- 26 December 2020
- Posted by: Erkan Sarıkaya
- Category: AGILE
Tsunami Leadership = Litmus Test for Trust
Show empathy in moments of crisis and help without expecting anything in return…
That’s the leadership approach of Japanese businesses that have managed to endure for a very long time.
The Most-Read Stories of 2020
Last week Harvard Business School rounded up the most popular articles, publications and social media posts of 2020. [1]
It shouldn’t come as a surprise: 8 of the 10 most popular stories are about COVID-19.
2020 was hard in every respect.
COVID-19 swept across the whole world, killed 1.5 million people, shut down companies, left people jobless, and fundamentally changed the way everyone works and lives.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to steer this toward “Agile teams stood firm through this period by observing the situation closely and working to adapt to change.” Those who’ve lived it already know.
A manager who called me on the phone put it this way: “Thank goodness we have our Agile teams during this period; I don’t feel the need for ‘syncing up’ and ‘constant meetings’.”
I’ll set aside the effectiveness of remote teams for now.
One of the stories in Harvard Business Review’s Top 10 struck me more than the others…
An important piece on leadership in times of crisis, from a familiar name.
Leadership in Crisis: Takeuchi’s Lesson
Hirotaka Takeuchi, professor at Harvard Business School.
Yes, we know him from the landmark 1986 publication on which the foundations of Scrum were built: “The New New Product Development Game” [2]
(Why are Japanese businesses so good at surviving crises?)
“Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good at Surviving Crises” [3]
In the article, Hirotaka Takeuchi reveals exactly this secret.
It was about 10 years ago.
What the 2011 Tsunami Revealed
March 11, 2011… a magnitude 9.1 earthquake…
and it triggered the tsunami…
Waves higher than 125 meters struck the coast of Japan, especially the Tohoku region of Honshu, the country’s largest and most populous island.
The toll was heavy…
Around 16,000 people lost their lives.
Hundreds of thousands lost their homes, and
millions were left without electricity or water.
383,000 buildings were damaged.
… And yet the tsunami revealed something!
Tsunami Leadership = Litmus Test for Trust!
Takeuchi draws attention to a significant fact: many Japanese companies in the Tohoku region are still operating today, despite the serious financial disruption caused by the disaster.
So, how did these businesses manage not only to survive but to thrive?
“Companies in Japan think long-term“
“To build the future they want, many businesses take action thinking 100, 200 years ahead,” says Takeuchi at the end of the article.
“Many Japanese companies are not as popular as those on Wall Street because they are not focused on achieving superior profitability and maximizing shareholder value.”
They work hard to create lasting change in society.
Takeuchi
Real Examples: Lawson and Yakult
Here’s an example:
Takeshi Niinami, CEO of the convenience store chain Lawson, looked out the window of his Tokyo office as the skyscrapers swayed.
Just minutes before the tsunami reached the Tohoku coast, he sent out a call to employees: “Distribute food to the disaster victims for seven days, and don’t worry about the cost.”
To me, this is what “timing” means for a real leader…
Before the government could even get help there, over 2 vulnerable weeks the company delivered 200,000 meals, including rice, bread and noodles.
And here’s what brought CEO Niinami to tears:
In April, the company donated lunch for three days to the elementary school students of Soma City. When he heard the mayor and the schoolchildren thank him, especially for the desserts, tears ran down his face.
“I never gave that order!”
“It was my employees who decided, on their own, to add dessert to the students’ menu.”
TAKESHI NIINAMI, CEO of Lawson
Another example is a business called Yakult, whose employees call themselves the “Yakult Ladies”. When it was suggested that it lay off staff while shrinking by 30%, it did the opposite. Even at the risk of losing all its earnings!
Since the banks were closed, it handed out $300 in cash from the company safes to every Yakult Lady; it used the firm’s delivery center as a temporary shelter for employees and their families; and it guaranteed jobs to the Yakult Ladies who had been forced to evacuate their homes.
These are real examples that bring to life the values we set out in our ATOM Manifesto…
And What About Us, Agile Leaders?
And what about us, my fellow Agile leaders? Have we managed to be role models?
In times of uncertainty, crisis and hardship, what are we doing for society?
What have we done for our customers, our employees, our people, our neighbors, our schools, our teachers, our local shopkeepers, our hospitals and everyone in need?
Whom have we been able to mobilize?
Examples from other businesses are in the rest of the article [3] below… I recommend you take a look.
References
[1] HBR.: The 10 Most Popular Stories of 2020. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/10-most-popular-stories-of-2020?cid=spmailing-32880538-WK%20Newsletter%20-%20One-Off%20Mailing%2012-21-20%20(1)-December%2021,%202020 (2020).
[2] Takeuchi, H. & Nonaka, I.: The New New Product Development Game. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1986/01/the-newnew-product-development-game (1986).
[3] HBR.:Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good at Surviving Crises. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-japan-s-businesses-are-so-good-at-surviving-crises (2020)
Erkan SARIKAYA
Enterprise Agile Coach
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Author: Erkan Sarıkaya — Enterprise Agile Coach and founder of GONEX. He writes on enterprise agile transformation, Scrum and agile leadership coaching. Learn more on our About Us page, or read his other posts.