Translated from 日本語 • View original Organizational information disclosure (openness) promotes individual growth and increases team strength. Why is openness necessary? How can we be open? I will tell you about a super open management method for those who really want to change their organization and grow their members.
Japan's labor productivity is the lowest among the seven major developed countries for more than 20 years
The production sites of the manufacturing industry, which is a major industry in Japan, have led the world in productivity improvement, such as Toyota's Kaizen and the Kanban system. However, the overall situation is changing.
According to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Japan's hourly labor productivity (value added per hour of employment) in 2016 ranked 20th out of 35 OECD member countries and the lowest among the seven major developed countries since 1994.
Organizational Bureaucratization is Inhibiting Managerial Productivity
The main reason for Japan's overall low productivity is that "white-collar productivity is low" has been discussed in many articles.
Based on my experience working with companies in the United States and Asian countries, as well as working in Germany for six years, I feel that many Japanese companies are very less productive for middle management jobs than companies in Asia and the West.
So, are middle managers in Japanese companies inferior to managers in Asia, Europe, and the United States? I don't think so.
The problem is the bureaucratization of the organization.
Reporting for the sake of reporting. Complex approval process. Too much internal politics called "rooting".
If you free managers from these, you can overwhelmingly increase productivity.
The keyword is "Is it an activity outside the company?"
There is an easy way to distinguish between "bureaucratic" work and productive work. It is "whether the work is an activity for the outside of the company".
How much work is done for the outside world with minimal document creation and reporting work? Conversely, it is necessary to create a culture that does not recognize work for the company as an "achievement".
By being aware of "outside the company" as an individual and as an organization, the way managers work will change overwhelmingly.
The theme of the next article is "Drastically reduce work for the company with the two-seal rule".