Spring and Autumn Roles (1)—Rolling Rhythms

Click here to go to section one of "Spring and Autumn Roles."
Click below for the other "Spring and Autumn Roles" posts.
1         2         3         4        to be continued

During the autumn months I will be posting new segments of The Emperor's Teacher (the big business book that will rock the world). Chapter four is (provisionally) called "Spring and Autumn Roles" and forms (along with three more chapters that will follow) the "middle" of my management book—part two of three.

If you have read The Art of War, you have arrived at the doorstep. Still, no one ever managed anything in China having just read Sunzi (Sun-tzu), but don't despair. You are now ready for what comes next in leadership. Compiled nine-hundred years ago, it is the greatest management book ever written, and there are only two problems: (1) it is in "medieval" Chinese; (2) it is 10,000 pages long. No worries, though. That's what I am here for. I have been studying this stuff for thirty years, and I have been waiting for you. Welcome. 歡迎. Let's begin to study real Chinese management together.

[a] Spring RF

After reading chapter one, "Breaking the Vessel," you will have some acquaintance with Sima Guang and the Comprehensive Mirror (資治通鑒). If you have completed chapter two, "Living and Learning," you know a good deal about various "learning strategies" in ancient China, and some of the ways that they were employed in later times. Chapter three, "The Art of Warning" brings the story from the maxims of Sunzi (Sun-tzu), Confucius, and others to full-blown case studies. You are now ready to tackle the big themes at the heart of the greatest management text of all time. It is time to consider how managers managed in Chinese history, and how you might use these lessons to think more clearly about managing yourself, your family, and all under heaven. 

Don't worry too much about the order at this point (these are blog entries and not a book...yet).  If you want to start here and loop back to part one (Chapter One: Breaking the Vessel, Chapter Two: Living and Learning, and Chapter Three: The Art of Warning) in due time, that is fine.  This chapter should stand on its own as a way of thinking about the multiple roles that shape life and work at any time and in any place.

I
Rolling Rhythms

We live through our roles. Many people have heard these lines without really thinking through their many implications. Confucius (551-479 BCE), living in what came to be known as China's Spring and Autumn period, seems to have thought about roles a great deal, at least if we are to trust the statements made by disciples on his behalf in The Analects (論語). To put it in the language of my grandparents (I remember its rhythms distinctly), Confucius thought that society was going to hell in a handbasket, and he was not amused. We have covered some of this territory in the "Living and Learning" chapter, but nothing (to my mind) sums up Confucius's feelings as elegantly as a simple response to a simple question.

When a disciple asked him about the foundations of social harmony in his chaotic society, Confucius was said to have answered with words represented by only four sounds and eight Chinese characters. Even if you don’t read Chinese, you should be able to see that something interesting is going on. Take a look:

           君君臣臣父父子子

A very literal translation would be: “ruler ruler minister minister father father son son.”  Confucius meant, of course, something like “let the ruler be the ruler, and the official be the official; let the father be the father and the son be the son.”  In the sixth century before our era, Confucius was not thinking of mothers and daughters, but there is no reason why we can’t extend the meaning to “let the parent be the parent and the child be the child.”  Does this remind anyone of issues in twenty-first century parenting (or teaching)?  Does it remind anyone of issues in the twenty-first century workplace? Yup. I thought so.

[b] Streaks RF

Confucius sought to keep things clear, but the glass began to streak almost as soon as his words were out. Life is complicated, and even an elegant and alliterative saying cannot sum it up. Like a leaky faucet, drips started streaming from the nozzle. Pithy maxims are like that, and it is the reason why almost very memorable little book of aphorisms requires deep thought and, to be thorough, case studies. It is the reason why moving from Pascal's Pensées or The Art of War to the muddy channels of running stuff is so difficult. It is the reason why we have case studies. It is the reason Sima Guang wrote the Comprehensive Mirror.

You see, even an idea as basic as this (act your role!) becomes complicated almost as soon as we start thinking about it. To begin, are you ever “just” the parent or teacher or daughter or boss? Nope. Almost everyone has the experience of occupying different roles in the same relationship structure at the same time—many women are daughters and mothers, bosses and employees. Even if we don’t experience the roles at the same time (child of aging parents, parents of growing children, boss to a division of workers, and employee in the larger company), we always experience many competing roles over the course of a year, a decade, and a lifetime.

And then there is the sticky little problem of change. Roles are not static, usually even from day-to-day. They change over the weeks, the months, and the years. Students become graduates, children become parents, bosses become former bosses, employees become bosses...and the world just keeps on spinning. This is another reason why we have case studies.

[c] Roll RF

Perhaps Confucius tried a little too hard to simplify things, but he surely understood at least one important matter—we cannot ignore roles. They are thrust upon us every bit as much as we embrace them, and trying to avoid the implications of roles is always a losing proposition. There are tough decisions that might displease people, and you may stay awake at night trying to figure out just how to resolve present and former roles, not to mention ever-changing expectations within them. Think of a recently promoted foreman who wants to get along with her buddies at the plant in just the same way she did six months before. Think of the teacher who wants all of his students to like his class. Think of, well, just about everything—new jobs, promotions, demotions, little bundles of joy, being captain of your team, puppies, kittens, and shiny new tractors. Every one of them has something to do with changing roles and expectations.

Not all are pleasant. Far from it. Roles quite often come with assumptions that we might despise, and we might wish to rail against them. Sometimes the railing and fury might even work, and our frustrations with other people’s expectations might become part of a broad wave of social (and “role”) change, as can be seen in several instances with gender roles, as well as in teaching and parenting, during the last century. Sometimes they change...

[d] Change RF

...and sometimes they don't. It is not unusual to find ourselves almost “structurally” locked in, when no amount of scratching or clawing against the walls of society’s expectations will change the situation. I am thinking, for example, of a teacher who doesn’t want to give grades, and feels that they demean education. Many people might agree that this is so, and that grades do as much harm as good. In terms of changing the grading "roles" of teachers—good luck with that, at least in the foreseeable future.

And now that we've heard from Confucius and thought a little bit about these little social nuggets called roles, let's take the matter a few steps further toward our managerial mirror.

Click below for the other "Spring and Autumn Roles" posts.

1         2         3         4        to be continued
NEXT
Japanese Character(s)
We will take a brief trip into modern Japan to look at a few more aspects of roles and how they are interpreted in East Asia. If you have ever heard about Japanese organizations—from clubs to committees—you know that little is left to chance when it comes to the roles people will play.