Mottainai at Work: How to Avoid Wasting Human Potential

Mottainai is a Japanese term that translates loosely as “the regret of waste” — similar to the phrase “waste not, want not.”

I first came across it during a conversation on the Stationery Freaks podcast with Frank, who makes Traveller’s Notebooks. (I co-host the show.) In the context of stationery, Frank was talking about not wasting natural resources — instead reusing, caring for, and appreciating them.

That idea stuck with me. Because if there’s one place where waste is everywhere, it’s the workplace. But it’s not paperclips or post-it notes or paper that get wasted (well, it does in some places). It’s something far more valuable: human potential.

Waste at Work

In many companies, people’s most precious resources — their time, energy, and attention — are routinely squandered.

• Long meetings and circular arguments with no clear goals or outcomes.
• Weeks lost to duplicate work, unclear priorities, or waiting for decisions that never come.
• Office politics that block good ideas out of ego, fear, or power plays.
• Toxic behaviours left unchecked until people disengage or leave.
• Governance, red tape, and bureaucracy that burn energy instead of creating value.
• Metrics and reporting lines that drive the wrong behaviour and achieve nothing useful.
• Implementing theories that have no utility, and have not been tested for accuracy.

All of this adds up to the worst kind of waste: the waste of human potential.

I’ve heard countless recent examples: people working well below their capability, producing reports nobody reads, or carrying out tasks with no connection to any real goal or vision.

It’s a tragedy — both for businesses that miss out on value, and for individuals who never get to bring their full selves to work.

How Mottainai Helps

Mottainai gives us a useful lens. It’s not just about regretting waste after the fact. It’s about appreciating what we have and avoiding waste in the first place.

In the workplace, that means leaders and managers must do more than shrug and say “that’s business”, or "try again next year."

Instead, they need to:

• Acknowledge waste when they see it.
• Provide clarity before teams start moving, even if it’s just to the next waypoint.
• Remove pointless bureaucracy and delays.
• Deal with poor behaviours before they take root.
• Notice people’s strengths, even those outside their job description.
• Ensure work develops people and helps them reach their potential.

It’s about treating people with care, appreciation, and yes — even respect and love for what they bring.

The Real Waste

The greatest waste in most organisations isn’t unused stationery or abandoned processes. It’s the loss of people’s time, energy, and attention.

Too many employees spend their days treading water, reworking, doing duplicate work and dealing with poor behaviours from others. That’s waste. And Mottainai urges us not only to regret it, but to prevent it, learn from it, and treat people’s potential as something precious.

For me, this concept finally gave a name to something I’ve always tried to do as a leader: notice strengths, ensure clarity, and create an environment where people can grow.

Now I call it what it is: Mottainai.