🌸Management Future Notebook - Wednesday (Issue 63) - Complete Preservation Edition: 'Where You Place Authority Determines the Future of the Organization' — Redesigning Promotion Decisions Based on Spacetime Axes and Human Understanding
🌸Management Future Notebook - Wednesday (Issue 63) - Complete Preservation Edition
'Where You Place Authority Determines the Future of the Organization'
— Redesigning Promotion Decisions Based on Spacetime Axes and Human Understanding
(Written by Akifumi Yasumura / Business Ability Development Co., Ltd.)
Wednesdays are dedicated to delivering 'human growth and awareness.'
We re-examine team and individual relationships, and deepen self-understanding and human understanding through Enneagram coaching and case studies.
■ Introduction
'Please demote this person.'
As an external HR advisor, I have made this request exactly once.
It was regarding a newly promoted department manager.
The reason was clear.
I judged that they were 'not a vessel worthy of being entrusted with authority.'
A promotion is not a reward.
A promotion is an act of unleashing influence upon an organization.
That person's decision-making criteria, how they handle emotions, their view of the future—
everything spreads as ripples throughout the entire organization.
In your company, are you using promotions as 'rewards for results'?
■ Job Titles are 'Time Axes'
In classical organizational theory, job titles have been determined by the 'length of time one can handle.'
• Supervisory roles: 3 months to 1 year
• Middle management: 1 to 2 years
• Senior management: 2 to 5 years
• Executive level: 5 years or more
The background to this organization is the 'Time Span of Discretion' theory by British organizational theorist Elliott Jaques.
In other words, the idea is that job titles are determined by the 'length of time one can handle.'
This theory remains at the foundation of organizational design philosophy in the West.
Being promoted means taking responsibility for a longer future.
But what about in modern companies?
■ The Reality in Modern Companies
Short-term rationality has become overwhelmingly strong.
Quarterly financial results, market pressure, and talent mobility.
The result:
More companies have department managers dragged into the short term, with no one looking at the long term.
■ Modern Three-Layer Thinking
Now, it is discussed not in terms of years, but in terms of the quality of thinking.
1. Operational Thinking (Short-term): KPI, efficiency, current term goals
2. Systems Thinking (Mid-term): Organizational design, development structure, reproducibility
3. Visionary Thinking (Long-term): Culture, brand, purpose of existence
What should be asked in promotion decisions is,
'On which spacetime axis is this person making decisions?'
■ 3 Checkpoints for Promotion Decisions
1. Can they take responsibility for the future?
Can they prioritize future structure over short-term results?
2. Are they spreading emotions?
Are they offloading anxiety or anger onto subordinates?
3. Can they operate autonomously?
The moment authority is handed over, does the organization become lighter or heavier?
A promotion that lacks these three elements
creates a burden for both the individual and the organization.
■ Human Understanding and Spacetime Understanding
What becomes important here is
Human Understanding × Spacetime Understanding.
Human understanding means
knowing the differences in personality tendencies and motivations, and grasping conflicts as a structure.
Spacetime understanding means
connecting the tasks of this very moment with the vision of the future three years from now in a single line.
Based on these two, reorganize the organizational structure.
Reverse-engineer the design of roles, evaluations, and dialogues from the future.
Then,
the department manager discusses structure,
the section manager implements reproducibility,
and subordinates participate not in 'tasks' but in the 'future.'
Future dialogue is not an ideal theory.
It is a matter of structural design.
■ Case Study: Demotion Saved the Organization
After being demoted to section manager, that department manager actually became more stable.
Freed from authority they could not carry,
they began to calmly demonstrate their true strengths.
That fiscal year, sales increased by 10%.
Where you place authority is directly linked to the numbers.
■ Editor's Note
Handing over authority is trust.
But at the same time, it is a responsibility to the future.
As a business owner myself,
I am re-questioning the spacetime axis I am handling.
■ Today's Question
In your company,
how many people are there to whom you can 'entrust the future'?
■ Cat's Mutterings
'Authority is heavier than fish, meow.
If you give it to a cat who can't carry it, they'll trip, meow.'
■ Today's Conclusion
・Responsibility for the future → 'Can they talk about the organizational chart three years from now?'
・Propagation of emotion → 'Are they able to absorb the anxieties of their subordinates?'
・Self-propulsion → 'Does the load become lighter the moment you delegate it?'
Check these points.
I am always available for consultation.
Let's design the future together.
■ Please send us your feedback.
■ Next Issue Preview
March 6th (Fri) 'People change their behavior through words that stimulate consciousness'
■ Appendix (Diagrams)
