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A true leader thinks and reacts differently from the common people. When the people are in a panic and don’t know what to do, the leader stays calm and works out a course of action that is able to motivate others to go along with him. How is the mindset of a true leader different from the rest? This 4D, Four-Dimensional Thinking Framework show us how:
Here is the visual for 4D Thinking:
The Inner Circle of Vision & Execution
The quick way to get better answers to your problem is to define it in a positive way.
We can learn good management lessons from watching Korean Serials.
In the serial, “福熙姐姐”, Fuxi was the CEO of a clothes factory. They have the problem of pilferage of buttons and other accessories. The management met to discuss how to solve the problem. Before I tell you their answer, what is the thing that you would do?
Typical answer is to have inspection of employees before they leave the factory. That was their initial suggestion. But they were concern about the implications. (This is teaching us to consider the emotional and social impact of our decisions). So they went home to think about it.
The came back with the answer:
“It is better to teach our employees to love our company than to tell them not to steal from the company”.
This is the teaching of Appreciative Inquiry, and one of the very important thing that I teach in my management and innovation classes. Applying the “Invert” operator is a good practice to generate ideas. (see BVITS Innovative Thinking Method)
Always rephrase a problem stated in a negative way into that one that is positive.
So, change from “how to reduce employees turnover” into “how to increase employees love for the company”.
Rephrase the problem into a positive challenge open up the mind for more and better solutions than thinking in negative terms. One is to increase and we think of opportunities and the other is to stop and hence we think only of barriers.
I am very surprised to find it in a Korean Serial, but may be not. Many good Korean serials like Da Zhang Jing, Shan De Nu Wang etc have management principles in them.
Teaching life and management principles through movie and TV serials are very effective. They are the non-invasive and effortless way of learning. This leads to the 2nd principle of always communicate with a story to illustrate your point. Story touches the heart and not just the mind.
In summary, we learn three things:
One more thing, will you still implement an inspection system to catch the culprit? See Integrated View of the Wisdom of Chinese Classics. Please shaer with me what you think.
Lim Liat (C) 9 March 2012
There is a Pattern to the Fall
Great Empire, Companies and People do not just fall suddenly. There are patterns and tell tale signs that we can find them. If only they take heed, they could save their pains. The most obvious tell tale sign is stagnation. The progress has stopped. The decline shall begins soon.
We shall look at the wisdom from a particular hexagram, hexagram 12 Stagnation. For details of i-Ching and the hexagram, please refer to Manage Change with I-Ching and 12 否 Stagnation – Don’t Give Up (Registration required). I will just reproduce the summary here:
Summary of #12 否 Stagnation – Don’t Give Up:
Success brings creeping corruption to cause stagnation and decline. The reverse, to revile a stagnation needs initiative orders from the top and support from the righteous people. There is hope but there must be great effort put in to changing stagnation.
The six stages teachings are summarized as:
The Transformation
Wisdom line 4, also represent stage 4, tells us the big awakening. The top must be changed or be awakened, and to take steps to transform the company. (I-Ching teaches us much about transformation and break-through in other hexagrams). In a big organization, the CEO cannot do it alone. He must bring in the good and talented people into the organization. Do the reverse of earlier stages, namely, replace bad practices with the up-to-date and good ones. Go on real performance rather than flattery. Restore back the righteous and fair standards.
Line 5 tells the new CEO to continue to cascade the transformation throughout the organization. To link up everything together like a tree (the picture used by i-Ching). Line 6 encourages the CEO that it beginning maybe hard but eventual success will bring great joy and celebration. He that sows in tear will harvest in joy.
Reflections for You
Are you in a job that is involved in turning around a company? Then I encourage you to study i-Ching and learn from it.
Are you working in Google, FaceBook, Apple or other present successful companies, take heed from the teaching of i-Ching and ensure your success is sustainable through time. Build the culture of continued innovation and righteousness within in the organization that you are working for.
I-Ching contains 64 hexagrams representing 64 situations. It is difficult for the beginner to figure out which one to apply. I have tried to address this difficulty with various approaches in the following posts:
Below is my re-classification into 2 main grouping and 12 subgroups. The first key group is about the foundation principles on Leadership, Management/Control and Relatioship-Building. The 2nd grouping is a life cycle of 9 phases of development from starting to transformation. Here is the mind-map:
Lim Liat (C) 4 Jan 2012
