“Why do the Japanese ask permission for everything?”

Delegation is not easy. Managers often fear a loss of control when considering to allow teams to self-organize, and team members sometimes don’t know how to self-organize. With Delegation Poker, you can discuss where best to place the boundaries around self-organization, so that managers and teams are equally motivated to do a best possible job. One of the popular practices of Management 3.0 is the use of Delegation Boards. In a delegation board, you describe which delegation level is applicable for a key decision area (KDA). You can find more information on delegation boards on this page. This blog post is not about explaining the theoretical practice, this blog post examines why at a certain moment, delegation levels just won’t. Delegating is one of the best approaches that managers or leaders in an organization can use. Primarily, there are 6 steps of delegation of tasks successfully. In most occasions, managers fail to implement all of them and later complain about their employees’ inefficiency in getting their job done.

Delegation Poker. When we talk about delegation then it says that either I do it or you do it. But in delegation poker there are seven levels of the game. In all these levels, we identify that who is responsible for what and what is the level of that person.

I often get asked this question when I speak to western executives who have begun managing Japanese employees in a traditional Japanese multi-national company.

Yet, when I speak to Japanese executives who manage western employees, I get the complete opposite question: “Why do westerners make decisions that I did not authorize?”

Why does this happen?

To answer the question, it may be easier to look at the problem from the subordinate’s perspective.

The following conversation took place between an expatriate (British) and a Japanese from one of my cross-cultural workshops. Each was explaining to the other what was (and was not) delegated when attending a meeting conducted in English.

British Employee/Western Boss:

'If the boss sent me to represent our department, she would tell me what not to say before the meeting. This means I can make any decision unless she specifically stated I could not. The boss will respect my decision even if she disagrees. Otherwise, she would have attended the meeting herself.'

Perception:

What I cannot say is made very clear. When I’m delegated a job, the extent to which I may use my own initiative or judgment generally has pre-set limits.

Anything that’s not expressly defined is left for me to make my own call. The boss will support my decision even if she doesn’t entirely agree with it.

Japanese Employee/Japanese Boss:

'Going into global meetings* and being pressed to make a decision is very hard. I always need to ask myself 'What if the boss disagrees?' If that happened, I’d have to go back to every person who was in the meeting and tell them that I rescind my decision. The boss has ultimate authority and I respect that.”

Perception:

What I can do without permission is clear, though often very limited. I should not make a call on anything which falls outside of those parameters.

What’s going on here?

In corporate Japan, especially in elite companies, it takes at least 15 years to become a senior manager. Both the managers and their subordinates feel that the boss has earned the right and authority to reverse any decisions made by a subordinate.

Delegation Poker Situations Examples

In a western corporation, bosses need to empower their employees - especially the most talented - or they often leave the company. That's why a flexible approach is important. Usually, there is no backlash if an employee says something that the boss disagrees with later.

If western managers assume that Japanese employees will make their own decisions based on “what not to say or do,” it really doesn’t help the Japanese with their decision making.

This is because they’re working from the premise of what they have permission to say or do, i.e., what has been authorized.

To Japanese, “what not to say or do” falls outside of these parameters into a big gray area.

And since Japanese have been punished for making independent decisions from childhood, they feel extremely uncomfortable making decisions without your permission.

Is there a solution?

Recently, I discovered an interesting tool called “Delegation Poker,” I used this during a cross-cultural workshop to resolve this issue.

Yes, it’s a game, but there’s no gambling involved!

This tool was developed by the author of “Management 3.0,” Jurgen Appelo.

The basis for the Delegation Poker game is the idea of The 7 Levels of Authority:

1. Tell: The boss decides and does not need to explain why.
2. Sell: The boss decides but will sell her idea to others.
3. Consult: The boss gets input from others and then makes the decision.
4. Agree: A discussion takes place between everyone involved and a consensus is reached.
5. Advise: The boss gives an opinion which she hopes is noted, but the subordinate decides.
6. Inquire: The boss allows subordinates to make a decision, but they must explain the wisdom of the decision later.
7. Delegate: The boss lets a subordinate decide and doesn’t want to know the details.

Here’s how to play Delegation Poker:

1. Divide the participants into groups and ask them to choose a pre-defined case to work with. A simple example of this is: “What to do before purchasing a new piece of office equipment valued at over $500.00.”
2. Every player privately selects one of the seven cards. This will reflect how far they are prepared to delegate a decision for the agreed task - assuming they were the boss.
3. Once all players have decided, at a count of three, they simultaneously reveal their selected cards.
4. The cards chosen will probably be quite different. Allow the people with the highest and the lowest numbered cards to explain their selection.
5. Ask the group to achieve consensus on a level of delegation.
6. All the results are put on a delegation board which is displayed in the office for all to see. When the delegation rules are not followed, the boss can use the board to explain where the process fell down. Delegation levels are adjusted after testing in real situations. Pre-determined cases can be added as they arise.

After completing this cross cultural workshop using Delegation Poker, I’d recommend this game for the following reasons:

• Visualizing the hidden perceptions:

The game highlighted the assumptions each side makes with delegation that we often take for granted. You’ll see that most Japanese participants will choose levels 1-3 (boss decides) as opposed to western participants who will more often choose levels 5-7 (boss delegates). Hearing the “why” from each side leads to an increased understanding of these different perceptions.

• What is delegated, and to what degree, is very clear:

Delegation Poker focuses on what is actually delegated and not the “you can do anything except this” approach. This is much more aligned with how Japanese think.

• Everyone voices their opinion:

Since everyone must raise their cards simultaneously, Japanese participants are forced to take a position on what they believe the delegation level should be.

• Placing the delegation board where everyone can see it reinforces the process:

When someone is confused, or questions are raised about a process, it’s easy to direct people to the delegation board and show them where a particular action falls in a predefined case.

In addition, if there is a predefined case that is missing, it can easily be added to the delegation board. This works very well for the Japanese mindset as each action is well defined.

Overall, I think the number-one benefit is the discussion surrounding why people selected a specific card. This compels participants to consider the perceptions of the other side, making it a great cross-cultural learning experience.

It also ensures an effective means to get the job done!

Japanese and Westerners certainly have their own specific styles of delegation, which are influenced by cultural norms.

So if you’re struggling to empower your Japanese staff to take more decision-making responsibility, then this might be the solution you need.

Interested to know more about how Delegation Poker could help your team?

Reach out to me and I’ll answer your questions.

As always, thanks for reading and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts below.

* In solely Japanese meetings, employees are not pressed to make a decision since meetings aren’t structured in that way. The Nemawashi process removes potential conflict between a Japanese employee and their Japanese boss.

I was asked to run a training for twelve managers on the topic “Leading over distance”. This is what has emerged during the briefing:

• an organizational culture mostly focused on “plan and control”
• a manager mindset mainly oriented on micromanagement
• extreme difficulties in chartering a smart working pilot project

I have decided to use an agile management 3.0 tool: delegation poker. My challenging aim was to convey the idea that even in a plan and control paradigm there was some space to use delegation in a very progressive and “controlled” way. I know it could sounds very awkward to many of you. But eventually it worked. It was like introducing a young child to something he/she initially was afraid of based on his/her preconceptions.

In remote working the ability to delegate is essential.It was essential for these managers too. The crucial point was trying to find a way so that they could look at it in terms of a useful, and not “menacing”, management tool.

Delegation Poker Situations Chart

In many other previous trainings what participants were told was basically this: “delegation is good”. But considering their culture what they really needed was to be guided “hand in hand” on how to use the art of delegation with their employees.

Since participants were managers with different roles and functions I have decided to introduce five cases relatively generic so that all of them could identify themselves with those cases, adding personal experiences. Before discussing the cases I have introduced participants to the seven levels of delegation as described by J.Appelo that you cand find here.

Delegation Poker Situations List

Here are three of the five cases proposed:

1. It is time for the annual performance evaluation. During this meeting you will have to define your employee goals. In your opinion which is the best level of delegation to use for this task?
2. A client has sent you an email complaining about the frequent delay of the work of one of your employees. In your opinion which is the best level of delegation to use in dealing with this situation?
3. It is time to make a decision regarding the chance to explore new markets. In your opinion which is the best level of delegation for discussing this topic with your team?

I divided participants in two teams and I gave delegation cards to each member. Taking turns everyone has read a case. All team members could add something to it in order to better contextualize it. Since delegation is context-dependent, having in mind a clear picture of the context is very important.

Each participants picked the card that indicated the most appropriate level of delegation for the case presented. A group discussion followed. After this, people have had two minutes to vote again the “right” level of delegation they would have chosen. After this second round those who have chosen the highest level but represent a minority, didn’t get any point. While others could get points according to the level of delegation chosen.

The core of the exercise was coming to realize, in a safe place like the session training, that although they were all belonging to the same company, immersed in the same organizational culture – plan and control, there were managers who choose high level of delegation.They came to realize that there were different ways to promote internal accountability and engagement in employees.

Participants have had also a chance to experience the fact that delegation is not a binary thing but a management tool full of “shades of gray”. In other terms, it was only by taking them by their hands that they could face their preconceptions about delegation and see that they could use it in a gradually less controlled way.

What this experience thought me is to keep relying on my “gut”. After the briefing I was not so sure about using this management 3.0 tool within this group of managers. But as soon as I get into the session, I have had the feeling that for all of us this would have been a challenging experience and at the same time a very useful one. And this is how it went…luckily!