05 Dec Critical Thinking, Leadership and the Oversimplification of Ideas
I love single-panel cartoons, they’re simple, pithy and can pack a complex idea into a simple space. They quickly convey ideas and observations that would require lengthy written essays or editorials. They do have their limits though; and lead to a distorted view of their subject matter if we rely on them alone for our opinions or ideas about complex topics. They can isolate single ideas and create the perception that those simple ideas sum up the entire reality of a situation, a philosophy, or even of a whole society. Imagine getting all of your ideas and beliefs about modern society from single-panel cartoons or social media memes. Wait a minute….
Perhaps you see where I am going with this.
One good example is the role that Japanese leadership has played in the eyes of Westerners. Japan performed a miracle in the late 19th Century. It transformed from a medieval feudal society into a modern industrial one in less than fifty years. Japan continues to astonish the world with its accomplishments in technology, art, urban planning and so forth. As a former martial artist, I continue to be an avid fan of their martial arts traditions as well. They transformed their martial arts right along with the rest of their society, creating vehicles for Japanese concepts and culture that the whole world benefits from, including me. However, there is a fine line between learning from a culture and imitating that culture.
Think of the westerner’s image of the samurai. They’re represented as disciplined, artful, subtle. They often were. Samurai means “one who serves”, and has come to represent selflessness, loyalty and humility. That’s the image popular culture sees, and it has a lot of validity. Unfortunately, that image, or meme, leaves out some of the reality of what being a samurai, or being ruled by samurai was really like. For many samurai, that often meant a life of quiet poverty, sometimes bordering on constant hunger, and little recourse if your lord decided it was your time to make the ultimate sacrifice. For the farmers and other peasants the samurai ruled, it meant the near absence of anything we would call civil rights. As the descendant of European peasants, I know which end of the sword I probably would have been on.
Interestingly, the adoption of representative democracy in the Meiji Restoration is one of the most important aspects of the end of samurai rule in Japan. So, the west gained the artfulness and disciplined refinement of bushido, and Japan gained the messy and liberating power of democracy. The story of how that happened is marvelous and complex One great entry point is this wonderful biography of Saigo Takamori, considered the inspiration for the movie, “The Last Samurai.”
I am using the samurai tradition because it’s a popular meme, because it is often used as a yard stick for leadership, and I know a little bit about it. I am not criticizing the samurai tradition. I am criticizing the substitution of a simple image or cartoon with the complexity of the thing itself. That’s not leadership. Business people who read The Book of Five Rings in search of business strategy, should also consider the difference between running a company in the 21st Century and making war in the 17th. The samurai deserve better than surface imitation, and we can do better than cherry picking single quotes from their tradition, or any other, and selectively applying that to our lives now. After all, part of the reason we respect the samurai so much is for the adaptability many of them showed when it was time for their era to end. The Japanese adoption of outside ideas and willingness to change was a strong component of their success. That deserves recognition also.
Leaders should think carefully and completely before adopting or imitating ideas no matter how compelling they may be. They should also consider what other ideas and skills are need to balance new ideas in order to create success.