keep your suggestions to yourself

Today, I committed a major faux pas. I suggested to one of our secretaries that rather than printing out blank forms from the Form Flow and then filling them in by hand using CARBON PAPER (please press hard), it would be much easier to type the information into the Form on the computer and print out as many clear copies as needed plus keep an electronic record. It would make her job a lot easier. To her it seemed like a criticism, and you never criticize the Japanese – they lose face. Face is important, so I had to grovel and dissemble – of course she has so many important duties; of course I was only thinking that it is impossible for anyone to handle the amazing amount of work she does with such ease; yes, this idea might make things easier for a lesser secretary, but she doesn’t need to do this.

A Japanese friend of a friend of mine works for a major manufacturing company, which has bilateral relationships with other manufacturing companies worldwide. The friend of my friend (confused yet?) was complaining about how difficult it is to coordinate with other companies overseas, as blueprints and specifications do not fax well. My friend suggested emailing the documents instead, but his Japanese friend informed him that the company uses its own specific software, which is incompatible with everyone else’s, to discourage theft of the company’s ideas. My friend then suggested using Adobe to scan and send the images. The friend of my friend admitted that this is a good idea and would work well; unfortunately, it could never happen. If he were to propose this to his boss, then his boss would look foolish because he didn’t think of it himself. The boss would lose face and the respect of his team of employees. Since the boss was not computer literate, the team had to suffer in silence and continue to fax the documents. My friend suggested that his friend (confused yet?) put a suggestion in the suggestion box; that way, it would be anonymous and private – no one need know where the boss got his brilliant idea. The Japanese friend of my friend didn’t understand the idea of a suggestion box, but after it was explained to him, he was appalled. To even have a suggestion box would suggest that the employees might have better ideas than the boss (though the friend admits that this is entirely possible). If the employees have better ideas than the boss, why would he be the boss?