Since moving his base to Singapore, Mr. Taizo Son is constantly revising his work style, such as by staying in touch with his staff online. Photo by Aiko Suzuki
At first, I wanted to create a culture at Mistletoe where the staff could learn from each other and teach each other. It would be an organization in which each explorer contributes through his or her own wisdom and experiences. So I encouraged everyone to learn together, but it did not work out very well.
As I mentioned in the 18th installment of this series, I had said to my staff from the beginning, "You can't learn anything in the office. If you want to think about solving problems, you have to go to the places where the problems are happening."
So at the end of last year, I created the "Learning Anywhere" system, by which anyone who wanted to go on a business trip to learn something could do so without advance permission.
Still, people would be concerned about costs for a business trip. So I said, "As long as it's for something you and your members at Mistletoe can learn from and use in your everyday work, go as much as you want." I decided to authorize all necessary expenses without limit.
Of course, some people voiced concerns about what we would do if employees embezzled our money to use on personal trips, but in the end, I decided that it was okay if those employees could grow from the experience.
Then, everyone started leaving the office more and more. They started learning in the real world and then passionately summarizing their experiences in reports that they shared with their colleagues.
I didn't even have to ask them to share because they were bursting to do so.
