We held a retreat with the constraint of 'adopting only a shareholder perspective.' What insights did we gain from it?
Hello. I am Hasegawa, Representative of RELATIONS.
I traveled to Kanazawa, where autumn is deepening, and held what was likely our first retreat since our founding with the constraint of adopting only a shareholder perspective. Today, I would like to write about that.
Retreat Overview
First, here is the theme of this retreat.
“Completely step away from daily operations and immerse yourself entirely in the shareholder perspective. And, what can be seen from there?”
The participants were five internal members who are also shareholders.In Holacracy, shareholders are defined as having a 'Shareholder Role'.
The fact that we are in a state where there is no boundary between being a shareholder and performing regular duties is, I believe, a major factor that led to holding this retreat. The question that had emerged during internal dialogues, “Who is actually standing from a true shareholder perspective?” struck a chord with the members. If so, let's do it. That is how this theme and the setting were planned. Since it was difficult to align the members' schedules, when we checked, we found that RELATIONS' official band,
Poissons, which includes shareholder members, was scheduled to perform at a jazz festival in Kanazawa. Since everyone, including those members, could gather in Kanazawa, we got excited on the spot and decided to hold the retreat at Kaga Onsen in Ishikawa Prefecture.Let's immerse ourselves in the shareholder perspective. And, let's also immerse ourselves in the hot springs.
It rhymes quite well, doesn't it? (laughs)
There were three main topics covered at the retreat.
① What is a shareholder at RELATIONS?
② What is the difference between a shareholder and management at RELATIONS?
③ What do you want to convey to the current RELATIONS from a shareholder perspective?
Each theme is quite high-calorie, but we took our time to engage in dialogue on each one. I will explain a little about each.
① What is a shareholder at RELATIONS?
In proceeding with the dialogue, we first decided on a definition.
We decided to position the shareholder that RELATIONS envisions as a “Fire Keeper” who deeply explores the purpose and watches over the fire so that it can be vividly expressed in the real world. = Fire Keeper.
Usually, as a legal concept, shareholder rights bring to mind decision-making powers such as dividends, dissolution, and M&A, or the right to appoint representative directors. While they certainly fulfill those functions, we thought that when asked,
“What is the most important thing as a shareholder?”, it might be that the sentiment like the aforementioned “Fire Keeper” is flowing at the root.
The exploration of purpose is an indispensable element for shareholders. This is because I believe that the reason for a company's existence ultimately resides in its purpose.
That purpose is the most fundamental thing in the space called RELATIONS, and I think it is important that the people who gather there explore it daily and internalize it little by little.
② What is the difference between a shareholder and management at RELATIONS?
This is an obvious point, but shareholders cannot exert specific influence on daily operational decision-making or investments. Those who make the decisions are the members in charge of management.
Then, what role should shareholders play?
One hint was the metaphor of a river. A river has a source, from which a headstream is born, and the flow continues to the upper, middle, and lower reaches.
Let's assume that 'management is the act of members balancing their roles across the upstream, midstream, and downstream processes.'If we do that,
the shareholder's role is to stand at the source.Standing at the source and gazing at what is most important there (the purpose), 'How does the entire flow of the river look now?'. I believe the greatest role is to voice this clearly and convey it to each member in the upstream, midstream, and downstream. is the greatest role.
What I keenly felt during this retreat was that when you intentionally experience the feeling of 'standing at the source,' you strangely begin to see the discrepancies in what you are doing. I was able to experience the importance of setting the parameters firmly and then immersing myself completely in that perspective.
③ From a shareholder's perspective, what do you want to convey to RELATIONS now?
Following the dialogues in ① and ②, what do we want to convey to RELATIONS? To clarify this, each person voiced the 'sense of discomfort felt when imagining standing at the source.'
Surprisingly, what emerged during the dialogue was the keyword 'nukadoko' (rice bran fermentation bed). (laughs)
For a shareholder, couldn't the company itself be positioned as a 'nukadoko'?
The invisible microorganisms existing within the nukadoko create a fermentation process when vegetables are added, resulting in delicious pickles. Through this repetition, the state of the bran also changes.
The way the original bran is generated looks like organizational development or the cultivation of corporate culture. And if a good culture is built, customers and employees resonate openly, and each naturally becomes more 'themselves.'
From a shareholder's perspective, RELATIONS is a nukadoko centered on purpose. There was an excitement like a flash of inspiration that it might just be that!
The clincher was when the manga 'Oishinbo' came up. (laughs) 'There was a scene where Shiro Yamaoka tasted the nukadoko itself, rather than the pickles, to determine the state of the bed. Isn't that what a shareholder is!? It seems better to focus on the nukadoko itself rather than looking at the finished pickles!'
With that realization born, the entire session became energized. (laughs)
Through our support as consultants and invitations to RELATIONS' internal meetings and retreats, it is also attractive that we can 'share a portion of the nukadoko itself' with RELATIONS' customers. By mixing the shared nukadoko with the one the customer already had, the soil of the customer's company also improves, and good pickles begin to grow. That's the image. It's a feeling of influencing each other and creating something better.
I thought the idea of creating a good nukadoko was very characteristic of RELATIONS.
Also, when we proceeded with the theme 'What kind of color do we want to add to the nukadoko in the future?', words like 'a culture that creates opportunities', 'a culture that overlaps organizational and individual purposes' were raised.
Based on the content of these dialogues, we opened the minutes themselves to the entire company as a proposal to RELATIONS.
Below, I will share a portion of the minutes.
New attempts for the future
By immersing myself in the shareholder perspective this time, I experienced how the way of seeing various things changes, making it a retreat full of insights and suggestions.
As I touched upon briefly in the minutes above, RELATIONS plans to make new attempts regarding stocks in the future. Until now, we have explored new forms of company management through mechanisms like Holacracy and company-wide retreats, but from now on, we would like to introduce 'mechanisms of autonomous decentralization and empathy' into the shareholder perspective as well. As one part of this, we are in the middle of designing with a focus on an employee stock ownership plan. I would like to share more about this on note in the future.
That's all for today.
Let's make it a great day.