The issues we see are just “the tip of the iceberg”
In my previous article, I mentioned that the more difficult the task is in business and organizational management, the more people and organizations are required to change their value levels (i.e., respond to adaptive challenges), and that the first step in changing values is to become aware of what “we don’t see.”
In this article, I would like to talk about how we can see things in a way that allows us to perceive events without being limited to what we can see.
Outside the box
Here’s a quiz for you.
You have nine dots. Try to use as few lines (strokes) as possible when connecting all these dots in one stroke drawing.
First, can you connect the four line segments together, and then connect all the dots in one stroke drawing?
If you find it difficult, try starting with five line segments. If you connect them in a way that surrounds these nine dots, you can write a stroke with five line segments.
When you have completed with five line segments, try again with four.
If you can do it, try with three line segments, and if you can do three, try one line.
What do you think? The answer is not shown here, but one of the points to find the answer is to go outside the frame of the square made by the nine points.
The key is to go outside the box that we usually have when we think. This is also connected to what I mentioned in the previous article, “being aware of what we don’t see.
When we look at things, we use some kind of assumption or framework. For example, when we see an apple in front of us, we understand, “Oh, there is an apple.” This is because we perceive what is in front of us through the image and framework expressed by the word “apple.”
Therefore, it is natural to use some assumptions and frameworks when looking at things, but we need to be aware of the fact that some things become difficult to see because of these assumptions and frameworks.
And while being aware of the framework in which we are currently looking at things, we try to recognize what is possible outside of that framework, which we call “outside the box.”
The key to “Outside the box”
So how can we implement “Outside the box?”
First of all, I must tell you that there is no way to completely guarantee Outside the box, because even if we have some kind of mindset or framework that allows us to implement Outside the box, we are still doomed to be trapped in that mindset or framework.
Essentially, we have to ask ourselves, “What kind of framework (assumptions, common sense, precedents) are we currently trapped in?” and continue to ask, “What is possible outside of that framework?
On the other hand, if we limit ourselves to the context of improvement and innovation in business and organizational management, we can present a framework that can serve as an auxiliary line for implementing Outside the box.
Visible phenomena and issues in business and organizational management are only a small part of the whole, and at the deeper level, there is a complex combination of factors. What we can see is just the tip of the iceberg, and the success or failure of improvements and reforms depends on how deep we can go under the iceberg.
This is illustrated in the following figure.
The visible phenomenon is the “Tip of the iceberg,” and the unseen parts underneath are organized into several layers.
Layer 1: Phenomena
Visible phenomena are the “tip of the iceberg” at the top. The need for improvement and innovation is recognized from phenomena such as failure to meet established goals or KPIs, or the emergence of specific problems.
This is just a phenomenon occurring at the surface. The key to improvement and innovation is to understand the structure that is the cause of the phenomenon in depth.
Layer 2: Structure and background
In the second layer, we have a deeper understanding of the background of the phenomena that are occurring. It is a structural understanding of “why things are happening,” including things that are not visible at the present moment. What is powerful here is the ability to think in an integrated and holistic way. It is an image that captures and organizes the relationships between things.
To be more specific, it is helpful to create a structured map that organizes the relationships between phenomena. (This is a republication of the figure I showed in a previous article.)
Pattern recognition is also helpful. By recognizing patterns of common problems, it is easier to notice the background structure.
For example, there are many situations where the goals are too high and do not lead to improvement actions to achieve them, or where maintaining the status quo is the top priority and new approaches are not taken.
Layer 3: Mental models
The next layer of mental models is precisely the thinking models and values of people and organizations that we discussed in the previous article.
In the previous article, I mentioned that in our company’s example of transformation, I came to realize that the “speed-oriented culture” that is unique to venture businesses may have created various problems as we grew.
The “ speed-oriented culture” is a value that we have developed over the years, and even more importantly, it has been a factor in our success. Letting go of these values, which are tied to our past successes, is something we are not comfortable with.
Thus, there is a risk that revising your mental model may involve a sense of self-denial. (However, there is no need to deny ourselves at all.) It is a very tough business to dig down to this layer and face ourselves.
A common pattern is to feel only denial, saying that what one is doing is not good enough. What doesn’t work even further is when a third-party person directly denies that what one is doing is wrong.
It is difficult for us to notice our own mental models, but conversely, from the perspective of others, we can clearly see how we are caught up in certain mental models. We often feel this way when we see companies that are stuck in their past successes and are unable to come up with effective strategies, or when we see people who are stuck in their successes as players and are unable to behave effectively as managers.
However, if we start by denying the values of a person or their organization because it is obvious from a third party, the people involved will never accept it. This is even more so when it is the values that have supported their success up to now.
Rather, we need to start by looking back at the past and acknowledging the inevitability of having such a mental model, saying, “It’s not that the past was bad,” or “It was an inevitable mental model for the success of the past.”
It takes time and a process of acceptance of the steps we have taken so far, with an ethnography of our experiences.
When we are able to accept how our current mental model was formed, we are ready to choose to let go of it for the sake of a greater purpose. This is not to deny the past, but rather to accept it and try to change the way we look at things for the next stage.
Layer 4: Mission / Subject Truth
Connected to the “greater purpose” is the fourth layer of mission / subjective truth. As I have mentioned several times, the subjective truth is the ideal that makes life worth living for us, our unique purpose in life. In the case of corporations, it is a concept similar to mission or purpose.
The subjective truth of our company is to “open up all possibilities for people. In light of this deep-seated desire, we decided that the answer to the question of whether we should change our mental model of focusing on speed, which is the third layer, was YES in the current phase when we have grown to a certain level as an organization. This was the thinking process behind the change I described last time.
When it is recognized that the issue stems from the third layer of the mental model, a decision to change the mental model can be made only by connecting to the fourth layer of mission and subjective truth (the greater purpose). We can let go of the small consistency for the larger consistency.
Layer 5: Existence
At the deepest level, there is the layer of “being. In the context of improvement and innovation in business and organizational management, I think it is unlikely that we will return to this layer directly. In a nutshell, in the context of change and innovation, where even the fourth layer of mission and proactive truth changes, what we return to is our very existence.
Companies in modern business are communities that have come together based on a fourth layer of purpose, such as mission and subjective truth, and I think it is rare for the fourth layer itself to change. This may indicate the rise and fall of “companies” themselves. In this chapter, I would like you to think of the fifth layer as a perspective that metacognizes up to the fourth layer.
Multi-dimensional View
As we have discussed, there are various layers to the way we view business and organizational management issues.
The key to effective improvement and innovation in dealing with such issues lies in the ability to view the issues from multiple dimensions. By multidimensional, I mean the ability to see things in the multiple layers shown in this figure.
We are not talking about which layers are important and which are not. Any of the issues we see in any of the layers often represent an aspect of the facts, and they are all important.
In my previous article, I talked about the challenges our company faced, and using this as an example, I would like to express the multi-dimensional perspective as follows.
Layer 1: Phenomena
As the number of tasks increased and business processes became more complex, various problems became apparent, such as fatigue in the frontline and difficulty in onboarding new hires.Layer 2: Structure and background
Many factors are involved, such as inconsistency in goal setting and KPIs, a lot of paperwork, lack of coordination among departments, and insufficient PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) implementation. (See the figure for our issue structure as of 2020).Layer 3: Mental model
The organizational culture that gives rise to the structure and background of the second layer is the value of “speed first.
The management team’s view of the importance of front-end processes (sales and marketing) and neglect of back-end processes (operations.)Layer 4: Mission / Subjective Truth
Our subjective truth is to “open up all possibilities for people.”
As we can see, the visible phenomena are just the “tip of the iceberg.” The key to driving improvement and innovation is to understand the mental model, the mission, and the subjective truth.
In this article, I talked about how to see things in a multidimensional way so that we are not limited to what we can see in terms of business and organizational management issues.
In the next article, I would like to talk about the process of improvement and innovation.
Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)
・If there was an event in your experience that you felt was outside the box, what was it?
・What experiences, if any, have you had where you were able to successfully solve a problem by taking a multidimensional view of the problem?
Bunshiro Ochiai
