Have you take a train in Japan recently?
No, me neither.
Never in fact.
Not been to Japan at all.
But I’ve been reading about it.
If you do get a train in Japan, watch out for the white gloved uniformed employees pointing and calling things out seemingly to no one.
They’ll track their pointy finger along the length of the in-station track like they’re starting the YMCA.
And declaring すべてをクリア.
——- “All clear” in case you weren’t already aware ———-
And lots of similar points and calls – a process they call ‘shisa kanko’.
Since they adopted this process, workplace errors have reduced by 85%.
Meaning they get things wrongs about one seventh of the time they used to.
The process of pointing and verbalising what you’re doing makes you pay attention that bit much more than doing it without.
Makes the process more conscious than sub-conscious.
More something you’re actually thinking about rather than doing on auto-pilot.
It’s a tactic we could try employing.
Or, at least a version of it.
Imagine pointing at a bottle of wine and saying, out loud, “I’m going to drink this bottle of wine, gain weight and feel rough in the morning because Bob at work annoyed me today”.
Or “I am going to demolish this tub of Ben and Jerry’s and immediately feel awful and regret it because I’ve had a hard day”.
Or pointing at your workout gear in your car boot and saying “I’m going to not do the planned workout today, which would energise me and make me feel better, because I’m tired”.
You get the idea.
Even if you’d feel stupid doing it in front of people, maybe imagining the whole process would make a difference.
Imagine that you are pointing and say the whole sentence in your head.
It might just be enough to take us from that un-conscious auto-pilot to that conscious consideration.
Much love,
Jon ‘町の人’ Hall and Matt ‘若者’ Nicholson
P.S. Even with Google Translate, there’s a bit of side ways thinking needed with those middle names.
P.P.S. このリンクをクリックし、あえて –> myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting
