Chinese believe that good management is not only the "hard power" of knowledge, technology, system and process, but also the "soft power" of culture, vision, leadership and trust is more important, and the foundation of soft power begins with the self-cultivation of leaders.
The mainland is an ancient civilization, whether it is managing people or organizations, the Chinese have proud experience. So, what kind of governance wisdom did our ancestors have?
The first is "half of the Analects rules the world". The Analects is one of the most important works of Confucianism, which deals with the principles of human conduct and laid the moral foundation for the Chinese for more than 2,000 years. It is not a book about strategy, let alone about management, but it is regarded by our ancestors as a treasure book for "governing the world".
When modern Chinese talk about the governance wisdom of their ancestors, they like to talk about the Art of War. "The Art of War" talks about the soldiers who surrender without a fight, which is indeed the essence of strategic management thinking, and has its significance in modern management. However, we Chinese have never talked about "half of the Art of War ruling the world," which shows that the focus of our management is not on strategy, but on the principle of dealing with people. Therefore, learning the truth of being a human being is the starting point of Chinese governance wisdom. Abandoning this, it is meaningless to talk about the governance wisdom of the Chinese.
The second is what we Chinese often say, "Be a person before doing business". To do business is to complete transactions, and the governance of economic transactions and social exchanges is the starting point of governance theory. Chinese are good at decomposing the value chain, which is responsible for different organizations, and then using trading means to integrate and decompose the value chain.
Compared with "being a person before doing business" is "self-discipline", the Chinese also emphasize "looking at people before doing business" and having wisdom. "Seeking loyal ministers must be at the door of filial piety", which means that the emperor must first look at the character of the courtiers before finding a good courtier, and unfilial people must not be hired. In the same way, when a businessman is looking for a "match" or an employee, "he knows his mind by looking at his eyes". That is, to judge a person's character by looking at his eyes, the roe head rat must not become a partner. "Be a person before doing business" and "look at people before doing business" shows that the focus of Chinese management is how to gain the trust of others and how to find trustworthy people.
When it comes to being a man and trust, it immediately reminds people of the ancient motto of "self-cultivation, family harmony, governing the country, and leveling the world". That is to say, from managing an organization to managing the world, the Chinese start from self-cultivation. In other words, before you manage others, you must first manage yourself. In China, people who can't even manage themselves well are not worthy of management. Therefore, management is definitely not only about setting systems, regulations, processes, work design, rewards and punishments and incentives, but more importantly, leaders do their best. And to be a good leader is not only to know "leadership skills", but also to "Tao". Chinese believe that good management is not only the "hard power" of knowledge, technology, system and process, but also the "soft power" of culture, vision, leadership and trust is more important, and the foundation of soft power begins with the self-cultivation of leaders.
The third is the "Qi family", which refers to managing a group of people around you, including cronies and insiders. It is necessary not only to manage the relationship between the leader and the "family", but also to manage the mutual relationship between the "family", so that a group of people can trust each other, unite sincerely, and be willing to cooperate, so as to give full play to the overall combat effectiveness of one plus one is greater than two. In the end, "family and everything is prosperous" can be successful, and it will become a big thing.
The Western theory of trust points out that it is impossible for people to manage trust, only trustworthy behavior. In other words, we cannot use "tricks" and "schemes" to make others trust us, but can only show trustworthy behaviors ourselves in order to win the trust of others. The "Qi family" should not only show trustworthy behavior by themselves, but also make the "family" show trustworthy behavior, so that everyone can trust each other and be easy to cooperate. The reason why the Analects is a treasure book for Chinese management is precisely because it states the basic principles of "self-cultivation" and "Qi family".
Entrepreneurs not only want to achieve things, but also to make profits, so the Chinese have extended the principle of "self-cultivation and family" and put forward the concept of "making profits with righteousness". The righteous should also be, that is, reasonable behavior. When Chinese talk about transactions, they pay attention to honesty and non-deception, care for human feelings, fairness and reasonableness. Such "appropriate" behavior is the basis for profit. As for other "technical" things, in the words of the Analects, "although the path is small, there must be a considerable number of people, and the distance is afraid of mud". This sentence is intended to show that without the Great Dao, even if you can succeed for a while, you will not be able to last.
Perhaps the Chinese management thinking of emphasizing morality and ignoring skills has hindered us from developing modern management techniques, but if you look at the "fifth-level leaders" that Collins talks about in his book "From Good to Excellent", is it a bit like a good leader in the Chinese tradition of emphasizing "self-cultivation and teamwork"? This seems to be the consistent thinking of China and the West to build an evergreen, century-old organization.
The last one is "vertical arch and the world governs", that is, inaction and governance. Modern organizations have to do things, but also to achieve a lot of things, no more than the ancient rural China, as long as the territory and the people can be safe, so this is very inconsistent with the modern sense of management thinking. However, this kind of thinking is intended to illustrate that "there is no talent, and all the talents in the world are their talents; There is no wisdom, and the wisdom of the world is its wisdom". Too many leaders can block opportunities for employees to play. In modern management terminology, leaders should be empowered and empowered to encourage employees to form their own organizations, take the initiative to solve problems, and propose improvement plans. Therefore, believing in the motivation of employees, believing in the ability of employees, and encouraging employees' self-organization is the basic principle of "I do nothing and govern the world".
These handy traditional Chinese governance wisdom shows that the Chinese management thinking is that "Tao" is more important than "art", being a person is before management, and being a person is ahead of success. To put it simply, people are more important than things. In fact, this has its connotation in modern management, that is, governance is more than management (management here refers to daily management, which is management in a narrow sense and in the sense of hierarchy. Today, governance is still discussed in management, so management in a broad sense includes governance) is more important. In other words, the dynamic balance of the three governance mechanisms of market, hierarchy and self-organization is the way to good governance, and hierarchical governance alone is far from enough.
The traditional governance wisdom of the Chinese is by no means outdated and useless. On the one hand, the behavior pattern of the Chinese people has remained unchanged for thousands of years, and although we are constantly changing under the influence of Western trends, China is still a society of human feelings and relationships, a society in which family concepts are extended to daily life, and a society that cares about human feelings and hopes for harmony rather than advocating individual heroism. Chinese behavior patterns remain unchanged, so these traditional wisdoms still have value for Chinese people who manage a thousand-year-old Confucian tradition.
On the other hand, these governance wisdoms can be supported by modern management theories, especially the theories of social capital, social networks, and complex systems. In the era of information economy and service economy, they also have a great enlightening effect on management issues in the new era. Of course, we don't have to sing the praises of the uselessness of Western management, but we also don't need to be arrogant and "completely Westernized" and deny the value of traditional Chinese wisdom.