Martial arts philosophy

Better sweat in practice than bleed in battle (Wǔ Shù wisdom)

The combats and strategies were a constant topic through the human history. In China only there are seven important military texts. First is from worldwide well-known Sun Zǐ, (The Art of War), the next are from general Wèi Liáozi (The Art of War), Wú Qǐ (The Art of War), Sīmǎ Fǎ (The Marshal's Art of War or The Methods of the Sīmǎ Fǎ), the legendary figure Jiāng Zǐyá (Six Secret Teachings), general Zhang Liang (The Three Strategies of Huáng Shígōng), and finally: Questions and Replies between emperor Táng Tàizōng and general Lǐ Wèi Gōng. The texts were practically canonized under the name “The Seven Military Classics” already in 11^th century, and were later on included in most military encyclopedias. In military spheres it was as important as Confucius’s work is for the bureaucrats.

Better spend three years looking for a good master than ten years training with a bad one (Wǔ Shù wisdom)

In China a philosophy does not come only from the country’s rich culture but also from martial arts. The keystone in Chinese philosophy is a strong humanism that became a focus of numerous Chinese philosophers throughout the ages. This humanism does not imply exclusion or indifference to a supreme powers and the nature. Instead, the general conclusion goes towards the unity of human and ‘heaven.’ This spirit of synthesis has characterized the entire history of Chinese philosophy.

A range of similarly motivated philosophical doctrines is covered by Daoism. Two great philosophical systems of China stand alongside: Daoism and Confucianism. Somehow less influential and less important to the development of Chinese culture are ‘the School of Mo’ and ‘the School of law’. The latter was a utilitarian political philosophy that did not address higher questions like the nature and the purpose of life. Both of them evolved at about the same time as Confucianism and Daoism during the ‘Spring and Autumn Period’ (770–476 before our era), and ‘Warring States Period.’

Organizational change

Organizational change is, or should be, just one of the processes within the strategy’s frame and company vision. Why then companies have to “struggle” when introducing changes? Why do they need to change? Ever changing environment, markets, products are just pushing the limits of a current stability of the companies and provoke never ending chain of changes.

In his blog Bernard Marr says “a good mission statement articulates the purpose of the company, basically why it exists, what it does and for whom. It should serve as an ongoing guide that spells out what the company is all about. The mission should focus on the here and now.” And where do we see a necessity for a change that a company should follow? In “a vision statement where the goals and aspirations for the future are outlined. It creates a mental picture of a specific medium-term target and should serve as a source of inspiration.”

But are these definitions enough to smoothly drive a change? Company’s organizational culture, as described in the previous blog: “Organizational culture and martial arts,” is the sum of values and rituals defined by rules. It is also a part of a “bigger picture” that surrounds an organization and each of us, as I explained in my TedxTalk. And these substances present difficulties or even block a change. Employees of a company, as others, are perceiving stability as security therefore opposing changes. Consequently, a permanent conflict prevents a peaceful process of change.

Leadership catch: Adjustment and listening

Imagine walking through the woods. You carefully move and step slowly on the uneven ground where even the exposed tree roots are all covered by leaves. We adapt to environment. Although trees might seem static and unmovable they are still flexible and adaptive. They adjust to the surrounding environment and therefore become even more stable. They do not consume extra energy to rise straight up. It is natural for them to adapt to the floor declination when they grow.

We all have to adjust to our environment, or in martial arts to opponent, and to the mistakes you make during the fight. You can do this only by being flexible. In everyday life there is an abundance of events and issues that require our adaptation. But are we able to adapt quickly? How do we know what to do? When someone trips and is just about to fall, his brain starts to function at high speed. When we are very young or very drunk, we just let it go and fall down. Kids roll with it or just fall loosely, and because of this reaction, they are not severely injured most of the time. What about the rest of us? Our first reaction is violent; we start to gesticulate wildly with our hands. We start to contradict the obvious that happens all the same. Most of the time, instead of bending our knees, we stop our fall with our arms and quite a lot of times break our wrists. We forget how to fall and do not know how to adjust to this event that has happened to us many times before in our lives. We react in panic.

Steering and leadership

In live situations, and similarly in martial arts, we learn by repetition and mileage, repeating the task again and again. Try to recall how difficult the first attempt to ride a bicycle was. 

More than a decade ago I was introduced to Tai Chi. How difficult it was to understand the concepts that are so far away from our (Western) ones. On top of it my body coordination ability was proving difficult, remembering the sequences was even harder. Grasping the idea took some time, and so on. But, just like the process of learning to drive a car, where at the beginning simultaneously completing the tasks seems so difficult, patience is the key. The improvement is gradual and within time the steps are deeply ingrained in you. With no effort you drive a car, ride a bike or perform Tai Chi with calm and relaxed mind.

The beginner of one of five major styles of Tai Chi, the Yang style, was Yang Lu Chan (end of the 18th century - 1872). In his youth he had learned another Tai Chi style still in use today from the Chen family. At those times, the knowledge of the art was kept in the families not to be revealed to others and carefully transferred only within family. Yang was an outside apprentice, for which he was treated unfairly. But, being persistent he stayed and persevered in his practice. A story tells that one night, he was awakened by the sounds of hen and ha in the distance. He got up and traced the sound to an ancient house. Peeking through the broken wall, he saw his master Chen teaching the techniques of grasp, control, and emitting jīng to his sons in coordination with the sounds hen and ha. This knowledge gave young Yang a new perspective to control and to steer the opponent with great success.

Gong Fu (drinking) tea

The traditional way or the Chinese method of tea making is called gōng fu chá or meaning “making a tea with great skill or great efforts.” It is as much about escaping the pressures of life for a few moments as it is about enjoying every drop of a tea.

 Tea and coffee bear some similarities. The energizing effect of the coffee bean plant is thought to have been discovered in Yemen in Arabia from where the Muslims spread coffee first to Italy, then the rest of Europe, and finally it was spread throughout the world. In English and other European languages, the word coffee derives from the Ottoman Turkish kahve.  As for tea, there are at least six varieties of tea: white, yellow, green, oolong, black and pǔ’ěr. Just to name some: jí pǐn lóng jǐng or Dragon Well, high-grade green tea that was granted the status of luán chá or imperial tea during the Qīng Dynasty and is nowadays frequently given to very important visitors of China; a tiě guān yīn tea – a wǔ yí wū lóng or oxidized oolong tea with a creamy taste; refreshing nutty taste and aroma tea lì zǐ xiāng that translates as “fragrance of chestnut” is a green tea from the Guangdong province; cultivation of pu’er, also known as Yunnan tuó chá, can be traced as far back as the Han Dynasty and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for generations to build up internal energy and to invigorate the activity of the spleen and stomach. All teas are made from the same species of plant, but processed differently. And there are others which are not to be mistaken by a ‘herbal tea,’ or an infusion that is made from leaves, flowers, fruit, herbs, or other plant material that contains no Camellia sinensis as coffee and tea do.

Corporate governance in multicultural organization

Corporate governance refers to the issues associated with the way corporations are structured, managed and operated. The use of the term “corporate governance”, the evolution of the concept and what it entails has started in the early 1980’s.

 Among the first was the Cadbury Committee. They defined the purpose of corporate governance in 1992 namely, as a set of processes, customs and policies that frame the business of the company and help manage the subsidiaries. This is then operationalized in a uniform method through administered or controlled directives.

The most quoted and referred to document in this field is the OECD principles corporate governance. OECD defines it as a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders, and other stakeholders. Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set. The means of attaining those objectives and performance monitoring are determined. So, the main recommended principles are stated as rights and equitable treatment of shareholders, interests of other stakeholders, role and responsibilities of the board, integrity and ethical behavior, disclosure and transparency.

Intuition and martial arts

Intuition and/or instinct? One thing two names? Significant for all living beings or only human? The animals definitely have instinct. But do they have an intuition as well?

There is a big difference between intuition and instinct! The latter is embedded in genetic code and therefore an inborn complex pattern of behavior existing in every species. It should be distinguished from a reflex - a simple reaction to a specific impulse composed of learned lessons that are wired in brains and based on chemistry and electrical signals through synapses - connections that fire when an impulse comes. And it fires unconsciously.

Intuition fires the same way as instinct but supposedly only in human brain. If it is based on the previous knowledge how come everybody agrees that even a very small child has an intuition? Okay, you can have a different understanding of the intuition as I do, as there are at least two avenues of pursuit when dealing with intuition. One is psychological and the other is spiritual. The spiritual one starts with beliefs, and we are not going to discuss about those issues here. The other avenue is on the psychological level. And this one is, in my opinion, more productive. Research suggest that part of the intuition is that one quickly forms a context using one’s ‘base of experience’ to draw parallels and turn that nonverbal or tacit evidence knowledge into decision-making knowledge.