Martial arts solution to conflict

In previous post Leadership and conflict I've explained what conflict is, the types of conflict and how to resolve them as a leader. In this post I would add my additional thoughts on the subject from a different angle of view.

Martial arts are mostly thought of as being violent. At the beginning of each enrolment year there come those that want to fight. They see martial arts as a solution to their way of solving conflicts on streets, in bars or other locations. They feel that they will be “equipped” with better tooling and can turn the outcome of the conflict in their favor.

The main question is: “Is that so?”

There are two ways to answer this question that may mislead the answer to just one direction: the direction in which one is able only to fight back.

Tai chi in the leadership world – 2

In the previous post (Tai chi in the leadership world – 1) I've written about basics and fundamentals of the wide and profound wisdom of Tai Chi. By the end I have indicated some ways to use it in leadership. In this post I would like to expose some essentials of Tai Chi that may be an advantage also in leadership.

To empirically learn so-called internal martial art aspects of Tai Chi one begins with Tui shou or pushing hands (see post: Pushing hands and Virtue). Pushing hands is a distinctive Tai Chi practice very similar to Chi shou (sticking hands) used in Wing Chun (see post: Wing Chun basics and Wing Chun and leadership). The latter is more combative while pushing hands is less aggressive and more oriented to using opponent’s energy. With pushing hands the endurance needed in a contest is developed. The method softens stances, movements, and stiffness of a whole body. You need to be perceptive of your partner. Pushing hands diminish your natural instinct of resisting force with force enabling to correctly respond to the external stimuli: your body simply yields to force and redirects it. It is a Yin and Yang or strong and soft principle that governs pushing hands. With age we tend to become inflexible and our reactions jerky, as often obvious when (if) we slip and plunge to the floor. Kids are still much more natural in the same situations just collapse softly or roll, like usually lucky drunk person.

Pushing hands method is extremely good for a person with a big ego too (see post: Ego and Leadership) as it covers our senses and therefore conceals our reactions. A person should be very relaxed, stable in the proper stance that allows moving back and front, left and right, up and down. All thoughts should be wiped and nothing expected. When opponent’s action comes, you react naturally.

Tai chi in the leadership world -1

In my post Tai Chi Quan Leadership I have given you some historical information and points to be used in leadership process from Tai Chi. In this and the next post I’d like to share with you some of my experiences and knowledge that I have gained by practicing Tai Chi. I will conclude with another set of views on how to transfer them to leadership.

Yoga is known as a still meditation technique as opposed to Tai Chi, which is a moving one. As opposite to India where food and temperatures could allow yoga Tai Chi in China evolved differently but with the deep, profound and meaningful theory.

Many of you think of Tai Chi as an exercise normally practiced by older people. You have probably seen it as such practiced in Chinese parks. It looks so benevolent and an easy practice and is probably a reason why it rarely attracts young people to begin practicing it. Very few people see Tai Chi as a martial art that can be very efficiently used to protect life. Some blame for it can be put on numerous schools where Tai Chi is practiced just as a type of coordinated movements with health improvement in mind. It is a type of Tai Chi learning by practicing form(s) only. Bare hand practice is just one of various aspects of Tai Chi. Still available practice may use sword, saber, spear and staff, up to ball, and ruler. It is also true that some of training with those tools is not worldwide spread as there are very few masters who still know and practice them.

The bare handed Tai Chi is a set of eight hand movements and five leg movements. Hence it is sometimes called the thirteen techniques. The eight fundamental Tai Chi hand movements are: warding off, rolling back, pressing, pushing, spreading, taking, elbowing, and leaning.  The five fundamental leg movements are: moving forward, moving back, moving to the left, moving to the right, and remaining in the center.

Tai Chi and all Chinese martial arts are not something that a person could grab instantaneously. They are meant as a lifelong learning and developing and definitely not something to grasp or understand immediately or even learn in the first hour. It took me more than ten years to do the form alone. I still may need a suggestion or external help.

Learning Leadership from Martial Arts - III

Let me continue this blog miniseries with a leadership methodology.

In one of my previous posts - “The Way” of Leadership I compared two fundamental Chinese philosophies Daoism and Confucianism, the Yin and Yang of Chinese culture. They are well routed in Chinese everyday life, culture, politics and as well in martial arts of which two Wing chun (blog Wing Chun basics 4 Leadership) and Tai Chi (blog Tai Chi Quan Leadership)  I already explained. These philosophies are used as a background to describe ideas on how to use old martial arts wisdom, explained more in previous blog (Learning Leadership from Martial Arts – II), and are now transformed in a leadership.

• Control: We said that only when relaxed a person may possess a self-control. A wise leader, for that matter, creates an atmosphere of clarity, of purpose and a sense of unity. Leader works selflessly and simply allows the team to do what needs be done. Through self-control a leader can influence (control) the outcome and not directly the people.

• Trust: The saying we used in martial arts was about trust in practice. A good leader understands the processes in the team and the fact that leadership does not require the application of force or pressure. There is no room for mistrust either. A remarkable leader trusts his/her people and is consequentially trusted by them. A well led team is not a battlefield of egos, as in teamwork there is no place for individual ‘victories’ or ‘defeats’.
• Stability: Being ‘on the ground’ (well grounded) reflects our terms and our values -- those that a leader expects from subordinates. A respectable leader is focused, firmly and confidently on the ground with his/her decisions and with clear aim in the mind. He does not flip-flop his decisions.
• Adjustment: if you drive yourself too much, this does not produce fruit, if you try to rush into things, this does not lead anywhere. The same is true for leading a team. If the leader is too aggressive, subordinates ‘are suppressed.’ If a manager is too soft, he is not taken seriously. A virtuous leader adjusts correctly to the circumstances and leads by example.

Learning Leadership from Martial Arts - II

 The principles I’m sharing today are not rules or steps that most of the times are offered and used separately instead of integrally in Western leadership teaching methodology. The Eastern principle has it usually all interlinked. Therefore, bellow you will see elementary pieces of a whole personality of a martial artist. They are refined and presented separately only for the purpose of a more straightforward understanding:

• Control: The martial arts teach self-control of the body and the mind (ego). Martial art practice starts with hard training, where a student (e.g.: karate, kick boxing, tai chi chuan, wing chun, savate, escrima, aikido, sambo etc.) normally has to endure the threshold of pain from received and given punches. Only when relaxed, one is in control of oneself and of pain, consequently of others too.
• Trust: There is a saying in martial arts: “Trust your friends to beat you so that your enemies cannot!” A martial artist has firstly to trust in himself not to injure others – only then others trust him not to be injured by him.
• Stability: A person cannot fight successfully and master the opponent without stability and balance in place. It means that we should properly adjust our stance: how we ‘shape’ our body to ‘adjust’ our bones that have to support the muscles in a relaxed way. With our stance, gaze and movements we communicate our mental, physical and emotional state to those that are able to read it. Should or not we show what our thoughts are?
• Adjustment: Not only a Chinese proverb says “The grass abates in the direction from which the wind blows!” A martial artist has to keep adjusting to the surrounding and to the opponent. Any hesitance on his part will result in time lost and thusly giving to the opponent an opportunity and the advantage to attack.

Learning Leadership from Martial Arts - I

The central blog question is: “How to successfully lead a group of people coming from different cultural backgrounds?”

Today we are facing important and challenging (new) factors in leadership and management: different languages, time zones, channels/modes of communication, physical distance, and consequently a large and variable mixture of cultural factors. All these factors influence work processes, decision-making, management, work habits and even get embodied in national work-related legislation. To be able to lead and to predict behaviors a modern leader is supposed to grasp them and not to give and take offence due to misunderstanding of cultural issues. In today’s global world it is increasingly important and desirable to understand these differences and understand how they require a different leadership and management style.

As there are numerous studies of cultural impact on management, leadership, team building, motivation, etc. I will not describe them, but rather follow a different path. People share a lot of the same habits, reactions, behaviors, etc. that are more culturally independent and are effectively and efficiently used in martial arts training and teaching. Can the same approach be taken in a new way to a different leadership?

Teaching coupled with Leadership

A teacher should by default be a leader: he/she teaches new things, influences others, has listeners, defines personal growing path, can define task and workload. Anything wrong with it?

Teacher as a leader ensures improvements in instruction he or she gives and thus enhance learning process. But a teacher can (unfortunately) lack autonomy in workplace issues like: (architecture and equipment of lecture rooms), the choice of curriculum material, the scheduling of classes and other resources. Previous teacher training (mostly for university ones) is not the only obstacle they have. Once hired and in the pipeline, young teachers often find that what they have learned in their four or more years of preparation has not equipped them for what they may encounter in their new classrooms say at the Institute for Educational Leadership, Inc. Then the burden of publishing papers and research instead of learning new teaching approaches add to the direct implication of productivity and affect teaching style and capabilities.

On the other hand, teachers lead and assume a wide range of roles in school(s) and in interactions with students, whether these roles are assigned formally or shared informally. Throughout the research process they have to engage in, lead of the research group(s). Within their lecturing there may always be also some student project works that a teacher has to supervise. Teachers teach to collaborate and have to plan their lessons in advance or if needed in partnership with fellow teachers or visiting lecturers. Those are typical leadership roles too.

Leaders and Self confidence

Why, if self-confidence is so important in nearly all aspects of our lives, do so many people struggle with it?

A child playing with the father who throws him in the air: does a child laugh and ask for more? Then, when a child is high above your head you ask him “Would you be a star fighter pilot?”  Child won't hesitate to say yes! However, why then most adults are so fearful of choosing a career that could provide them a professional satisfaction and leave those they are not satisfied with? Is it because of a vicious circle in which people who lack self-confidence can find it difficult to become successful and consequently self-confident?

In martial arts, when you face the opponent your level of self-confidence is shown in many ways: by your posture, your movements, your reactions, your behavior during the combat, your body language and your verbal language (if you speak, what you say etc.). Everything reflects your (lack of) confidence. If you hesitate, you lose. A well-known truth is that self-confident people inspire confidence and/or respect in others.

Inspiring the confidence in others is one of the key ways in which a leadership process perpetuates. A leadership is all about having the confidence to make decisions, to show to your followers the vision, to communicate good and bad news, to inspire others. If someone is afraid to make and commit to a decision, all of the communication and empowerment in the world won't make any good to get confident.

My Writing Process

I was invited by Regina Puckett to take part in the Writing Process blog tour. Its purpose is to showcase different author methods all over the world. Charity is an amazing lady and it is wonderful to participate in a chain of it. It was started by Victoria that is an amazing lady and a wonderful author with Ellora's Cave Publishing and Liquid Silver Books.

My tour questions

What am I working on?

Professionally I teach social informatics at University of Ljubljana. On the other hand as an author I’m interested and do research about a different approaches to outstanding leadership.

How does my work differ from others of the same genre?

It is a work that merges Western and Fareast mentality and is based on approach coming from martial arts (Wing Chun, Tai Chi) Philosophy aiming to a personal growth in order to become an exceptional leader.

Why do I write what I do?

Leadership of multicultural teams is today very much subjected to different cultural values, norms, ethics or, what I have named as “the cultural background noise” (the environment we grow up in has a great impact and influence our values, ethics and morals, mentally and subconsciously). With the globalization process the occurrence of multicultural teams are even more frequent and this is why I aimed my research toward the leadership that can bridge this “noise” and connect West and East, Internal and External.

How does your writing process work?

At the beginning mine writing process takes quite a while as I do frame it, I do read a lot about the subject, but when started the words just flew.

Be sure to check out the next two authors next week:

Coleman Weeks’s blog http://howdowefeedtheworldsstarving.com/
Ed Gellock’s blog http://lakesidelivin.wordpress.com/
LaRae Parry’s blog http://laraeparry.wordpress.com

Pushing hands and Virtue

Most people believe that martial arts are violent ego driven systems with intention to injure or kill. Several times in my previous posts I have described that this is not so. Today I will discuss two training concepts used in Tai Chi and Wing Chun. They complement each other and again show the other side of the coin of martial arts.

In Tai Chi it is said that you can’t learn pushing hands ('tui shou') by winning but only by losing. To the beginner it may sound very contradictory, but it is so true.

To learn (empirically) so-called internal martial arts aspects pushing hands are practiced. It is a comparable method of training to Wing Chun sticking hands ('chi shou'), a method that is used for development of automatic reflexes to hit upon contact while all the time sticking to the opponent. Therefore, the sticking hands are more combat oriented, and the pushing hands are less aggressive and more based on using opponent energy. In both one should be perceptive to a partner, as only then ‘listening power’ develops. It is a special feeling of where rival is preparing – not yet in full – to push, pull or hit. And yes, in both martial arts we use the same methods also for legs or combination of all extremities, head and … the whole body.

During this practice the mind should be opened but focused on breathing and on performing slow cyclical movements. It should be wiped out of all other assumptions or expectations. When push, pull, hit or just normal cyclical movement comes, your body knows what and how to react and so it takes control and reacts spontaneously. Therefore, it is important to be very relaxed and in the proper stance that allows to move back and front, left and right and at the same time preserve full stability. Having a strong ego in this practice just does not help because if it intervenes you stop “sensing” what the opponent is coming with.

Feedback in Leadership

“Don’t come to me with problems – come with solutions ….” is a typical sentence that you can hear from a manager or a boss that is not in favor of receiving a feedback.

Why, indeed, a feedback is so important? Because it gives the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source.

Feedback is an unavoidable key component in all systems. In the Nature the systems that adjust according to feedback are similar to Darwinian adaptation and to what are called dynamical systems. Feedback in Nature is a normal process of learning of any leaving creature. In Nature what is not useful or too much energy consuming cannot survive a certain period. Feedback example is the V-shape flying pattern of geese. It can be explained by a simple set of four to five adjustment rules and flying efficiency. They change the position when the first goose is tired and goes back to the tail, then the second one takes a lead etc. This V-shape consumes less energy of each goose and permits to fly faster than a single goose could. They've certainly learned it through try and error feedback.

In martial arts listening and then replying accordingly is the name of the feedback game. Jing refers to one of the most important representations in Tai Chi – “listening” or “paying attention” to the opponent’s energy and his mind’s intent. Therefore, “listening” is actually a feedback for the mind of what you can sense and feel with your extremities or your whole body about opponent. Mostly, this can be practiced when in contact with another person: you trying to read or feel what he or she is intending to do, and even how he or she will do it. In one to one or mass battle in order to win a combat this knowledge of feedback reply is crucial. If you are late, you get hit.

Leadership and trust

Trust is vital. It is one of the fundamentals of any kind of cooperation between two living beings.

For the word “trust” Google offers first: 'trust is the leading value-for-money brand for digital lifestyle...'. Only the next shot is the definition of trust by Webster's dictionary.

Unluckily, trust is a rare supply these days. People have trouble trusting each other, according to the AP-GfK poll conducted in November 2013. Furthermore, it seems that Americans are suspicious of each other in their everyday encounters. Only one-third of them say most people can be trusted – down from half of the people who felt that way in 1972. Another study since 1972 is the General Social Survey that has been monitoring societal change and within it also a trust. In the Final Report of General Social Survey 2012 “Trends in Public Attitudes about Confidence in Institutions” a scale covering 13 institutions (adding Banks and Financial Institutions to previous 12) confidence fell from an average of 29.2% to a second low point of 22.6% in 2008-2012. Indisputable is that trust as well as “unquestionable” is a basis of any religion. Modern economic activities are not far from this. Just look at the confidence in the financial sector, market, stock market or values of companies, and the value of money. On 1971 Federal Reserve notes were banned to be redeemable in gold and Executive Order 11615 in August of the same year ended the direct convertibility of dollar to gold. Other nations followed. From there on paper money has the value only if we trust in its “price”. And the money is not the only paper that has the value only because of the trust people put in …

In martial arts trust is the foundation of any practicing. Imagine that you are invited to be a sparring partner in a friendly match with Mohamed Ali. If you do not trust that he is capable of stopping the fist in front of your nose, you’d probably not even enter the ring. The same self-confidence in his abilities must also have Ali, because if he is not able to stop his fist, he’ll probably break your nose. How many partners for training will then he has if breaking the nose with his first hit occurs regularly?

Tai Chi Quan Leadership

Tai Chi Quan (Tai Chi) is represented through steps by the coordinated actions of the body’s extremities, of the body as a whole including the eyes. The breathing is also coordinated. Thusly,  Tai Chi is a complete system of exercises characterized by the unity and by the cultivation of the internal and external application of power. A very old system, widely known for its healthy and relaxation methods but rarely considered a martial art.

The term Tai Chi Quan translates as “supreme ultimate fist, boundless fist, great extremes boxing or simply the ultimate.” Tai Chi theory is deep and profound. It takes many years of practice, learning, research and pondering to gradually grasp the esence to the art. It is said that Tai Chi Quan was created by San Feng Chang in the Song Hui Zong era (1.082 – 1.135) although techniques and forms with the same basic principles were already in existence almost 600 years earlier that were created from previous one taught in Han Dynasty (206 BE – AE 220). The content of the art has varied from one generation to the next. What we see today in the forms of Tai Chi has been evolving for more than eight hundred years. Various versions of Tai Chi are still practiced around the world: bare hand, sword, saber, spear, stick, ball or ruler. Some are slowly disappearing for there are very few masters around to teach.

Wing chun in Leadership

Wing Chun (in Mandarin Yong chun) means “eternal spring”. It is a marvelously efficient system of aggressive self-defense that allows immediate adaptation to the size, strength, and fighting style of an attacker.

Yip Man, who introduced wing chun to the west, was from the south of China where Cantonese language is spoken. Additionally, the Chinese pronunciation is very different from the Western pronunciation and that is why people misunderstand it. Consequently, we do not have  only Wing Chun, but also Ving Tsun, Ving Chun, and Wing Tsun, as well as some styles that at the end of Wing Chun as a third word add Kuen (Mandarin Quan), meaning “series of fist boxing”.

Wing chun is also based on the Yin and Yang principle, meaning soft and hard or motion and stillness, attack and defense—they all come from each other. Yin and Yang may be the most important theory in China. The concept of Yin and Yang is simple and at the same time vast in nature. The earliest origin of Yin and Yang must have come from the observation of day turning into night and night turning into day. Yin and Yang are interdependent on each other. Yin cannot survive without Yang and vice versa—there cannot be activity without rest and rest without activity. Which is the fundamental tenet in Chinese thought that has been emphasized mostly by the Daoist schools is wu wei. The literal meaning of wu wei is ‘without action’ and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei, ‘action without action’ or ‘effortless doing.’ It means natural action—as planets revolve around the sun, they ‘do’ this revolving, but without ‘doing’ it, or as a tree grows, it ‘does,’ but without ‘doing.’ Wu wei refers to behavior that arises from a sense of oneself as connected to others and to one’s environment. It is not motivated by a sense of separateness. It is action that is spontaneous and effortless. If wu wei is seen purely as inactivity, then indeed it is anachronistic in todays’ times. But wu wei is not just a lack of purposeful action, it involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Therefore, it is a state of alert quietude and watchfulness, it is action only when and where required to restore the balance of universal harmony. In Wing Chun, one utilizes all these principles when fighting.

Leadership and responsibility

Responsibility translates into commitment to finish something. People mostly like and tend to hide from responsibility for their deeds, actions, and decisions.

When learning to master martial arts one is encouraged to think about the responsibility and how to use it in all techniques. Depending on energy, force, and power used a martial artist may kill, immobilize or cure a person - the body point to which it is applied is the same. It is a heavy and sole responsibility what and how to use the accumulated martial arts knowledge.

The responsibility is, by all means, one of the most demanding requirements in leadership. “Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable, if you're honourable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity” are the words of General Colin Powell on leadership’s responsibility.

De – Virtue - Dé

In my blog: Virtue – Morality – Ethics and leadership I wrote that virtue motivates and morals and ethics constrain. To support that statement here I’d like to describe virtue through Chinese  ancient text ‘Dào DéJīng’.

Dé is conventionally translated as ‘virtue’ or ‘power,’ and refers to how the Way or Dào functions, or literally “walks” throughout the visible world. ‘Moral authority’ is probably the closest modern English equivalent to Dé. It was an opening stanza in the oldest version of Dào Dé Jīng, now it is introduced in stanza 38 that describes virtue:

High virtue by obliging not - acquires moral force.

Low virtue obliges always and thus lacks moral force.

High virtue neither strives nor acts for its own ends.

Low virtue does not strive but acts for its own ends.

High kindness does strive but not for its own ends.

High service also strives and does so for its ends.

High ritual not only strives but compliance failing stops at nothing to compel conformance.

Thus the loss of the Way meant the advent of virtue.

The loss of virtue, the advent of kindness.

The loss of kindness, the advent of service.

The loss of service, the advent of ritual rule.

Ritual rule turned loyal trust to deceit, leading to disorder.

All that has been learned adorns the Wayand engenders delusion.

Hence those strong and true keep commitment 

shun deceit, stay with the kernel that’s real and shun flowery adornment, choosing the first, refusing the last. (Moss)

Leadership responsiveness

Every and all things trigger a response: action ~ reaction.

Pretend that, while walking on an icy road, you slip. What is your reaction, your response? Mostly, we are so caught by surprise that we become stiff. That is followed by a fall. Frequently we land on our hands and, if we are lucky, only hurt ourselves and not broke wrists. If we had a knowledge how to “properly” fall, we would have “let go” and yield ourselves to a fall. Most likely, no harm to our body would be done, we would only get wet. Which we get anyway.

“The grasses abate in the direction the wind blows.” says a Chinese proverb.

I Decided to Give My Book Away for Free

With a myriad of cultures in multinational corporations, research into leadership has been endless, yet not very conclusive. An old friend of mine posed me the question on leadership: “Could you please enlighten me in understanding how to lead a multi-cultural team?” So far we were pleasantly talking over a drink on a nice and warm summer morning. At the time I had no idea to offer. It initiated a long period of my research at the end of which I published the book “Leadership by Virtue”.

It was no easy matter. Four decades ago, IBM tried to unify corporate culture in her subsidiaries all over the world. Geert Hofstede carried out a world-wide survey on employee values with a very informative and demonstrative result. Based on his approach, Turner pointed out the problem of international projects and claimed that “when working on international projects we need to understand the approaches of different cultures to be able to work with people and predict behaviors, and not to give and take offence”. More researchers followed the same topic. A common conclusion of all those studies is: “we are definitely different”. And this conclusion is what bothered me the most. It is a common knowledge. To successfully lead people you need to find what binds the people together and not what separates them.

My research goal was to support the idea that, at their core people are similar no matter where they come from. The new leadership approach should follow these principles. This is why I aimed to find at which level we are “the same!”

China’s history and culture impacting Leadership - 3

The third example I would like to share with you is the historical novel Three Kingdoms, written in the tradition of the Spring and Autumn Annals which are attributed to Confucius. The historical novel of the Three Kingdoms is so important because it describes China’s tradition of political culture and the struggle to define its political form, transporting the reader from the highest councils of dynastic power to the lowest fringes of society, from the capital and key provinces to the edges of the empire and beyond. The novel offers a startling and unsparing view of how power is wielded, how diplomacy is conducted, and how wars are planned and fought. The novel has in turn influenced the ways that the Chinese think about power, diplomacy, and war. It is a tale of China itself in its infinite variety.

While ‘preserving moral judgment’ in every turn of phrase the novel marks the ‘rise and fall of kingdoms’ in a grand sweep of time. The novel has added to this tradition by reaching the broadest possible public with its message. This challenges a reader to reflect on how his own conduct measures up to the standards of loyalty and filial piety as they are fulfilled or betrayed in the novel. As Jiang Daqi said in the preface to the novel ‘merely to read it but not apply [its lessons] vigorously in one’s own life, is inferior to [real] study.’

Wing Chun basics 4 Leadership

In the book Leadership by Virtue I refer to martial arts philosophies and Wing Chun principles with regard to a personal growth for those who strive to become an outstanding leader. Here I’d like to share some Wing Chun basics to illustrate this relationship:

Efficiency and effectiveness are both the hallmarks of Wing Chun. Out of these hallmarks spring three main principles: central line, economy of movement, simultaneous attack and defense. And these principles serve right only if you have cultured three roots: balance, structure and stance.

A correct stance is like a bamboo, firm but flexible, rooted but yielding. It gives us power to either deflect external forces or redirect them. Balance is connected to a structure that is embedded within a stance. A correct structure is not important just for the defense, but also for the attack. Being effectively ‘rooted’ or aligned against the ground enables the force of the hit to be taken and absorbed by the ground. Why a good leader has to have a stable stance I have already explained in my Leadership and stability blog post.