不可夺志也). Confucianism places high priority and emphasis on ambition. A person without ambition will not succeed in life and make contributions to society. This is why during the war you may lose a general but the ambition (to win) must always be there. Once you have no ambition, even a great general will not win the war.
Daoism: “Way” for different people (Chapter 41 上下闻道). There are 3 attitudes toward Way. Talents that learn about Way will try their best to achieve it. Middle level talents only believe half of it. Lower talents just laugh it. Laozi comments that if lower talents are not laughing, then the Way is not the way. Different people have different opinions about vision, only those appreciate and believe it will aim to achieve it.
The key and its strategies have the mindsets of Confucianism or even legalism. To build a strong country, have a vision, award equally and build royalty are things that Confucianism and Legalism want to do.
Key 6 Change is growth, not pain
Strategy 17 Have long-term vision, short-term plans
Strategy 18 Keep jobs fluid and flexible
Strategy 19 Make decisions quickly and broadly
Strategy 20 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Confucianism: The original character is quite similar when born; however, learning makes the difference (性相近，习相远). Confucianism believes from young, the character of individuals is about the same, but later after education and learning, it makes a person different from others. Hence, Confucianism stress human beings must have ambition to learn and to improve.
Daoism: Not satisfied then replace old with new (chapter 15, 夫唯不盈，故能蔽而新成). Only when things are not full, for example, a cup of water, then there is a possibility to achieve fullness. People who believe in the (right) Way understand that they need to make changes replacing the old with the new thing to get perfection (full).
The Key and its strategies are linked towards Daoism. Daoism notices changes and believes changes in the natural way will produce the best outcome. Due to no intervention, hence, there is no pain. Laozi likes water and sees it as flexible and powerful. However, for vision, Confucianism has a clear mission.
Key 7 Computers (Technology) are servants, not masters
Strategy 21 Use electronic mail to flatten management
Strategy 22 Humanize electronic communications
Strategy 23 Reduce information pollution
Daoism: Simple and humble, reduce selfishness and desires (Chapter 19, 见素抱朴，少私寡欲). Daoism stresses on learning less and not more. They want people to act simple, maintain humble, reduce selfishness and has less desires. This is also in line with the principle of no intervention (wu wei). More information means giving more things for the people to digest. Laozi emphasises on reduction philosophy (减法哲学). He believes the more people know or learn, the more burdens they have.
Confucianism: Knowing one also knowing the other 3 (举一隅不以三隅反，则不复也). In a (square) room, having the knowledge of one corner enables one to know the other 3 corners. A learner should know how to figure and imagine the other 3 corners when he or she already has information of 1 corner. Continuing to depend on more information to find out the image of the room is overwork and that will make information the master.
The key and its strategies are closer to Daoism. Daoism believes in simplicity, back to basic, and no (intervention) control of information. They believe human beings should reduce their knowledge and do not burden by knowledge, i.e. understanding or leaning more by dropping more and more knowledge
Key 8 Work is play, not toil.
Strategy 24 Cultivate constant challenge
Strategy 25 Encourage informality
Strategy 26 Create a sense of balance
Confucianism: Sing together and in harmony. (子与人歌而善，必使反之，而后和之). Confucianism may be the only philosophies in China that emphasises music, arts, protocol in education and politics. Here, Confucius sings along with other people, when he is happy, he invites them to sing again and he himself will sing one more time. Confucius likes singing and only stops singing when he cries on a particular day. Confucianism focuses on the balance of work and life.
Daoism: Like a baby (Chapter 55 含德之厚，比于赤子). Daoism describes the Way is like the mother and the baby is the one understanding the Way. Mother is rich and forgives everything and baby has no desires. Hence, baby has no external demand and only wants to be with the mother (way). However, when baby grows up day by day, he or she has more desires, demands, and become less simple (pure). This means he is moving further and further away from the mother (Way). While working, work like a baby.
The key and its strategies are related to Daoism and Confucianism. Daoism is against formality. Confucianism believes in happy learning and working. Confucianism wants to keep on reminding people to be alert and face challenges.
Friday 10 December 2010
Chinese Wisdom and Business Excellence
Have you ever thought of linking Chinese wisdom to business excellence? And how can it be done?
In general, Chinese wisdom and philosophy are guiding principles for Chinese people since their formation and have helped China to move around, up and down from centuries to centuries. It may not be easy to notice but Chinese wisdom is reflected in Chinese characteristics and behaviour in their daily life, including business practice.
There are many business excellence models in the world, for example, US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, European Quality Award, Australian Business Excellence Award and Japan Quality Awards. In Singapore, we have our own Singapore Quality Award. The overall excellence standards have 7 categories under SQA. There are Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Processes, Customers and Results. All these excellent models are quite similar and have considered these 7 factors in assessing an excellent company or organisation.
Assessors will evaluate and audit the performance considering the approach used and deployment of the approaches. The evaluation then moves further to cover the feedback system in a way of learning, innovation and creativity. It therefore also touches on the change process and continuation/improvement for organisation development. An organisation must continue to improve, face challenges and make adjustments under different changing environments.
Yi Jing, the Book of Change, is talking about changes, how to face changes and avoid mistakes. In reality the Book of Change involves 3 basic principles: changes, unchanged and simplicity. We should not look at the Book as a “change” management.
Yi Jing has 8 trigrams, 64 hexagrams and 384 (64x6) broken and unbroken lines. All these have its functions and patterns and standard movements and meaning. These are “unchanged”, like the positions of heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake. The changes take place when one of the broken or unbroken line changes position from one to another and so the whole hexagram will also change to a new hexagram. In analysing the changes, one will need to simplify the change process, assess the situation and make the next move (decision).
When we look at SQA model, the flow from leadership to results, plus leaning and innovation are standard movements. These are “unchanged”. However, when facing new challenges, competitions and environment, the relationship of the 7 categories (and the 21 items and 100 questions) will need to make adjustments. Some problems may have to move from holistic (overall) approach to niche approach to faster react to changes. SQA has simplified the change and unchanged process and provides a clear and simple way to approach business excellence.
We will leave Yi Jing (ying and yang movements) as example for business excellence and move on to use other examples from Confucianism and Daoism, to explain how practical Chinese wisdom is relevant in today’s business world. These examples can help us further understand the practical application of Chinese wisdom.
Mengzi and Zhuangzi, the two representatives of Confucianism (representing the yang) and Daoism (representing the yin) will show us the practical uses of Chinese wisdom in business world. Both men are great in story telling and have left a lot of idioms to us. Mengzi is good at essay and arguments. His straight forward thinking has greater influence in Chinese politics. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, is romantic and imaginative. His free thinking has great influence in Chinese literature.
Leadership:
Mengzi: Courage and strength to lead. In the principle of the great “Qi” (spirit movement), a leader believes he is doing the right thing and his decision is benefiting people. He then gains courage to implement policies and strategies accordingly. He built up his internal strength, which becomes stronger and stronger to let him face challenges. Leaders must dare to make tough decision for the benefit of the organisation.
Zhuangzi: High and tall foresight. In the story of a big bird flying to the south, Zhaungzi described how a fish is transformed into a big bird and gets the energy to fly to the sky. While other small birds are satisfied with their flying height, the big bird wants to fly as further as possible. Leaders must think of the highest achievable level for the organisation.
Planning
Mengzi: Before rain, plan first. When the organisation is moving smoothly, the management needs to plan ahead to further improve organisation performance. This is to avoid complacency.
Zhuangzi: Same amount, different arrangements. In the story of feeding monkeys, giving 3 bananas in the morning and 4 in the evening is the same as 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening. However, monkeys think they have a better deal by having more bananas in the morning. Different plans could have the same result depending on how you look at it. On the other way, it is also a planning under limited resources.
Information:
Mengzi: Not to believe everything in the book. If a leader believes all the information in the book, it is better not to have the book. Businesses need to understand and analyse the information, pure data will do more harm than good.
Zhuangzi: The use of useless. The basic of usefulness is based on useless. When we stand on a small piece of land, only that particular area is useful to us. So, we remove all the useless land areas, at the end can we still stand on the piece of useful land? Hence, once we remove the useless, the usefulness will not appear. The meaning of useful information derives from useless information.
People:
Mengzi: Sole happy is not as good as group happy. In this story, the King is enjoying music, Mengzi advises him to share music with his country men. Management should not bring happiness to few people. As an organisation, every one should be happy and so all are willing to make contributions.
Zhuangzi: The real beauty is internal. In this story, a hotel owner has 2 wives, one ugly and one pretty. To everyone surprise, the owner praises the ugly one. His explanation is the pretty one thinks she is a beauty and always pretends and expresses her beauty. However, the ugly one is humble and concentrates working. So, the real beauty is internal and not external. There are many types of employees and who are the real pretty ones?
Process:
Mengzi: Half performance, double returns. Process should be designed in such a way that people only use half of their strength to gain double returns. This seems to refer to productivity and efficiency.
Zhuangzi: The master piece of ghost and god. A woodcrafter needs several processes to produce a master piece. After praying for 3 days, he thinks nothing about reward, another 5 days, he does not think of whether people are good or bad, another 7 days he forgets about his own body parts. He then goes to the forest to look for the wood and based on natural environment, he finally produces his master piece, like having the help of ghost and god. A company needs to produce outstanding products and services to attract business.
Customers:
Mengzi: Either left or right, there are waters. This is a smooth situation. Whether you turn to the left or right, you will be able to find the water and water always represent free and smooth flow. Customers are like waters and businesses welcome them.
Zhuangzi: Only on the surface. In country Lu, on the surface, there are many Confucian followers. However, a notice announcing only real Confucianism practitioners are allowed to wear Confucian dress, otherwise, offenders will face death penalty, the situation changes. 5 days after the notice, only 1 person put on a Confucian dress. Customers can be real and not real, when times come it will tell.
Results:
Mengzi: Family, no regret and education are 3 happy things. Healthy family, safety brothers and sisters are the first happy. Don’t feel sorry and regret in every thing done is the second happy. Finding talents and train them is the third happy. For a business, healthy employees and families are very important. Performing corporate social or citizen responsibility is equally important. For business continuation, new talents needed to be recruited and trained.
Zhuangzi: Eyeing profit, forget the danger. In a fruit tree garden, Zhuangzi is aiming a bird and the bird is aiming an insect. All are in full concentration on their targets. Suddenly, Zhuangzi realised that by doing so, it means someone is also aiming him. It turned out to be the garden owner who is aiming zhuangzi and beginning to chase him. When aiming for profit and return, have we ever thought of the danger of making quick money?
In general, Chinese wisdom and philosophy are guiding principles for Chinese people since their formation and have helped China to move around, up and down from centuries to centuries. It may not be easy to notice but Chinese wisdom is reflected in Chinese characteristics and behaviour in their daily life, including business practice.
There are many business excellence models in the world, for example, US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, European Quality Award, Australian Business Excellence Award and Japan Quality Awards. In Singapore, we have our own Singapore Quality Award. The overall excellence standards have 7 categories under SQA. There are Leadership, Planning, Information, People, Processes, Customers and Results. All these excellent models are quite similar and have considered these 7 factors in assessing an excellent company or organisation.
Assessors will evaluate and audit the performance considering the approach used and deployment of the approaches. The evaluation then moves further to cover the feedback system in a way of learning, innovation and creativity. It therefore also touches on the change process and continuation/improvement for organisation development. An organisation must continue to improve, face challenges and make adjustments under different changing environments.
Yi Jing, the Book of Change, is talking about changes, how to face changes and avoid mistakes. In reality the Book of Change involves 3 basic principles: changes, unchanged and simplicity. We should not look at the Book as a “change” management.
Yi Jing has 8 trigrams, 64 hexagrams and 384 (64x6) broken and unbroken lines. All these have its functions and patterns and standard movements and meaning. These are “unchanged”, like the positions of heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake. The changes take place when one of the broken or unbroken line changes position from one to another and so the whole hexagram will also change to a new hexagram. In analysing the changes, one will need to simplify the change process, assess the situation and make the next move (decision).
When we look at SQA model, the flow from leadership to results, plus leaning and innovation are standard movements. These are “unchanged”. However, when facing new challenges, competitions and environment, the relationship of the 7 categories (and the 21 items and 100 questions) will need to make adjustments. Some problems may have to move from holistic (overall) approach to niche approach to faster react to changes. SQA has simplified the change and unchanged process and provides a clear and simple way to approach business excellence.
We will leave Yi Jing (ying and yang movements) as example for business excellence and move on to use other examples from Confucianism and Daoism, to explain how practical Chinese wisdom is relevant in today’s business world. These examples can help us further understand the practical application of Chinese wisdom.
Mengzi and Zhuangzi, the two representatives of Confucianism (representing the yang) and Daoism (representing the yin) will show us the practical uses of Chinese wisdom in business world. Both men are great in story telling and have left a lot of idioms to us. Mengzi is good at essay and arguments. His straight forward thinking has greater influence in Chinese politics. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, is romantic and imaginative. His free thinking has great influence in Chinese literature.
Leadership:
Mengzi: Courage and strength to lead. In the principle of the great “Qi” (spirit movement), a leader believes he is doing the right thing and his decision is benefiting people. He then gains courage to implement policies and strategies accordingly. He built up his internal strength, which becomes stronger and stronger to let him face challenges. Leaders must dare to make tough decision for the benefit of the organisation.
Zhuangzi: High and tall foresight. In the story of a big bird flying to the south, Zhaungzi described how a fish is transformed into a big bird and gets the energy to fly to the sky. While other small birds are satisfied with their flying height, the big bird wants to fly as further as possible. Leaders must think of the highest achievable level for the organisation.
Planning
Mengzi: Before rain, plan first. When the organisation is moving smoothly, the management needs to plan ahead to further improve organisation performance. This is to avoid complacency.
Zhuangzi: Same amount, different arrangements. In the story of feeding monkeys, giving 3 bananas in the morning and 4 in the evening is the same as 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening. However, monkeys think they have a better deal by having more bananas in the morning. Different plans could have the same result depending on how you look at it. On the other way, it is also a planning under limited resources.
Information:
Mengzi: Not to believe everything in the book. If a leader believes all the information in the book, it is better not to have the book. Businesses need to understand and analyse the information, pure data will do more harm than good.
Zhuangzi: The use of useless. The basic of usefulness is based on useless. When we stand on a small piece of land, only that particular area is useful to us. So, we remove all the useless land areas, at the end can we still stand on the piece of useful land? Hence, once we remove the useless, the usefulness will not appear. The meaning of useful information derives from useless information.
People:
Mengzi: Sole happy is not as good as group happy. In this story, the King is enjoying music, Mengzi advises him to share music with his country men. Management should not bring happiness to few people. As an organisation, every one should be happy and so all are willing to make contributions.
Zhuangzi: The real beauty is internal. In this story, a hotel owner has 2 wives, one ugly and one pretty. To everyone surprise, the owner praises the ugly one. His explanation is the pretty one thinks she is a beauty and always pretends and expresses her beauty. However, the ugly one is humble and concentrates working. So, the real beauty is internal and not external. There are many types of employees and who are the real pretty ones?
Process:
Mengzi: Half performance, double returns. Process should be designed in such a way that people only use half of their strength to gain double returns. This seems to refer to productivity and efficiency.
Zhuangzi: The master piece of ghost and god. A woodcrafter needs several processes to produce a master piece. After praying for 3 days, he thinks nothing about reward, another 5 days, he does not think of whether people are good or bad, another 7 days he forgets about his own body parts. He then goes to the forest to look for the wood and based on natural environment, he finally produces his master piece, like having the help of ghost and god. A company needs to produce outstanding products and services to attract business.
Customers:
Mengzi: Either left or right, there are waters. This is a smooth situation. Whether you turn to the left or right, you will be able to find the water and water always represent free and smooth flow. Customers are like waters and businesses welcome them.
Zhuangzi: Only on the surface. In country Lu, on the surface, there are many Confucian followers. However, a notice announcing only real Confucianism practitioners are allowed to wear Confucian dress, otherwise, offenders will face death penalty, the situation changes. 5 days after the notice, only 1 person put on a Confucian dress. Customers can be real and not real, when times come it will tell.
Results:
Mengzi: Family, no regret and education are 3 happy things. Healthy family, safety brothers and sisters are the first happy. Don’t feel sorry and regret in every thing done is the second happy. Finding talents and train them is the third happy. For a business, healthy employees and families are very important. Performing corporate social or citizen responsibility is equally important. For business continuation, new talents needed to be recruited and trained.
Zhuangzi: Eyeing profit, forget the danger. In a fruit tree garden, Zhuangzi is aiming a bird and the bird is aiming an insect. All are in full concentration on their targets. Suddenly, Zhuangzi realised that by doing so, it means someone is also aiming him. It turned out to be the garden owner who is aiming zhuangzi and beginning to chase him. When aiming for profit and return, have we ever thought of the danger of making quick money?
Tuesday 30 November 2010
Chinese characteristics and crisis management
Chinese philosophy is very much built on uncertainty and the related fear and worry associated to the uncertainty. It is also more concern about the main land rather than sea.
Chinese characteristics are therefore influenced by these backgrounds and reflect into behaviour like unwilling to travel, reserved, conservative as compared to the outward looking Europeans. This inward attitude builds up the internal strength and can be seen in how they face and handle crisis.
Take Yi Jing for example, the creation of 8 trigrams (gua) representing 8 different natural elements: Qian (heaven), Kun (earth), Zhen(thunder), Xun (wind), Kan(water), Li(fire), Gen(mountain) and Dui(lake). These elements are certain and have constant behaviour. However, the combination and changes of these 8 elements will create new uncertainties and make life difficult for people. These new changes can lead to disasters which again can be expected, for example, the coming of a storm.
These changes and unchanged elements will move along the natural environment and generate many happenings in the world. They create the possibilities of uncertainty and as a result, human beings have to find solutions and find ways to cope with the crisis. Just imagine, few thousand years ago when there were no scientific instruments to predict the unknown elements of changes, human beings for sure would be worry about their future. From 8 trigrams, it then developed into 64 hexagrams (consist of 2 trigrams) that represents all the possible happenings in the world. Hence, the main purpose of Yi Jing is to prevent us from making mistakes (to have less worry and fear). However, it later branches out to be an important tool for fortune telling.
Few hundred years after the compilation of Yi Jing, Hundred school of thought took place during the spring-autumn and warring period, a period of even more uncertainties, fear and worry. Hence, under such a circumstance, Chinese philosophies form different attitude towards crisis, survival, life and how individual building up internal strength to manage and face them. For example, Confucianism wants rulers to implement “仁政ren zheng” to be kind to the people. Daoism wants rulers to leave the running of the country to natural cause, not to disturb people.
So, in time of crisis, what will Chinese react? What is the right thing for them to do? How do they achieve internal satisfaction? What is the responsibility of a gentleman?
Right thing to do
Through out the history of China, it is either against or for. “Against” mean you will fight against the situation, i.e. you are even willing to sacrifice your life to protect your belief that it is the right thing to do.
“For” means you accept the fate and let the situation moves accordingly. The principles are to follow the winners.
Internal satisfaction
You are happy and satisfy with your own action. “Against” means even sacrificing life, internally, you will feel satisfaction and external suffering is insignificant.
For “means” you are happy and comfortable to move along with the situation. Not necessarily external comfort, but internally, you are happy with the environment.
A gentleman’s responsibility
When you feel some things are wrong, and internally not satisfied, you feel this is your responsibility to do some things to right the wrong. In this case, a gentleman’s responsibility is to stand up against the situation and to make changes.
“For” means doing the right thing is to protect one self. Once you feel satisfied with new situation, your duty is to follow the crowd and not against the situation.
Chinese reaction to crisis can result to very contrasting and extreme outcomes. When a dynasty fell, some would surrender and others would sacrifice themselves with the old kingdom. When an earthquake strikes, some will run away or take advantage of the situation and some will risk their lives to save the unfortunates.
So, what is the true colour of Chinese characteristics? It depends ….
Chinese characteristics are therefore influenced by these backgrounds and reflect into behaviour like unwilling to travel, reserved, conservative as compared to the outward looking Europeans. This inward attitude builds up the internal strength and can be seen in how they face and handle crisis.
Take Yi Jing for example, the creation of 8 trigrams (gua) representing 8 different natural elements: Qian (heaven), Kun (earth), Zhen(thunder), Xun (wind), Kan(water), Li(fire), Gen(mountain) and Dui(lake). These elements are certain and have constant behaviour. However, the combination and changes of these 8 elements will create new uncertainties and make life difficult for people. These new changes can lead to disasters which again can be expected, for example, the coming of a storm.
These changes and unchanged elements will move along the natural environment and generate many happenings in the world. They create the possibilities of uncertainty and as a result, human beings have to find solutions and find ways to cope with the crisis. Just imagine, few thousand years ago when there were no scientific instruments to predict the unknown elements of changes, human beings for sure would be worry about their future. From 8 trigrams, it then developed into 64 hexagrams (consist of 2 trigrams) that represents all the possible happenings in the world. Hence, the main purpose of Yi Jing is to prevent us from making mistakes (to have less worry and fear). However, it later branches out to be an important tool for fortune telling.
Few hundred years after the compilation of Yi Jing, Hundred school of thought took place during the spring-autumn and warring period, a period of even more uncertainties, fear and worry. Hence, under such a circumstance, Chinese philosophies form different attitude towards crisis, survival, life and how individual building up internal strength to manage and face them. For example, Confucianism wants rulers to implement “仁政ren zheng” to be kind to the people. Daoism wants rulers to leave the running of the country to natural cause, not to disturb people.
So, in time of crisis, what will Chinese react? What is the right thing for them to do? How do they achieve internal satisfaction? What is the responsibility of a gentleman?
Right thing to do
Through out the history of China, it is either against or for. “Against” mean you will fight against the situation, i.e. you are even willing to sacrifice your life to protect your belief that it is the right thing to do.
“For” means you accept the fate and let the situation moves accordingly. The principles are to follow the winners.
Internal satisfaction
You are happy and satisfy with your own action. “Against” means even sacrificing life, internally, you will feel satisfaction and external suffering is insignificant.
For “means” you are happy and comfortable to move along with the situation. Not necessarily external comfort, but internally, you are happy with the environment.
A gentleman’s responsibility
When you feel some things are wrong, and internally not satisfied, you feel this is your responsibility to do some things to right the wrong. In this case, a gentleman’s responsibility is to stand up against the situation and to make changes.
“For” means doing the right thing is to protect one self. Once you feel satisfied with new situation, your duty is to follow the crowd and not against the situation.
Chinese reaction to crisis can result to very contrasting and extreme outcomes. When a dynasty fell, some would surrender and others would sacrifice themselves with the old kingdom. When an earthquake strikes, some will run away or take advantage of the situation and some will risk their lives to save the unfortunates.
So, what is the true colour of Chinese characteristics? It depends ….
Thursday 25 November 2010
Business Excellence and strategic thinking
In business, we talk about excellence. But what is the definition of excellence? The US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award used to be quite popular in the 1980s and 1990s. However, many excellent companies and organisation are now no more interesting at the Award. So, have the pursuit and search of excellence stopped? No, they look for other models or develop their own models with internal and external inputs.
Chinese philosophy in the period of Hundred schools of thought (see below) had introduced several options for an ideal society and provided advices for rulers to build a stronger and prosperous nation. As you may aware, the winner was legalist who advised Qin that used tough and strict law to unite the whole China. However, Qin had a short life in history and was replaced by Han which lasted more than 400 years.
In business, would like to be short lived as Qin?
Philosophy let us know the maximum, even though it may not be achievable in reality. It may be harder for people and businesses under the survival line to think about ideal society or business excellence. However, with the progress of society and economic development, more and more will live above survival line and look for better society and business performance. Along the way, we will need to know our target; even it may be a philosophical one and bench mark against it.
For easy discussion, we only concentrate on 4 major philosophies (Confucianism, Daoism, Legalist and Mohism) in the late Zhou period for business excellence.
If we treat an ideal society as business excellence, then the 4 philosophies will provide the following visions:
Confucianism: A gentleman company. People are courteous, trustworthy, well behaved, respect seniors, follow instructions, honest and seek harmony and compromise with others. Employees want to perform well under rules and regulations and carry out duties with socially acceptable moral and ethical standard. Their aim is to be perfect workers with continuous learning.
Daoism: An action-less, natural company. Let things move in their natural path without intervention. Always focus on the weak, lower and unnoticed event, people, and things. Weak things will turn to strength and will change the bad situation to good.
Employees look for individual and spiritual satisfaction.
Legalist: A law enforcement company. Under rules and regulations, all are equal and receive fair treatment. A strict law is good as human beings are bad in nature and the law can prevent bad and unlawful behaviors. Employees know that they have to perform to be recognized and rewarded.
Mohism: A love for all company. Treat everyone with love and love has no distance regardless of whether they are relatives, friends or even enemy. They are willing to sacrifice life to defend the weak from attack. Employees follow the instructions set by leaders and go all out to spread love without fear.
As a leader you may adopt a combination of the above philosophies or at different stage of organisation development implementing different philosophy principles accordingly.
Further to the vision, in today’s management principles, strategic thinking is the use of systematic and rational methods in planning, problem-solving, and decision-making. However, strategic thinking needs to think out of box and imagine of the impossibilities, possibilities, uncertainties and opportunities. Chinese philosophy can be a source of strategic thinking.
From ideal society as a way to business excellence, we can also envisage the business planning and strategies that the 4 major Chinese philosophies will suggest:
Confucianism: Learning and education. No matter human nature is good or bad, self study, education and training can help a person to improve and upgrade to the highest level, so do the company. Company and employees trust each other in delivering the jobs and achieve a common target.
Daoism: Simplicity and reduction. Emphasis is on individual motivation, satisfaction and enrichment. Company will not influence individual decision. Individual takes their own, easy and simple way to carry out their work. Along the way, employees discard the old and leaned knowledge and see things as simplicity.
Legalist: Performance base. Employees will get rewards for their performance. Regardless of status, as far as one makes contributions to the company, he will be rewarded. Employees are motivated to use all means to achieve their target, including knowing that they may die in service.
Mohism: Universal and equal love. Without thinking one’s ability, in the name of love for all people, employees will perform their duty accordingly. They care very little about themselves but will follow the instruction of their leaders. They are not concern about the reward but are motivated to move forward even if it is an impossible mission.
As a company, you may want your employees to behave like a legalist or even better like a Mohism, never considering reward. However, when we are moving up to the higher economic level, we are searching for self actualisations rather than basic needs.
An organisation or business will need to know what Chinese philosophical strategies to engage so as to achieve excellent result.
Hundred Schools of Thought from wikipedia
The Hundred Schools of Thought (simplified Chinese: 诸子百家; traditional Chinese: 諸子百家; pinyin: zhūzǐ bǎijiā; Wade–Giles: chu-tzu pai-chia; literally "all philosophers hundred schools") were philosophers and schools that flourished from 770 to 221 BC, an era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China. Even though this period - known in its earlier part as the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period (春秋戰國時代/春秋战国时代) - in its latter part was fraught with chaos and bloody battles, it is also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because a broad range of thoughts and ideas were developed and discussed freely. This phenomenon has been called the Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought (百家爭鳴/百家争鸣; bǎijiā zhēngmíng; pai-chia cheng-ming; "hundred schools contend"). The thoughts and ideas discussed and refined during this period have profoundly influenced lifestyles and social consciousness up to the present day in East Asian countries. The intellectual society of this era was characterized by itinerant scholars, who were often employed by various state rulers as advisers on the methods of government, war, and diplomacy. This period ended with the rise of the Qin dynasty and the subsequent purge of dissent.
Confucianism and its derivatives
Main article: Confucianism
Confucianism (儒家; Rújiā; Ju-chia; "School of scholars") is the body of thought that arguably had the most enduring effects on Chinese life. Its written legacy lies in the Confucian Classics, which later became the foundation of traditional society. Confucius (551–479 BC), or Kongzi "Master Kong", looked back to the early days of the Zhou dynasty for an ideal socio-political order. He believed that the only effective system of government necessitated prescribed relationships for each individual: "Let the ruler be a ruler and the subject a subject". Furthermore, he contended that a king must be virtuous in order to rule properly. To Confucius, the functions of government and social stratification were facts of life to be sustained by ethical values; thus his ideal human was the junzi, which is translated as "gentleman" or "superior person".
Mencius (371–289 BC), or Mengzi, formulated his teachings directly in response to Confucius.
The effect of the combined work of Confucius, the codifier and interpreter of a system of relationships based on ethical behavior, and Mencius, the synthesizer and developer of applied Confucianist thought, was to provide traditional Chinese society with a comprehensive framework by which to order virtually every aspect of life.
There were many accretions to the body of Confucian thought, both immediately and over the millennia, from within and without the Confucian school. Interpretations adapted to contemporary society allowed for flexibility within Confucianism, while the fundamental system of modeled behavior from ancient texts formed its philosophical core.
Diametrically opposed to Mencius, in regards to human nature (性), was the interpretation of Xunzi (c. 300–237 BC), another Confucian follower. Xunzi preached that man is not innately good; he asserted that goodness is attainable only through training one's desires and conduct.
Legalism
Main article: Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
The School of Law or Legalism (法家; Fǎjiā; Fa-chia; "School of law") doctrine was formulated by Han Feizi (d. 233 BC) and Li Si (d. 208 BC), who maintained that human nature was incorrigibly selfish; accordingly, the only way to preserve the social order was to impose discipline from above, and to see to a strict enforcement of laws. The Legalists exalted the state above all, seeking its prosperity and martial prowess over the welfare of the common people.
Legalism greatly influenced the philosophical basis for the imperial form of government. During the Han Dynasty, the most practical elements of Confucianism and Legalism were taken to form a sort of synthesis, marking the creation of a new form of government that would remain largely intact until the late 19th century.
Taoism
Main article: Taoism
Philosophical Taoism or Daoism (道家; Dàojiā; Tao-chia; "School of the Way") developed into the second most significant stream of Chinese thought. Its formulation is often attributed to the legendary sage Laozi ("Old Master"), who is said to predate Confucius, and Zhuangzi (369–286 BC). The focus of Taoism is on the individual within the natural realm rather than the individual within society; accordingly, the goal of life for each individual is seeking to adjust oneself and adapting to the rhythm of the natural (and the supernatural) world, to follow the Way (tao) of the universe, and to live in harmony. In many ways the opposite of rigid Confucian morality, Taoism was for many of its adherents a complement to their ordered daily lives. A scholar serving as an official would usually follow Confucian teachings, but at leisure or in retirement might seek harmony with nature as a Taoist recluse.
Mohism
Main article: Mohism
Mohism or Moism (墨家; Mòjiā; Mo-chia; "School of Mo") was developed by followers of Mozi (also referred to as Mo Di; 470–c.391 BC). Though the school did not survive through the Qin Dynasty, Mohism was seen as a major rival of Confucianism in the period of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Its philosophy rested on the idea of universal love: Mozi believed that "everyone is equal before heaven", and that people should seek to imitate heaven by engaging in the practice of collective love. His epistemology can be regarded as primitive materialist empiricism; he believed that human cognition ought to be based on one's perceptions – one's sensory experiences, such as sight and hearing – instead of imagination or internal logic, elements founded on the human capacity for abstraction.
Mozi advocated frugality, condemning the Confucian emphasis on ritual and music, which he denounced as extravagant. He regarded offensive warfare as wasteful and advocated pacifism or at the most, defensive fortification. The achievement of social goals, according to Mozi, necessitated the unity of thought and action. His political philosophy bears a resemblance to divine-rule monarchy: the population ought always to obey its leaders, as its leaders ought always to follow the will of heaven. Mohism might be argued to have elements of meritocracy: Mozi contended that rulers should appoint officials by virtue of their ability instead of their family connections. Although popular faith in Mohism had declined by the end of the Qin Dynasty, its views are said to be strongly echoed in Legalist thought.
School of Yin-yang
The School of Naturalists or Yin-yang (陰陽家/阴阳家; Yīnyángjiā; Yin-yang-chia; "School of Yin-Yang") was a Warring States era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements. Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school. Their theories attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five Phases (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth). In its early days, these theories were most strongly associated with the states of Yan and Qi. In later periods, these epistemological theories came to hold significance in both philosophy and popular belief. This school was absorbed into Taoism's alchemic and magical dimensions as well as into the Chinese medical framework. The earliest surviving recordings of this are in the Ma Wang Dui texts and Huang Di Nei Jing.
Logicians
Main article: School of Names
The School of Names or Logicians (名家; Míngjiā; Ming-chia; "School of names") grew out of Mohism, with a philosophy that focused on definition and logic. It is said to have parallels with that of the Ancient Greek sophists or dialecticians. The most notable Logician was Gongsun Longzi.
Other Schools
The Taishigong Zixu (太史公自序) of Shiji (史記/史记) lists the above six major philosophies within the Hundred Schools of Thought. The Yiwenzhi (藝文志/艺文志) of Hanshu (漢書/汉书) adds four more into the Ten Schools (十家; Shijia).
The School of Agriculture (農家/农家; Nongjia) encouraged farming and agriculture and taught farming and cultivation techniques, as they believed that agricultural development was the way to have enough food for the country. For example, Mencius once criticized Xu Xing (許行) for advocating that rulers should work in the fields with their subjects.
The School of Diplomacy or School of Vertical and Horizontal [Alliances] (縱橫家/纵横家; Zonghengjia) specialized in diplomatic politics; Zhang Yi and Su Qin were representative thinkers. This school focused on practical matters instead of any moral principle, so it stressed political and diplomatic tactics, and debate and lobbying skill. Scholars from this school were good orators, debaters and tacticians.
The Miscellaneous School (雜家/杂家; Zajia) integrated teachings from different schools; for instance, Lü Buwei found scholars from different schools to write a book called Lüshi Chunqiu (呂氏春秋) cooperatively. This school tried to integrate the merits of various schools and avoid their perceived flaws.
The School of "Minor-talks" (小說家/小说家; Xiaoshuojia) was not a unique school of thought. Indeed, all the thoughts which was discussed by and originated from non-famous people on the street were included into this school. At that time, there were some government officials responsible for collecting ideas from non-famous people on the street and report to their senior. This was where this school originated from. This also explains its Chinese name, which literally means "school of minor-talks".
Another group is the School of the Military (兵家; Bingjia) that studied warfare and strategy; Sunzi and Sun Bin were influential leaders. However, this school was not one of the "Ten Schools" defined by Hanshu.
Chinese philosophy in the period of Hundred schools of thought (see below) had introduced several options for an ideal society and provided advices for rulers to build a stronger and prosperous nation. As you may aware, the winner was legalist who advised Qin that used tough and strict law to unite the whole China. However, Qin had a short life in history and was replaced by Han which lasted more than 400 years.
In business, would like to be short lived as Qin?
Philosophy let us know the maximum, even though it may not be achievable in reality. It may be harder for people and businesses under the survival line to think about ideal society or business excellence. However, with the progress of society and economic development, more and more will live above survival line and look for better society and business performance. Along the way, we will need to know our target; even it may be a philosophical one and bench mark against it.
For easy discussion, we only concentrate on 4 major philosophies (Confucianism, Daoism, Legalist and Mohism) in the late Zhou period for business excellence.
If we treat an ideal society as business excellence, then the 4 philosophies will provide the following visions:
Confucianism: A gentleman company. People are courteous, trustworthy, well behaved, respect seniors, follow instructions, honest and seek harmony and compromise with others. Employees want to perform well under rules and regulations and carry out duties with socially acceptable moral and ethical standard. Their aim is to be perfect workers with continuous learning.
Daoism: An action-less, natural company. Let things move in their natural path without intervention. Always focus on the weak, lower and unnoticed event, people, and things. Weak things will turn to strength and will change the bad situation to good.
Employees look for individual and spiritual satisfaction.
Legalist: A law enforcement company. Under rules and regulations, all are equal and receive fair treatment. A strict law is good as human beings are bad in nature and the law can prevent bad and unlawful behaviors. Employees know that they have to perform to be recognized and rewarded.
Mohism: A love for all company. Treat everyone with love and love has no distance regardless of whether they are relatives, friends or even enemy. They are willing to sacrifice life to defend the weak from attack. Employees follow the instructions set by leaders and go all out to spread love without fear.
As a leader you may adopt a combination of the above philosophies or at different stage of organisation development implementing different philosophy principles accordingly.
Further to the vision, in today’s management principles, strategic thinking is the use of systematic and rational methods in planning, problem-solving, and decision-making. However, strategic thinking needs to think out of box and imagine of the impossibilities, possibilities, uncertainties and opportunities. Chinese philosophy can be a source of strategic thinking.
From ideal society as a way to business excellence, we can also envisage the business planning and strategies that the 4 major Chinese philosophies will suggest:
Confucianism: Learning and education. No matter human nature is good or bad, self study, education and training can help a person to improve and upgrade to the highest level, so do the company. Company and employees trust each other in delivering the jobs and achieve a common target.
Daoism: Simplicity and reduction. Emphasis is on individual motivation, satisfaction and enrichment. Company will not influence individual decision. Individual takes their own, easy and simple way to carry out their work. Along the way, employees discard the old and leaned knowledge and see things as simplicity.
Legalist: Performance base. Employees will get rewards for their performance. Regardless of status, as far as one makes contributions to the company, he will be rewarded. Employees are motivated to use all means to achieve their target, including knowing that they may die in service.
Mohism: Universal and equal love. Without thinking one’s ability, in the name of love for all people, employees will perform their duty accordingly. They care very little about themselves but will follow the instruction of their leaders. They are not concern about the reward but are motivated to move forward even if it is an impossible mission.
As a company, you may want your employees to behave like a legalist or even better like a Mohism, never considering reward. However, when we are moving up to the higher economic level, we are searching for self actualisations rather than basic needs.
An organisation or business will need to know what Chinese philosophical strategies to engage so as to achieve excellent result.
Hundred Schools of Thought from wikipedia
The Hundred Schools of Thought (simplified Chinese: 诸子百家; traditional Chinese: 諸子百家; pinyin: zhūzǐ bǎijiā; Wade–Giles: chu-tzu pai-chia; literally "all philosophers hundred schools") were philosophers and schools that flourished from 770 to 221 BC, an era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China. Even though this period - known in its earlier part as the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period (春秋戰國時代/春秋战国时代) - in its latter part was fraught with chaos and bloody battles, it is also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because a broad range of thoughts and ideas were developed and discussed freely. This phenomenon has been called the Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought (百家爭鳴/百家争鸣; bǎijiā zhēngmíng; pai-chia cheng-ming; "hundred schools contend"). The thoughts and ideas discussed and refined during this period have profoundly influenced lifestyles and social consciousness up to the present day in East Asian countries. The intellectual society of this era was characterized by itinerant scholars, who were often employed by various state rulers as advisers on the methods of government, war, and diplomacy. This period ended with the rise of the Qin dynasty and the subsequent purge of dissent.
Confucianism and its derivatives
Main article: Confucianism
Confucianism (儒家; Rújiā; Ju-chia; "School of scholars") is the body of thought that arguably had the most enduring effects on Chinese life. Its written legacy lies in the Confucian Classics, which later became the foundation of traditional society. Confucius (551–479 BC), or Kongzi "Master Kong", looked back to the early days of the Zhou dynasty for an ideal socio-political order. He believed that the only effective system of government necessitated prescribed relationships for each individual: "Let the ruler be a ruler and the subject a subject". Furthermore, he contended that a king must be virtuous in order to rule properly. To Confucius, the functions of government and social stratification were facts of life to be sustained by ethical values; thus his ideal human was the junzi, which is translated as "gentleman" or "superior person".
Mencius (371–289 BC), or Mengzi, formulated his teachings directly in response to Confucius.
The effect of the combined work of Confucius, the codifier and interpreter of a system of relationships based on ethical behavior, and Mencius, the synthesizer and developer of applied Confucianist thought, was to provide traditional Chinese society with a comprehensive framework by which to order virtually every aspect of life.
There were many accretions to the body of Confucian thought, both immediately and over the millennia, from within and without the Confucian school. Interpretations adapted to contemporary society allowed for flexibility within Confucianism, while the fundamental system of modeled behavior from ancient texts formed its philosophical core.
Diametrically opposed to Mencius, in regards to human nature (性), was the interpretation of Xunzi (c. 300–237 BC), another Confucian follower. Xunzi preached that man is not innately good; he asserted that goodness is attainable only through training one's desires and conduct.
Legalism
Main article: Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
The School of Law or Legalism (法家; Fǎjiā; Fa-chia; "School of law") doctrine was formulated by Han Feizi (d. 233 BC) and Li Si (d. 208 BC), who maintained that human nature was incorrigibly selfish; accordingly, the only way to preserve the social order was to impose discipline from above, and to see to a strict enforcement of laws. The Legalists exalted the state above all, seeking its prosperity and martial prowess over the welfare of the common people.
Legalism greatly influenced the philosophical basis for the imperial form of government. During the Han Dynasty, the most practical elements of Confucianism and Legalism were taken to form a sort of synthesis, marking the creation of a new form of government that would remain largely intact until the late 19th century.
Taoism
Main article: Taoism
Philosophical Taoism or Daoism (道家; Dàojiā; Tao-chia; "School of the Way") developed into the second most significant stream of Chinese thought. Its formulation is often attributed to the legendary sage Laozi ("Old Master"), who is said to predate Confucius, and Zhuangzi (369–286 BC). The focus of Taoism is on the individual within the natural realm rather than the individual within society; accordingly, the goal of life for each individual is seeking to adjust oneself and adapting to the rhythm of the natural (and the supernatural) world, to follow the Way (tao) of the universe, and to live in harmony. In many ways the opposite of rigid Confucian morality, Taoism was for many of its adherents a complement to their ordered daily lives. A scholar serving as an official would usually follow Confucian teachings, but at leisure or in retirement might seek harmony with nature as a Taoist recluse.
Mohism
Main article: Mohism
Mohism or Moism (墨家; Mòjiā; Mo-chia; "School of Mo") was developed by followers of Mozi (also referred to as Mo Di; 470–c.391 BC). Though the school did not survive through the Qin Dynasty, Mohism was seen as a major rival of Confucianism in the period of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Its philosophy rested on the idea of universal love: Mozi believed that "everyone is equal before heaven", and that people should seek to imitate heaven by engaging in the practice of collective love. His epistemology can be regarded as primitive materialist empiricism; he believed that human cognition ought to be based on one's perceptions – one's sensory experiences, such as sight and hearing – instead of imagination or internal logic, elements founded on the human capacity for abstraction.
Mozi advocated frugality, condemning the Confucian emphasis on ritual and music, which he denounced as extravagant. He regarded offensive warfare as wasteful and advocated pacifism or at the most, defensive fortification. The achievement of social goals, according to Mozi, necessitated the unity of thought and action. His political philosophy bears a resemblance to divine-rule monarchy: the population ought always to obey its leaders, as its leaders ought always to follow the will of heaven. Mohism might be argued to have elements of meritocracy: Mozi contended that rulers should appoint officials by virtue of their ability instead of their family connections. Although popular faith in Mohism had declined by the end of the Qin Dynasty, its views are said to be strongly echoed in Legalist thought.
School of Yin-yang
The School of Naturalists or Yin-yang (陰陽家/阴阳家; Yīnyángjiā; Yin-yang-chia; "School of Yin-Yang") was a Warring States era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements. Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school. Their theories attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five Phases (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth). In its early days, these theories were most strongly associated with the states of Yan and Qi. In later periods, these epistemological theories came to hold significance in both philosophy and popular belief. This school was absorbed into Taoism's alchemic and magical dimensions as well as into the Chinese medical framework. The earliest surviving recordings of this are in the Ma Wang Dui texts and Huang Di Nei Jing.
Logicians
Main article: School of Names
The School of Names or Logicians (名家; Míngjiā; Ming-chia; "School of names") grew out of Mohism, with a philosophy that focused on definition and logic. It is said to have parallels with that of the Ancient Greek sophists or dialecticians. The most notable Logician was Gongsun Longzi.
Other Schools
The Taishigong Zixu (太史公自序) of Shiji (史記/史记) lists the above six major philosophies within the Hundred Schools of Thought. The Yiwenzhi (藝文志/艺文志) of Hanshu (漢書/汉书) adds four more into the Ten Schools (十家; Shijia).
The School of Agriculture (農家/农家; Nongjia) encouraged farming and agriculture and taught farming and cultivation techniques, as they believed that agricultural development was the way to have enough food for the country. For example, Mencius once criticized Xu Xing (許行) for advocating that rulers should work in the fields with their subjects.
The School of Diplomacy or School of Vertical and Horizontal [Alliances] (縱橫家/纵横家; Zonghengjia) specialized in diplomatic politics; Zhang Yi and Su Qin were representative thinkers. This school focused on practical matters instead of any moral principle, so it stressed political and diplomatic tactics, and debate and lobbying skill. Scholars from this school were good orators, debaters and tacticians.
The Miscellaneous School (雜家/杂家; Zajia) integrated teachings from different schools; for instance, Lü Buwei found scholars from different schools to write a book called Lüshi Chunqiu (呂氏春秋) cooperatively. This school tried to integrate the merits of various schools and avoid their perceived flaws.
The School of "Minor-talks" (小說家/小说家; Xiaoshuojia) was not a unique school of thought. Indeed, all the thoughts which was discussed by and originated from non-famous people on the street were included into this school. At that time, there were some government officials responsible for collecting ideas from non-famous people on the street and report to their senior. This was where this school originated from. This also explains its Chinese name, which literally means "school of minor-talks".
Another group is the School of the Military (兵家; Bingjia) that studied warfare and strategy; Sunzi and Sun Bin were influential leaders. However, this school was not one of the "Ten Schools" defined by Hanshu.
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Change, Unchanged and Simplicity
The progress of mankind takes a long time to advance. So do the development of culture and wisdom. The Book of Change (Yi Jing 易经) was first written in symbol or sign language before the invention and finalisation of Chinese characteristics. It only uses 2 simple signs: __ and - - . From these, they develop into a collection and explanation of happenings between the environment and mankind in the world.
By the time the Book was written by Zhou Wenwang （周文王）in early Zhuo dynasty, it had already had in existence for several thousand years. Several hundred years later, near the end of Zhou dynasty, Confucius and his followers provided explanations (Yi Zhuan 易传) to the Book so that people can have a better understand of Yi Jing and the meaning of the simple descriptions written by Zhou Wenwang in Yi Jing.
Wisdom is not and cannot be created overnight. It takes few thousand years for civilization to progress. Hence, it will come to a stage, with the support of environment (spring-autumn and warring periods), that a breakthrough would take place: Hundred schools of thought. The past wisdom before and during Zhou dynasty had finally put into many debates among different scholars, in search of better and meaningful life as well as the right way of government.
The Book of Change provides predictions on possible happenings in the world. It describes the relationship between environment and human beings. The changes in environment have its pattern and are represented by Sky (天tian) and Earth (地di). Hence, no matter it is earth quake, flood, drought, or hurricane, it has a principle of operations. It is like a cycle, just like the rotating of spring, autumn, summer and winter.
Man, in between of Sky and Earth, seeks to live with the environment in harmony. The environment takes its own path and way and has no concern about the living things in the world. Man in this case has to adjust to the changes, to enjoy or suffer from the happenings in the environment. This may also explain why in the process of Chinese civilization, Chinese seek peace and harmony with the environment. There is no destruction to environment, such as industrial revolution.
Perhaps, the Book of Change is not a proper name. The Yi in Yi Jing has 3 meanings: Change, Unchanged and Simplicity. Change means man and living things need to make changes to the changes of Sky and Earth, for example coping with disasters. The disaster itself is another change. Unchanged refers to the permanent principle or pattern of the movement of Sky and Earth or the basic value for human beings, for example, the rise of sun and moon, to be a kind person (向善). Simplicity means the origin of all the happenings in the universe; for example, God is the creator of all mankind.
The Book of Change has great influence on Chinese people, from one dynasty to another dynasty and from one generation to another generation. In philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought and other philosophical developments in all the dynasties have their origin traced back to Yi Jing. For religions, Daoism, Buddhism and other local Chinese religions were greatly influenced by Yi Jing. The most interesting part of all may be fortune telling. Fengshui 风水and others can also be traced back to Yi Jing. One important contribution or use of Yi Jing is to use the Book of Change to predict the future. Hence, it is able to tell the fortune of a person.
In management, change management is an important subject for leadership development. However, it should also include unchanged considerations and factors.
Every change in situation, for example, a new recruit, new equipment, will result to an improved or bad overall performance. Simplicity is another area that management is looking forward to improve performance, how to cut down the bureaucracy, how to have faster and direct feedback etc.
By the time the Book was written by Zhou Wenwang （周文王）in early Zhuo dynasty, it had already had in existence for several thousand years. Several hundred years later, near the end of Zhou dynasty, Confucius and his followers provided explanations (Yi Zhuan 易传) to the Book so that people can have a better understand of Yi Jing and the meaning of the simple descriptions written by Zhou Wenwang in Yi Jing.
Wisdom is not and cannot be created overnight. It takes few thousand years for civilization to progress. Hence, it will come to a stage, with the support of environment (spring-autumn and warring periods), that a breakthrough would take place: Hundred schools of thought. The past wisdom before and during Zhou dynasty had finally put into many debates among different scholars, in search of better and meaningful life as well as the right way of government.
The Book of Change provides predictions on possible happenings in the world. It describes the relationship between environment and human beings. The changes in environment have its pattern and are represented by Sky (天tian) and Earth (地di). Hence, no matter it is earth quake, flood, drought, or hurricane, it has a principle of operations. It is like a cycle, just like the rotating of spring, autumn, summer and winter.
Man, in between of Sky and Earth, seeks to live with the environment in harmony. The environment takes its own path and way and has no concern about the living things in the world. Man in this case has to adjust to the changes, to enjoy or suffer from the happenings in the environment. This may also explain why in the process of Chinese civilization, Chinese seek peace and harmony with the environment. There is no destruction to environment, such as industrial revolution.
Perhaps, the Book of Change is not a proper name. The Yi in Yi Jing has 3 meanings: Change, Unchanged and Simplicity. Change means man and living things need to make changes to the changes of Sky and Earth, for example coping with disasters. The disaster itself is another change. Unchanged refers to the permanent principle or pattern of the movement of Sky and Earth or the basic value for human beings, for example, the rise of sun and moon, to be a kind person (向善). Simplicity means the origin of all the happenings in the universe; for example, God is the creator of all mankind.
The Book of Change has great influence on Chinese people, from one dynasty to another dynasty and from one generation to another generation. In philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought and other philosophical developments in all the dynasties have their origin traced back to Yi Jing. For religions, Daoism, Buddhism and other local Chinese religions were greatly influenced by Yi Jing. The most interesting part of all may be fortune telling. Fengshui 风水and others can also be traced back to Yi Jing. One important contribution or use of Yi Jing is to use the Book of Change to predict the future. Hence, it is able to tell the fortune of a person.
In management, change management is an important subject for leadership development. However, it should also include unchanged considerations and factors.
Every change in situation, for example, a new recruit, new equipment, will result to an improved or bad overall performance. Simplicity is another area that management is looking forward to improve performance, how to cut down the bureaucracy, how to have faster and direct feedback etc.
Monday 15 November 2010
Dynasty as management learning
In the long history of China, there were up and down of Chinese dynasties. Some were very impressive like Han and Tang. These dynasties were considered the strongest and richest country in the world. Even in such a strong dynasty, they also faced economic downturn, and with several bad managements, the dynasty ended and was overthrown by another new dynasty.
For “weak” dynasty, like Song, they also had their moments of glory. In turn of economic achievements, cultural developments, Song has her place in history.
So what do they tell us? And what can we learn from them?
Chinese historians have categorized Chinese history into 3 periods:
Ancient China: period before 1840 (the start of the Opium war).
Near Modern China: between 1840 and 1919 – the May 4 movements.
Modern China: After 1919, especially 1921 the establishment year of Chinese Communists’ Party. However, it can also be 1911, the end of Qing dynasty and the formation of Republic of China.
However, many historians also like to arrange Chinese history according to dynasty. Hence, the History Timeline of China can be divided into:
Dates Dynasty
ca. 2000-1500 B.C. Xia
1700-1027 B.C. Shang
1027-771 B.C. Western Zhou
770-221 B.C. Eastern Zhou
770-476 B.C. -- Spring and Autumn period
475-221 B.C. -- Warring States period
221-207 B.C. Qin
206 B.C.-A.D. 9 Western Han
A.D. 9-24 Xin (Wang Mang interregnum)
A.D. 25-220 Eastern Han
A.D. 220-280 Three Kingdoms
220-265 -- Wei
221-263 -- Shu
229-280 -- Wu
A.D. 265-316 Western Jin
A.D. 317-420 Eastern Jin
A.D. 420-588 Southern and Northern Dynasties
420-588 Southern Dynasties
420-478 -- Song
479-501 -- Qi
502-556 -- Liang
557-588 -- Chen
386-588 Northern Dynasties
386-533 -- Northern Wei
534-549 -- Eastern Wei
535-557 -- Western Wei
550-577 -- Northern Qi
557-588 -- Northern Zhou
A.D. 581-617 Sui
A.D. 618-907 Tang
A.D. 907-960 Five Dynasties
907-923 -- Later Liang
923-936 -- Later Tang
936-946 -- Later Jin
947-950 -- Later Han
951-960 -- Later Zhou
A.D. 907-979 Ten Kingdoms
A.D. 960-1279 Song
960-1127 -- Northern Song
1127-1279 -- Southern Song
A.D. 916-1125 Liao
A.D. 1038-1227 Western Xia
A.D. 1115-1234 Jin
A.D. 1279-1368 Yuan
A.D. 1368-1644 Ming
A.D. 1644-1911 Qing
A.D. 1911-1949 Republic of China (in mainland China)
A.D. 1949- Republic of China (in Taiwan)
A.D. 1949- People's Republic of China
Source: http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/time_line.html
Many critics have complained about learning from the Chinese past. In 1919, the May-4movement blamed the backwardness to the Chinese traditions. They even campaigned to abandon the past and learn totally from the west. This is why May 4 also called new cultural movement. Many Chinese believed that Chinese traditions and practices had prevented the advancement and modernization of China. During the Cultural Revolution in 1960s and 1970s, Chinese traditions, religions and customs, especially, Confucianism were again under attack even though it was politically motivated.
So, what is the point of learning from the past? The past traditions based on the dynasty system are different from our modern social and political structure. The old practices, beliefs, and values are irrelevant to our modern time. Is it true?
However, there are some fundamental practices and human nature that can not be changed or comprised. The experiences gained from the past traditions can server as a reminder to us, such as:
- To educate people to be good citizens and make contributions to society. (Providing learning and development opportunities for the workforce is an important human resources strategy).
- To bring good life to the people. (Providing workplace safety, harmony and healthy can retain stay and improve productivity).
- To administrate and manage the government effectively. (Business excellence is what business organizations want to achieve)
Regardless of the capitalism, socialism or communism, we cannot ignore the presence of people, management of people, organization, control, planning and leading.
Hence, the past experience and knowledge from the traditional wisdom can help us to address the management problems of today. The case studies from past dynasties can serve as a reminder and learning tool. It may even be better than present day case studies that were built on assumptions.
Leading
The founders of each dynasty were always skilled leaders and military commanders.
Without leadership quality, how can they unite the whole China?
Planning
Dynasty founders always had long term planning to keep and maintain their dynasty for their next generations. Without planning, can dynasties last for more then hundred years?
Organizing
Dynasties were able to organize their administration of government with the help of scholars and military leaders. Without organizing skill, how can dynasty govern and collect taxes from the people?
Controlling
The Emperors used their authority and power to control their servants and regional leaders. There were also proper reporting systems. Without control mechanism, how can dynasty function effectively?
We can learn from both the success and failed practices of past dynasties and avoid being making the same mistakes. We also need to realize the different historical backgrounds that were no more possible or relevant to our current situations. We need t makes changes and proper alignment to fix the past to the present.
For “weak” dynasty, like Song, they also had their moments of glory. In turn of economic achievements, cultural developments, Song has her place in history.
So what do they tell us? And what can we learn from them?
Chinese historians have categorized Chinese history into 3 periods:
Ancient China: period before 1840 (the start of the Opium war).
Near Modern China: between 1840 and 1919 – the May 4 movements.
Modern China: After 1919, especially 1921 the establishment year of Chinese Communists’ Party. However, it can also be 1911, the end of Qing dynasty and the formation of Republic of China.
However, many historians also like to arrange Chinese history according to dynasty. Hence, the History Timeline of China can be divided into:
Dates Dynasty
ca. 2000-1500 B.C. Xia
1700-1027 B.C. Shang
1027-771 B.C. Western Zhou
770-221 B.C. Eastern Zhou
770-476 B.C. -- Spring and Autumn period
475-221 B.C. -- Warring States period
221-207 B.C. Qin
206 B.C.-A.D. 9 Western Han
A.D. 9-24 Xin (Wang Mang interregnum)
A.D. 25-220 Eastern Han
A.D. 220-280 Three Kingdoms
220-265 -- Wei
221-263 -- Shu
229-280 -- Wu
A.D. 265-316 Western Jin
A.D. 317-420 Eastern Jin
A.D. 420-588 Southern and Northern Dynasties
420-588 Southern Dynasties
420-478 -- Song
479-501 -- Qi
502-556 -- Liang
557-588 -- Chen
386-588 Northern Dynasties
386-533 -- Northern Wei
534-549 -- Eastern Wei
535-557 -- Western Wei
550-577 -- Northern Qi
557-588 -- Northern Zhou
A.D. 581-617 Sui
A.D. 618-907 Tang
A.D. 907-960 Five Dynasties
907-923 -- Later Liang
923-936 -- Later Tang
936-946 -- Later Jin
947-950 -- Later Han
951-960 -- Later Zhou
A.D. 907-979 Ten Kingdoms
A.D. 960-1279 Song
960-1127 -- Northern Song
1127-1279 -- Southern Song
A.D. 916-1125 Liao
A.D. 1038-1227 Western Xia
A.D. 1115-1234 Jin
A.D. 1279-1368 Yuan
A.D. 1368-1644 Ming
A.D. 1644-1911 Qing
A.D. 1911-1949 Republic of China (in mainland China)
A.D. 1949- Republic of China (in Taiwan)
A.D. 1949- People's Republic of China
Source: http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/time_line.html
Many critics have complained about learning from the Chinese past. In 1919, the May-4movement blamed the backwardness to the Chinese traditions. They even campaigned to abandon the past and learn totally from the west. This is why May 4 also called new cultural movement. Many Chinese believed that Chinese traditions and practices had prevented the advancement and modernization of China. During the Cultural Revolution in 1960s and 1970s, Chinese traditions, religions and customs, especially, Confucianism were again under attack even though it was politically motivated.
So, what is the point of learning from the past? The past traditions based on the dynasty system are different from our modern social and political structure. The old practices, beliefs, and values are irrelevant to our modern time. Is it true?
However, there are some fundamental practices and human nature that can not be changed or comprised. The experiences gained from the past traditions can server as a reminder to us, such as:
- To educate people to be good citizens and make contributions to society. (Providing learning and development opportunities for the workforce is an important human resources strategy).
- To bring good life to the people. (Providing workplace safety, harmony and healthy can retain stay and improve productivity).
- To administrate and manage the government effectively. (Business excellence is what business organizations want to achieve)
Regardless of the capitalism, socialism or communism, we cannot ignore the presence of people, management of people, organization, control, planning and leading.
Hence, the past experience and knowledge from the traditional wisdom can help us to address the management problems of today. The case studies from past dynasties can serve as a reminder and learning tool. It may even be better than present day case studies that were built on assumptions.
Leading
The founders of each dynasty were always skilled leaders and military commanders.
Without leadership quality, how can they unite the whole China?
Planning
Dynasty founders always had long term planning to keep and maintain their dynasty for their next generations. Without planning, can dynasties last for more then hundred years?
Organizing
Dynasties were able to organize their administration of government with the help of scholars and military leaders. Without organizing skill, how can dynasty govern and collect taxes from the people?
Controlling
The Emperors used their authority and power to control their servants and regional leaders. There were also proper reporting systems. Without control mechanism, how can dynasty function effectively?
We can learn from both the success and failed practices of past dynasties and avoid being making the same mistakes. We also need to realize the different historical backgrounds that were no more possible or relevant to our current situations. We need t makes changes and proper alignment to fix the past to the present.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Practical management wisdom of ancient Chinese
The most well known and popular ancient Chinese book for management could be “Sun Zi – the Art of War” 孙子兵法. It is widely used not only for business but also for military education as it is one of the “must read” books at West point, USA.
If one only knows the Art of War and has no knowledge about other ancient Chinese philosophies, he or she is like a blind touching an elephant and trying to estimate the size of the elephant. According to Shima Qian’s “Shi Ji” (The Record of Great Historian in Han Dynasty), Sun Zi is not listed as the top 6 philosophy groups (Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism, Mohism, Ying-Yang and Logicians) in the Hundred Schools of Thought. However, it was mentioned as one of the top 10 philosophy groups. There is also a saying; Sun Zi got his war theories and principles from Laozi – the master of Dao philosophy.
If we dated back our modernization to Industrial Revolution, then the western modern management and business practice can also be traced back to 18th century. However, in pursuit of market, profit, economies of scale, the modern management principles (leading planning, organizing and controlling) and decision makings are unable to move away from these objectives. Because of this narrow view, it is no surprise that we only concentrate on Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1764), as a productivity tool. And few can remember another Adam Smith book entitled Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).
Long ago, Adam Smith had reminded us about the negative effect of commercialisation, capitalism and economic development. As you may have notice, Moral sentiments was published first before the Wealth of Nations. We seem to look at business excellence and development from the up side down perspective.
The world is changing and moving rapidly in the age of information technology. But no matter what we are heading, we cannot ignore the fundamentals and traditions as mentioned in Moral sentiments or even to ancient European and Asian philosophers. This leads to the recent surge of ancient philosophies in Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Humanist traditions. Yale University is currently engaging in a project and will hold a global conference in 2013 on practical wisdom for management from ancient spiritual and philosophical traditions.
The discovery of Americas and the emergency of USA as an economic superpower have changed the world and make people in full confidence of business excellence in profit maximization. However, with hyperinflation, great depression in 1930s, and several financial crises in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, no wonder we have to cast doubts on free economy, especially the emphasis on profit over value. In years to come, the American influence in business will have to be reduced and a multi-player business environment will emerge. This will lead to inputs and considerations of the ancient spiritual and philosophies.
The rapid economic development in China has seen besides creating wealth, also witnessing the surge of the interest of Jing Dian (经典) learning. Chinese businessmen and government officials are spending high fees attending Jing dian courses by Peking University, Fudan universities etc. On 30 June 2010, Peking University announced the founding of a Confucianism Research Institute to promote academic studies about traditional culture and explore the contemporary significance of Confucian studies. This low profile and small scale project is approaching the Chinese traditions in a deeper way rather than the popular and better known Confucius Institutes sponsored by Chinese government.
However, we cannot ignore the significance of the Research Institute (or other similar researches in other Chinese philosophies, especially Daoism and Buddhism). The long term effect has yet to be known. On the other way, to a lesser extent, some Chinese businessmen and officials have even gone one step further to learn and practice the stricter teaching of Chinese Buddhism, Confucius, Daoism, etc. and apply these principles in their daily life and business practices.
How can we learn from the past, from the past wisdom of great Chinese traditions?
Geoffrey James in his book, “Success Secrets from Silicon Valley – How to make your teams more effective”, has divided business organizations into traditional and Silicon Valley businesses. The Silicon Valley mindset are Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield; Corporations are communities, not machines; Management is service, not control; Employees are peers, not children; Motivate with vision, not fear; Change is growth, not pain; Computers are servants, not masters; Work is play, not toil.
Doing the thing right? Traditional business model is adopting the practices of industrial revolution and placing market, productivity, efficiency and profit ahead of environment, communities and humanity. They just want to improve their existing operating system, keep doing and perfecting the same old things.
Doing the right thing? Silicon Valley business emphasizes more on harmony in development, sustainable development, slower growth and corporate social responsibility.
This approach is closer to the practical wisdom of ancient traditions.
If one only knows the Art of War and has no knowledge about other ancient Chinese philosophies, he or she is like a blind touching an elephant and trying to estimate the size of the elephant. According to Shima Qian’s “Shi Ji” (The Record of Great Historian in Han Dynasty), Sun Zi is not listed as the top 6 philosophy groups (Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism, Mohism, Ying-Yang and Logicians) in the Hundred Schools of Thought. However, it was mentioned as one of the top 10 philosophy groups. There is also a saying; Sun Zi got his war theories and principles from Laozi – the master of Dao philosophy.
If we dated back our modernization to Industrial Revolution, then the western modern management and business practice can also be traced back to 18th century. However, in pursuit of market, profit, economies of scale, the modern management principles (leading planning, organizing and controlling) and decision makings are unable to move away from these objectives. Because of this narrow view, it is no surprise that we only concentrate on Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1764), as a productivity tool. And few can remember another Adam Smith book entitled Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).
Long ago, Adam Smith had reminded us about the negative effect of commercialisation, capitalism and economic development. As you may have notice, Moral sentiments was published first before the Wealth of Nations. We seem to look at business excellence and development from the up side down perspective.
The world is changing and moving rapidly in the age of information technology. But no matter what we are heading, we cannot ignore the fundamentals and traditions as mentioned in Moral sentiments or even to ancient European and Asian philosophers. This leads to the recent surge of ancient philosophies in Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Humanist traditions. Yale University is currently engaging in a project and will hold a global conference in 2013 on practical wisdom for management from ancient spiritual and philosophical traditions.
The discovery of Americas and the emergency of USA as an economic superpower have changed the world and make people in full confidence of business excellence in profit maximization. However, with hyperinflation, great depression in 1930s, and several financial crises in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, no wonder we have to cast doubts on free economy, especially the emphasis on profit over value. In years to come, the American influence in business will have to be reduced and a multi-player business environment will emerge. This will lead to inputs and considerations of the ancient spiritual and philosophies.
The rapid economic development in China has seen besides creating wealth, also witnessing the surge of the interest of Jing Dian (经典) learning. Chinese businessmen and government officials are spending high fees attending Jing dian courses by Peking University, Fudan universities etc. On 30 June 2010, Peking University announced the founding of a Confucianism Research Institute to promote academic studies about traditional culture and explore the contemporary significance of Confucian studies. This low profile and small scale project is approaching the Chinese traditions in a deeper way rather than the popular and better known Confucius Institutes sponsored by Chinese government.
However, we cannot ignore the significance of the Research Institute (or other similar researches in other Chinese philosophies, especially Daoism and Buddhism). The long term effect has yet to be known. On the other way, to a lesser extent, some Chinese businessmen and officials have even gone one step further to learn and practice the stricter teaching of Chinese Buddhism, Confucius, Daoism, etc. and apply these principles in their daily life and business practices.
How can we learn from the past, from the past wisdom of great Chinese traditions?
Geoffrey James in his book, “Success Secrets from Silicon Valley – How to make your teams more effective”, has divided business organizations into traditional and Silicon Valley businesses. The Silicon Valley mindset are Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield; Corporations are communities, not machines; Management is service, not control; Employees are peers, not children; Motivate with vision, not fear; Change is growth, not pain; Computers are servants, not masters; Work is play, not toil.
Doing the thing right? Traditional business model is adopting the practices of industrial revolution and placing market, productivity, efficiency and profit ahead of environment, communities and humanity. They just want to improve their existing operating system, keep doing and perfecting the same old things.
Doing the right thing? Silicon Valley business emphasizes more on harmony in development, sustainable development, slower growth and corporate social responsibility.
This approach is closer to the practical wisdom of ancient traditions.
Sunday 7 November 2010
Knowledge and intelligence
In the book of “The Analects” (论语) written by Confucius's pupils after his death, there are some interesting discussions about knowledge and intelligence.
In the chapter of Wei Zheng (为政, the practice of government), it describes the relationship between knowledge and honesty as:
“知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。“
“You know mean you know, don’t know mean don’ know. This is called understanding.”
Knowledge is objective understanding, i.e. knowledge can be divided and categorised into many different fields. However, intelligence is subjective application of our acquired knowledge. To distinguish knowledge and intelligence, we have to use the guideline of honesty. What we know is limited to what we learn and we should not pretend we know the unknown. Only with honesty, we can move forward to study, to learn and to make decision correctly.
The action to acknowledge that we don’t know or don’t understand the situation is expressed by honesty. However, one will need the gut to admit that we don’t know the unknown.
Man has to refresh, to find out the known and unknown and than progress to practice the correct way (行) of learning. This is called “知行合一zhi xing he yi” knowing (the information/knowledge) and practising (using intelligence to make decision) in one harmony. And this is the gateway to transform knowledge into intelligence.
In the knowledge economy, the danger is information overloaded. There are too many information, and it can true, half true and not true. A decision based on wrong or incomplete information will certainly lead to bad decision. Therefore, we have admitted our ignorance as the first step towards the correct way of studying.
The same chapter (Wei Zheng) further explains that to understand the current/new event, one will have to recall the past knowledge:
“温故而知新， 可以为师“
“Refresh old memory/knowledge so as to understand the new happening. By doing so, one can be a (master) teacher. “
The accumulation and progress of our intelligence is based on our ability to recall, refresh and understand old knowledge. Take the nature for example, it is so complicated and confusing and human beings are so afraid of it. However, through experience, observation, and analysis, we can summary the pattern of changes and come out logical rules and principles to predict the future happening.
This results to “one know what is happening in advance” “先见之明 xian jian zhi ming”. Every generation has its trend. What is fashion now may not be considered as trendy or modern in future. Observation of past happenings will lead to our understanding of the future happenings.
The real innovation, in fact, is originated from our tradition. The further we trace our tradition; the chances of us creating innovation are higher. However, any deep understanding of tradition must have rich inner knowledge of the past; again it will have to involve group and team work to build up the “tradition” knowledge. Innovation, hence, is a combination of individual intelligence.
In the chapter of Wei Zheng (为政, the practice of government), it describes the relationship between knowledge and honesty as:
“知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。“
“You know mean you know, don’t know mean don’ know. This is called understanding.”
Knowledge is objective understanding, i.e. knowledge can be divided and categorised into many different fields. However, intelligence is subjective application of our acquired knowledge. To distinguish knowledge and intelligence, we have to use the guideline of honesty. What we know is limited to what we learn and we should not pretend we know the unknown. Only with honesty, we can move forward to study, to learn and to make decision correctly.
The action to acknowledge that we don’t know or don’t understand the situation is expressed by honesty. However, one will need the gut to admit that we don’t know the unknown.
Man has to refresh, to find out the known and unknown and than progress to practice the correct way (行) of learning. This is called “知行合一zhi xing he yi” knowing (the information/knowledge) and practising (using intelligence to make decision) in one harmony. And this is the gateway to transform knowledge into intelligence.
In the knowledge economy, the danger is information overloaded. There are too many information, and it can true, half true and not true. A decision based on wrong or incomplete information will certainly lead to bad decision. Therefore, we have admitted our ignorance as the first step towards the correct way of studying.
The same chapter (Wei Zheng) further explains that to understand the current/new event, one will have to recall the past knowledge:
“温故而知新， 可以为师“
“Refresh old memory/knowledge so as to understand the new happening. By doing so, one can be a (master) teacher. “
The accumulation and progress of our intelligence is based on our ability to recall, refresh and understand old knowledge. Take the nature for example, it is so complicated and confusing and human beings are so afraid of it. However, through experience, observation, and analysis, we can summary the pattern of changes and come out logical rules and principles to predict the future happening.
This results to “one know what is happening in advance” “先见之明 xian jian zhi ming”. Every generation has its trend. What is fashion now may not be considered as trendy or modern in future. Observation of past happenings will lead to our understanding of the future happenings.
The real innovation, in fact, is originated from our tradition. The further we trace our tradition; the chances of us creating innovation are higher. However, any deep understanding of tradition must have rich inner knowledge of the past; again it will have to involve group and team work to build up the “tradition” knowledge. Innovation, hence, is a combination of individual intelligence.
Saturday 30 October 2010
Success Secrets from Silicon Valley
I got this book, Success Secrets from Silicon Valley – How to make your teams more effective, for only S$2 at the National Library Board annual sale at Singapore Expo. A check at Amazon, it costs only US$0.01 for used copy or US$4.28 for a new one.
Knowledge is really “priceless”. To me, the book is certainly worth many more times than the price quoted at NLB or Amazon. Although written more than 10 years ago in 1998, the book by Geoffrey James still has its significant value, especially the area on corporate culture that makes a successful Silicon Valley company.
As you may aware Silicon Valley is basically a gathering of IT and computer industry players and start-ups. A book on IT and computer written 10 years ago in many senses could be a dinosaur in term of the development of information technology. However, because the book is concentrating and stressing on the importance of value and culture to a company’s success, the points discussed in the book are still very refreshing today.
The discussion on corporate culture and the success factors in the book seem to focus on the “yin” aspects of Chinese philosophy. Geoffrey divides corporate culture into traditional business and Silicon Valley cultures. The traditional business culture emphasizes on chains of command and has a systematic structure that prevents changes to take place. It is like the “yang”. On the other hand, Silicon Valley culture is loosely organized less structure and welcome changes. It represents the “yin”.
James also discussed a bit on the history of industrial revolution/age. In the era of industrial revolution, workers were structured to repeat the same production process and had to work long hours to be continued to be employed. It was so easy to fire a worker and workers’ contribution was valued at a very low level and could be replaced every time. There is no such thing as human capital. Many traditional business or in some countries, this traditional mindset is still there. Labor is so cheap and job opportunities are so few that the market is on the enterprise side and so they come out with all kinds of rules and regulations to “control” the workers or people. If they don’t have the supply, they can import to meet their demands.
This may explain why the corporations, businesses and government agencies want to become bigger and bigger. And the way to control this big side organization is to implement “traditional business” model. This makes them run into the vicious cycle of refusing changes, creating fears, more controls and treating employees like a child.
In fact, many MNCs are structured in such a way as they have yet to distance themselves from the industrial age – the traditional business model. Also the fact is many western management theories and principles are based on the traditional model. And companies in the emerging countries like Singapore, China, and Taiwan are leaning from them!
Among newly industrial countries, Singapore government and companies can be considered as one the most successful examples. We are well structure, well run and very systematic. They way we run the government, companies and treating the employees, peoples are like a big corporation. There are all kinds of indicators, standards, classes (SQC), and campaigns to motivate or (to a certain degree) threaten employees to work harder. To businessmen or investors, they will be happy to see these figures as they can predict the outcomes and calculate the ROI. This is why foreign businessmen and investors are wiling to come to Singapore as until now (so far so good) Singapore gives them the certainty and protection. However, can this “traditional model” last for ever?
On the other hand, the Taiwanese companies are operating quite differently. They are less structure, always adapt to changes, results base and community spirit. This model seems more like the Silicon Valley culture. While the Taiwanese companies are learning from the west, they should aware of falling into a pitfall of “traditional business” culture. Their success factors in the past should be maintained and upgraded so that they can go to the next level of world class operation. If they adopt the “yang” (traditional model) elements of western management and never improve their own “yin” elements like creativity, innovation and changes, they risk to heading to no way. They can learn (and understand) to be structure, more productive and focus, however once they lose the (they already have) Silicon Valley culture, they will be in trouble.
However, Taiwanese companies should know the western traditional business culture on the “yang” side – organization structure, road map to world class company/organization, business excellence, and ISO. They must also consider the “yin” side of Silicon Valley culture. They have a head start compared to Singapore as they are already doing so in the past. They work hard and build team spirit not because of money motivator or fear of losing job, but because they want to achieve some things.
A better model may be is the mixture of yin and yang of Silicon Valley and traditional business cultures. As we are moving towards knowledge economy, the focus point, hence, is Silicon Valley culture, especially for country likes Singapore.
Geoffrey also gives examples for companies belonging to traditional and Silicon Valley cultures:
Tradition business culture: Digital, Xerox, IBM, Wang, Honeywell, GE, Cabletron, Apple (before 1997).
Silicon Valley culture: Novell, Dell, HP, Acer, Softbank, Microsoft, Cisco,
Apple (after 1997)
I am surprised to learn that how come Geoffrey has a good understanding of Chinese philosophy or wisdom. The book former title was Business Wisdom of the Electronic Elite. James tried to input some Chinese wisdom into the Silicon Valley culture but never explicitly linked them together. (Sorry, if my guessing is wrong)
Or, perhaps he has seen the link but in 1990s linking a western success corporate culture to Chinese wisdom might not be a good marketing selling point. However, if the book can be renamed and repackaged with more inputs from Chinese wisdom, it may be another best selling book, and certainly worth more than S$2 (old copy) or US$4.28 (new copy).
In fact, Geoffrey has a long history of association with Asian or Chinese philosophy. Prior to the publication of Success Secrets from Silicon Valley, he had already written 2 very philosophical books, The Tao of Programming and the Zen of Programming. Geoffrey was a computer programmer and he uses programming to describe Tao and Zen. He has linked the Chinese wisdom with programming, and makes a boring subject like programming into “yin and yang”, into the way, spirit and changes.
His book published in 1990s could be ahead of his time. Many of the concepts discussed can be seen in today’s business operations and practices. For example, work-life balance, ecosystem, corporate social responsibilities, change management, blue ocean (to work with your competitors), and many others. However, these concepts or values are not new in the eye of Chinese or other philosophy. We are just too forgetful of our past!
There were only 2 reviews on this book in 1998 and 1999 respectively. Both give positive remarks and comments. Bob Hansens provided the following comments:
“This book captures the essential elements of the overall organizational strategy developed and applied in Silicon Valley over the past decades.”
“While the average Silicon Valley company is living the ecosystem described, the greatest value of the book may be its use as a teaching tool for the extension of a Valley company's culture to team members in non-Valley locations or subsidiaries”
Comments from Sophia Zannis were:
“The book could serve as a mandate for change management”.
“… the book could serve as an abridged change management manual for any company desiring to replicate the success culture of these upstarts. Size isn't the issue. Culture is.”
Sophia also gave a summary of the book:
“”
"Success Secrets" devotes a chapter to each of eight main change points: Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield; Corporations are communities, not machines; Management is service, not control; Employees are peers, not children; Motivate with vision, not fear; Change is growth, not pain; Computers are servants, not masters; Work is play, not toil.
Each chapter is organized in an easy to follow format: Silicon Valley mindset; traditional mindset; a case study; strategies; quiz (to determine "gaps" in an organization) and points to ponder which serve as good change management points to consider when we are with clients.
“”
James also highlighted 26 ways to make effective team management under the 8 keys:
Key 1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
Strategy 1 Encourage diversity
Strategy 2 Launch new generations
Strategy 3 Build symbiotic relationship
Key 2 Corporations are communities, not machines
Strategy 4 Communicate directly
Strategy 5 Create opportunities for social interaction
Strategy 6 Encourage hands-on charity work
Key 3 Management is service, not control
Strategy 7 Increase power by dispersing it
Strategy 8 Encourage creative dissent
Strategy 9 Build autonomous teams
Key 4 Employees are peers, not children
Strategy 10 Hire the self-motivated
Strategy 11 Eliminate fancy perks
Strategy 12 Sacrifice the sacred cows
Key 5 Motivate with vision, not fear
Strategy 13 Create climate of trust
Strategy 14 Build a shared vision
Strategy 15 Compensate for missions accomplished
Strategy 16 Ruthlessly prioritize
Key 6 Change is growth, not pain
Strategy 17 Have long-term vision, short-term plans
Strategy 18 Keep jobs fluid and flexible
Strategy 19 Make decisions quickly and broadly
Strategy 20 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Key 7 Computers are servants, not masters
Strategy 21 Use electronic mail to flatten management
Strategy 22 Humanize electronic communications
Strategy 23 Reduce information pollution
Key 8 Work is play, not toil.
Strategy 24 Cultivate constant challenge
Strategy 25 Encourage informality
Strategy 26 Create a sense of balance
Knowledge is really “priceless”. To me, the book is certainly worth many more times than the price quoted at NLB or Amazon. Although written more than 10 years ago in 1998, the book by Geoffrey James still has its significant value, especially the area on corporate culture that makes a successful Silicon Valley company.
As you may aware Silicon Valley is basically a gathering of IT and computer industry players and start-ups. A book on IT and computer written 10 years ago in many senses could be a dinosaur in term of the development of information technology. However, because the book is concentrating and stressing on the importance of value and culture to a company’s success, the points discussed in the book are still very refreshing today.
The discussion on corporate culture and the success factors in the book seem to focus on the “yin” aspects of Chinese philosophy. Geoffrey divides corporate culture into traditional business and Silicon Valley cultures. The traditional business culture emphasizes on chains of command and has a systematic structure that prevents changes to take place. It is like the “yang”. On the other hand, Silicon Valley culture is loosely organized less structure and welcome changes. It represents the “yin”.
James also discussed a bit on the history of industrial revolution/age. In the era of industrial revolution, workers were structured to repeat the same production process and had to work long hours to be continued to be employed. It was so easy to fire a worker and workers’ contribution was valued at a very low level and could be replaced every time. There is no such thing as human capital. Many traditional business or in some countries, this traditional mindset is still there. Labor is so cheap and job opportunities are so few that the market is on the enterprise side and so they come out with all kinds of rules and regulations to “control” the workers or people. If they don’t have the supply, they can import to meet their demands.
This may explain why the corporations, businesses and government agencies want to become bigger and bigger. And the way to control this big side organization is to implement “traditional business” model. This makes them run into the vicious cycle of refusing changes, creating fears, more controls and treating employees like a child.
In fact, many MNCs are structured in such a way as they have yet to distance themselves from the industrial age – the traditional business model. Also the fact is many western management theories and principles are based on the traditional model. And companies in the emerging countries like Singapore, China, and Taiwan are leaning from them!
Among newly industrial countries, Singapore government and companies can be considered as one the most successful examples. We are well structure, well run and very systematic. They way we run the government, companies and treating the employees, peoples are like a big corporation. There are all kinds of indicators, standards, classes (SQC), and campaigns to motivate or (to a certain degree) threaten employees to work harder. To businessmen or investors, they will be happy to see these figures as they can predict the outcomes and calculate the ROI. This is why foreign businessmen and investors are wiling to come to Singapore as until now (so far so good) Singapore gives them the certainty and protection. However, can this “traditional model” last for ever?
On the other hand, the Taiwanese companies are operating quite differently. They are less structure, always adapt to changes, results base and community spirit. This model seems more like the Silicon Valley culture. While the Taiwanese companies are learning from the west, they should aware of falling into a pitfall of “traditional business” culture. Their success factors in the past should be maintained and upgraded so that they can go to the next level of world class operation. If they adopt the “yang” (traditional model) elements of western management and never improve their own “yin” elements like creativity, innovation and changes, they risk to heading to no way. They can learn (and understand) to be structure, more productive and focus, however once they lose the (they already have) Silicon Valley culture, they will be in trouble.
However, Taiwanese companies should know the western traditional business culture on the “yang” side – organization structure, road map to world class company/organization, business excellence, and ISO. They must also consider the “yin” side of Silicon Valley culture. They have a head start compared to Singapore as they are already doing so in the past. They work hard and build team spirit not because of money motivator or fear of losing job, but because they want to achieve some things.
A better model may be is the mixture of yin and yang of Silicon Valley and traditional business cultures. As we are moving towards knowledge economy, the focus point, hence, is Silicon Valley culture, especially for country likes Singapore.
Geoffrey also gives examples for companies belonging to traditional and Silicon Valley cultures:
Tradition business culture: Digital, Xerox, IBM, Wang, Honeywell, GE, Cabletron, Apple (before 1997).
Silicon Valley culture: Novell, Dell, HP, Acer, Softbank, Microsoft, Cisco,
Apple (after 1997)
I am surprised to learn that how come Geoffrey has a good understanding of Chinese philosophy or wisdom. The book former title was Business Wisdom of the Electronic Elite. James tried to input some Chinese wisdom into the Silicon Valley culture but never explicitly linked them together. (Sorry, if my guessing is wrong)
Or, perhaps he has seen the link but in 1990s linking a western success corporate culture to Chinese wisdom might not be a good marketing selling point. However, if the book can be renamed and repackaged with more inputs from Chinese wisdom, it may be another best selling book, and certainly worth more than S$2 (old copy) or US$4.28 (new copy).
In fact, Geoffrey has a long history of association with Asian or Chinese philosophy. Prior to the publication of Success Secrets from Silicon Valley, he had already written 2 very philosophical books, The Tao of Programming and the Zen of Programming. Geoffrey was a computer programmer and he uses programming to describe Tao and Zen. He has linked the Chinese wisdom with programming, and makes a boring subject like programming into “yin and yang”, into the way, spirit and changes.
His book published in 1990s could be ahead of his time. Many of the concepts discussed can be seen in today’s business operations and practices. For example, work-life balance, ecosystem, corporate social responsibilities, change management, blue ocean (to work with your competitors), and many others. However, these concepts or values are not new in the eye of Chinese or other philosophy. We are just too forgetful of our past!
There were only 2 reviews on this book in 1998 and 1999 respectively. Both give positive remarks and comments. Bob Hansens provided the following comments:
“This book captures the essential elements of the overall organizational strategy developed and applied in Silicon Valley over the past decades.”
“While the average Silicon Valley company is living the ecosystem described, the greatest value of the book may be its use as a teaching tool for the extension of a Valley company's culture to team members in non-Valley locations or subsidiaries”
Comments from Sophia Zannis were:
“The book could serve as a mandate for change management”.
“… the book could serve as an abridged change management manual for any company desiring to replicate the success culture of these upstarts. Size isn't the issue. Culture is.”
Sophia also gave a summary of the book:
“”
"Success Secrets" devotes a chapter to each of eight main change points: Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield; Corporations are communities, not machines; Management is service, not control; Employees are peers, not children; Motivate with vision, not fear; Change is growth, not pain; Computers are servants, not masters; Work is play, not toil.
Each chapter is organized in an easy to follow format: Silicon Valley mindset; traditional mindset; a case study; strategies; quiz (to determine "gaps" in an organization) and points to ponder which serve as good change management points to consider when we are with clients.
“”
James also highlighted 26 ways to make effective team management under the 8 keys:
Key 1 Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield
Strategy 1 Encourage diversity
Strategy 2 Launch new generations
Strategy 3 Build symbiotic relationship
Key 2 Corporations are communities, not machines
Strategy 4 Communicate directly
Strategy 5 Create opportunities for social interaction
Strategy 6 Encourage hands-on charity work
Key 3 Management is service, not control
Strategy 7 Increase power by dispersing it
Strategy 8 Encourage creative dissent
Strategy 9 Build autonomous teams
Key 4 Employees are peers, not children
Strategy 10 Hire the self-motivated
Strategy 11 Eliminate fancy perks
Strategy 12 Sacrifice the sacred cows
Key 5 Motivate with vision, not fear
Strategy 13 Create climate of trust
Strategy 14 Build a shared vision
Strategy 15 Compensate for missions accomplished
Strategy 16 Ruthlessly prioritize
Key 6 Change is growth, not pain
Strategy 17 Have long-term vision, short-term plans
Strategy 18 Keep jobs fluid and flexible
Strategy 19 Make decisions quickly and broadly
Strategy 20 Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
Key 7 Computers are servants, not masters
Strategy 21 Use electronic mail to flatten management
Strategy 22 Humanize electronic communications
Strategy 23 Reduce information pollution
Key 8 Work is play, not toil.
Strategy 24 Cultivate constant challenge
Strategy 25 Encourage informality
Strategy 26 Create a sense of balance
Monday 25 October 2010
Harmony (He 和) – The most representative Chinese character
The latest issue of “Chinese Heritage” magazine has short-listed 100 Chinese characters or words to represent China, among them the word “He” or “harmony” came in top. “He” can also mean peace (和平) and get along well（和睦相处）besides harmony (和谐).
A character or word can also represent a culture. This is especially true for Chinese, because every Chinese character has its meaning when it was created in ancient time. The shape of the character displays its meaning.
“He” as a representative of Chinese culture is also reflected and used in big ceremony. No wonder in the 2008 Beijing Olympic opening ceremony, thousands of students were forming “He” character.
This is a significant Chinese word that the Chinese government wanted to inform and present to the world. “He” displays and shows the world that Chinese people are a peaceful race and they are willing to co-exist and progress together with the rest of the world.
“He” occupies an important and special cultural and historical meaning in China. Some Chinese scholars claim that “He” represents a unique feature of China’s history and culture. A typical Chinese saying is “以和为贵” - “He” is precious. Because of “He”, there is less conflict and more peace. Everyone treasures “He” so that all can live in harmony. This is why businessmen are stressing “和气生财” (peaceful environment leads to money making). If businessmen are in cut throat price war, at the end, all will surfer.
However, some may consider or even criticise “He” as a weak characteristic. “He” can be a compromise, a “let go”, a “give way” or even surrender to avoid conflict. Nevertheless, Daoism always stress weak is strong, small can win over big, to withdraw mean to attack.
“He” is also in alignment with Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism thinking.
Daoism sees “He” moving along Yin and Yang and seeking a balance (“He”).
Confucianism stresses gentlemen are in peace but different in thinking, however, bad guys are the same but not in peace (He).
Buddhism in China believes that body in peace so can stay together, mouth in peace so there is no dispute, agreement in peace so human beings become happy.
These 3 Chinese philosophies also consider “He” as a transporter that makes things understand and smooth. “He” is a compromise, a selection of the best, a mixture, and going through everything. It is continuity as well as innovation of new thing/idea.
Chinese culture has also influenced Japan, especially Confucianism that Japanese has a deep understanding, appreciation and application. Japan business culture is different from the West even though its capitalism is modeled after the West. Japan business practice (as well as Korean) stress a lot on group activities, teamwork and they seek harmony”以和为贵” in decision making. Japanese kimono is called ”和服” – dress of He, and furthermore, Japanese has called themselves ”大和民族” – the race of great He.
A character or word can also represent a culture. This is especially true for Chinese, because every Chinese character has its meaning when it was created in ancient time. The shape of the character displays its meaning.
“He” as a representative of Chinese culture is also reflected and used in big ceremony. No wonder in the 2008 Beijing Olympic opening ceremony, thousands of students were forming “He” character.
This is a significant Chinese word that the Chinese government wanted to inform and present to the world. “He” displays and shows the world that Chinese people are a peaceful race and they are willing to co-exist and progress together with the rest of the world.
“He” occupies an important and special cultural and historical meaning in China. Some Chinese scholars claim that “He” represents a unique feature of China’s history and culture. A typical Chinese saying is “以和为贵” - “He” is precious. Because of “He”, there is less conflict and more peace. Everyone treasures “He” so that all can live in harmony. This is why businessmen are stressing “和气生财” (peaceful environment leads to money making). If businessmen are in cut throat price war, at the end, all will surfer.
However, some may consider or even criticise “He” as a weak characteristic. “He” can be a compromise, a “let go”, a “give way” or even surrender to avoid conflict. Nevertheless, Daoism always stress weak is strong, small can win over big, to withdraw mean to attack.
“He” is also in alignment with Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism thinking.
Daoism sees “He” moving along Yin and Yang and seeking a balance (“He”).
Confucianism stresses gentlemen are in peace but different in thinking, however, bad guys are the same but not in peace (He).
Buddhism in China believes that body in peace so can stay together, mouth in peace so there is no dispute, agreement in peace so human beings become happy.
These 3 Chinese philosophies also consider “He” as a transporter that makes things understand and smooth. “He” is a compromise, a selection of the best, a mixture, and going through everything. It is continuity as well as innovation of new thing/idea.
Chinese culture has also influenced Japan, especially Confucianism that Japanese has a deep understanding, appreciation and application. Japan business culture is different from the West even though its capitalism is modeled after the West. Japan business practice (as well as Korean) stress a lot on group activities, teamwork and they seek harmony”以和为贵” in decision making. Japanese kimono is called ”和服” – dress of He, and furthermore, Japanese has called themselves ”大和民族” – the race of great He.
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