The truly pathetic defeat of a man who required 'seven people' to take over his duties.
(*Note: This article dissects itself from a perspective that is somewhat pedantic and elegant, much like a certain police inspector from a special investigation unit in a certain drama.)
“With you here, this site is safe.” There was a time when I took those words at face value and believed without a doubt that they were proof of my own 'competence'.
In medical and welfare settings, I would turn around the numbers and bring order to chaotic organizations. One night, I filled every 'gap' with my own body, and after returning home as if I had whittled away my life, I collapsed at the entrance and spent the rest of the night there until morning.
However... “Was that really what you could call management?”
After I left the organization, something strange happened. It is said that the people left behind at the site began to mock me as a 'Zashiki-warashi' (a house-dwelling spirit). Miraculously, peace was maintained only while I was there, and the moment I left, good fortune fled and the organization plunged into the red.
The culprit who invited that 'disaster' was none other than myself. The evidence that I had made the organization dependent on 'myself' rather than on a 'system' appeared clearly during the handover process.
To share the work that I alone had been carrying, a staggering seven people were brought in. I felt like Snow White surrounded by seven dwarfs, but it was no laughing matter. In another workplace, although there was only one successor, the handover that should have taken 10 days at most took two whole months.
“It takes seven people to fill the gap left by one. Or, it takes two months to teach one person.”
This is not a badge of honor for me. It is a record of a fatal 'design flaw' as a manager, where I relied on a black box called my own personal 'horsepower' to solve problems that should have been solved by an 'OS (system)'.
By continuing to fill the gaps in the field as a 'Zashiki-warashi,' I had robbed the organization of its ability to breathe and run on its own.
...Well then. Why was I unable to 'erase' myself to such an extent? Why was it that not a single one of the subordinates I had supposedly been training so enthusiastically had grown?
Next time, I will tell you about the 'despair of a charismatic leader' that I faced.
📌 Fusion Partners
We support organizational design in medical and welfare settings through systems.
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Representative Yasuaki Shibayama
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