Luke Verwey
While every country has its nuances, it is about finding the calibration point between the goals of the multinational company you work for and what resonates / can be adapted to the local market and workforce. Its about leveraging global strengths while respecting the local culture.
Language is obviously a big challenge when it comes to communication. So even if I conduct a town hall meeting with representatives from every area of my business, and they appear to be listening and nodding does not mean that people are receiving the message in the way I intend it to be delivered. You have to communicate over and over, but also find platforms that allow for conversations with differing levels of the organization.
I have to be cognizant that I am not a millennial and I do not think the way the core of my organization thinks so bottom up approaches are vital to engagement and innovation.
In Japan, the `why` is extremely important. In some of the other Asian markets, you can get away with just saying that something needs to be done, but in Japan, the `why` in detail, of the matter is very necessary.
While in Japan, hierarchy is respected, decision making is very collective, so it is a tricky thing to manage. You have to try and balance the different needs and different objectives of speed vs the in-depth consultation to really drive engagement in your organization.
Broad sweeping statements like Japanese don`t like change are not helpful. Most people in most countries don`t like change. Its about how you communicate that change without actually talking about change. Japan loves innovation, so talk less about change and more about the positive impacts of innovation.
We talk about what people do and how they do it. We want a high performing culture but not via driving bad behavior and individual agendas. Continuous two-way dialogue is necessary, it allows us to drive impact down the organization but also allows the employees to drive their voices up.
Listening is vital. Feedback in Japan is given indirectly and subtly so you have to be very clued-into the high contextual element of what is being said, because you are unlikely to get more than two chances to pick up on it before the person stops saying what needs to be said. And as an international leader, you need to hear what is being said.
There is no single Japanese playbook. Take the time to really understand people, that is much more useful than talking about doing things the `Japanese` way.
Take every opportunity to learn. Get out on the weekends into the country so you see new things and learn new things. Try to understand what the local topics are and what people think about them. It helps you correlate more data points about the market, the country and where your organization fits.
