One of the goals of the Shinsei Method is to provide a reference, a model, a guide, a compass for making decisions (and taking action) in business and life. The Shinsei Method, and we here at the Shinsei Institute of Training and development focus on business and investing. Both activities are inter-related, and both provide practical and instructive principles for various aspects of business and life. Since business is an objective activity (or at least it should be), it is very helpful to use what works in business for everyday life. For example, if effective communication tends to increase profitability, which is a desirable goal, then effective communication is an important goal to pursue in business and in life. The next question is then, what exactly is effective communication? More importantly, what is communication?
It seems like a basic a basic question, and it is. However, we have found that little attention is paid to the meaning of this important term, and how it is carried out in business and in life. This is particularly important for business where the primary way a business has to make people aware of their products and services is through marketing, which is a form of communication. What we see in business however–as well as in politics, education, parenting, etc.–is one message is communicated in practice or action, and one message is marketed. “Customer service is our number one priority,” is marketed. “Integrity of the law is our standard,” etc. However, in practice, customers are often treated very poorly even while they are expected to pay premiums for this treatment; and people in positions of authority–senators, lawyers, judges, officials, etc.–routinely give evasive responses to straightforward questions or do not ask pertinent questions during the course of investigations, which is contrary to the idea of ‘integrity’ they promote. This creates a very real problem for business and life particularly for those who want to clearly understand these important ideas, and who seek to follow them in good faith. This has a direct impact on everyday life since people who do follow “the rules” are often penalized in terms of compensation, promotion, or simply in impediments to getting what they want. These are some of the reasons that to understand what constitutes ‘communication’ and many other important ideas is extremely important. It is also why we believe at the Shinsei Institute of Training and Development that: action is the most potent form of communication.
Action as communication is an idea that is often overlooked. But, action provides insights into the fundamental values that an individual or a business follows. Therefore, action is an important element to include in training programs, communication programs, marketing programs, etc. In fact, action is what determines brand since it determines how customers view particular businesses. How a business says it treats customers is not necessarily the same (and often is not the same) as how it actually treats customers: how representatives speak to customers how products are packaged, how difficult or easy products are to use, how quickly resolutions are found, or how reasonable the cost is of a product or service. For these reasons and others, the Shinsei Method has three basic steps: 1) to analyze key terms and concepts; 2) to define or redefine those key terms and concepts in a manner that is suitable to the individuals and the circumstances involved; 3) to act on those new definitions. To those two more steps can be added: 4) to re-evaluate the results, the profits, the benefits, etc.; 5) to repeat. This is an outline of the Shinsei or “Life-principle” method of training. All life is training. Does that training produce more desirable results or less? Here is where business can be helpful because profits serve as a useful guide to indicate if that training (or that communication) was effective. Risk and cost can also be used in a similar way. Training that makes people more prudent, careful, and accurate tends to produce less risk. Risk serves as a standard and guide for developing a program of training. Notice too that this method can be applied equally well to training in school. What then is communication?
Communication is the ability to convey a message. It is also the desire to communicate that message to others. For, without that desire, it is doubtful that any message would be conveyed. What is not desired is usually not done at least not done with any level of quality or completeness. True communication (i.e. the transmission and reception of a message or idea) is a complete cycle. A message or idea or that is not transmitted is not communicated. Likewise, if an idea is not received it can hardly be considered to have been communicated. This is a basic observation, yet many well-established (and well-respected) business owners and their managers disregard this extremely rudimentary principle. In fact, the idea of complete communication is often not given much thought at all. This is likely because the idea of completeness also tends to be undervalued.
Completeness and thoroughness are the basis for a sense of reliability. Completeness and thoroughness in word, action, and work convey sturdiness and balance. For example, completeness in product development conveys the kind of spirit that assists in building a brand or a reputation. People begin to trust products that work well and reliably over a period of time. Trust is the basis of that good will. Without the trust and reliability established over a period of time, brand has little value. The idea of “brand” does not exist in a vacuum. It is based on the consistent application of very particular values like dedication, diligence, seriousness, sincerity, and persistence. These robust and reliable values are the only ones that can generate the enduring quality inherent in brand and reputation. Notice then that trust, quality, time, and value are fundamental to the basic ideas of business. In fact, these values form the foundations for business although few people think of the profundity of business in this light. The underlying values of business and profit are often taken for granted. It is not surprising then that the results of business such as the products and service it creates tend to become confused and inconsistent. Slogans like “customer service is our number one priority” are misapplied giving the impression of business insincerity. Customers are easily inconvenienced, overcharged, misinformed, especially at the level of sales, where the idea of a “quick sale” is often confused with the long term and consistent application of communicating value to customers in exchange for some kind of payment. When the focus is on the short term, sales people will tend to say anything to get the transaction done. The focus is not on exchanging value for value but on processing a purchase or cycling a customer through a hollow process. Nothing could be further from the truth. Business is one of the most humane and rational endeavors.
It is very unfortunate that the basic values of business tend to be undermined in many modern social situations such as school, the workplace, and the media. It is also a detriment to the development of quality. For it is clear that quality takes time to develop. As a value, quality is geared toward the long term perspective. There are many facets to product development. Each part contributes to the quality of the whole. Not only this perspective, but the entire practice of obtaining quality depends on the diligent application of value and quality can apply to many things: quality of product, quality of service, quality of communication, quality of practice, quality of relationship, quality of profit, quality of life.
Without the long term perspective, quality is unreliable. And, if quality is unreliable, it cannot be trusted. If quality cannot be trusted, brand has little meaning. This is one reason that “brand” and “quality” tend to be taken synonymously. A “brand” that does not inspire a consistent idea of quality is of little value to customers and to business. Customers and business are also synonymous, or in the very least symbiotic. Customers conduct business each time they make a purchase. Businesses become customers at one time or another. Therefore, to see the endeavor of business from each other’s perspective is not an unreasonable practice. However, the main point and basis for business communication is that it greatly depends on value and perspective. If the dominant value is the long term, the integration of concepts is a logical consequence. It becomes very easy then to see customers and business as integral parts of the same activity of profit maximization. It is also easy to accept that the fundamental elements of business are also inter-related. There is no quality without diligence, no diligence without discipline, no discipline without seriousness, no accuracy without carefulness, no safety without prudence. It is irrelevant that such observations tend to be undervalued in many circumstances. Consistent profit is not possible without them, and consistent profit is the main goal of responsible business.
Business like the practices of self-defense, science, investing, wilderness survival, sea navigation, or any endeavor where the result has to be real and cannot be faked are best conducted in a realistic manner. The best way to evaluate whether a communication practice is successful is to look at the results and ask: did it work? Was the message successfully conveyed? If not, why not. If yes, then why, and how can it be repeated? There is an underlying value motivating this line of questioning: the value of improvement. Ultimately it is the value of strength and in seeing that a strong, solvent, vibrant, practice is more desirable than an erratic, unreliable one. Asking practical questions begins with the premise that effectiveness is a desirable goal and the only relevant standard of measure. It is very similar in disciplines like self-defense, tactical response, or emergency response. If a procedure, practice, process, or technique does not work in real-time, it could easily mean a significant loss of property or life in these situations. But, the same idea applies to the less dangerous but no less important examples of business, nursing, teaching, management, parenting, etc. It is disorganized to incorporate needless procedures that cannot be shown to contribute to the overall success of a mission. Perhaps it is so common to do that because establishing a mission from the outset is not something that is generally practiced. Often if there is a mission or goal stated in business it is recited unconvincingly or tacked on after the fact for marketing purposes. This is a good example of how certain messages are communicated in practice or action that are different from the ones communicated in public. In both cases it is not the aim that really matters, but the appearance of having an aim. If goals are so important that a great many people and businesses would spend a lot of time and money on simple appearances, it seems far more rational to instead spend that time and money actually developing real aims and making sincere attempts to attain them rather than only for show. Dogged
Business is a mission. A job is a mission. A task is a mission. A project is a mission. These endeavors have missions and they are missions. These basic facts cannot be avoided. Is that mission clear and serious or vague and questionable? It seems that today nebulousness is perfectly acceptable as an attribute. One could even say that shadiness has become a standard operating procedure in many otherwise professional dealings. For example, major multinational companies sell refurbished products as new as an unstated corporate practice. Many banks casually risk depositor money in risky and poorly understood ventures with the full expectation that if those investments fail, taxpayer money—which is involuntary—is readily available to cover any irresponsible losses. This change in perspective from the long term to the short term not only impacts culture, it also impact sconduct at every level. This shift toward the short term impacts how people think in their respective positions as doctors, lawyers, teachers, managers, parents, etc. Behavior that would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago, is par for the course today like single parents who stay out late partying even though they have young children at home. The responsibility of child rearing used to change people and encourage them to rise to the task even though the situation may not be ideal for the sake of a greater goal. Today instead the idea of a greater goal is cast aside for immediate gratification. And, that is perfectly okay to an awful lot of people even those where this mentality would be least expected like medicine, law, public safety, education, and again parenting. Values shape conduct, and a goal is a value.
There are goals to achieve and tasks to be done. For these to happen messages need to properly and effectively communicated. People have to know what they are doing. For that they need to be trained. For that to happen there must be training goals and an overall aim to achieve in the long run. Otherwise training has little point. And, for that training to be effectively evaluated, there is again one simple question to ask: does it work? How can this be determined? Is productivity up? Has profit increased? Are more calls answered? Are less repairs required? Do packages arrive sooner at a lower cost and with less damage? These are just some of the hard data that can be collected to better evaluate not just the effectiveness of communication and training, but overall operational efficiency. It is clear however, that many business do not take full advantage of these type of data largely because the focus in the short term. Many managers do not see that business is an integrated enterprise. However, communication is not just a program that can be evaluated superficially by how many dollars were put into it. Communication has practical relevance, and the way to get a sense of its effectiveness is to use various data as objective guides, much in the same way a mountaineer might use natural landmarks as signs to the effectiveness of his route. Notice that the idea of operational efficiency applies not just to business, but any endeavor because in the end any endeavor can be characterized as an operation or an activity. And, every operation or activity from child rearing to camping has certain elements that indicate effectiveness or lack of effectiveness. Does it work? This is the only relevant question.