The yin/yang of management.

The revolutionary work of Edward Deming, William Shewhart, and Joseph Juran at Bell Laboratories in the '20s found little management support or interest in the United States. In America, business was booming after World War II as never before. Using established methods of mass production and management, the United States would lead the world into an period of economic growth of unprecedented proportions without any drastic changes in accepted management strategy.

Across the Pacific, on the other hand, the defeated Japanese were struggling. Their infrastructure was weak and their raw materials and the quality and training of their workers were inadequate to meet the challenge of mass production and technological development that was driving the U.S. economy. The Japanese, somehow, used the ideas of Deming, Shewhart, and Juran to create a whole new way of managing for quality and productivity. Did the early Japanese proponents of Deming's management philosophy have a pre-existing framework to hang his ideas on? Is there a reason why the Japanese embraced management principles that Americans still find "foreign," regardless of their origin?

"I believe that there are elements of total quality management (TQM), as we are learning it today, that parallel concepts familiar to the Japanese culture, developed from centuries of exposure to Zen Buddhism and other eastern mystical philosophies. Buddhism gives the Japanese a natural familiarity with such concepts as the value of process over outcome, group dynamics over individual performance, and constant change as an accepted part of reality. It may be an almost unconscious familiarity with some of these concepts that gave the Japanese an advantage in learning and using Deming's statistical and philosophical framework for management. It may be the persistence of a very different conceptual framework in most Americans that has made it difficult to introduce TQM in the United States. Yet, the very diversity and deeply rooted pragmatism of American culture may ultimately help us make TQM a part of American management.

While Zen Buddhism and TQM have many characteristics in common, it is first necessary to show that Zen truly characterizes the spirit of the Japanese people and that Zen provides the Japanese with the basics of the "map" that they use to understand and explain the world.

According to Capra, "Zen...has had an enormous influence on all aspects of the traditional Japanese way of life. These include not only the arts of painting, calligraphy, garden design, etc. and the various crafts, but also ceremonial activities such as serving tea or arranging flowers and the martial arts of archery, swordsmanship, and judo....Zen is a unique blend of the philosophies and idiosyncrasies of three different cultures. It is a way of life that is typically Japanese, and yet it reflects the mysticism of India, the Taoist's love of naturalness and spontaneity, and the thorough pragmatism of the Confucian mind."[1]

Such observations are not limited to western observers, however. Suzuki, who popularized much of what we know about Zen Buddhism, noted that"...Zen is the Japanese character."[2]

Zen Buddhists can trace the roots of their philosophy directly back to the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, in Sixth Century India. It is a religion and a philosophy of life that may best be described by a quote from the great Thirteenth Century master Dogen Zenji:

"To study the Buddha Dharma 

is to study the self

To study the self is to forget the self

To forget the self is to be

enlightened by all things."[3] Such seemingly paradoxical statements are common in Buddhism; they actually make up most of the form and teaching of Zen. In this quote, Dogen Zenji is telling us about the nature of the self. To "forget the self" will reveal the nature of all things; it will reveal the truth.

Yoshida observes that "...the Japanese are educated to pick up more meaning from blank spaces than from written words. Indeed, this ability is the hallmark of the Japanese."[4] He attributes this remarkable ability to the required study of Haiku in Japanese schools. In Haiku, a poet tries to express a deep feeling or thought using only 17 syllables. This prepares the Japanese worker to understand a corporate philosophy with very little explanation, for "the Japanese are comfortable with far-reaching, broadly encompassing, abstract statements unsupported by specific examples or elaboration."[4]

Yoshida believes that Haiku, Japanese brush painting, and Samurai philosophy all contribute to the Japanese holistic view of the world, which in turn makes Japanese workers comfortable with many of the elements of TQM. These three elements of Japanese culture all can trace their roots back to the influence of Zen.

In Eastern culture, including Japan, working as a member of a successful group or team is the highest form of achievement. Even the loss of self, through hard work and self-effacing actions, is highly regarded.[5] This is described in one of the classic Indian Buddhist texts, the Bhagavad-Gita: "In this world, aspirants may find enlightenment by two different paths. For the contemplative is the path of knowledge; for the active is the path of selfless action."[6]

Total involvement in the process of work is revered above the pursuit of elusive personal goals and ends. Again, the Bhagavad-Gita teaches: "Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender. Seek refuge in the knowledge of Brahman. They who work selfishly for results are miserable."[6]

To show how this concept has carried over to Japan, Shaku Soyen, one of the first Japanese to try to explain Zen Buddhism to Americans, said, "Most people imagine that the individual is the final reality, stands by itself, has nothing to do with other fellow individuals; in fact their existence is tolerated insofar as it does not interfere with his own interests....The Oriental mode of thinking, however, differs from this. We take our standpoint first on that which transcends individuals....Individuals will not stay here forever, though the whole which comprises individuals will. Therefore, Oriental ethics considers it of paramount importance to preserve the whole at all hazards, whatever may be the fate of individuals."[7]

This focus on the whole rather than the individual sounds very un-American. It is. The dark side of teamwork is devaluation of the individual. Indeed, a possible negative result of focus on customers can be the subjugation of the importance of the worker who is dealing with that customer. These negative consequences influence those of us who reject the Japanese notion of selfless action.

Change, and the understanding of change, are quickly becoming issues for American managers trying to improve performance. We exist in the midst of tremendous change, yet we do not understand it. Drucker asserts that we are entering a "period of change. The shift from the command and control organization of departments and divisions, to the information-based organization, the organization of knowledge specialists."[8] In order to compete and succeed, knowledge-based organizations must learn. New knowledge comes from new learning. Senge has recognized that the new organization, the learning organization, must learn how to learn. His Center for Organizational Learning at MIT is dedicated to advancing the "theoretical understanding of organizational learning" among its other tasks. He states that the Japanese rise to economic power was not fueled by natural resources. What the Japanese have, he states, are "two key characteristics of the emerging organization--an intense appreciation of interrelationships and extraordinary capacities to manage knowledge."[9] The ability to manage knowledge comes from comfort with process and change. The appreciation of relationships comes directly from the Zen Buddhist view of the world.

While Judeo-Christian religions often require some sort of "faith" in the teachings of prophets, Zen Buddhists attempt to experience the world directly through meditation and "right" living. The world they describe is the world of man and nature, constantly changing yet always the same. It is a world of paradox. Good and evil, work and play, success and failure are all a part of the world, hopelessly intertwined, inseparable and complementary. Nothing exists in isolation. There is no right path, only the existential path you are on.

Capra observes that "process thinking is [also] a main characteristic of Eastern mystical traditions. Most of their concepts, images, and myths include time and change as essential elements."[1] In fact, he notes, "the more one studies the religious and philosophical texts of the Hindus, Buddhists, and Taoists, the more it becomes apparent that in all of them the world is conceived in terms of movement, flow, and change. This dynamic quality of Eastern philosophy seems to be one of its most important features."[1] There is much in this dynamic, directly experienced world that is remarkably similar to the world that is being described by the investigators and theorists of TQM.

The Japanese ability to manage knowledge may come from an ability to appreciate the greater power of groups of individuals working together and an acceptance of change as a part of organizational life. Instead of constantly struggling to maintain the bottom line, to achieve last year's management goals, they can allow the energy of the organization to be channeled into organizational change and learning. In the behavioral sciences, this type of change is referred to as "second-order change," and it is now being recognized as an important element in successful knowledge-based organizations.

Watzlawick references Buddhist teachings to describe concepts and ideas related to change. Using a nightmare as a metaphor, "first-order change" is anything that a person might do "in the dream" to try to get out of the dream. "The one way out of a dream," says Watzlawick, "involves a change from dreaming to waking. Waking, obviously, is no longer a part of the dream, but a change to an altogether different state. This kind of change will...be referred to as second-order change."[10]

First-order change, as applied to management of people and organizations, is change introduced into a system in order to regain stability. Most us spend most of our lives engaged in first-order change. We manage our budgets by comparing our actual spending and income to budgeted amounts, analyze deviations, and make corrections. The corrections are calculated to return us to the original budget--to maintain stability.

An organization can react in the same way. If an organization finds itself losing market share or suffering high employee turnover, management may analyze the identified problem and take action to return to the budget or strategic plan, without changing or restructuring the organization or how it functions. These are examples of first-order change.

In the same situations, organizations seeking to introduce second-order change might question the validity of management by budget. Perhaps the company should ignore the budget and manage for quality! Instead of looking at the five-year plan, managers might try to reexamine the assumptions that led to loss of market share or employees in order to change radically the product or the environment.

Second-order change seems to involve risk, but this may merely be a function of perception. The visionary entrepreneur who has seen the possibility for radically restructuring a market or product probably doesn't see any risk. Once perceived, second-order change redefines the very assumptions that are used to predict risk.

A person or an organization needs a balance between first- and second-order change, between the tendency toward stability and the tendency toward change, in order to succeed. Willingness to experiment with second-order change may differentiate companies that adapt to changing times and those that eventually become obsolete.

Second-order change can convert the "command and control" organization into the "learning" organization. As Confucius is reputed to have said, "The only real fault is not to change one's faults,"[2] a criticism of those stuck in first-order change. The mighty warrior, Sri Krishna, of the Bhagavad-Gita would warn us of what seems to be the obverse, that "the Reality which pervades the universe is indestructible. No one has the power to change the changeless."[6] Of course, he is referring to the ultimate Reality, which in Buddhist terms is both "constantly changing" and "changeless" at the same time. Kaizen, the Japanese concept of incremental change, includes periodic leaps of improvement, usually due to second-order change. The Buddhist accepts change as a never-ending part of the cycle of life.

In the epic novel, Shogun, the Lord Toranaga explains life and death to the barbarian Englishman, Blackthorn, through an interpreter: "...death and life are the same thing....Why be sad? This is the immutable law of nature. Buddhists believe that we have many births or rebirths...until at length we become perfect and reach nirvana--heaven." The hidden message: Don't be afraid of making mistakes. You will be "reborn" to try again, even if you fail. Failure is but a step on the way to success.

Thus, I find three, not two, characteristics of the Japanese that give them an advantage in the development of organizations capable of implementing the concepts of Deming, Juran, and others in a constantly changing world: willingness of each worker to value activities of the group above individual accomplishment, understanding of the meaning of process in everyday life, and fundamental acceptance of change as a natural part of life.

American business, and especially American management, is entering a period of intense self-examination and unsettling change. It will be necessary to study the essence of learning, the dynamic of stability and change. One must become comfortable with constant learning and change as a basis for stability. We have much to learn from the Japanese, as they in turn have learned from Chinese and Indian philosophers. It may be that our success in understanding these concepts of past centuries will pave the way for success in the next.

References

[1.] Capra, F. The TAO of Physics. Boston, Mass.: Shambala Publications, 1991. [2.] Suzuki, D. Zen and Japanese Culture. New York, N.Y.: Bollingen Foundation, Inc., Pantheon Books, 1959. [3.] Matthiessen, P. Nine-Headed Dragon River. Boston, Mass.: Shambala Publications, 1987. [4.] Yoshida, K. "Deming Management Philosophy: Does It Work in the U.S. as well as in Japan?" Columbia Journal of World Business 24(3):10-7, Fall 1989. [5.] Riccomini, D., and Rosenzweig, P. Unexpected Japan: Why American Business Should Return to Its Own Traditional Values and Not Imitate the Japanese. New York, N.Y.: Walker and Company, 1985. [6.] The Song of God, Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Prabhavananda Swami and Isherwood Christopher. New York, N.Y.: Mentor Books, New American Library, Inc., 1951. [7.] Shaku, S. Zen for Americans, translated by D.T. Suzuki. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Co., 1974. [8.] Drucker, P. "The Coming of the New Organization." Harvard Business Review 66(1):445-53, Jan.-Feb. 1988. [9.] Senge, P. "Transforming the Practice of Management." Presented to the Systems Thinking in Action Committee on Nov. 14, 1991. [10.] Watzlawick, P., and others. Change, Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton, Co., 1974. [11.] Kelen, B. Confucius. Singapore: Graham Brash, Ltd., 1971.

Jef Sneider, MD, FACP, is in the private practice of medicine in Syracuse, N.Y. At the time this article was written, he was Medical Director of PHP, a group practice-model HMO in central New York. Dr. Sneider is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Management.