Getting Your People to Step Up

CHAPTER 5SHOSHIN: Encouraging lifelong learning

Businesses are constantly being ‘upgraded’ as a result of change and innovation, making it important for people to adapt and learn new skills throughout their careers. As business leaders and owners, we need people that are lifelong learners — or at least willing to be.

I recently took my daughter (who is in high school) to a university open day. We attended four lectures in various careers. Each session mentioned that this generation will have six to eight careers. That is a lot of careers, and each of those careers will require a lot of shoshin with each transition into the next career.

Shoshin refers to a ‘beginner's mind’, which is a concept rooted in Zen Buddhism and can be applied to personal growth, creativity and learning. It is the idea of looking at situations and experiences with an open, curious and humble mindset, regardless of experience. It encourages you to adopt the mind of a beginner, even when you've got plenty of experience, knowledge or skills.

The term ‘shoshin’ consists of two Japanese characters:

• ‘sho’ (初) means ‘beginning’ or ‘open’
• ‘shin’ (心) means ‘mind’ or ‘heart’

Therefore, I see shoshin as the quality of having a ‘beginner's mind’ or ‘open heart’.

Imagine if ALL the people in your business had a beginner's mind or open heart. You would be surrounded by people who did not constantly complain or make comments such as ‘we've done this before and it didn't work’. ‘Yes!’ you might think. ‘I would like ...