Much of today’s Agile thinking is based on Eastern Religion and Philosophy. Western Religion and Philosophy is equally, or more, valid.
As some of you know, I participated in Tae Kwon Do for seven years and European Kickboxing for four. Occasionally I have used Eastern concepts that match-up to what is taught in the Flow Leadership Framework and Mindset to demonstrate some of the mindsets we use in Flow.
Why yellow belts are most dangerous!
While we’re on the topic of TKD, I’ll share an excerpt from my book Flow:
Mr. Kim, his Tae Kwon Do (TKD) instructor from the Michigan State University TKD club was originally from Korea. In order to get a black belt in TKD from Mr. Kim, he insisted that all his students learn both the traditional and modern styles of TKD.
One might ask, “wasn’t the modern style enough?”
Well, not really.
The following example illustrates this point:
Every now and then the MSU TKD club would have a sparing competition with other clubs in the Lansing, Michigan area. Another club, with which we had a “friendly” rivalry, brought nothing but black belts to a competition. Andrew was only a blue belt at that time. Mr. Kim said, “Andrew, you’re first up. Oh, by the way, the other guy is a 2nd degree black belt.” Andrew looked at Mr. Kim as if he had lost his mind, but Mr. Kim knew that a blue belt from his team could easily defeat a 2nd degree black belt from any other club. Andrew won with a TKO (technical knockout) in less than two minutes. It was only a semi-contact tournament. But, Andrew accidentally knocked the wind completely out of the black belt.
We should back-up a little and set some context for those that may not be familiar with TKD or martial arts in general. There is no one more dangerous in TKD than a yellow or blue belt. They have mastered the basics of all of the techniques, but don’t necessarily have full control over execution. Mr. Kim regularly shared a story with his students about the wife of a MSU football player that had just earned her yellow belt. Her husband was a rather large and very strong individual. He was teasing her and asked, “What would you do if I attacked you like this?” And he made the mistake of rushing at her. Without even thinking, her training kicked-in and she executed a perfect sidekick to his privates. Her kick was executed so perfectly that she ended up sending him to the emergency room at the local hospital for treatment.
Back to Andrew’s sparing match.
The black belt opponent executed a “modern” attack. Andrew without thinking, dropped down into an old-school (read: waterfall), deep-stance counter-attack that literally lifted the black belt off the ground with a single punch. The pained and shocked expression on the face of the black belt said it all as he flew backwards through the air with his hands and feet trailing after his body. The punch was so effortless that Andrew didn’t even feel the contact.
After the tournament, Andrew was chatting with the black belt and apologized for the “full-contact” hit. The black belt accepted his apology and remarked, “I’ve never been punched that hard in my entire life.”
“Tradition” quickly triumphed over “modern” that day.
The black belt’s club only taught a modern style of TKD that was considered state-of-the-art at that time. However, Mr. Kim wisely taught both modern and traditional TKD. The MSU club won every match in the tournament, hands down. And, it didn’t matter if it was a blue, brown or black belt from the MSU club that was matched up against the other club’s first, second- or third-degree black belts. Modern techniques, by themselves, were not enough to beat someone that was trained in both the old and new styles.
Mr. Kim urged his students to pursue a complete fighting style. This included learning a wrestling style, such as Judo or Greco-Roman wrestling. He also had them learn Hapkido (the Korean version of Aikido) where you incorporated self-defense moves like wristlocks, etc.
This was demonstrated by Mr. Kim’s own pedigree. He was a black belt in TKD as well as a black belt/expert in Judo (a coach for the US Olympic Judo team), Hapkido and Kendo (bamboo sword fighting — since a complete fighter will have also mastered the use of at least one weapon).
He had a complete fighting system and was an excellent teacher, coach and mentor since he shared with (and modeled for) his students what they needed to do in order to have an all-encompassing fighting methodology.
The same concept applies to organizational leadership.
There are a lot of people from the traditional side of the table that don’t really get Agile or Scrum, and vice versa. That is why we view all project and organizational management as a continuum from traditional at the one end to Agile at the other. If you are not competent in all methodologies, then you probably do not have a complete project, program, portfolio or organizational management “style” and you are at risk of being at the receiving end of an unexpected body blow delivered by a well-trained yellow belt.
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In Flow Leadership we drive home the point that we are methodology agnostic. In one way, it doesn’t matter what you’re using at the team level to get the work done. Flow is the Leadership umbrella and mindset that will turbocharge and unleash the true potential of your team(s).
Kintsugi and Kokoro
One of the best Eastern metaphors comes from the Art of Kintsugi (repairing broken porcelain with gold- or silver- infused glue, resulting in a unique masterpiece far greater in value than the original object). In my Kintsugi post I share how to breathe life back into individuals and teams and how to heal the brokenness.
In the post I shared about Kokoro, I include a picture of Alistair Cockburn’s model (Shu-Ha-Ri with Kokoro – Kokoro can be roughly translated “just master the basics” -and- it can also be translated “heart”). Alistair shared some great feedback with me and that helped make that post resonate with my friends that ascribe to Eastern thinking. And, that’s great, but the idea of “beginner, intermediate, advanced and master” is deeply embedded in our culture here in the West; and, for the past 2,000 years it is the Judeo-Christian worldview that has built the West into the powerhouse that it is.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!
What my friends in the West are missing is that we have equally, if not more, powerful concepts and mindsets. For example, the Vision-centered Mental-Physical-Social triangle we use is almost 2,000 years old. This is one of the first lenses we use that through which we can get to the heart of the individual and their true beliefs:
It was with this model, that Ted used in the late 1970s, when he led a turn-around for an Insurance company for a region that was losing money. In a very short time it went from losing $41,400 per year to earning a profit of $2,000,000 per year. And he increased revenues from $690,000 to over $5 million per year. That is one of the earliest cases we share in the book Ted and I wrote together “Flow: Get Everyone Moving in the Right Direction . . . and Loving It” and published in 2018.
What’s your Worldview?!
Behind every fighting style there is a philosophy that underpins it. All religions, philosophies and “isms” are also built on the first three (3) “Rs” of the 4R Model (that I learned back in the early 1980s -and- the origins of this primordial framework go back almost 5,000 years):
So the wisdom that is the bedrock of Flow Leadership is deep and ancient. We have Distilled and captured the patterns of success and put them into modern language. The reason Flow Leadership works and is duplicatable is that it is based on foundational Truth.
Feel free to use Eastern metaphors, but be aware that some of the mindsets for all martial arts are war. They are designed for you to defeat, humiliate and/or kill your opponent. That hardly aligns with the “Agile” idea of collaboration and cooperation; or, even modern leadership.
Flow Delivers Results in the East and West!
We have duplicated the remarkable results that Flow Leadership delivers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. Flow is agnostic to the national, regional, business, team and individual cultures that are out there.
The case studies outlining the teams’ success are shared in our book Flow. And, if you are really curious about the philosophical mindset and thinking of Flow, check out our first book, “The Nehemiah Effect: Ancient Wisdom from the World’s First Agile Projects” that was published back in 2014. Btw, it was an Amazon bestseller in multiple sub-categories, multiple times since being released (even have a rather heavy glass sculpture somewhere here at home as an award for that achievement).
Not using Flow yet? Let’s chat!
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For those that are not familiar with the Flow Leadership Framework & Mindset, it is what’s next for businesses and organizations that are ready to succeed regardless of the methods, frameworks or management tools that they use throughout their enterprise. Flow is methodology agnostic.
Are you ‘in the zone’ of optimal performance right now as a person, team or enterprise? Did you get there by accident or by focused intentional acts?
“Flow” gives you the way of working and mindset needed to create and maintain an optimal state of high performance as an individual, team or organization.
The Flow Leadership Framework turbocharges everything you do, including “business agile” leadership and Scaled Agile.
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