We’ve all been there— you spend an exorbitant number of hours on a proposal or presentation for work— revising, reworking, crossing every T and dotting every I. You walk into the meeting, maybe you’ve listened to your favorite song to pump you up (Lizzo? Queen?), completed your requisite power pose (Thanks Amy Cuddy! ),and head in — confident and capable. #readytoslay
But somehow the meeting goes awry and the leadership team throws up ALL OVER IT. (sigh)
It happens every day, all the time. You were prepared, you had the data, you have the right solution— and when it first happens to you— you spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the hell happened?
The answer?
Nemawashi. AKA- the meeting before the meeting.
Thank you, Lin Manuel Miranda!
Simply put, nemawashi is the Japanese concept of informally socializing change, a new idea, a shift in strategy with stakeholders BEFORE you get into the “room where it happens". (Hi Hamilton!)
Translated literally, the Japanese characters are “ne”, or root, and “mawasu” — to go around. The idea is that if you want to move a tree to a new location, you “go around the root” and work carefully so once you transplant the tree, the tree will adapt seamlessly to the new environment.
In my experience in working with C-suite leaders and leaders of large organizations, surprises are not unexpected, but typically not welcomed.
i.e.— they are paid to deal with “surprises”, but most would rather not deal with them, particularly if it means taking a different path from A to Z.
I was pretty far into my career when I finally understood the art of newamashi and the importance of the step before heading into any major meetings that involved a new approach.
At its core- it’s a reminder that not everyone is going to come along for the ride with you and you might need to give a little more TLC than others.
On the flip side, unchecked newamashi can be 100% unproductive… inefficient, and not conducive to quick decision making.
In those cases, the practice of newamashi is exhausting, frustrating and entirely too time consuming. There has to be a healthy balance somewhere.
So I’m going to keep this simple— let’s not overthink this one, friends!
The lesson here is with anything in life … whether it is work, personal, relationships— big decisions…(even with decisions that seemingly only affect you), require you to take a moment to understand who your stakeholders are— and take a minute to “tend to the roots.”
You want your solutions and ideas to flourish; and if you spend a little time upfront— my hope is that when the time comes, you will enjoy great success.
Be well, stay well. Mask up, sleeves up (when it’s time for your vaccine!)
Take care of yourself and each other!
Jean