Hey, 

I hope you are doing safe and well. Been quite busy here at Lambert Towers. Kids are finishing school, house projects underway and working on some cool new projects. I hope you are enjoying your week so far.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Waste Reduction Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

Mottainai - a regret of waste

Mottainai - a Japanese term that translates along the lines of “regret of waste” or maybe similar to the saying “Waste not, want not”.  

It is a term I first encountered during a conversation on the Stationery Freaks podcast, with Frank, who makes Travellers Notebooks. (I co-host the show btw).

In the context of stationery, Frank was talking about not wasting natural resources and instead, using them carefully. Mottainai is part of his philosophy to re-use, care for and appreciate resources.

However, it got my mind thinking about work - and the common waste of human potential (I refuse to call humans at work resources). Instead, it's about the human's resources of time, energy and attention - and whether it is being used carefully, considerately and appropriately.

I have written plenty before about the waste of human potential in work - and it is, sadly, very prevalent in many workplace.

Mottainai - at work

In many companies there is waste in many forms - especially when it comes to human potential - and the poor use of human's resources of time, energy and attention.

There is a lack of releasing people’s real potential and underutilising their capabilities. This is not only a crying shame for the business to waste such an opportunity but also for individuals - not being able to bring their full potential to the work they do.

There are long meetings, heated discussions and circular arguments about theories and mechanics, when these are often fruitless conversations as it's not even clear what the goals, aims, business results and outcomes are.

Weeks are wasted, energy and attention are misguided, duplicate work is happening, and people are wading through mud to gain some form of clarity. Clarity that could, and should, be provided upfront before the wheels start to move - even if that clarity is only to the next waypoint on the horizon. 

There are politics that override sensible decision making as people shoot down good ideas to save face, or because they don’t like the person who proposed the idea, or because they’re afraid of being seen as inferior, weak or falling behind. 

There are poor behaviours left unchecked, allowed to fester until the workplace becomes so toxic people have no choice but to hunker down, play along or leave for their own wellbeing. All the while their time, energy and attention is spent navigating the toxicity rather than getting good work done.

There are delays, governance boards that don’t make decisions, red tape and a whole host of dysfunctions in the system of work that prevent good people from doing good work for customers, and instead burn time, energy and attention on fighting the system, cheating it or idling away waiting for things to be fixed.

There are pointless reports, metrics that drive the wrong behaviour and reporting lines that are created out of what appears to be sheer madness - rather than a strong compelling business need. 

All of this is waste. Waste of the most important type - human potential and people's finite resources of time, energy and attention.

Only this week, in several separate conversations outside of my work, there were stories of wasteful activity, people doing work that was several steps below what they are capable of, rework and duplicate work, and people working on activities that literally have no connection to any master plan or vision.

Mottainai can help

Mottainai is a helpful concept to come back to - the regret over waste.

In the examples above, all real by the way, I often don’t see much regret from leaders and managers.

A shrug of the shoulders, “never mind”, “not my fault or problem”, “part of business” - all ways to pass the burden rather than acknowledge the wasteful situation, show some regret and work to improve the world of work. 

But it's not just about the regret of waste, Mottainai is about working out how to prevent the waste in the first place; to appreciate what you have (people) and work out how not to waste it.

Mottainai encourages us to avoid discarding this human potential and creating waste in the first place - to avoid the regret. 

Mottainai encourages us to be in awe or appreciation of what we have and who we work with - and to be thankful. And to work hard to ensure people are reaching their potential, developing in the job and being seen for what they are good at.

Mottainai encourages us to understand, acknowledge and say thank you to the potential, people and capital we have. 

Mottainai encourages us to care for, to look after, and in some respects, love what we have. Yes, this applies to our teams and people too. 

Mottainai encourages us to seek out how to use what we have - to add value and contribute to the world. 

Of course, we must deal with low performance, and yes, we must work with other people who share different values to us, and yes, we have problems at work - but that shouldn’t stop us from pondering the human potential and capital we have - and avoiding wasting it. 

Waste is not just people’s capability, it is their most valuable resources; time, energy and attention.

Many people spend their days treading water, wading through mud, repeating work, reworking repeatedly and dealing with systemic problems that can, and should, be fixed.

This is a waste - and Mottainai encourages us to ponder it in order to avoid it, and to regret it when it happens - and to learn from it. 

I for one have always tried to see, embrace, encourage and respect the potential of every person in my team. I've tried to notice people's strengths (even if they are outside of their job role), to ensure work is developing people, and to ensure that it's crystal clear what we're trying to achieve.

I now know what to call it - Mottainai.

Until next time

Rob..

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