Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 4 3 "Inaction and self-cultivation of the people", creating the supreme state of "no management"

When the sage hangs down, the people live and work in peace and contentment; the enterprise has no management, and the employees are self-motivated.

The sage said: I do nothing and the people transform themselves. ——Lao Tzu, Chapter 57
Laozi suggested that rulers should "do nothing" and let the people educate themselves. For managers, "no management" is the highest state of management. In the 20s, the western management circles put forward the contingency management method that "there is no best management method, and all management must be based on time and objects", which has been enduring in the management circle for more than 70 years.This coincides with Lao Tzu's management thought of "governing by doing nothing".Between the two, perhaps it is not just a coincidence, but "the wise see the same thing".

Friends who are familiar with martial arts novels know that there is a classic rumor in the martial arts world: There are tricks to win without moves.The most powerful move is that it has no moves, just like Linghu Chong's "Dugu Nine Swords", there is no fixed move, but it can traverse the world, and it is rare to meet opponents.By analogy, the highest level of management should be "no management".Governing an enterprise is like governing a country, and the principle of "governance by doing nothing" should be followed. Only by doing nothing can we do everything.Looking at the management models and experiences of excellent companies, although they have the most complete institutional systems and cultural systems, their ultimate pursuit of management is: the best management is no management, which makes all systems useless.

The highest level of management is not to manage. "Management" is relative. There is no absolute good or absolute bad. It is an organism of dialectical unity of opposites.

An employee complained in a post on the Internet: "Our boss is very annoying. He likes to appear in front of you suddenly, just to see if you are chatting on QQ. He often goes to the company on weekends to check our colleagues Chat history, to check if we have said anything bad about him. What’s even more funny is that after checking our computer, he will change the desktop background set by the employee to his favorite character. This kind of behavior is very annoying to us, and we always have a It feels like being watched by someone, and I feel very uncomfortable." Someone left a message under the post, suggesting that he leave such a company immediately, and with such a boss, the company has no future for development.The host replied: "Indeed, we don't have much time to chat on QQ. The boss doesn't let us chat, but it's just to improve work efficiency, but we just don't chat on QQ. I'd rather just sit there and post for a while. It's over."

The boss mentioned in this post does not understand the idea of ​​inaction management at all, but adopts the most primitive supervisory management method.Faced with the same thing, smart companies do it completely differently.

Among Google's unique corporate systems, there is one of the most humane systems - giving employees 20% free time.This system allows Google to turn work into a hobby to the greatest extent possible.Employees working at Google don't feel like they are working in a big company, but more like doing interesting research in a university or research institution.Similarly, Google can continuously extract new ideas and new business plans from the brains of these employees enjoying freedom.

The cleverness of Google is that it knows that even if employees are not given free time, employees will also find ways to be lazy. Instead of sneaking around and making everyone unhappy, why not let employees openly and freely control a period of time?More importantly, 20% free time will make employees feel completely different. It is no longer defined as 20% lazy time, and employees will feel respected and feel that they are working for their interests.In Google's good environment, the creativity of employees is self-evident.

A large number of facts tell us that rigid rules and regulations often fail to achieve the expected results of business managers.Through the investigation of the management experience of successful enterprises, it is found that good employees are not managed, but praised.Appreciation is an employee management method far better than "management".Only when they feel respected from the bottom of their hearts will employees have the resonance of encountering bosom friends in high mountains and flowing waters, and will have the feeling of "a man dies for his bosom friend".This will boost morale and improve work efficiency.

At MBB, Germany's leading aviation and aerospace company, one can see such a scenario:
When commuting to and from get off work, employees put the special ID IC card into the electronic calculator, which immediately shows how many hours they have worked this week so far. MBB allows employees to agree on and off work time with the company according to work tasks, personal convenience, etc.It turned out that the company implemented a flexible commuting system. The company only assessed the work results of employees, and did not specify a specific time. As long as the work tasks were completed within the required period according to the quality, the salary would be paid, and bonuses would be issued according to the quality of work.Due to the flexibility of working hours, employees are not only free from traffic congestion.This system makes employees feel that their personal rights are respected, creates a strong sense of responsibility, and improves work enthusiasm, which benefits the company a lot.

The French company Staley has also abandoned rules and regulations and implemented very humanized management of employees.

According to the needs of the shift rotation and the requirements of production and operation, the company divided the entire factory staff into 15 groups of 16 people. Each group elected two team leaders, and one team leader was responsible for training, convening seminars and making production records.Another team leader focused on problems on the production line.The factory only formulates the overall production schedule and requirements, and the team arranges the work of the team members by themselves.The group also has the right to decide the recruitment within the group and the rewards and punishments for the members.After the factory implemented "self-management", its productivity surged, and its cost was significantly lower than that of other factories.

From these two examples, we can clearly see that giving employees a certain degree of "letting go" will strengthen their sense of self-identity, deepen their loyalty to the company, strengthen their sense of responsibility as the master, and finally achieve the goal of working. high efficiency and high quality.

The best managers are laid-back and natural, never giving orders easily, and even employees don't feel his presence.Through authorization and decentralization, managers delegate part of the management authority to subordinate employees, and even allow subordinates to handle affairs by themselves in accordance with the requirements of the enterprise's strategic goals.Inaction management is to ensure that you are managing others, but others do not feel that you are interfering with him; follow the laws of human nature to reform the weaknesses of human nature, and form a harmonious and unified relationship among employees and between employees and the enterprise.

(End of this chapter)