I read a post this morning by Michelle Pauk1, which inspired me to finish this post that has been sitting in my backlog for awhile.
Michelle reminded me about a Japanese practice called nemawashi, that means "going around the roots." It means laying the groundwork for a change by gently building consensus. For mid-career leaders, understanding and practicing nemawashi can be transformative.
The original meaning of nemawashi refers to a technique for preparing trees for transplant. At work, it’s a practice for gently promoting change.
If you’ve ever transplanted a small tree, you understand the metaphor. If you try to just pull it out, you’ll either damage it or fail to move it. If you dig forcefully, you may damage the roots and kill the plant. And if you don’t dig far enough out from the roots, you might get the plant free, but you will miss all the long, deep roots that extend in all directions. It’s unlikely to thrive when transplanted. As a gardener, I’ve lived this scenario a couple of times, with unfortunate and costly results.
But if you gently coax out each root, the tree releases easily and will transplant well. This is how skilled change agents work. The relationship and consensus building is done quietly behind the scenes.
Tips for getting started
Nemawashi is all about building consensus before introducing changes. The key? Understand first, then be understood. Start by listening to your peers’ concerns and gauge their openness to new ideas. Check their body language and mood. This way, you can better communicate your proposal. Here's a simple guide.
Initiate Discussion: Talk with those who can influence or are impacted by the change.
Present Proposal: Test for consensus.
Consensus Achieved?: If yes, move forward with action points. If not, revise the proposal based on feedback.
Repeat Discussions: Continue until consensus is reached or the proposal is improved or scrapped.
With direct reports: Use focused group discussions, surveys, and data analysis to gather input and feedback.
With peers: Float ideas informally and gather feedback to refine your proposal.
With superiors: Present high-level proposals with supporting data, and be open to feedback to refine further.
The neuroscience of consensus
Why is building consensus important? It ensures everyone impacted by the change feels involved and heard. This buy-in reduces resistance and fosters a smoother implementation.
Transparent communication is key. To avoid stirring up politics, keep conversations open and honest, focusing on mutual benefits and shared goals, rather than individual agendas.
It’s also important to honor the past — the current systems are there for a reason, and those using those systems probably care about that reason. Meet people where they are before leading them into the future.
If you can't get consensus, your change initiative might face significant pushback. Without collective agreement, even the best ideas can falter because people feel blindsided or undervalued. Remember, the more you care for the roots, the stronger and more resilient the plant (or in this case, your initiative) will be.
Neuroscience shows that when people feel heard and included, their brains release oxytocin, a hormone that fosters trust and social bonding. This makes them more open to new ideas and less resistant to change.
Engaging stakeholders in discussions activates the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is involved in rational thinking and decision-making. This reduces the activity in the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, thereby lowering stress and anxiety about the change.
Furthermore, transparent communication and inclusion in the decision-making process help create a sense of psychological safety. This safety allows individuals to voice concerns and ideas without fear of negative consequences, promoting a collaborative environment conducive to successful change initiatives.
Want to read more? Jason Yip has also done some excellent work on the topic.2
Enjoy your nemawashi experiments. I think you may be surprised at how much you learn.
Jason Yip: https://medium.com/@maa1/my-product-management-toolkit-60-nemawashi-268b6366710d
FYI the link in reference 1 is broken. It tries to go to a LinkedIn page (which yields 404) instead of directly to the article you're referencing.
I wonder why it is when we want to discuss innovation and how to achieve that we have a tendency to turn to eastern philosophy? Is it because the managerial mind finds innovation such a magical and foreign concept that it must equate it to ancient Asian thought.
The sad truth is you don't need to go any further than the minds from the shores of these United States to see historical innovation on a grand scale. I cannot think of a more innovative and an agile innovation than modern air traffic control and its roots in the Berlin Airlift of 1948 / 49 at the height of the Cold War.
To date, the United States has been the only country that has successfully landed humans on the moon and have safely returned them to the Earth.
There is no place on Earth that graduates as many people from universities as does the United States. Almost any aspect of computerization has been birthed in the United States including the Internet whose early development was funded almost entirely by US taxpayers.
Of course, part of this I believe is our desire to succeed allows us to take ideas from anywhere that they present themselves which is why looking at eastern philosophy is relevant. I just wish we gave ourselves much more credit than we do.