Dandori (段取り): the order and steps for doing something, and the preparation for it.
Dandori hachibu (段取り八分): preparation is eighty percent. Good preparation is eighty percent of success.
Reporting Before and After
Jizen hōkoku (事前報告): a report to the people concerned before something happens.
Jigo hōkoku (事後報告): a report of the result after something is finished. A Japanese business magazine notes that a report after the fact is often acceptable, but that a report in advance is safer when a deal changes or needs confirmation.
The Seventeen-Article Constitution
The Seventeen-Article Constitution, which the Nihon Shoki dates to 604 and credits to Prince Shōtoku, ends with this rule: Sore koto wa hitori sadamu bekarazu. Kanarazu shū to agetsurau beshi. Matters should not be decided by one person alone. They must always be discussed with others.
Its first article opens with a related idea. Harmony is to be valued, and avoiding opposition is to be the principle. Other early sources date the text to 602 or 605.
Circulated Approval
A ringi-sho is a proposal drafted at the lower levels of an organization and passed in turn to the relevant departments and sections. Each manager adds a personal seal, the hanko. Approval builds up level by level, and final approval rests with the head of the organization.
The political scientist Tsuji Kiyoaki studied the system in Japanese government. He criticized it because it spreads responsibility across many seals.
The Vocabulary of Consensus
Nemawashi (根回し): going around the roots. In gardening, cutting the spreading roots of a tree one or two years before it is moved, so that fine new roots grow. At work, preparing a negotiation or meeting in advance so that it goes smoothly.
Sannin yoreba Monju no chie (三人寄れば文殊の知恵): when three people gather, they have the wisdom of Monju. Ordinary people who consult together in a group of three produce excellent ideas. Monju is the bodhisattva of wisdom.
Rentai sekinin (連帯責任): joint responsibility. A whole group answers for what one of its members did.
Quality Circles
In April 1962, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers launched a magazine for the factory floor, Genba to QC. In its first issue, Ishikawa Kaoru introduced the QC circle, a small group in one workplace that carries out quality control on its own initiative.
The definition describes managing and improving the workplace continuously, with everyone taking part.
Report, Inform, Consult
Hōrensō means spinach. It is also made of the first syllables of three workplace words: hōkoku (report), renraku (inform) and sōdan (consult).
Around 1982, Yamazaki Tomiji, president of Yamatane Securities, started a “spinach campaign” in his company. His book on it, Hōrensō ga kaisha o tsuyoku suru (Spinach Makes a Company Strong), appeared in 1986. One account says the idea came from his father.
Pointing and Calling
Japanese railway workers point at a signal and call out what they see. The practice, shisa koshō, began with steam locomotive drivers of Japanese National Railways who checked signals this way.
In 1994, the Railway Technical Research Institute tested it. Without pointing or calling, the error rate was 2.38 percent. With both, it was 0.38 percent, about one sixth.
The Vocabulary of Effort
Otsukaresama (お疲れ様): an expression that acknowledges another person’s effort. At work, it is also said to a colleague who leaves before others. It can be said to colleagues and to superiors.
Isshōkenmei (一生懸命): with all one’s might. It grew out of the older isshokenmei (一所懸命), which described a medieval warrior who staked his life on a single landholding.
Shu, Ha, Ri
A verse attributed to the tea master Sen no Rikyū reads: Kiku sahō mamori tsukushite yaburu tomo hanaruru tote mo moto o wasuru na. Keep the rules and forms completely. Even when breaking them, even when leaving them, do not forget the root.
The verse is linked to shuhari, the stages of learning a traditional art. Shu is holding to the basics. Ha is adapting them. Ri is developing one’s own way.