Leadership Lessons from Confucius: fit for purpose?
Zai Yu asked: “Three years of mourning for your parents: this is a long time. If an exemplary person does not practice ritual for three years, ritual is sure to decay; if they do not practice music for three years, music is sure to collapse. As the grain from last year’s crop is used up, grain from this year’s crop ripens, and the flint for lighting the fires is changed with each season. One year of mourning is surely enough.” Confucius said: “Would you be comfortable eating your fine food and wearing your fine clothes then?” “Absolutely.” “In that case, go ahead! When an exemplary person is in mourning fine food is tasteless to them, music offers them no pleasure, and the comforts of home give them no peace, so they prefer to do without these pleasures. But if you think you will be able to enjoy them, go ahead.” Zai Yu left. Confucius said: “Zai Yu is not consummate in his conduct! During the first three years after a child is born, they do not leave the arms of their parents. Three years of mourning is a custom that is followed throughout the world. Did not Zai Yu receive three years of love from his parents?”
宰我問：「三年之喪，期已久矣！君子三年不為禮，禮必壞；三年不為樂，樂必崩。舊穀既沒，新穀既升；鑽燧改火，期可已矣。」子曰：「食夫稻，衣夫錦，於女安乎？」曰：「安！」「女安則為之。夫君子之居喪，食旨不甘，聞樂不樂，居處不安，故不為也。今女安，則為之。」宰我出。子曰：「予之不仁也！子生三年，然後免於父母之懷。夫三年之喪，天下之通喪也；予也，有三年之愛於其父母乎？」
How many processes and procedures do you have in your organization that have outgrown their usefulness? What steps do you need to take to prune them so that they are fit for purpose or in some cases even eliminate them? Naturally there will be resistance to begin with, but people will come to welcome the changes once they begin to experience the benefits. Just because something has been done one way in the past does not mean that it cannot be changed to meet the needs of the present and future.
Notes
This article features a translation of Chapter 21 of Book 17 of the Analects of Confucius. You can read my full translation of Book 17 here.
(1) Confucius was a staunch proponent of the traditional three-year (usually between 25 and 27 months) mourning period following the death of a parent. Indeed, he observed it after his mother passed away when he was in his early twenties (his father died when he was very young). However, even though people of his age paid lip service to the idea, only a very small minority had the time, money, and willpower required to detach themselves from their personal and family responsibilities for so long.
(2) The young follower Zai Yu loved to wind Confucius up by asking him awkward questions. He certainly succeeds in hitting a sore spot with his well-reasoned argument that the mourning period should be shortened to a more manageable one-year period. Indeed, for all his bluster about the three-year mourning period being practiced throughout the world, Confucius fails to provide a convincing explanation of why it should not be shortened.
I took this image in the Four Beasts Scenic Area in Taipei.
