The Art of Warning (2)—Petty Quarrels

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series The Art of Warning.
A year ago on Round and Square (13 August 2012)—Rural Religion in China-9

Two years ago on Round and Square (13 August 2011)—Just Do It Over (Introduction)

[a] Turf RF

We're ready to get underway in earnest with the actual "case studies" that will give you at least a hint of what reading the Comprehensive Mirror is like. When the book is out, a companion volume of case studies (like these, but expanded) will give readers not only the argument, but something to chew on from the actual text, as well. And let's not kid ourselves. A full translation of the Comprehensive Mirror is not just around the corner. These "cases" will be straightforward and rather unadorned in terms of explanation. I am interested in comments about how the actual memorials quoted in the Comprehensive Mirror connect with your understanding of the key lessons—roles, hierarchy, and remonstrance. Think of them as memos...to the emperor. These writers were "the emperor's teacher(s)." 

In this series, I will do most of my own translations, but with one twist. In many posts, I plan to quote from the fabulous partial translation by the peerless scholar Achilles Fang (1910-1995). It "only" covers about fifty years of the Comprehensive Mirror's 1,362-year narrative, but it is a brilliant work of historiography, and I want to honor Professor Fang. I will include references for those translations, because at least that book is available in some college and university libraries. I will also quote from translations done by Rafe de Crespigny (1936-) about thirty years ago (covering another fifty or so years of the text). Those are even harder to find, but at least they are "out there." After some time acknowledging and quoting from the work of these venerable scholars, we will set our little boat out onto the full text of the Comprehensive Mirror, and I will show you some of the fascinating caves and inlets from Chinese history along the way. 

2—Petty People, Petty Quarrels

[b] Quarrel RF

Office politics. Ever heard of that? How about the late Gore Vidal's observation that the reason academic squabbles are so fierce and so lasting is precisely because...the stakes are so small? Today's Comprehensive Mirror memorial (think "memo") addresses all of this pettiness in a familiar tone, even though this quotation was written almost 1,800 years ago. 

"Kids these days," it seems to say. Well, all I know is that some of the most lasting of petty feuds have been instigated by people a great deal older than quarreling young'uns. I have seen a lot of this (even quite recently), and this author misses the age group, even as he nails the main point.

Big kids fight and cry in the sandbox, too. It's called "turf," and it often isn't pretty at all.

          The Acting situ, Tong Zhao, memorialized the throne:

          "Of all those who have ruled over the empire there has been none who 
          did not appreciate men of simplicity and truthfulness, and profoundly dislike 
          those who were false and untruthful. This is because the latter would 
          demolish good teachings, disturb good rule, destroy good custom, and 
          injure good transformation...

          "I presume to observe that young men of our times do not consider study 
          as their fundamental duty but make it their exclusive business to form 
          associations. These gentlemen of the land do not take filiality, brotherly 
          affections, and the cultivation of character as the paramount matter, but 
          put first running after the powerful and associating with those who might 
          give them profit. They form groups and associate into parties, mutually 
          praising and eulogizing; calumny and defamation are considered as 
          capital punishment, partisan commendation and praise as rank and reward. 

          Those who follow they praise vociferously; those who do not, they find
          fault with.[1]

[c] Dynamic RF

So what is it about factions and pettiness, and just-plain-dumb-as-a-rock-inability-to-work-together...ness? What is it?

Well, there is something in here for all managers, but I would suggest a hidden gem that might have slipped by if you were only skimming the first paragraph. It isn't the "quarreling" that is bad for the group (that happens). What is truly problematic (this is my reading of it) is the "how it takes place" dynamic. In the second paragraph we see how looking for advantage (I think of short-term gain) leads, in turn, to privileging individuals and groups that do nothing for long-term individual goals or the organization itself. One set of social choices, in other words, leads to all sorts of organizational ills. 

And one more reminder. Whether the individual observations seem trenchant or somewhat obvious, the key to reading the Comprehensive Mirror lies in putting them together—considering them side-by-side. This is, in short, not just another way of putting little maxims together into a slender red, yellow, black, or brown book. It is a way of considering case studies...and this is only the first taste of the Popsicle.

Petty fightin'. More management tomorrow.

[d] Stakes RF

---

Notes

[1] Achilles Fang, editor, The Chronicle of Three Kingdoms I (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), 314-315.

Bibliography

Fang, Achilles, editor. The Chronicle of Three Kingdoms I. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952.
Sima Guang 司馬光. Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑑 [The Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Ruling]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju 北京: 中华书局, 1956. 

The Art of Warning (1)—People Float the Boat

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series The Art of Warning.
A year ago on Round and Square (12 August 2012)—Rural Religion in China-8

Two years ago on Round and Square (12 August 2011)—R.G. Collingwood and Historical Re-enactment

[a] One Perspective RF

We're ready to get underway in earnest with the actual "case studies" that will give you at least a hint of what reading the Comprehensive Mirror is like. When the book is out, a companion volume of case studies (like these, but expanded) will give readers not only the argument, but something to chew on from the actual text, as well. And let's not kid ourselves. A full translation of the Comprehensive Mirror is not just around the corner. These "cases" will be straightforward and rather unadorned in terms of explanation. I am interested in comments about how the actual memorials quoted in the Comprehensive Mirror connect with your understanding of the key lessons—roles, hierarchy, and remonstrance. Think of them as memos...to the emperor. These writers were "the emperor's teacher(s)." 

In this series, I will do most of my own translations, but with one twist. In many posts, I plan to quote from the fabulous partial translation by the peerless scholar Achilles Fang (1910-1995). It "only" covers about fifty years of the Comprehensive Mirror's 1,362-year narrative, but it is a brilliant work of historiography, and I want to honor Professor Fang. I will include references for those translations, because at least that book is available in some college and university libraries. I will also quote from translations done by Rafe de Crespigny (1936-) about thirty years ago (covering another fifty or so years of the text). Those are even harder to find, but at least they are "out there." After some time acknowledging and quoting from the work of these venerable scholars, we will set our little boat out onto the full text of the Comprehensive Mirror, and I will show you some of the fascinating caves and inlets from Chinese history along the way. 

[b] This boat won't float...RF

1—People Float the Boat

Let's start simple, as we say back home. Businesses need customers and governments need "the people." To be sure, the world of the Comprehensive Mirror has a rather one-dimensional view of these "people," but there is still a good deal that we can learn about "their" power to create blockbuster films, landslide elections, spectacularly successful new products, and even the Arab Spring. The people. The clear perspective of the Comprehensive Mirror—at least one of them—is that they are always "in the mix," and organizations ignore them at their peril. 

Sound familiar? The customer is always...[your answer here].

          The zhongshu shilang, Wang Ji of Donglai, sent up a memorial, saying

          "Your minister has heard that people of antiquity took water to be like the 

          people, saying 'Water is that which transports boats, but is also that which 

          overturns them.'  Yan Yuan once said: 'As for Dong Yezi's riding, his horse's 

          strength is completely exhausted yet he urged it on without cease—disaster 

          and defeat awaits him.'  At present the public labor is bitterly difficult, with 

          men and women widely separated.  I wish for your majesty to deeply ponder 

          Dong Yezi's flaws, and to watch out for the illustration of the boat and water.   

          Then you will cease galloping hurriedly to the point of utter exhaustion and 

          using the people's strength to the point of grave difficulty...

          The emperor did not heed any of these recommendations.[1] 

Don't ride your horse until it drops (unless you have just been bitten by a rattlesnake and have little other choice). Even then, it's not the poor horse's fault (and you'll probably lose an arm in the end). If none of this makes sense, please consult that other fine management book, True Grit.

In short, unlike the emperor in this example, heed the recommendations.

[c] Nowhere...fast RF

---

Notes

[1] Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian (Zhonghua shuju, 1956), [73] 2309–2310. This is also translated in Achlles Fang, The Chronicle of Three Kingdoms I (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), 317-318.

Bibliography

Achilles Fang, editor. The Chronicle of Three Kingdoms I. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952.
Sima Guang 司馬光. Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑑 [The Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Ruling]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju 北京: 中华书局, 1956.

The Art of Warning—Introduction (f): Managing It All

A year ago on Round and Square (11 August 2012)—Rural Religion in China-7

Two years ago on Round and Square (11 August 2011)—Tristes Tropiques (A Writing Lesson)

[a] Facing Forward RF

The next few posts will introduce a new series on Round and Square—one that is intimately linked to my large project called "The Emperor's Teacher" (the management book that will change the world. This series focuses intently on the ways in which Sima Guang's great historical work, the Comprehensive Mirror, "works." You've read the Art of War, perhaps. Now get ready for the main course—the Art of Warning. 

Click here for other sections of this introduction to The Art of Warning.

Warning 1          Warning 2          Warning 3          Warning 4          Warning 5          Warning 6

From Arts of Warning to Managing it All
In conclusion, let’s think about the ideas behind the Comprehensive Mirror and its “art of warning.” How do we put it all together? As we have seen, the Comprehensive Mirror shows that we are always accountable to others, and frequently we sense an invisible hierarchical grid in the background. Remember the term used to refer to the emperor of China—he was the Son of Heaven. Think about that. Even the emperor was “junior” in one of his relationships. As I often say, it is rare that any of us ever serves as Secretary of This or That. Almost all of us are, all of the time, undersecretary. The Comprehensive Mirror can teach us to know our many roles, and function well in an undulating, hierarchical, corporate terrain. If we can ever learn to give advice and even warning in a clear, effective manner, we will be well on the way, as the Chinese sayings go, to managing, ourselves, our families, and all under heaven.

Stay tuned to this series (and the companion Twitter account), which will be filled with bits-and-pieces from the vast managerial tradition of the Chinese historiography.

Click here for other sections of this introduction to The Art of Warning.
Warning 1          Warning 2          Warning 3          Warning 4          Warning 5          Warning 6

[b] Managing RF

The Art of Warning—Introduction (e): Remonstrance

A year ago on Round and Square (10 August 2012)—Rural Religion in China-6

Two years ago on Round and Square (10 August 2011)—Seinfeld Ethnography: Nonfat Yogurt

[a] Stormy RF

The next few posts will introduce a new series on Round and Square—one that is intimately linked to my large project called "The Emperor's Teacher" (the management book that will change the world. This series focuses intently on the ways in which Sima Guang's great historical work, the Comprehensive Mirror, "works." You've read the Art of War, perhaps. Now get ready for the main course—the Art of Warning. 

Click here for other sections of this introduction to The Art of Warning.

Warning 1          Warning 2          Warning 3          Warning 4          Warning 5          Warning 6

Lesson Three—Remonstrance

[b] Bridges RF

Now we come to the tricky idea that puts it all together. We have learned to understand the nuances within and between our multiple roles, and have come to see the vast managerial landscape as undulating terrain—ever aware of it slopes and curves. To complete the picture, we need to find a way to convey necessary, but unpleasant, information, not unlike what we have already seen in our Comprehensive Mirror examples. In other words, roles and hierarchy must be set in motion. So let’s imagine the following. You know something that your boss needs to know. She made a mistake. If you tell her, she will be irritated at best, and flaming-mad at worst. Here’s the twist—you don’t, exactly, have to be the one who criticizes her. You could just let it go…for now at least. Sure, she’ll keep on making mistakes, and the organization would be better for it, but...

You are the messenger, after all, and no one has ever quite figured out how to make that work.

[c] Motion RF

Remonstrance, in English and Chinese (諫), is the art of warning—the art of the junior member of any unit telling the senior what she needs to hear. Think back to Confucius’s quotation. It is the official critiquing the ruler; the son teaching the father. Sima Guang highlighted remonstrance for a reason. It is this vital shift that puts the other lessons into motion and creates an organization that learns. The Comprehensive Mirror contains ten thousand pages addressed to this very question, and it is never easy. Criticizing your boss is just about as fraught as life gets in relative peacetime. And while bosses surely can teach their employees a good deal, they need information too. People closer to “the ground” are often the best positioned to give it. They know the details, and are in contact with people who put policy into practice (from elementary schools to empires).

If the news is bad, the junior usually just keeps silent.

By contrast, the Comprehensive Mirror is filled with colorful, and sometimes startling, examples of ministers of government staring down emperors and telling them what they need to hear.

          The situ junyi yuan, Dong Xun, sent up a memorial, remonstrating with 

          the emperor: “I have heard that upright gentlemen of antiquity spoke out 

          their minds for the sake of the state, not fearing death and perishment…

          loyal and upright by nature, they went ahead and did not shrink in the face 

          of drawn swords and boiling water; they did so because they loved the 

          empire on behalf of the sovereigns of their time. 

          [A long list of criticisms, from unremitting warfare and lack of perspective 

          to ostentatious imperial extravagance follows]. 

          I am well aware that once my words are out, death will be my certain lot, yet 

          I compare my own person to a single hair of an ox. If living, I serve no 

          purpose, then what loss can there be in my death? With the writing-brush in 

          hand, I weep and take leave of this world. I have eight sons, who will have to 

          be taken care of by Your Majesty after my death. Having washed and purified 

          myself, I submit this memorial, waiting for your command.

          [When the memorial was brought in], the emperor said, “Is Dong Xun not 

          afraid of death?” The official in charge memorialized to have him arrested, 

          but the emperor’s order was to leave him alone.

[d] Emboldened RF

It is difficult to give an adequate sense of this “art of warning” in just these few passages. Lively examples, such as this one, sit side-by-side with less dramatic reminders to the ruler (the boss) that the criticism is not personal. If you recall the language in the passage I just quoted, the subordinate’s loyalty is to the organization and its ideals, not just to the person who happens to be in charge. That is a powerful message that can embolden employees and make bosses shudder.

This is generally a good thing for organizations.

One point is certain, and Sima Guang knew it well. When knowledge moves upward in this manner, organizations prosper. Remonstrance is the dynamic that sets the organization’s “learning structures” spinning. When practiced as an organizational art—the way that Sima Guang articulated throughout the Comprehensive Mirror—it contains the kernels of powerful growth and continual learning for individuals, divisions, and corporations.

[e] Guises RF

The failure to function in this manner has serious consequences. For example, the Financial Times ran a story a while back bemoaning the fact that diversity has not created a greater interplay of ideas in the boardroom. Sima Guang would not have been surprised. Diversity alone does not generate new ideas. Without powerful and empowering “teaching” (“warning,” as it were), organizations will only accomplish an uneasy overlay of unity—head nodding assent in fidgety meetings. A Chinese writer from the Song dynasty (960-1279) said it in a particularly memorable way.

Why would one take water and give it the flavor of water?  Why would someone create a lute with but one note?  There is no harmony in these things. Such is the inadequacy of mere agreement.

[f] Multi-alles RF

Remonstrance, in its many guises, is the multi-flavored, multi-vocal potential lying within the organization—from families to corporations, to the ruling of all under heaven. The Comprehensive Mirror shows the necessity of this feedback loop, and gives thousands of examples of how to move from, as I like to say, remonstrance cooperation to remonstrance coordination. Cooperation can be seen in our quotation above; it means that the boss agrees (gritting teeth, perhaps) to listen to advice; you agree (heart palpitating, perhaps) to tell what you know. It is not an efficient process, but it is still necessary.

Could there be more? Could it work even better than shuddering employees confronting crabby bosses? Yes.

The greater goal, which should be the focus of all twenty-first century organizations, needs to be something else—not mere cooperation, but coordination. Coordination results in this transfer of knowledge as a matter of course, like playing the notes on a scale. This may sound impossible. Sima Guang thought quite otherwise, and I do, too. The details are for another lecture at another time, but we have already seen how the Comprehensive Mirror can teach us to focus on that goal, and to begin working toward it in our own organizations.

Click here for other sections of this introduction to The Art of Warning.

Warning 1          Warning 2          Warning 3          Warning 4          Warning 5          Warning 6

[g] Coordination RF

The Art of Warning—Introduction (b): The Backstory

A year ago on Round and Square (7 August 2012)—Rural Religion in China-3

Two years ago on Round and Square (7 August 2011)—Hurtin' Country: Pocket Full of Gold

[a] Back RF

The next few posts will introduce a new series on Round and Square—one that is intimately linked to my large project called "The Emperor's Teacher" (the management book that will change the world. This series focuses intently on the ways in which Sima Guang's great historical work, the Comprehensive Mirror, "works." You've read the Art of War, perhaps. Now get ready for the main course—the Art of Warning.

Click here for other sections of this introduction to The Art of Warning.

Warning 1          Warning 2          Warning 3          Warning 4          Warning 5          Warning 6

The Backstory

Say the name “Sima Guang” and “childhood” to anyone in China and you will hear one of the most famous stories in all of Chinese history. Today, images of it dominate several distinctive postage stamps, and the first-grade reader retells it for every new generation. It goes like this. On a sunny day in 1026, precocious little Sima Guang, seven years old, sat reading classical historical documents in his father’s well-appointed study. He was the very picture of the diligent young scholar in a culture that admired lifelong learners.

[b] Group RF

As Sima studied, children played in the large courtyard surrounding the family compound. While little Sima Guang read from his texts, the children played a game much like “hide and seek” on the rolling terrain of the family’s grounds. Suddenly, cries of confusion came from the courtyard. Sima Guang’s biography in the Song Dynasty History tells what happened next.

A group of children was playing in the courtyard when one child climbed onto a large, decorative urn. His feet slipped and he fell into deep rainwater in the vessel. The other children fled in fear and confusion, but Sima Guang grasped a stone and broke the vessel, saving the child’s life.

To my mind, this passage shows that it was precisely the little reader—the gifted student of the classical histories—who was able to move directly from text to action, from clear knowledge of his books to making a difference in the world. Far from presenting Sima as a young hermit, it shows that only he was able to take action and save the life of the drowning child. The other, presumably less serious, children were unable to cope with the enormity of the problem and fled. The roughhousing youths likely had far more experience in the world (and with playing “hide and seek” in courtyard vessels) than the seven-year old bookworm in his father’s study. Yet only little Sima was able to bridge the fundamental gap between learning about the world and living in it. Only Sima put down his book, switched roles, and picked up a rock.

[c] Official RF

This story has everything to do with the big, historical, management book Sima Guang would later write.

***  ***

Let’s fast-forward. Forty years later, after passing the highest state examinations at a breathtakingly early age and moving quickly through the administrative hierarchy, Sima Guang found himself in another study—that of the emperor himself. The immensely talented Sima held the prestigious position of chief tutor to the emperor Yingzong (r. 1064-1067). It was a sure route to the premiership, the highest civilian office in the empire. His official task was to explain the lessons of the past to the emperor in a way that could help him function smoothly in difficult political and managerial situations.

In fact, he had been doing this for decades. Sima’s Song Dynasty History biography explains:

[d] Mature RF

 When Sima Guang was seven years old, he already appeared to be a highly accomplished individual. He would hear the classical histories recounted by the family tutor; he admired them, and explained their contents to his family, all the while highlighting the broad outlines and teachings for them. From that point onward, he was never without a book in his hands, to the point that he paid no attention to hunger or thirst, heat or cold.

Now, in 1066, a mature Sima Guang highlighted the broad outlines of the classical histories not for his family, but for the person known in China as the Son of Heaven. He distilled the lessons from China’s history as a way of showing how government should be managed in the present day. He had already spent a lifetime studying, and throughout that life had constantly sought to translate his learning into meaningful results in the world around him.

Sima was on the verge of putting all of that knowledge into practice in a position akin to that of the COO (Chief Operating Officer) of a large company. In this case, it was a very large company—the Song empire. A funny thing happened on Sima’s way to political power, though. In 1067, the emperor Yingzong died, and his eldest son, Shenzong (r. 1067-1085) succeeded him. Sima’s cautious message that it takes years to create peace and prosperity, but only moments to undo it, had appealed to the new emperor’s late father. He quickly learned that he would have a difficult time convincing the son of his perspective. A year later his influence was on the wane and his chief rival was given the premiership over him. Sima Guang, whose entire career had been marked by enormous success in all spheres, found himself on the outside, unable to convince his new ruler of his teachings. By 1070, he had used every argument he could muster, both publicly and privately, yet he had lost.

[e] Outside RF

So he retired to a city two hundred miles away and wrote a very long book.

I often say that the Comprehensive Mirror is a brilliant combination of painstaking scholarship and angry revenge. The tale of those fifteen years in the city of Luoyang would lead us far afield, but suffice it to say that Sima Guang sniffed the political winds even as he worked on his increasingly massive tome. And it was massive. One document notes that the draft version of just one-fifth of the book filled two rooms in his home. In a nutshell, Sima and his five assistants scoured over three hundred original historical sources, placed what they saw as the best elements into their new book, and then provided layers and layers of commentary from the time the events happened, from later pundits, and in their own words. It is these commentaries that constitute the managerial gold in the Comprehensive Mirror, because they create a series of linked case studies showing not only “what happened,” but how the various actors outlined, argued, and implemented the policies. It covers 1,362 years of policy-making, and hammers home several themes so powerfully that every careful reader has been influenced by them for almost a thousand years. 

Let’s turn to those lessons now.

Click here for other sections of this introduction to The Art of Warning.

Warning 1          Warning 2          Warning 3          Warning 4          Warning 5          Warning 6

[f] Lessons RF

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