Keep communicating -Goal must be understood-

Inamori shared how to conduct the above motto with Seiwajuku members. What Inamori mentioned is quoted with “”

“In order to achieve a goal, the goal must be known to everyone. In other words, it is necessary for everyone to share the goal and spontaneously act towards it. For example, in both the sales and the production department, the figures such as the target monthly sales, total production volume, net sales, per hour profit must be firmly understood in everyone’s mind. Specifically, when I ask someone in those departments, he or she must immediately explain to me these target figures. Kyocera’s amoeba management and profit-per-hour system ensure that all employees are thoroughly aware of their goals and share them with each other.”

This is as important as are other mottos such as “aligning vectors” and “keep transparency”. In addition, this motto directly links with the second principle of twelve management commandments, “Set clear and specific goals.” Therefore, this motto should be clearly understood by the staff. However, it is not easy mainly due to the mindset of the manager. Therefore, we will keep the following three to change the mindset of managers and facilitate goal sharing.

1 Believe in the power of words.

2 Explain reasons why we head to this.

3 Have them experience “Desires drive the reality.”

Let me explain one by one.

1 Believe in the power of words.

Top managers sometimes refrain from sharing management goals with staff simply because they think the following.
“No matter what I say, they won’t understand.”
“Employees never understand how tough pressure the management has been facing with “
“Employees don’t listen to me when I tell them.”
“When I talk about the target, they will immediately get bored and leave this company.”

When managers start thinking above, the thoughts are going to turn out as reality.
Therefore, first, it is important for managers themselves to leave such preconceptions. They are just looking for excuses for their unsatisfactory performance. Forgetting about those excuses, managers must speak to staff honestly and sincerely.

“I am not sure if you understand what I am going to tell you but I just want to speak honestly and openly to you guys about our target.”

Such messages are clear and well received by people.

2 Explain reasons why we head to this goal

Most leaders simply demonstrate our goals and don’t explain why we must head. To convince team members, the leader must elaborate more for the goal to be shared with staff.

For instance, the below may work to convince people.

‘If you want to achieve the goal of 10, you must set a much higher goal like 12 in your mind. Otherwise, you can’t achieve even 9 or 8, let alone 10. So let’s push ourselves to aim at 12.’

I think it’s important to explain the reasons one by one. It is also important to always be aware of how to convince your staff. Put yourself in their position and imagine what kind of words would be convincing to you or what kind of approach would make you naturally follow his/her words.

3 Have them experience “Desires drive the reality.”

When a manager demonstrates a goal to staff, they sometimes don’t believe they can achieve that goal as it looks unrealistic. However, the manager keeps the goal in mind, and keeps striving towards it by striving earnestly, at the end of the certain timeframe, however, interestingly, that goal, which staff originally thought impossible to achieve, turns out to be the reality. I feel managers need to demonstrate the “dreams come true” story to staff, so that they can envisage their goals to be achieved, even though it looks at first really tough and difficult to achieve. Through those experiences, staff will be able to articulate and express their own goals. Such experience empowers the words, helps embed goals into the subliminal mindset of staff, and eventually creates the good spiral of “make things happen”. Managers can demonstrate believing, speaking and working hard eventually allow you to achieve your goal.

In summary, setting specific goals is very important. But few managers can verbally share those goals with staff to avoid direct communication. Managers must think seriously about what they want to convey, sincerely believe that they can achieve those goals, put themselves in the shoes of employees, think about the most effective approach to convince staff and repeatedly talk about their goals. This is the best way to amplify the output of us and achieve our goals.