I got this scary and
insightful email earlier in the week. I
am often asked if The No
Asshole Rule applies in other cultures. The reactions that I’ve received from
Europe (especially France, Italy, Germany, and the UK), as well as from India, suggest that the ideas do transfer to at least some cultures. But I have been less sure about Asian countries, so
this note is particularly interesting. It sounds like, at least in some corners of Japanese business, the ideas strike a nerve.
I would be especially
interested to hear comments from other people who work in Japan, or who have
extensive experience with Japanese companies or business people. Here goes:
Dear Bob,
I am a Tokyo-based HR consultant and executive coach.
I became aware of the NAR in Feb/07, and received my copy from
Amazon in March. I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and
ordered copies for my friends, mostly HR directors and talent
managers occupying seats in foreign-owned MNC’s. I ‘leaf’ a lot of
business books, we all do, but NEVER have I seen a book capture the
popular imagination as did and does the NAR. For the first time, in a
longtime, we ‘laughed’. After we laughed, we experienced an
added catharsis in sharing tales of AH behavior (individual and organizational).
And, this would be AH behavior of a particularly virulent form, what
happens when: Western managers bring a simplistic and short-term
perspective to complex business and cultural challenges; Japanese managers
utilize ‘ijime’ (bullying) to effect restructuring that would be proscribed by
a labor code that is very protective of worker rights.
I scrolled through reader messages on your blog, and tragic as
many of these stories are, I could not find one that compares to the
image of a Japanese manager hanging dead in the company stairwell,
his final message to his AH boss. (That boss popped up on my
screen again recently with regard to another incident in another
company.) I could tick off dozens of these stories; a few end in death; a
significant number end in long-term depression leaves, derailed careers,
derailed lives.
The ‘treatment’ of workplace depression, what I now call,
‘Asshole Toxic Shock Syndrome’ (AHTSS) is big business in Japan. I think this
is opportunistic and ‘bad’ business: opportunistic because it does not address
the problem, but shifts the focus to treatment of its ‘victims’;
bad because Japan is talent-starved, and its organizations need to retain
and develop every warm body they can get their hands on. Under ‘bad’ I would also subsume diversity,
inclusion and other ‘why can’t we all just get along’ initiatives that spill
forth from the U.S. It seems to me the
better question is:
“Why can’t we ensure civility in the workplace? Why are Japanese streets the safest in the
world, and its work environments becoming some of the more lethal?”
I began experimenting with the NAR as part of my coaching
practice, and thus far, have found two applications:
1) To assist clients suffering from ‘AHTSS’ to understand that
it is ‘not them’. One such client,
a particularly plucky soul, bought a dozen copies and seeded them
throughout her organization. She, an expatriate
manager leading a multi-cultural team in a European MNC, reported that the NAR
transcends culture, was an ‘idea’ the diverse constituents of her team could
readily agree upon. And, this took the NAR into the realm of OD. That the book
is written in simple language, absent jargon, and printed in a large typeface
means Japanese and other ESL folks can read it too. You book gained greater organizational access
than any consultant could.
2) To treat AH behavior, ’cause wouldn’t you bet my coaching
practice is full of ‘0-empathy technocrats’ who are challenged to manage
other human beings. I have explored this application VERY
tentatively, as one would. I am
pleased to report that by calling a spade a spade, as in "[Client], you
are a very talented fellow, but your AH behavior is undermining your ability to
get things done" has wrought miracles. When I stopped equivocating, they started listening! And, a few have taken the NAR to heart and
are practicing.
The NAR has transformed my practice, and convinced me that
seemingly intractable problems are amenable to common sense solutions.
Again,
I invite comments. It also sounds like
this HR consultant is employing some of the techniques suggested in Crucial
Conversations and Taming
the Abrasive Manager, both excellent books.
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