Why is it important to be able to change?
If I were to ask you, “What has changed in your work lately? What kind of answer comes to mind?
What would you think of if you were asked, “Of all the things that have changed in your work lately, what is the one thing that you intentionally changed?”
I’m sure you can think of something that you have recently devised at work, such as changing the way you make proposals to customers, or changing the way you communicate with your boss or subordinates.
In the chapter on “Improvement and Innovation” starting with this article, I would like to explore the theme of “changing oneself” from the perspective of consciousness(ISHIKI) management.
Are you able to intend to change and not to change?
Let’s expand a bit more and think in terms of a 2 x 2 matrix of what is intended/unintended, what has changed/not changed. When you think back on your recent work, what comes to mind for each of these?
(1) Intentional change
(2) Unintentional change
(3) Intentional non-change
(4) Unintentional non-change
When I thought back on my own work over the past year or so, the things that came to mind were as follows.
(1) Intentional change
・Improvement of internal operations and streamlining of operations
・Strengthen the HR function to enhance internal communication such as 1-on-1.
・Development of new products and services
(2) Unintentional change
・Shift to online services and remote work due to changes in the external environment
(3) Intentional non-change
・Company’s management philosophy (mission, vision, and values)
・Strategy Story
(4) Unintentional non-change
・HR System
・Organizational structure
・My role as a CEO in the company
When I wrote this down, I found it a little difficult to think of “(4)Unintentional non-change,” and when I did think of some of them, I had the thought, “Is it really okay to stay the way I am?
As for (1) and (3), I intend to do so, and I am aware of the change in (2), so (1) to (3) are inside my cognition. However, there are many cases in which we neither intend nor are aware of the change in (4), so it is outside of our cognition.
Because it is outside of our cognition, we find it a little difficult to recall it, and at the same time, it is difficult to be sure that it is the right thing to keep it unchanged.
What kind of feeling did you have? Are there things in the “(4) unintentional non-change” that need to be changed or improved?
One of the beginnings of organizational decline is the “organization x exterior” bias
Let’s think about this from a slightly different angle. Take a look at the following figure. This is a figure based on Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory.
In Integral Theory, there are four aspects to the way we perceive things. Of these four aspects, the one that is usually focused on in business is the fourth quadrant, “organization x exterior”. This is because it is the result that is easy to observe and understand.
The “organization x exterior” includes human resource systems, organizational structures, business models, services and products, and results such as sales and profits. In our daily work, many of the things we talk about are most likely to be “organization x exterior.”
Any of these elements of “organization x exterior” can be traced back to “individual x interior”. In the case of a company, the thoughts of the founder, in the case of a service or product, the thoughts and ideas of the person who invented it, and in the case of a personnel system, there must be thoughts and concepts at its roots.
However, if what falls under the category of “organization x exterior” loses its connection to the interior of the individual and the interior of the organization, it will become a skeleton, resulting in the decline of the organization and making it harder to make profits as a business.
More details about this area can be found in the following article as part of my recognition of the issues.
What is important to note here is that things that have lost their connection to the interior of individuals and organizations do not just disappear, but may continue to remain in a skeleton form. In the same way that a building that is no longer inhabited will not disappear even if we leave it as it is, a thing that has taken shape will not necessarily disappear naturally. In some cases, they may continue to have a negative impact by remaining as a skeleton.
In such a case, it is important to make improvements based on the inner wishes and thoughts of the individual or organization. This includes so-called problem-solving, but depending on the wishes and thoughts of the individual or organization, there may be times when a larger change is needed, or there may be times when innovation that creates something new from scratch is necessary.
On the other hand, it is not enough to change everything. It is important to both change with intention and not change with intention.
Three elements of the integration of contradictions in business management area
I have talked about the importance of “changing ( or not changing) with intention,” and I will talk about how this is positioned from the perspective of management at the end of this article.
As I talked about in the following article, I see management as the integration of contradictions. And I divide contradictions in management into three categories, one of which is the integration of contradictions in business management area.
The contradiction in business management area is the gap between what we want to be and what we actually are. I talked about thinking about what you want to be in the chapter on vision. And the plan to realize the desired state was discussed in the chapter on strategy planning.
In the chapter on “Improvement and Innovation” that begins this article, I will discuss how to bridge the gap between vision / strategy and reality.Vision, strategy, and improvement/innovation are the three elements needed to integrate contradictions in business management area.
From the next article, I would like to explore the concept of “changing oneself” such as improvement, change and innovation from the perspective of consciousness(ISHIKI) management.
Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)
・What, if anything, has been “unintentionally non-changing” in your recent work?
・What do you wish you could change that you are not currently able to change? Why do you feel so?
Bunshiro Ochiai
