General Akashi Gidayu preparing to commit Seppuki after loosing a battle for his master in 1582. He just wrote his death poem, which is also visible in the upper right corner. Artist: Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, created about 1890.
Awhile back I wrote a post about Jim Womack’s forward to John Shook’s book Managing to Learn. One of Womack’s points was that the difference between a mass production organization and a Lean organization is that one is based on authority and the other is based on responsibility.
This difference cuts to the heart of the cultural differences between Japan and the USA. I have often had American managers tell me that the reason Lean works in Japan is that Japanese society is very hierarchical, so employees do what they are told. Without that hierarchy, they say, Lean can’t work in the USA.
Sadly, they completely misunderstand Lean and the culture of its birthplace.
In fact, Japanese society has historically been very hierarchical, but it’s a different type of hierarchy than we think of in the USA. It’s a hierarchy in which responsibility and potential consequences grow as one rises. It is American culture in which hierarchy is important and destructive.