Episode 163: Business Lessons Straight From The Karate Dojo

I have often thought there are so many lessons from the martial arts for our businesses. Here are my musings after 50 years of training in traditional Shitoryu Karate.

Stepping on to the floor

The dojo is the ultimate equalizer. Whether you arrived by chauffeur driven Roller or took Shanks’s mare, once you step on to that dojo floor only your ability and character separates you from everyone else. You have had all of your wealth, privileges, educational background, society status, connections stripped away and you are left alone to rise or fall based on your own abilities.

In business, we forget this primary lesson and allow people to accrue titles, status and power unattributed to their abilities. We need to see beyond the spin and politics and ensure that people’s real abilities are recognized and rewarded.

Starting

The class begins with a short meditation interval. This is designed to focus the mind and separate the day from what is to come. Next everyone is bowing toward the front. The front of the class represents all who came before us. We are not here today based solely on what we have done. Others were here before us building the art and the organization. By bowing we acknowledge the continuum and our responsibility to keep it going. Now we bow to the teachers, respecting their knowledge and their devotion. Finally, we bow to each other expressing our solidarity as fellow travelers on a journey of self-discovery.

How do we start the work day? Is there a chorei or morning gathering of the work group, to get everyone aligned and focused on the WHY we are there. In our office we review one of the Dale Carnegie Principles each day. We then share our scheduled meetings, our highest goals for the day, end with a motivational quote and a final rousing call to all do our best (ganbarimashoo!).

Stretching

We warm-up our minds and our bodies by going through a set routine to stretch our muscles to be able to operate at the highest possible levels of performance.

If you are a sales team, are you beginning your day with role play practice and coaching or are you just practicising on the client?

Basics

We repeat the same drills over and over, every class, every year, forever. We are seeking purity of form and perfection of execution. We are aiming for absolute efficiency and economy of movement. We are preparing ourselves for a Zen state where we can react without pre-thought.

A large amount of our work is routine, but can we improve the systems, the execution to bring in greater efficiencies and achieve higher productivity?

Sparring

There are two formats. Prearranged sparring dictates what is coming and the order in which it comes. Free sparring is one hundred percent spontaneous, ebbing and flowing with the rhythm of ploy and counter ploy. At a high level, this is like playing a full chess match in under one minute, but using our physical techniques with total body commitment.

When we compete in the marketplace are we a speedboat or an oil tanker? Are we nimble, adaptive, on purpose and aware of market changes? Are we thinking steps ahead of the opposition, anticipating their moves and constantly outflanking them, applying our brains and speed over their brawn?

Kata

These are full power set pieces, representing a battle against multiple opponents. The forms are fixed and the aim is perfection. The form is set and so we can release the mind into a Zen state enabling us to go beyond the form.

Are we able to keep reproducing execution pieces of our work that are perfected? Can we refine our actions for the maximum effectiveness? Can we eliminate mistakes, defects and rework entirely at all levels in the organisation?

Strengthening and warming down

Strength training is there to build the physical power and our mental perseverance. We do a final stretch to reduce stiffness and muscle pain by reducing lactic acid build up in the muscles.

Are our training methodologies making us stronger than our rivals in the marketplace? Are we allocating sufficient time to grow our people? Are we seeing outcomes from the training time invested?

Finish

We repeat the bowing and this time we add our Values. We voice carefully chosen words which represent the value system of our dojo, (Effort, Patience, Moderation, Respect). These are the last things setting into our minds, before we go back to our normal routines.

How do we end the workday? Do we set up for the next day by reviewing what we did today, what we achieved and what we need to work on tomorrow? Do we reflect on the quality of our performance and think about ways to do better?

The system of the martial arts hasn’t changed all that much over the many centuries and for a very simple reason. It works. How about your company? Are you perfecting your systems for the ages?