Management at the Movies

What are your limits to forgiveness?

The photographer Ryan Lobo tells a stunning story of Liberian warlord, Joseph Biahyi, more commonly known as General Butt Naked.  Joshua claims to have killed 10,000 people in the Liberian civil war. He led children to drug addiction, and to the raping and slaughtering of others in his crazed attacks of enemies.

After the end of Liberia’s civil war, he underwent a personal transformation, becoming a baptized Christian evangelist, seeking to help the children’s whose lives he turned upside down, and the forgiveness of families who suffered at this hands. Lobo was a witness to Joshua’s journey, snapping pictures as Joshua would apologize and then bear the crushing waves of anger and threat of those whose lives he had ripped apart.

Lobo was scared for his own life as he watched, but was amazed, in the end, for peoples’ capacity for forgiveness. As he states very eloquently in the video account below, “In the midst of incredible poverty and loss, people who had nothing absolved a man who taken everything from them.” (Start at the 3 minute mark of this stirring TED podcast, or link to the TED blog.)

As we enjoy our time with family and friends, and allow the platitudes of the holiday season to seep in deeper than usual, we may want to consider what are our limits to aiding, to giving, to forgiving.

To catch the earlier posts of this thread, go to this link and scroll down to post 1.

Judge a Cover by its Book

A common way in business of explaining the word "culture" is "the way we do things around here". But one of the best explanations I’ve ever read is by Fons Trompenaars, who wrote the fascinating book, "Riding the Waves of Culture".

Referencing Geert Hofstede (who conducted one of the most well-known research projects on cultural differences), he wrote "culture is the way in which a group of people solves problems."

I love that explanation.

• Japan and Holland are small nations with scarce natural resources, encouraging a relatively high level of efficiency and business acumen.
• America was a spacious land which required bodies to populate territories and provide the muscle for a burgeoning industrial economy, resulting in relatively liberal immigration policies.
• Google is a company that was born of the Internet, trying to figure out how to find and organize the world’s aggregate knowledge, and ended up organized in a relatively flatter way vis-a-vis more mature organizations.

All cultures are unique because they are shaped by so many factors: the physical environment, the climate, the long-term economic condition, population density, religious influences, educational system, etc.

I personally believe that understanding the factors that have led to a particular kind of culture is very helpful. While people from one culture may think that the people of another culture "weird", they probably would end up tempering their negative views if they understood the factors. They may even realize that if they had grown up in that particular cultural system, they would probably have ended up as "weird" as the others.

The Culture of Mankind

Gosh, it’s been a month since I’ve updated my blog. But then again, I’ve been busy, having relocated to the United States after over 22 years away in Asia.

Having lived in three countries – America, Japan and Thailand – of distinctly different cultures has been a rich experience.

Japan is where I discovered my roots, where I met my wife, is a culture of refined taste and exacting standards, a society of cleanliness and civility, a market that blends foreign concepts into Japanese sensibilities with such thoroughness that you would sometimes wonder whether the concept was originally Japanese. Certainly schools kids prior to the age of the internet may have been excused to think that McDonalds and baseball were as Japanese as tempura (which I am told is actually Portuguese.)

Thailand is where my wife and I will early retire. On the whole, it is the friendliest society I have ever been a part of, a place where networking and making friends is a way of life, where people, delectable cuisine, tropical climate come together to make Thailand a long-term destination of choice, and where children and the elderly are treasured, at least on the surface, more than in the West. Thailand’s history is a fascinating story of survival as nations around them fell to colonialism, as well as of economic upheaval, going from an agricultural-based to an industrial/services-based economy in a few short decades, and the culture-shaking implications that has on the country’s political and social systems.

Although it was not so true when I was young, I have grown to appreciate the country of my birth – the United States of America – a living laboratory where experiments are constantly conducted to define or measure our particular concept of democracy and market economics. The so-called "American dream" – that all citizens have an equal opportunity to succeed – is a powerful set of beliefs which has served as the marketing slogan targeting, intentionally or not, the hundreds of millions of immigrants around the world who saw or see America as the land where lives can be re-invented.

I would not have fallen in love with these three countries if I had not left my home country and lived in others. Seeing differences is a truly effective way of forcing one to delve into one’s own values and identity. It is in these differences we can begin to understand the incredible breadth and depth of human experience, and begin to feel the threads that weave the culture of Mankind.

Go West, young man! And East. And North. And South.

Just get off your butt and see the world!

The Correct Form

I always thought that one of the coolest martial arts in Japan was kendo, a form of swordfighting with weapons made of bamboo. The elegant maneuvers, the high-pitched screams and the thwack-thwack of bamboo on Vader-like helmets – the kind of images that may have served to inspire the swordplay in Lucas’ Star Wars – were inspiration enough to get me off my butt and exercise.

I went to a local dojo where elderly sensei’s were teaching elementary and junior high school kids, both boys and girls. As a 20-something foreigner who didn’t speak Japanese, I sort of stuck out. But I spoke enough Japanese and will to allow me entry to the lessons. I remember one particular moment when the sensei, a white-haired guy not much taller than 5 feet – probably in his late sixties –

was sparring with me. He was barking something, trying to explain something to me as my bamboo "shinai" worked to follow his. And then he shouted, disappointed in something I was doing, and suddenly drove his shinai down hard, my shinai smacking the ground flat in a split second. In shock, I tried desperately to understand what I had done wrong….obvious to him, incomprehensible to me.

In Japan, to newcomers and old hands alike, there are many moments where one is surprised that there is a proper way to do something – whether it is seating arrangements, throwing away trash, or walking or standing on an escalator. Very often there are excellent reasons, and the rational explanations do not seem so apparent, hidden under decades or centuries of repeated behavior.

In the book, "Inside the Kaisha – Demystifying Japanese Business Behavior", Noboru Yoshimura and Philip Anderson believe that the Japanese education system play a great role in emphasizing the correct form, or the "kata":

Outsiders are often surprised at how constricted the accepted pattern of behavior is in Japan. It seems that there is a "right way" to do everything, from hitting a baseball to bowing. In fact, a recent book by a Western expert on Japan suggests that shikata, or the way of doing things, constitutes the cultural programming that makes the Japanese a superior people. There seems to be a kata (correct form) for everything – even for actions that are idiosnycratic in the West, such as eating, reading, and writing.

How do the Japanese absorb these lessons? Japanese schools are famous for their emphasis on rote memorization, and subjects such as mathematics and science are usually taught as an abstract set of rules to know. However, the characteristic mode of learning correct behavior is emulating a model or prototype.

Eating spaghetti the proper way

Right after the scene in the French restaurant, there is another classic scene from the film, "Tampopo".

An elderly Japanese women is holding a manners class for the daughters of well-to-do families. The purpose is to ensure that these women are educated in the proper way so that they behave in the proper way in order to attract a man from a well-to-do family.

In this scene, the Japanese manners sensei is explaining the exact steps in eating spaghetti as only a lady should. The director, Itami Juzo, knows how to exaggerate Japanese behavior just to the border of ridculousness while leaving an aftertaste of reality.

Although the scene is only available in Japanese, you should be able to understand the scene. If you have the DVD, you can watch this scene from 23:56~27:00.

SENSEI: You use grated cheese only on certain spaghetti dishes. This is spaghetti alle vongole, so do we apply cheese? No cheese, right? Fork and spoon, everybody. Spoon in your left hand. Catch three or four strings of spaghetti with your fork. …and gently turn it around on your spoon. You wind your spaghetti like this. And eat it silently.

SLURPING NOISE FROM A FOREIGNER EATING SPAGHETTI NEARBY.

SENSEI: Never make any noise.

MORE SLURPING SOUNDS.

SENSEI: No noise whatsoever. Listen carefully to hear if you make any noise. Sometimes people don’t know they make noise. Listen carefully. Even a very faint noise ….(she makes the smallest slurping sound)…like this is taboo abroad.

HEAVY SLURPING. THEY ALL STAND UP TO LOOK AT THE MAN, SIT DOWN AND START EATING THEIR SPAGHETTI IN THE NOISEST, MESSIEST WAY POSSIBLE. THE SENSEI RELUCTANTLY JOINS IN.

Kikokshijo

I remember the embarrassment I had when I first arrived in Japan….looking Japanese but not sounding Japanese. In the end, those Japanese who get to know me accept me as a non-Japanese, someone not required to understand all aspects of how to behave like a Japanese.

But the children of Japanese parents who liv ed overseas for a period of time (because of the work assignment of their father) tend to struggle with the return and re-acclimation into Japanese culture. As one 14-year-old named Tom said in this Japan Times article, "You have to act Japanese, you know. You have to be the ‘same height’ as everyone else. If you’re too tall, you get chopped off."

These children are called "kikokushijo", and having grown accustomed to learning cultures in other countries, they come back to Japan with behaviors that make them stick out. According to the article, the Japanese government coined the term "kikokushijo" with the express purpose of fast tracking them, grooming them for future key roles in the globalizing economy. But the government could not prepare them for fellow students who shun those perceived as too different.

One of the more interesting books on Japan I have read is called "Straitjacket Society – An Insider’s Irreverent View of Bureaucratic Japan", by Dr Masao Miyamoto. He was a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Health and Education whose views were so at odds with his government that he actually got fired. He believes that the Japanese bureaucracy deserves some of the blame for creating such a strong culture of exclusiveness. Miyamoto called the government’s overriding philosophy "messhi hoko", or "self-sacrifice for the sake of the group". This philosophy, via the education system, is engrained in Japanese, and that the fear of ostracisim outweighs the need to express one’s individuality.

It is difficult to say no to messhi hoko and look for another job, since most Japanese companies are based on this philosophy. A person who rejects the concept of self-sacrifice can expect total isolation from the group. The fear of ostracism evokes strong anxiety in most Japanese, therefore the threat of removal from the group exerts a strong controlling influence on individual behavior.

To accomplish the goal that every Japanese embrace the philosophy of messhi hoko, the bureaucrats introduced an educational program based on the idea that all Japanese should look, think and act alike. This type of education does not allow for individual differences, and as a result, creativity is severely curtailed.

You can take the boy out of the jeans, but not the genes out of the boy….

I was 18 years old the first time I ever worked in an office. I got a summer job as a desk assistant at NBC News in Rockefeller Center. There were other desk assistants there essentially my age, but I seemed to have the particular habit of addressing the elder people there as Mr. Johnson or Ms. Smith. One time I went up to one of the editors with a question, and just as I said "Excuse me, Mr. Edwards…" he interrupted me and said in a somewhat irritated tone, "Would you stop calling me Mr. Edwards? It’s John."

To this day, I still recall that moment because it awoke me to a formal, deferent part of myself that in certain cases seemed out of place. In the end, I am who I am for a myriad of environmental and genetic reasons, but there must be more than a trace of Japanese-ness in me due to my ancestry – at the very least, a need to understand the relative status between people and how to behave properly.

In one of the better books on the topic of Japanese business culture, "Inside the Kaisha – Demystifying Japanese Business Behavior”, Noboru Yoshimura and Philip Anderson wrote that "appropriate behavior depends not only on the context everyone shares, such as a client visit, an office trip, or an after-hours soak in a communal bath; it also depends on each individual’s position relative to others within the context."

The authors go on to explain that a business meeting for example are important to Western and Japanese cultures, but that different things tend to be prioritized in different ways. They state that

…when Westerners are asked to attend a business meeting, they usually inquire what the subject or agenda of the meeting is. In contrast, the first thing a Japanese wants to know is who else is going to attend, for this defines the context of the meeting, regardless of its ostensible purpose. The context in turn defines correct conduct. For example, the most junior people attending the meeting will be well prepared, show up early, and sit near the door (in the "cheap seats" as it were). The most senior person attending the meeting will arrive on time (or a little bit late), take the best seat, and forgo prior preparation, since other participants will explain whatever he wants to know. No two people will approach the meeting in exactly the same way, because no two have exactly the same status.

In other words, the Japanese are keen observers of relative status, and are skillful at adjusting their behavior depending on where they stand vis-a-vis others in the room. Those Japanese who are not, for example that junior employee in the scene from "Tampopo", get criticized, or even ostracized.

When the nails line up, it can be a beautiful thing….

Japan’s national team defeated the Korean national team 5 to 3 at the finals of the World Baseball Classic earlier this week. As if scripted, Seattle Mariner star, Ichiro Suzuki, knocked in the winning runs in the tenth inning, with two strikes and two outs. Japan exploded in celebration, while Korea collectively drooped.

Most of the 50,000 at Dodgers Stadium for the final were rooting loudly for one of the two Asian teams, while most Americans invested their spectator sports time in the NCAA basketball tournament. The possible truth is that many American’s are not willing to admit that the rest of the world has caught up with the MLB.

Relative to the US, strong Asian cultures like those of Japan and Korea place a tremendous premium on getting the fundamentals right, on teamwork, on team spirit. I’m sure there were no players on the Asian teams complaining about travel itineraries or playing time, as some individuals on the American team had done.

As the New York Times explained, the Asians showed the world how to play America’s pastime:

The championship game ended with one of the most accomplished hitters in Japanese and American history delivering a game-deciding single. By reaching the final, the Japanese, who had five major leaguers, and the South Koreans, who had one, showed why their precise style of baseball was refreshing to watch and difficult to overcome.

The Japanese used a sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly or a stolen base to contribute to four of their runs against South Korea. Japan pummeled opponents, 50-16, in nine games, but the hitters attacked softly. Of Japan’s 92 hits, 74 were singles.

Every player on the Asian teams came prepared….not to let anyone else on the team down.

I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.

"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."

出る杭は打たれる。

This is one of the more well-known proverbs from Japan, and does indeed reflect a particular aspect of Japanese culture. The junior person in the highlighted scene from "Tampopo" is the proverbial nail that sticks out. In this context, "sticking out" means not behaving in a deferential manner in the presence of senior people, or showing up others by displaying an expertise beyond that of the group. In other words,  the junior person is not playing the role he is supposed to.

The managers in that scene have come to that expensive French restaurant for a ritualistic meeting, perhaps to officially recognize something or someone. The restaurant was selected to add a sense of formality or importance to the occasion, not so much for their culinary enjoyment. And yet, the junior person defies culture and convention, and orders his meal in a manner that draws the white hot spotlight to him. The manager to his left kicks the junior employee, but to no avail. The nail refuses to be hammered down.

While American culture may exhort the right of the individual to stand out and speak up ("The squeaky wheel gets the grease"), most Japanese will demonstrate a preference for unity, for harmony. It is a powerful cultural norm, and it contributes greatly to a society that values cleanliness, polite and reserved interactions, and a paucity of surprises.