The Emperor's Teacher (8)—Table of Contents-c

[a] All together RF

I am devoting 2012 to one of the projects closest to my heart/mind (心). It is called The Emperor's Teacher, and deals with lessons that need to be understood by managers all over the world. "Managers?," I hear you ask? But I am a parent, a teacher, an employee, and, at home, a busy cook, bookkeeper, and sometime voter. I'm not a manager.                            Yes, you are. 

We are all managers, and we would do well to learn abiding lessons of how to make managing work. Some people in our midst (and in human history) have spent inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out how we might manage ourselves (since if you can't get your self right, you'll have a hard time with anything bigger...right?), our families (since a family is a whole bunch of interrelated selves in social communion), and the whole enchilada...all under heaven (天下). The latter term was used traditionally in China to refer to running the empire, but it had both moral and governmental innuendo that we would do well to consider in our own lives today. All three ideas (oneself, one's family, and all under heaven) are versatile enough to be read in secular or sacred terms, and, indeed, early Chinese cosmology had a plethora of ways of interpreting such matters. Interpret away. The concepts are big enough for all of us, as even Dong Zhongshu might have agreed.

[b] All under heaven RF

My book, The Emperor's Teacher, introduces the greatest management book of all time (Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Ruling), and then explains its key teachings to readers in the twenty-first century. This is challenging stuff for readers today (in East Asia and the West, I might add), just as it was ten centuries ago. No book is deeper or richer with lessons you need to learn to manage your career, your family, your football team... 

Attention Coach Belichick: Your Art of War really needs this updated "app" (call me)

...or the corporation you lead. We all need it. My book takes you through the lessons found in a thousand year-old text. The "Talking Points" that follow in the next few posts will give a sense of the book as a whole. Close readers of Round and Square will know that I have already posted all of chapters one and two, and the first parts of chapters three on this blog (look for them below). I will post the entire "blog draft" on Round and Square in 2012. 

Front Matter:
Talking Points-a          Talking Points-b          Talking Points-c          Talking Points-d          Talking Points-e  
Table of Contents-a                                        Table of Contents-b                                        Table of Contents-c

Chapters:         
1-Breaking the Vessel (12)      2-Living and Learning (12)     3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)      
4-The New Hierarchy (4)

Part Three—Putting it All Together

Chapter Seven
Managing Ourselves, Our Families, and All Under Heaven 

[c] All under heaven RF

No less an authority than Peter Drucker is clear on a central point that links east and west—management is a part of the humanities; it is about the very art of living. Chinese writers have always understood this, and it is one of the reasons why history was considered the foremost of the disciplines. There is an ancient idea in China that one who knows how to manage a family knows how to manage “all under heaven”—the whole enterprise, from company to empire. I begin this chapter with several stories from the Chinese classics that speak directly to this point, but begin the process of weaving Chinese lessons, as it were, with Western management teachings from Drucker to Covey and beyond. As time persisted in China, the equation was refined to the title of the chapter. It all begins with managing oneself, and then moves outward from there in powerfully linked waves of action. Examples abound of people (and organizations) unable to integrate the elements, and this chapter sets the tone for the final one, which brings all of the managerial themes back together. 

[d] Tunnel RF

Chapter Eight
Becoming the Emperor’s Teacher 
This chapter takes the key lessons from the sections on roles, hierarchy, and remonstrance and puts them together in a model that is directly relevant to the Western manager.  Indeed, the purpose of the book is to show precisely how “learning organizations” can be created, and the profound importance of understanding roles, structures (including hierarchies), and the power of remonstrance.  Indeed, it is a way of expanding upon some of Peter Senge’s key points in The Fifth Discipline, since I use a Chinese cultural model to articulate how a fluid and nuanced teaching and learning organization can work.  It contains a specific set of models for “engaging remonstrance” that have enormous potential in the management of corporate, academic, and government work.  The finished models complement the work of writers, such as Stephen Covey and Peter Senge, who articulate “whole person” approaches to management.  It takes the holistic approach in a new direction that highlights a different perspective on social relationships and a Chinese managerial universe that has historical, cultural, and practical significance. 

Front Matter:
Talking Points-a          Talking Points-b          Talking Points-c          Talking Points-d          Talking Points-e  
Table of Contents-a                                        Table of Contents-b                                        Table of Contents-c

Chapters:         
1-Breaking the Vessel (12)      2-Living and Learning (12)     3-Spring and Autumn Roles (12)      
4-The New Hierarchy (4)

[e] Lessons RF