Isshin-Mushin-Zanshin

Isshin – Mushin – Zanshin

By Rob Lane, Dayton, Ohio

Today’s work environment is exceedingly demanding. Nationally, the United States of America is in an economic “slow down”, but locally your town just might be in a functional depression that rivals the 1920’s. Without question, people have been laid off (you might even know someone who has lost his job) and those still employed are being asked to do more within a typical work week.

So how, in this fragmented and overworked environment, do we increase our output and personally maintain the quality of our deliverable to our employers and customers? My secret: apply proven martial arts concepts to my 8 to 5 work schedule as mental models or workplace tactics as a way to manage my day, week, and career.

As an example, let’s look at: Isshin – Mushin – Zanshin.

These martial arts concepts provide a useful mental framework for being productive when the rest of the world is in motion rather than being in action! These simple three words serve as a background, a stage, the internal software (or attitude) for managing almost any situation in today’s challenging workplace place.

Let’s explore the practical meaning of this three-in-one concept using my own personal work environment as a case study. I currently work as a Supply Chain Architect at a large healthcare company, creating relationships with 1600 suppliers within a 1.5 billion dollar healthcare system. My company has 16,000 employees and spends $465 million dollars annually on non-labor expense. Everyone wants something and they usually want it now. My job is to make that happen…as cheaply as possible without sacrificing quality.

So, how do I put Isshin-Mushin-Zanshin in action when I walk in the door each morning? Let’s take each word, one by one.

Isshin: In its purest form, Ishin means “connect” or “making connection”. More accurately, the word means “to make a deliberate connection” or to be deliberate about the connections you are making. Actions are not random; they are intentional. This may seem like a simple concept in the brain, but, day to day, it’s never that simple.

In martial arts, we learn to connect to the problem; to “dial in” on a physical, energetic and even spiritual level. This connecting process (Isshin) removes distance between us and a problem thus melding two things, us and a problem, into a single energetic episode in time and space. The reverse aspect of this process is to understand “what not to connect to”. Choosing the right connection point is one of the key “magic tricks” for all martial arts, and the same theory or idea applies to business and our respective workplaces. We could probably spend 20 hours a day being all things to all people at work but, logically, we might never develop a specialized skill set that makes us economically attractive.

One of the games I play at work is to imagine every request, task, project, e-mail, voice mail as an “attack” or a thing I need to manage in order to move through my day. My secret tactic, applying Isshin, is that I only respond or connect to those “attacks” that look like “knock out punches”. To be less metaphoric, I only do those things that have direct and visible meaning to my job and function at work (those actions or requests that have a meaningful impact on my productivity or output).

As example, given an “in the moment” choice between sending an e-mail about a lower price on a transcription agreement, returning a phone call about a broken copier or replying to an e-mail from my boss, I will focus first on the transcription agreement because it has the greatest measurable impact to preserving 16,000 employees’ jobs.

After years of practice, I’m now at the point where I don’t let work tasks take me off balance emotionally or energetically because I have chosen my next action rather than counter-react to everyone’s request.

Another side effect of mastering Isshin is that once you learn how to select the right task from your list of options, the corporate universe will give you more of the same. Corporate leadership tends to notice how people move within their space and thus you will begin to build a reputation or personal legend based on “what you’re working on”.

So as a recap, Isshin, in corporate America, should be viewed as being mindful, deliberately choosing those tasks that make the workplace condition a better place. Realistically, this takes time to master, but practicing with smaller opportunities allows you to change the energy of reaction and move more toward making that deliberate connection, thus being in “action”.

The second concept is Mushin; its simple meaning is “driving”. However, Mushin is really about guiding your choice to a predetermined outcome or condition, regardless of distractions, obstacles, or alternative solutions. The critical piece of this attitude, which builds with practice, is to be mostly correct about your resolution. Tools like project plans, task lists, project scopes and gnat charts are all mechanisms to measure how quickly you are moving on a task. But these standard business tools are not a substitute for a Mushin (I know where I’m going) attitude; they are instruments that need a driver to use them effectively.

As an example, I just completed a project where our company installed four parking machines in a nine-story parking garage. This undertaking required coordination, input and agreement of fifteen people from all walks of corporate life. The team had a five week deadline, and someone needed to create the task list to drive the respective people on the team to a “finished product”. As project leader, I created a master task list and broke out each section by person. This visual separation was critical because at every meeting we sat down and discussed each person’s progress on their respective task list. I was directing, driving, and pointing each person at the table to a specific place by a specific date. They were in motion on completing their task but I was in action driving all the people to a final install date. Importantly, the mere completion of tasks is not Mushin. Rather, Mushin is the knowing of where you are going when you are doing the doing. Mushin is very specific because it’s the skill of seeing the final product before it actually occurs and moving toward manifesting what you see. Another way to look at this is when you know the address of your final destination as you drive there on a long and potholed road trip. Parking machines may not seem like a big deal in a multibillion dollar company, but this year we will collect 1.3 million dollars from people who park in our parking garages. This is $400,000.00 more than we collected last year. Again, this $400,000.00 is critical to preserving 16,000 healthcare worker jobs.

Finally, Zanshin. Yes, my old friend Zanshin. “Zanshin” means “maintaining connection”. Ironically, this concept is the easiest to implement, but may have the most important long-term effect. Zanshin is why people get promoted even in lousy economic times like these. Zanshin is “maintaining connection” but not in the obvious way.

In corporate America, people are “doing” millions of “tasks,” from revamping parking garage payment systems to carrying out highly complex and difficult surgeries on human beings. These all reflect important projects that keep the company, the health care system, operating. Best of all, they will benefit from the consistent application of Zanshin. As I plod along to my next corporate work challenge, I will keep the project plan for my parking garage payment upgrade and check back in with the supplier that is maintaining our equipment and reporting the dollars we are collecting. I will review a spreadsheet showing how much money we gained every month over the next year. I will also reach out every few months and connect with finance, IT and maintenance departments to see how things are going. Honestly, after five weeks of constant challenge, I have bonded with some new people and expanded my corporate “network of help”. Shamelessly, these new friendships could help me on a future project so I will “keep them close” or Zanshin my newly found relationships. In short, maintaining contact, Zanshin, does not mean I will be doing work but rather keeping the story of the project alive as the new structure rolls out.

Another side benefit of practicing “Zanshin” at work is becoming the person within your company who is seen as the “Archivist” of all things important. Obviously, being the person who holds the memory or facts can be very powerful if the project is ever resurrected or someone in a new position has questions about that project and you are known as the “go-to” person.

So in closing:

1) Be courageous and select the right task from a basket of “things to do”: Isshin.

2) Be bold enough to drive what you do to a predetermined “space” that is highest and best for you and your company: Mushin.

3) Be the keeper of the updated story / facts (and keep a paper copy in your filing cabinet at home for future reference): Zanshin.

Enjoy and remember to train hard, Monday through Friday – 8:00am to 5:00pm.

*Please Note: The original teaching of Isshin – Mushin – Zanshin was graciously given to me by my Sensei Mr. Thomas Jotoshi Maienza in Aiki Ninjutsu training, July, 2004. I will be forever grateful that my teacher showed me the path and gave me the skill set to walk the path.