Paradigm Shift Japanese Manufacturing Study Mission Sklp Walter Corporata Sottwrra Sawlcm8 Olgltrl Equlpmant Corpontlon Saptambar 20, 1887 Mlrslon Sponsored by Cornpuler Systems Manufrcturlng Olgltal Equlpmnt Corporrtlon LEARNING TO LEARN "Culture hides much more than it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants. Years of study have convinced me that the real job is not to understand foreign culture but to understand our own. I am also con- vinced that all that one ever gets from studying forelgn culture is a token understand- ing. The ultimate reason for such study is to learn more about how one's own system works. The best reason for exposing oneself to foreign ways is to generate a sense of vitality and awareness - an interest in life which can come oniy when one lives through the shock of contrast and difference." Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language "I was once asked: 'in a conversation between a fool and a wise man, who learns the most?' Being a teacher at the time. I was quick to think that since the wise man had more to offer, the fool would benefit the most, but then I saw that the opposlte was in fact true. The fool is a fool because he doesn't know how to learn from his experience; the wise man is wise because he does. Therefore the wise man will learn more from the conversation than the fool. Then it became clear to me that if I wasn't learning as much as my tennis students in the course of a lesson, I probably shouldn't be teaching them. This notion gave me an entirely new perspective on teaching. i began paying attention not oniy to backhands and forehands, but to the process of learning itself. It was only because my students taught me something about the learning process that this book could be written." Tim Gallwey, Inner Game of Tennis LEARNING TO LEARN 1 PARADIGM SHIFT We arrived back in Boston safe and sound at Logan Airport on Saturday night. We were all quite tired but glad to be home and looking forward to some friendly greasy food. We sald our last round of goodbyes and then looked for our loved ones for the late ride home. Sunday was a decompression day and pretty incomprehensible. I have been tired from travelling before but the old body was saying "You've really done It this time." I think I would have skipped Monday morning If I had any choice but I did not. 1 had a 9:OOAM meeting scheduled in Stowe with a select group that Jerry Paxton, Discrete Manufacturing Marketing VP, had put together to discuss the relevant issues around knowledge based systems' and manufacturing. I was half out of it anyway but when I walked up to the conference room and saw klieg lights and video recording gear all around I was really disoriented. Luigi DIAngola had surprised all of us and decided to record a brain storming session. He hoped to get some good feedback on tape and also try and use some of the mate- rial for a marketing videotape. 1 was not a happy camper. My journal notes from the meeting record: "Boy an interesting schizophrenia has set In. I sat in a brainstorming meeting this morning with a bunch of industry marketing folks and had a really difficult time. First I think because of my tiredness I was having a difficult time being positive about anything that was being discussed. But as I would get ready to interact with ?he discussion based on my previous twenty years of experience, and before I could get the thought even half formed, the two weeks experience in Japan came roaring through my con- sciousness and said 'WAIT A MINUTE!' Check your assumptions that by now BIG VOICE chimed. Most everything that was said during the sessions would cause these internal collisions. This integration of my experiences is going to take quite a lot longer than I thought, but I better do it quick or I am going to go nuts." I did not think much more about that Monday morning for the next two months, However, I was taken aback by my internal schizophrenia of the collision of new exper- ience with twenty years of thinking only one way. I scheduled several discussions with interested professionals in the Digital marketing and engineering community In hopes that by talking to others I would better understand what I had observed and therefore come to know what I know. Nothing magic happened that I could tell, but several II- festyle changes occurred in quick succession. PARADIGM SHIFT 3 I made a vow to myself that I had to get my life back In balance. The constant travel and being away from home was hurting my family life and wasn't helping the synergy of my workgroup. So I made a set of promises. No jet plane trips until after September 1, 1987 and I would sleep In my own bed every night during that time. At work, we spent the summer getting back to basics - establishing personal and group visions and grounding ourself in current reality with our FY87 Business Plan. By focusing on the individual visions first and then, looking for a group overlap, something quite vital happened. For the first time in managing this group of superb professionals, we could each proceed independently with the next steps. I was no longer the bottle- neck in having to assign next steps, each individual saw their roadmap and how the other roads would connect with it. Most importantly for the first time in several years, my boss really understood the business plan, The changes started showing up in my personal life as well. My wife and I signed up for a Marriage Encounter weekend that we attended and rediscovered a love that had gotten buried under work and the raising of children the last several years. I finally took a coworker up on an offer to attend a three night orientation session on Beyond War, an organization aimed at thinking differently about the future of the planet earth. I have not been active in outside organizations since college and here were two that I was Jumping into the middle of. And finally I started actively taking courses from the Institute of Human Evolutlon aimed at how I can create the future that 1 want and how I can focus on what current reality is. My normal way of learning is to read, study, discuss and intellectualize. Heaven forbid that I would actually participate in developing a skill directly. Yet, here I was jumping in and actually participating, contributing, developing and growing in outside work activi- ties. It was at the current reality course (called Structural Consulting) that a fellow student helped me click things into place. The afternoon's workshop was to alternate roles be- tween client and consultant practicing a technique of communication called additive picturing. My presenting problem that day was that I was really enjoying the summer and all the things that I was doing to restore the balance in my life but I was real concerned that when September 1 came along that my world was going back to Its previous hectic madness. As 1 was talking and Pat was picturing what I was saying, she asked me to describe the travelling that I had been doing. The first thing that came out was a description of the Japan trip. While I started talking about the physical tiredness that resulted, quickly I shifted into talking about the mental shift that had occurred on the trip. I related the phenomenal production machine that the Japanese put together and that it was done by paying attention to people and processes with very little technology applied. Further, I remarked on the congruence of work, play, learning and philosophy that tied all pieces of the Japanese culture together. Specifically I described a bit of the day at the Shinto shrine and then seeing the Shinto symbols so pervasive at Brother Industries the next day. She saw that I was letting out the schizophrenia that the trip caused. During a lull In my descriptions, Pat asked If I was familiar with the paradigm shift phenomena, particularly the vases and phases illustration. I said "Sure." She then went on "It sounds like you have gone through a paradigm shift as the result of your Japan trip. The pictures that I have formed are of a physical person that went to Japan. and came back the same. To the outside world that physical person hasn't changed. But the mental person that is you changed. You are different inside and those closest to you can't see that internal paradigm shift." PARADIGM SHIFT 4 As she was talking a release of tension went out of me. She had put her finger on what was bothering me about the events of the summer. I had not been able to find a cause for the events other than my resolution to not travel. Pat Identified that the Japan trip In a sense was the cause; that there was a reason for what was happening and therefore a sense of immense relief that these changes weren't going to evaporate come the first of September. I don't remember much about the rest of the day because I was deep in reflection about the implications of the discovery of my paradigm shift. It was clear that the shift occurred, but I still wasn't comfortable about the nature of the shift.