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.
Friday, 17 December 2010
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?
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