The Toyota Philosophy may help slow-growth Lao temples
May 19, 2008 by Sim
I notice that a number of Lao temples tend to have problems when they create a organization to conduct a non-profit business.
[edit to include this:] Many of you reading this article might not know this, and I’m not going to talk about it in detail because it might offend some group of people, but a number of scandals have come up in recent the news events that shows that a number of Laotian temples tend to have problem with corruption. It’s been so bad that a few temples I attend will have some sort of problem with someone stealing money. It’s ridiculous. Who wants to steal money from the donation bin. I only see Homer Simpson yanking money from the donation tray - but I think he put it back. Well, now I believe I have a solution for them. Recently I’d bumped into Toyoda’s philosophy and I think it’s really cool. I think this will help them out.
It is about time that they consider learning the philosophy from one of the most successful Asian business organizer. Here it is:
Toyoda’s Philosophy
1. Be contributive to the development and welfare of the (business) by working together, regardless of position, in faithfully fulfilling your duties.
2. Be at the vanguard of the times through endless creativity, inquisitiveness, good teamwork and pursuit of improvement.
3. Be practical and avoid being inappropriately silly.
4. Be kind and generous; strive to create a warm, homelike atmosphere.
5. Be reverent, and show gratitude for things great and small in thought and deed.
More:
- Don’t tolerate bribery
- Implementing policies that promote ethical behavior.
- Communicate and have dialogue with everyone.
- Build and share the value of Mutual Trust and Mutual Responsibility
- Work together for the success for (the people of the temple and for the temple.)
- Respect the people and believe that the success of the business is led by each individual’s creativity and good teamwork.
To me, precept #3 is really important. Being practical helps because now someone else can understand your work. Because your problem is normal and not complex, many people can now creatively and intuitively help solve your problem.
The philosophy is design to work well for the Asian working environments, but probably won’t work well in organizations such as Wal-Mart. I urge the temple gurus to go out and get a copy of The Toyota Way. When we say “What is happening in Charlotte…has happened in many parts of the country” only indicates that there is a problem. If they want and are hope for a solution, they can solve it. If they are wishing to live with that condition (because of a sin from a past life) or, are not recognizing that there is a problem, then it’s impossible to solve.
So, how is this helping money thefts? Once you begin to treat your workers well and reward them for their ethical behaviors, corruption and theft also drops.
I’ve often thought that this is a good way for a Lao nonprofit organization should be run also, and that they should have an entrepreneur mindset.
I believed that if people learn to work together and take responsibility of their actions then things will fall into its place and run smoothly, but in most cases that we see failure is because there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians, and when problems arise, instead of working together to resolve the issue, they’re too busy playing the blame game and before you know it, the organization falls apart (This, I also see in many workplaces, including mine also).
I believed setting and achieving goals is where success happens, it is important to follow through to completion. The successful entrepreneur mindset uses goal directed thinking in every aspect, and this can be applied to Lao nonprofit organization as well, but first we’ve to learn to think this way.
That’s right. The one with an entrepreneurial spirit tend to bring with them a vision and a dedication. But most Lao temples (even small ones) would want to create a typical organization because they want the temple to continue to run if, in case, anyone in the management it dies. But large organizations can be a problem in this case because people don’t seem to want to ask anyone else for advice. They stick with their job and when problems arise, no body cares about each other anymore. People will tend to create waste, steal or even sabotage the organization when they don’t like the management. (In this case, the management might want to consider Toyoda’s philosophy. )
Here comes the entreprenuer. The intreprenuer loves problems (they don’t seek out problems.) They love to take unusual risk and task. They think outside the box and find new and innovative ways to do things faster and better. They ask for advices from every single person in the team and enjoy spending time with them. They have an overall vision of their goals and can express them very clearly to each team member. They are dedicated to the end because they are born to do only this. It’s rare to find people like this. If you do find them, they are the ones who are setting up the non-profit organization for the temple, but not running it. Unless the entrepreneur himself (or herself) is a (live-in) monk, there won’t be anyone else as dedicated to the job well. So, in the end, everyone settles for the good-old non-profit organization.
Sim, from your personal perspective, if you were to organize a project event at the Wat, and you have a good team going and they have the same vibe as you, but you have one person that’s always complaining and looking for short cut, doing a half sorry job because it’s not his/hers, how would you deal with this person, and would you ask him/her to join you again on your next project?
I think having a complainer can dampen the team spirit, but I’m wondering if it’s a task of the team leader to motivate and change that individual’s mindset. I often think that you can’t change people unless they want to change themselves.
Ginger,
To deal with the shortcut worker, I would pick up his sorry job and examine it slowly as he watches. And I will say slowly, “this isn’t stylish enough… it could be done better. Here’s how you do it.” And if he’s lazy, I’ll say, “this product won’t pass, people won’t buy this, we will have to scrap this and start over.”
Yes, I would ask him to join me again if he’s not a psychopath. If he’s ADD or ADHD I just make sure his job is much more exciting, riskier or more competitive or otherwise he’s more of a problem than a benefactor. It’s up to the team leader to devise all the tricks to get people motivated. It’s a plus to be taller or have a louder voice than the problem person in case they try to start to take control. I think we have to learn appreciate the lessons we get from the slackers and not get tired of them too easily. I tend to believe that complainers don’t exist, therefore I look past their defects and provide suggestion on how they should complain instead. There is only so much any one person can change. Therefore we have to make sure they remained changed otherwise they’ll just revert back.
This is based on the actual project that we did over the past weekend, I thought you might advise me that I should ask the person to join me again, which I did a week before the project, and she said ‘I don’t know, I might be sick next weekend.’ My thought on it is that if the person doesn’t want to join you, then it’s better to have one person less, than to have help with so much negativity that can dampen the team spirit.
One thing that I realized that is expected of the team leader to say is, “Yes, we’ll have it done on time,” a very important statement even if you feel skeptical at the time, this will give the team confidence and get things done on time. I do have to admit that I don’t have much patience for slackers.
When a worker is in need of help because of an emergency, such as being really sick, it is a good thing to help them because they will remember the kindness and will always want to be loyal and be part of the team leader. But it looks like the helper doesn’t want to be there. She/he doesn’t like the work, doesn’t like the people or the area. I would let her enjoy her freedom and let her go as she wishes.
A good team leader tends to have a charisma, an abundant of chi of some sort. This, in turn, gives the energy back to the people that are here to help. They will like the company of a energetic team leader and will feel energize themselves. They will come back the next day, and the next just to be near us, and to be inspired by what we have to say because we never once believe they are slackers.
You might try to find out what she likes and make jokes or tell punch line stories once in a while. Or do all kinds of stuff I can’t fit in this comment. But if she’s not in your same vibes, then you both can drain each other. This is when it’s a good time to split up.
I realized that charisma, high energy is needed of a good leader, and I know some just have too much. What I discovered is that some people like to play hard to get, which I can’t be bothered to go and beg anyone because this is based on a volunteer basis and a goodness of his/her heart. When they realized that you’re not going to beg them, not being needed, then they feel guilty, this person actually called me on my cell at 10 PM that night to see if I needed her help the next day (it should have been a 2 days project, but we managed to get it done in 1 day.) I was still sitting at the parking lot of the worksite, but it took us all day and late into the night with one person less, but I was not upset. Since she made the initiative of calling me, I think I’ll ask her again on our next trip.
The current team that we have is great, we’ve the same vibes.