Boring meetings, rampant speculation… Companies with low productivity don’t have enough “stupid questions”

“Theory in the first place” asks fundamental questions such as “Why are we doing this work?”, “What is the purpose of this meeting?”, and “Why is this project being done in the first place?” matteris. At Japanese company meetings, we often forget about this argument in the first place and just make small arguments about “cash flow” and “conflict of interest”.

As I silently listened to such “aerial battles” at meetings of Japanese companies, I wondered, “What is the reason for doing this project?” I wondered.

But everyone seemed to be talking on the premise that “you already know that, right?”

However, as a business scholar,sense making theorySince I started to understand the theory, I’ve come to think that this is not the way it is.The sense-making theory is very roughly speaking, “People are convinced of things from the bottom of their hearts ( Please think of it as a theory that if you don’t make sense, it won’t really work.”

The most important things for people are “feeling satisfied” and “convinced”. Therefore, it is useless to just discuss cash flow and conflicts of interest in a situation where no one seems to be convinced of what the purpose of this project is. became.

Therefore, I mustered up the courage to ask theoretical questions at meetings, such as “What are we aiming for?” or “Why are we doing this business?” became.

Then, many of the participants in the meeting were momentarily taken aback.But from there, we started to have very essential discussions, and in many cases the quality of the discussions improved dramatically..

In fact, at a certain venture meeting, everyone was talking about detailed strategies,

“Aside from that, what do you want to do? Essentially, what does this company want to do for the future? Do you want to win in Japan, or are you going to take over the world?”

I’ve heard that. Then everyone got stuck and smiled wryly, saying, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been told something essential.” But I think the discussion took a constructive turn after that question. That convinced me that my original question was not wrong.

So I totally agree with this article from The Atlantic when it says, “Slightly dumber and dumber questions are better questions.” The key is to ask the seemingly stupid “theory” question once in a while.

Question from a high school student “What is work?”

Of course, there may be a position that I can ask such a question as a “university teacher”. Because people think they know everything (in fact, they don’t at all), it’s easy to ask stupid questions.

Therefore, I would like to propose that in a general company where there is no person in a position like me,It may be a good idea to be aware of “reverse mentoring”. This is to reverse the position of top and bottom, such as “Young employees give guidance to executives.” In other words, it is to have a dialogue with people who are overwhelmingly younger than me and have them become mentors. This gives me great insight.

I am currently involved in an educational program in Ama Town, Shimane Prefecture, where I supervised a training program called SHIMA-NAGASHI.

After the program was completed, I was told, “I’m the supervisor, so please experience it for yourself,” and I decided to be exiled to the island, just like Emperor Gotoba.

The members who were ‘swept away’ together are prominent members of major companies brought by Ms. Yuka Shimada, who is known as a professional in human resources. High school students from Dozen High School in Ama-cho asked them various questions, and one of them asked the head of human resources at a major company, “What is work?”

This is, at first glance, silly, but it is an essential “theory in the first place.” However, the major company could not immediately answer the high school student’s words. As the head of human resources at a major company,You may have never really thought seriously about what it means to work’ he said later.

It was a very straight-forward question.

The only reason you can ask such a question is because you are a high school student. I think it’s really important to increase the chances of people asking and being asked seemingly stupid questions like this. In that sense, reverse mentoring is important.

Even if a child asks, there are many things that can not be answered immediately. So when an adult is asked a question like that, don’t dismiss it like, “Don’t say stupid things and study hard.”

Even in a company, it’s tiresome to think about fundamental things like “Why are we doing this job?”butIf this part remains weak, it will only lead to superficial discussions without understanding what you are doing, which will only increase the number of boring conjectures and boring meetings.What is it?

yes. If you don’t do that, it will start somehow. It’s okay to say, “This has already been decided in the meeting the other day, so there’s no point in getting together. Yes, disband!”

Akie Iriyama:Professor at Waseda University Graduate School of Business Administration (Business School). He graduated from Keio University Faculty of Economics and completed the master’s program at Keio University Graduate School of Economics. After working at Mitsubishi Research Institute, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business in 2008. In the same year, he became an Assistant Professor at the Business School of the State University of New York at Buffalo. Since 2013, he has been an associate professor at Waseda University Graduate School of Business Administration (Business School). He has been in his current position since 2019. His books include “What are the world’s management scholars thinking now?”