Progressive Business Leaders Apply Kintsugi in the Workplace

Kintsugi, the 500-year-old Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, preserving, and celebrating the beauty of scars creating a stronger, more beautiful piece and progressive business leaders are applying this concept in the workplace.   

There are 3 key elements of a business that can be considered ‘broken’ people, policies & processes, and culture and kintsugi can be applied to.   These leaders start by applying impartial, curious, solution-seeking mindsets and then they create safe environments for team members to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

 How to Kintsugi: 

1. People – Everyone deserves respect so begin ruling out broken procedures and culture before exploring if it is the person.  If the person is legitimately identified as needing attention you first engage in conversation with them applying the impartial, curious, solution-seeking mindset in a safe environment.  Please be sure to adhere to your legal responsibilities in this process. 

Sally is often late for work and we are going to let her go.  After talking with her we discover her lateness is because she has a child in the hospital, and she visits her before work, or her vehicle has broken down requiring her to take public transport. 

These are solvable issues and applying Kintsugi will be far more cost-effective and productive for the business than trashing and rehashing.

2. Procedures – There are many indicators of broken procedures: low employee engagement, customer dissatisfaction, poor talent acquisition, and more. 

Jim did not handle the pressure of the interview well, so we decide not to hire him. 

Why was the interview pressurised?  Most interviewees will have a level of nervousness in an interview situation and it is essential to put them at ease to uncover their skills and potential fit in the team. 

3. Company Culture – The indicators are the same as those of broken procedures with the addition of significant employee turnover.  A business should be aiming to retain an employee for 3 - 5 years.  If it is typical for your employees to turnover before the 3-year service mark this is an indication that you may have a broken culture. 

This requires starting conversations with your people and conducting Exit Interviews to gain insights and start making remedial adjustments. 

The RIPPLE team is highly regarded in their areas of expertise and we are here to help you Kintsugi your team so reach out to us at team@ripple.net.nz.