Episode #269: Celebrating Wins When Doing Business In Japan

We imagine we are celebrating our wins, but are we really? I think about myself and I realize, I am not doing it. This is a good reminder for myself, that I should be doing it more often. Japan is a highly risk averse culture, so when we ask people to step out of their comfort zone, they are hesitant to do so. Most people don’t like change, so there needs to be encouragement and recognition to do so. Avoiding risk, responsibility and accountability are gold medal winning traits on the part of most Japanese people. This is their risk averse nature coming through.

We are all looking for innovation and progress and that means doing things we aren’t automatically good at, it means mistakes and possible failures. All of these things get penalized in Japan. No wonder people like doing the same and safe routines they are familiar with. We have to think about how to reward people for stepping up and stepping out.

That means praise and recognition and celebrating wins, however small at the start. This isn’t like Christmas time, where we only get our presents once a year. We shouldn’t be saving up for just the end of the Financial Year celebration. We need to be doing more of that on the way throughout the year. Are you doing it?

Now I am a shocker in this regard. I am the classic Protestant work ethic, go, go, go type of guy. Sometimes I look at my diary and say “great”, no meetings tomorrow and then I realize that is because it is a public holiday. I have been so totally focused on the work and have forgotten all about the holiday. I am self contained, self motivated, independent, so I don’t need anyone to tell me anything. Well, that might be fine for me, but that is not everyone else. Other people want praise, recognition and the feeling of being appreciated. I am certainly not the model.

As the leader, I have to keep telling myself others are different, they need motivation, they need that supportive environment, the praise, the conversations. This is particularly the case when we are trying to grow people’s comfort zones. They need help to make the changes to grow their ability. This means we recognize the smallest progress, because change is hard for everyone.

We have to make it easy for people to change and that means creating a smooth glide path to help them on the way through. That means not waiting until the end of the year to have a big celebration. We hit the target, so we celebrate or we missed the target and the party is cancelled. It doesn’t work like that because people need help all the way through the year, to get to the result we all want.

So, if you are a hopeless workaholic like me, then find someone else to be designated to set the party dates and organize them. Make it happen around you or even in spite of you, rather than needing it to come from you. If you are like me, then in that case there will never be any parties or celebrations, just more work. Make sure they are executing on this. Our job should just be checking on the progress. Hard work is fine, but many people want the collegiate atmosphere, they want to have the camaraderie, they want to let some steam off together.

Actually, I have a confession. This whole conversation and topic is for me, to remind me to celebrate the small wins, to get other people doing it on my behalf, so that in fact it gets done. I hope you find this reminder of “do what I say, rather than what I am doing” helpful. I promise to do better on the win celebration front!