Dojo Business
Lessons
 
I have often thought there are so many lessons from the martial
arts for our businesses. Here are my musings assembled from my 46
years of training in traditional Japanese Karate.
 
Entering the Dojo
The Dojo is the ultimate equalizer. Whether you arrived
by chauffeur driven Roller, Maybach or took Shanks's mare, once you
step on to that Dojo floor only your ability and character
separates you from everyone else. You have had all of your wealth,
privileges, educational background, social status, connections
stripped away and you are left alone to rise or fall based on your
own abilities.
 
In business we forget this and allow people to accrue titles,
status and power unattributed to their abilities. It is always
amazing how many politicians there are infesting companies. We need
to see beyond the spin and politics and ensure that people's real
abilities are recognized and rewarded. If the politicians control
the top positions then the corporate fish will rot from the head
and the business will be destroyed.
 
Starting
The class begins with a short meditation interval. This is
designed to focus the mind and separate the day from what will now
come. Next everyone is bowing toward the front. The front of the
class represents all who came before us. We are not here today
based solely on what we have done. Others were here before us
building the art and the organization. By bowing we acknowledge the
continuum and our responsibility to keep it going. Now we bow to
the teachers, respecting their knowledge and their devotion.
Finally we bow to each other expressing our solidarity as fellow
travellers on a journey of self-discovery.
 
How do we start the work day? Are you controlled by the weather
when you awake – rain means I feel bad, sunshine means I feel
happy? Or are you motivated, irrespective of the weather and you
determine yourself what type of day it will be? At the workplace is
there a chorei or morning gathering of the work group, to
get everyone aligned and focused on the WHY they are there. In our
office, for example, we rotate the meeting leadership and review
one of the Dale Carnegie Human Relation's Principles each day. We
then share our scheduled meetings, our highest goals for the day,
end with a motivational quote and a final rousing call to all do
our best (ganbarimashoo!).
 
Stretching
We warm-up our minds and our bodies by going through a set
routine to stretch our muscles, to be able to operate at a very
high level of performance.
 
If you are a sales team, are you beginning your day with role
play practice or are you just practicising on the client? Fifteen
minutes is not a burden and quite a lot of practice can be achieved
in that period. Salespeople, more than most, are really constrained
by what they say and how they say it. The wrong explanation and the
buyer disappears. The first thing that pops into your head, better
not pop out of your mouth. Better to warm up the brain in the
morning and get the syntax and cadence humming before you talk to
any clients.
 
Basics
We repeat the same drills over and over, every class, every
year, forever. We are seeking purity of form and perfection of
execution. We are preparing ourselves for a Zen state where we can
react without pre-thought.
 
A large amount of our work is routine, but can we improve the
systems, the execution to bring in greater efficiencies and achieve
higher productivity? We need to constantly seek to improve our
speed and accuracy of execution of projects and tasks. Are there
procedures we can trim back or improve to save costs of time and
money? Rather than just repeating things the way they have always
been done, is there any opportunity to refine further?
 
Sparring
There are two formats. Prearranged sparring dictates what is
coming and the order in which it comes. Free sparring is 100%
spontaneous, ebbing and flowing with the rhythm of move and counter
move. At a high level, this is like playing a full chess match in
one minute, but using our techniques with full body commitment.
Trust me, if you get this high speed chess game wrong, you get a
punch in the mouth or a kick in the head – a sure way to improve
your focus.
 
When we compete in the marketplace are we a speedboat or an oil
tanker? Are we nimble, adaptive, on purpose and aware of market
changes? Are we thinking steps ahead of the opposition,
anticipating their moves and constantly outflanking them, applying
our brains over their brawn? Are we able to bounce back from
losses? If the rival wins the business, can we analyse where we
failed and better prepare for the next round? Do we have the guts
to keep going when things get tough and we wonder if we can make
payroll this month?
 
Kata
These are full power set pieces, representing a battle against
multiple opponents. The forms are fixed and the aim is perfection.
The form is set and so Zen like, releases the mind to go beyond the
form.
 
Are we able to keep reproducing execution pieces of our work
that are perfected? Can we refine our actions for the maximum
effectiveness? Can we eliminate mistakes, defects and rework
entirely at all levels in the organisation? Do we have templates
for processes that are best practice and which everyone can follow?
Do we have the workflow in the best possible sequence? When was the
last time we took a good, long, hard look at how we do things, in
what order, by whom etc?
 
Strengthening and warming down
Strength training is there to build the physical power and our
mental perseverance. We do a final stretch to reduce stiffness and
muscle pain by reducing lactic acid build up in the muscles.
 
Are our training methodologies making us stronger than our
rivals in the marketplace? Are we allocating sufficient time to
grow our people? Are we seeing outcomes from the training time
invested? When we are busy, we are too time poor to allocate time
for training. When we are not busy, we are too cash flow poor to
allocate time for training. When can we train? If we don't build
strengthening processes into our organisations, we will never be
able to grow the people, in order to grow the business. The people
will plateau and so will the company.
 
 
Finish
We repeat the bowing and this time we add the Dojo Kun
(Creed). Voicing carefully chosen words which represent the value
system of that dojo, (e.g. Effort, Patience, Moderation, Respect)
so that these are the last things settling into our minds, before
we go back to our usual routines of life.
 
How do we end the workday? Do we rush out the door to get home?
Do we spend a few moments to set up for the next day by reflecting
on what we did today, what we achieved and what we need to work on
tomorrow? Do we review the quality of our performance and think
about ways to do better? Do we look at the goals we set for the day
and see how closely we went to achieving them?
 
There are many metaphors in Karate training for our business
lives. I hope these different angles on what we do everyday and how
we do them, has stimulated some thinking about how to be even
better. Karate training teaches us that to succeed, we must defeat
the weaknesses in ourselves, overcome our self-doubts and limiting
beliefs. Business is just the same.

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