2019.9.16

大善、小善英語にすると？

小善は大悪に似たり　

本来、野カモは厳しい自然界の中で生きている動物ですから、湖面が凍結しても自分で餌を探して生き延びていくものです。そういうたくましい野カモを育てるという意味で、社員を大事にするとIBMは言っているわけです。・・・少しも大事にしていないではないかと一瞬思うかもしれませんが、これが真の愛情なのだと私はその時、気が付きました。仏教の教えに「小善は大悪に似たり」という言葉があるのを見つけ、これだと思ったのです。 真面目に働いてくれる社員もいるのに、この会社を潰すような人がいれば、またそれを許してしまえば、大きな罪をなすことになる。ただ勇気がないばかりに、従業員の機嫌ばかりとって、会社全体を不幸にしてしまうということがあってはならない。しかるべき時は、心を鬼にしてしかろう。それは大善なのだ。そう自分に言いきかせて、それからは矛盾に悩まされることなくことに当たってきました。

これを英語にしてみます。QAで書いてみました。

Be tolerant or ruthless?

In JAL philosophy, they use this phrase to explain one of mottos released by Mr. Inamori: ” A Small Good Is Like a Great Evil, While a Great Good May Appear Merciless”. I would like to express the same motto as follows; What is considered to be tolerant may spoil your counterpart, while what is seen as ruthless ultimately benefits to your counterpart. I would like to spend some time to share this Kyocera value with you.

Q: What Mr. Inamori said about this philosophy part from his own experience as a leader?

A: During Kyocera growing stage, he had always been wondering how he should treat his staffs; be nice to employees is good but for those who might negatively affect company’s performance, I should not spoil them… but this would be seen as a ruthless leader, and may end up losing my trust as a top leader… he was always thinking what is the right way to do as a business leader. One day Mr. Inamori found out the IBM corporate guidelines, a part of rules of conduct. 

Q: What did IBM guideline tell Mr.Inamori, as an example?

A: A group of wild duck used to come to a lake on their way from the north to the south. Beside that lake, an old man had a house and one day he started feeding ducks. Since then, every year ducks had come to the lake to take a rest and charge their energy. One year, when ducks arrived, that old man never appeared, no food and ducks could not survive. The old man had already passed away and obviously could no afford to feed ducks. IBM, by referring this episode, stressed that IBM never train our people like those ducks. IBM never be that old man, but train our staffs to survive under any circumstances. Mr. Inamori got a sort of enlightenment from this episode.

Q: What kind of hint did Mr. Inamori get from this duck episode?

A: He considers he should be ruthless in a situation where his attitude may spoil his staff and discourage that staff’s desire to survive. The key to determine his attitude is the capability of survival of staffs. In other words, no matter where to work, a leader needs to scold his staffs to avoid spoiling them.           

Q: From your point of view, what is the ruthless and tolerant behavior?

A: Speaking of mental blocks, from the psychological view point, this is something what kind of goal you and your partner/ child/ staff has. Sometimes, when our love is filtered via “anxiety”, the minas energy begins exchanging. For instance, a mother worries about her son, takes care of him: what to wear, what to have, what to do, who to play, what to study. The son most likely and unintentionally feels stressed because he feels being controlled. He also feels disappointed to think that his mother does not trust him, does not believe his capability to survive his own life. He starts resisting his mother and his actions would make his mother worried more. This is an example of the initiation of the minus spiral. Therefore, to avoid such spiral, what we have to do? We have to identify the issues belong to us and those to others. Clear separation is the first step to cut the minus spiral. Separation sometimes looks ruthless attitude however, your beloved ones, no matter who they are, your partner, children, parents, or staffs whomever, they are going to face with the issues to be solved by themselves.

Q: What are the lessons learned from this episode?

A: What we have to look at is not outside, but inside us. Our mental blocks drive our actions and encourage us to be tolerant, or even ruthless either. We can’t solve issues that have been given to that person for him/ her to mentally grow. If we, business leaders, have been frustrated with how to behave, we first identify the issue: who is the person to solve this issue, myself, my partner, or my employee? If you find the issue to be solved by your staff, you do not have to be tolerant. You may consider conducting clear separation even though you may look as the ruthless leader.