Tao Te Ching and Wuwei Management

Chapter 6 5 "The sky is big and the earth is big and people are big", inaction management should be people-oriented

People are one of the "big four", and management is about managing people.

Dao is big, sky is big, earth is big, and people are big.There are four major domains, and people live in one of them. ——"Tao Te Ching" Chapter 25
Lao Tzu believes that in the infinite universe, Tao, heaven, earth, and man are the four most important and crucial factors.Among these four elements, people occupy an extremely important position.People are one of the most important factors that constitute the universe, and people are the most critical element that constitutes an enterprise. Therefore, enterprise management should be "people-oriented".

In traditional Chinese culture, the three "heaven, earth, and man" are always juxtaposed, and they are called "three talents". "Book of Changes?"Xi Ci Zhuan" said: "Counselor Heaven and Earth Education".It means that people are born between the heaven and the earth, but the heaven and the earth are not perfect and have many flaws.However, with their own wisdom and strength, man overcomes all the challenges of nature, creates a perfect and harmonious life, and makes up for the insufficiency of heaven and earth.Because of this, Lao Tzu listed human beings together with heaven, earth, and Tao as one of the "Four Great Domains".

For an enterprise, the role of people is even more important. It is the driving force and source of enterprise development and the core factor of the enterprise.Generally speaking, the management of modern enterprises should handle three kinds of relationships: the relationship between people, the relationship between people and things, and the relationship between things.In the first and second relationships, the human being is undoubtedly the core, the determining factor.And to handle the third relationship well, we must also use the power of good people and rely on people to control.Therefore, management is ultimately about managing people.

Managers should realize that man is not a vassal of the materialized form, but the master of everything, the only master in the world of "management".For an enterprise, people's wisdom, experience, ability, values, support of people's hearts... These intangible assets are far higher than the value of tangible assets such as capital, equipment, and raw materials.All tangible substances, including profits, are born in invisible people.Enterprise losses are not terrible, and risks in operation are not terrible. What is really terrible is the loss of talents, the low morale, and the laxity of people's hearts.The loss of this intangible asset is far from being measured by money, nor can it be recovered by money.

Therefore, talent is the core of management.Otherwise, management will only have a body without a soul.In the final analysis, the future of an enterprise is in the hands of people.It is people who dominate the destiny of an enterprise.In the business world, there is a famous saying that "the customer is God", which is true.However, for enterprises, God is not only customers, but also employees.

In the process of researching Taoist thought and business management, we found that many companies understand this principle and do it very well.

Shanghai General Motors regards "full attention to the health and safety of employees" as one of its core values, and has reached the world's advanced level in occupational health and safety management. It not only creates a first-class labor protection environment for employees, but also effectively controls and reduces the Operating risks and costs have improved the overall competitiveness of enterprises.

In the early days of plant establishment, Shanghai General Motors adopted the internationally advanced engine cold-state test technology to reduce noise, reduce pollution, eliminate fire hazards, and create a safe and environment-friendly working environment for employees.Shanghai General Motors invested more than 2 million yuan in the construction of environmental protection facilities and the protection of employees and production safety in the north and south plants of the Jinqiao production base alone.In addition, Shanghai General Motors also uses various methods to encourage employees to put forward rationalization suggestions. Since 54, the company has adopted and completed nearly 2001 rationalization suggestions on safety for rectification.At the same time, Shanghai General Motors also implemented multi-level and all-round training for all employees to enable employees to understand the basic knowledge of the occupational safety and health management system and the basic occupational safety and health skills they need, and improve employees' occupational health and safety awareness.This cannot but be said to be caring for employees, and it cannot but be said to be a kind of "people-oriented" thinking.Because of this, Shanghai General Motors has achieved brilliant performance.

Everyone wants others to listen to their own words, but not to listen to others, so it is difficult to manage others.Now that we know this, we must learn the method of "governing people, affairs and heaven".What is meant by "governing people, affairs and heaven"?That is, the key to managing personnel is to grasp people's hearts.Therefore, good managers do not act according to their own subjective wishes, but brainstorm, respect the wishes of employees, and establish a mutual trust mechanism between leaders and subordinates.

Starting from the humanistic thinking of management, it is necessary to oppose the blind pursuit of the legal system.One-sided pursuit of the rule of law will only drive enterprises to a dead end.Just as Lao Tzu said: "The people are not afraid of death, so how can they be afraid of death?" When people are not afraid of death, what clever tricks can you use?What's more, in the management of enterprises, legal management is nothing more than dismissal.This is an era of two-way choice between enterprises and talents. Bosses can "fire" employees, and employees can also "fire" bosses.It is impossible to maintain people's hearts by rigid management, and we can only adopt the strategy of inaction management, winning with softness and conquering people with weakness.

"When the people are not afraid of power, great power will come." One-sided pursuit of the rule of law can easily intensify conflicts.This kind of contradiction is often latent, and managers are generally not aware of it, especially for those managers who are used to using the "big stick".They often only see a superficial illusion: the legal system is very effective, people behave obediently in front of the "big stick", and management is very orderly.In fact, latent contradictions are like a magma that is about to spew out, like a pile of firewood that is about to burn.Once the magma erupts and the firewood is ignited, the management of the enterprise will change from orderly to disordered, and chaos will be cured.The speed of this change is often beyond people's imagination.Therefore, in legal management, law enforcement and punishment are by no means the ultimate goal of management, but only emergency measures that are "used as a last resort".

So what to do?Lao Tzu said: "If you can send the world, love the world with your body, if you can entrust the world." It means that if you can love the world as you love your body, then you can entrust the world to him, and he can manage it well world.For the managers of the enterprise, if they can love their employees as they love themselves, they will definitely win the hearts of the employees and stimulate their enthusiasm for work.As a manager, if you really care for your employees, you must have an "impermanent heart" and "take the hearts of the people at heart."

(End of this chapter)