Use "constructive confrontation" to derive employee wisdom

People are becoming more and more "rare", so entrepreneurs are no longer satisfied with just hiring the hands of employees, they want to hire the brains and wisdom of employees at the same time. However, in order to make employees think for the sake of the company and take the initiative to offer advice and suggestions like they are loyal to their own homes and relatives, in addition to making a big fuss about employee loyalty, the company also needs to create a "allowing employees to speak freely and actively participate in the company's operation and management." " work atmosphere. To this end, some companies have established a bottom-up information communication mechanism, and have taken various measures to encourage employees to express their true thoughts, and even "confront" their views with their bosses. Of course, this requires an essential premise , is "constructive". Intel has given this dialogue and communication mechanism a special name - "constructive confrontation." Intel itself ensures this communication is carried out effectively by means of "one-to-one" meetings, cross-layer communication, and speaking with data.

Many companies also have general manager mailboxes, and the mobile phone numbers of executives are also disclosed to employees, and employees can also report problems through such channels. However, there are very few companies that rely on these means to form a "constructive confrontation" communication atmosphere. Why do the same communication channels work well in some companies but not in most others?

With this question in mind, on the afternoon of February 24, "CEConline" magazine organized a reader dialogue salon in Beijing. Qu Jingdong, President and CEO of Patriot Electronics, Dong Haiyang, Vice President of BAIC Motor Co., Ltd., Lv Moudu, Partner of Zhenglue Junce, and Sun Charlie, Chairman of Huazhi Education Group, had a full dialogue with the readers on the spot. The following is an edited version of this conversation, please see: www.ceconline.com/salon.

The wisdom of the enterprise is "confrontation"

Is the "constructive confrontation" mechanism an effective way to stimulate the creativity of employees? Is it suitable for all companies?

Qu Jingdong: For enterprises, people are both a huge cost and a huge resource. Enterprises should think about how to stimulate people's maximum potential. "Constructive confrontation" is a very good open communication culture. Only by breaking all the boxes and allowing managers at each level to understand the feedback of employees and customers as quickly as possible, can problems be solved effectively.

Dong Haiyang: I once read a book written by a Japanese, which wrote: The wisdom of the enterprise is the life of the enterprise, and Toyota obtains the wisdom of the enterprise by carrying out rationalization suggestions. Therefore, it is the goal of an enterprise to create an organization that is open and has good interaction and communication. Another management scientist also said that an enterprise is made up of conversations, and conversations are mechanisms and communication. The improvement of communication efficiency is very beneficial to the development of enterprises.

Charlie Sun: The communication method of "constructive confrontation" is especially suitable for high-tech and knowledge-based enterprises. If it is applied to the middle-level and high-level, it may be more effective. However, for production enterprises, whether this approach is good or bad remains to be discussed. Therefore, in Chinese enterprises, the adoption of this method requires a certain degree of control, and the scope should also be controlled.

Lu Moudu: Intense market competition makes enterprises seek innovation and change. "Constructive confrontation" is a good way to generate innovative mechanisms. No matter any type of enterprise, when faced with a cruel market environment, it must make such an attempt. As for how to import it, it is a technical problem.

Effective confrontation is necessary, but in China's traditional cultural atmosphere of "harmony is the most important", how to cultivate and stimulate employees' awareness of "confrontation"?

Qu Jingdong: Western culture encourages experimentation and adventure, and we are taught to "obey" and grow up in an environment where we are required to "obey". So building this culture of different traditions is really a challenge. Whether it is the boss or other managers, they should encourage their subordinates to speak their true thoughts. As long as the idea is helpful to the enterprise, it can be directly fed back to the manager through various forms without reporting it step by step.

Dong Haiyang: The president of Volkswagen once said that the team cannot be "harmonious", and members of the management team must have a collision and confrontation of views during meetings. However, Chinese culture pays attention to harmony and difference. Only by maintaining relative harmony can there be communication. This is the thinking of the Chinese people. If the relationship between two people is already dead, then, even if it is easy to communicate, it is difficult to communicate.

A single-minded business can grow rapidly in the early days of its business, but to be a great business, it must have "enemies". Over the past three decades of reform and opening up, the success of a large number of joint ventures in China is the result of confrontation between Chinese and foreigners, which proves that there are some very good things about the equal confrontation management model.

Charlie Sun: There are definitely a lot of differences between our culture and the culture represented by the "constructive confrontation" model. However, now more and more young people have studied and lived abroad, especially those born in the 1980s and 1990s, which are different from the generations before us. For example, people born in the 70s will carefully consider the consequences of raising a good opinion, but the post-80s generation does not seem to have such concerns. Therefore, it may be more convenient to have a "constructive confrontation" between them. At the same time, the new generation of employees must be guided to ensure a constructive premise.

Lu Moudu: The Chinese people say "harmony" is that the gentleman is harmonious but different, and the villain is the same but not harmonious. This is to talk about two sides of different things. When you look at things with a constructive attitude, different viewpoints and different things can "harmonize" together.

In Eastern cultures, confrontation still requires some skill. How to fight, how to use objective facts, data and data to put forward opinions for others to accept? These all require professional training. Implementing "constructive confrontation" in an enterprise requires setting some appropriate scenarios and creating some occasions, for example, people from different departments share their authoritative data for sharing, making opinion evidence, etc. This is also relatively easy to do in the East .

The premise of ensuring "constructive" is that everyone and the organization have clear rights and responsibilities

The premise of the effective operation of the "constructive confrontation" mechanism is constructive, then, how to ensure that every "confrontation" is "constructive" ?

Lu Moudu: There are three ways of communication in enterprises. The first is from top to bottom, where superiors criticize subordinates. The second is bottom-up. The third is the communication between departments, that is, horizontal confrontation. When we talk about "constructive confrontation", we refer more to the latter two.

When we consulted, we found that many companies' bottom-to-top and horizontal information channels were blocked. We suggest that some tools can be properly imported, some scenarios and conditions can be created, and this opinion can be brought into play through a series of process rules. For example, organize some meetings between managers of different business units or between the same departments, and insist on building a "constructive confrontation" scenario for a long time to promote the change of communication methods.

Qu Jingdong: I have seen in Chinese companies that the confrontation between departments is very strong. This may not be constructive. It may be caused by two aspects. One, there are conflicts of interest between departments; two, There are competition conflicts among department heads. The essence of this confrontation is to find fault with others, and it is not constructive in the slightest. I think the most important thing to improve is the communication between the management and the management. For example, my management usually covers at least two layers, which means that my subordinates and his lower-level employees are all under my jurisdiction, ensuring that Information is delivered in place.

In the enterprise, the positioning of each person and each department is very important. Constructive confrontation is easier to implement after the division of tasks and the distribution of rights and responsibilities are clear. In my company, only two kinds of people and two kinds of organizations can exist, one directly creates value, and the other creates value indirectly. In this case, the confrontational communication will be really constructive rather than simply quarrelling. On the contrary, if the division of labor is not clear, and each of them puts the responsibility on others in order to protect themselves, this kind of confrontation is of little value to the enterprise.

Dong Haiyang: In our manufacturing enterprise, there are about seventeen or eighteen levels, from the president to the bottom employees. If the information is filtered layer by layer, the information in the field is easy to be lost. So it is very important to be able to have a line of sound reaching your ears. If there are only three layers of people in your meeting: superiors, subordinates, and you. Such a meeting would go into a pyramid, meaningless. I personally advocate that there must be some meetings involving more low-level people, because the answers are all on the spot. Now the company proposes micro-organization management, which is to manage in small teams of three or five people. If the micro-circulation is alive, the enterprise will survive.

Confrontation enhances execution

When we train employees, should we focus on the ability of "constructive confrontation" or the ability to execute? How to ensure the improvement of work efficiency and execution while "confronting"?

Qu Jingdong: "Constructive confrontation" is about formulating better strategies and better execution. In Chinese enterprises, the phenomenon of employees not confrontation and non-execution abounds. Therefore, in the context of the low professionalization and management level of many Chinese enterprises, for most enterprises, in order to make employees willing to implement, they must first fully disclose their ideas, and then reach a consensus through communication. Once they reach a consensus on the strategy, they will go ahead and execute it. Therefore, in order to achieve effective execution, it takes more time as a manager to communicate. I have an in-depth communication of about an hour at least once a month with my direct subordinates. This time-guaranteed communication can finally allow employees to speak their true thoughts. This is also an exploration of management methods based on the characteristics of our Chinese culture.

Dong Haiyang: I agree with Mr. Qu's point of view. I think between execution and "constructive confrontation", execution is the foundation and the foundation, and "constructive confrontation" is the icing on the cake, a kind of improvement and promotion. It should be the problem of the first stage and the second stage, not the problem of fish and bear's paw.

Lu Moudu: If we can really achieve "constructive confrontation", it will undoubtedly enhance the execution. That is to say, you agree to do it, and you do not agree to do it. Because after sufficient confrontation and communication, your views have been known to everyone. If your views are different from the mainstream, and you have not convinced everyone, you can only obey the overall situation and resolutely implement them. If you don't implement it at this time, it can only show that you are passively resisting.

Openness and tolerance are the soil for "constructive confrontation"

Existing examples tell us that the formation of "constructive confrontation" depends to a large extent on top managers - especially The leadership style of the leader. If the leader has an open and inclusive mind, then the bottom-up communication of the organization will be much smoother. However, leaders can only represent an era of the enterprise after all. Can "constructive confrontation" transcend individual leadership and become part of the enterprise's DNA?

Qu Jingdong: I think so. When the company develops for decades, if these cultures can be precipitated into the company's genes, then it doesn't matter who is the CEO. Today's IBM, Intel is such a company. However, the accumulation of our Chinese enterprises is not enough. To form such a culture and accumulate it will take ten or twenty years, or even longer, and it will take the efforts of one or two generations of us. Of course, in addition to the enterprise itself, it also needs the overall progress and development of society. Without the progress of the general environment, it is still quite difficult to establish a truly open culture.

Charlie Sun: I have always believed that the "constructive confrontation" mechanism in my enterprise cannot be discarded just because I leave. To do a good job in the enterprise and let it stay forever, it is necessary to lay some foundations and set up specific requirements and systems, including my subordinates and latecomers to follow this system.

Lu Moudu: This is a long process. Eastern culture now speaks of a holistic concept, emphasizing duality, rather than opposition. The Tai Chi Ball understood by foreigners is the opposition of black and white, but in China it is "Tai Chi Fish", which is a state of mutual integration. According to such a theory, "constructive confrontation" may have more depth in Chinese culture than just the indoctrination of Western concepts. We have been talking about confrontation just now, but in fact it should be complementary. If you look at it from this perspective, it is not something that can be done in a short period of time based on an open-minded leader in a certain organization, but must be an objective and corporate value-based approach. Long-term cultural and institutional shaping.

Accepting this kind of confrontation requires executives to have an inclusive mind. How do you face this challenge?

Charlie Sun: My employees can actively confront me, and it happens quite often. Sometimes I get angry myself, but I can't show it. After thinking about it later, I think his way may not be very good, but the motivation is good, so generally speaking, when I encounter "confrontation", I will not make it difficult for the other party in public, but communicate in private. Whether it is from top to bottom or bottom to top, we must pay attention to the method. Because, in an enterprise, there is a performance-complementary relationship between superiors and subordinates, and everyone must help each other.

The debate between guests and experts on how to conduct a "constructive confrontation" is fierce.

Qu Jingdong: When I form a team, I always choose people with different characteristics, because such a team will have more room for creativity. Managing different people requires a lot of tolerance, and this state of mind also requires experience and cultivation. I regard management as a service, and the goal is to make employees satisfied, and if they are satisfied, they will create greater value for the enterprise. In fact, I don't need to call someone to the office for communication, I can go to the business department. In the process, I will find some different problems and help them solve. After such efforts, a benign mechanism is formed in the organization, and the team will naturally be creative.

Dong Haiyang: If it is a suggestion from a front-line employee, I will pay attention to it and consider it. It is shallow on paper, and without practice, there is no right to speak. I once read a book called "Shanghai Proverbs", it said that after you have completed a good idea in ten minutes, stop and spend another five minutes to understand what other people think, then your final decision will be better. precise. Therefore, as a manager must have the ability to communicate.

Lu Moudu: As a high-level executive, you must have a certain judgment on the outcome of constructive confrontation, or a holistic view. Because once the decision-making goal is deviated, the consequences must be borne by the boss.

On-site user interaction:

Sun Jianwei: In the "constructive confrontation", what degree should entrepreneurs and subordinates maintain? Many people think that it is not that there are no good managers, but that there are no good entrepreneurs. What do you think? Qu Jingdong: Both entrepreneurs and professional managers should respect and cooperate with each other. The future is an era of cooperation, especially in the context of globalization, managers and entrepreneurs need an organic combination to make Chinese enterprises truly develop.

Charlie Sun: Without good entrepreneurs, there will be no good professional managers. I think China lacks good entrepreneurs. A good entrepreneur can definitely find a good professional manager. On the other hand, there is indeed a gap between the current domestic situation and foreign countries, and the experience of professional managers is also different. I tend to develop potential managers by taking shifts.

Lu Moudu: Both entrepreneurs and professional managers are scarce resources. However, due to the relatively special social environment in China, the experience of Chinese entrepreneurs and professional managers cannot meet the needs of management. However, at a certain stage, professional managers and bosses are a community. They sail in the sea together, and they must be careful of the wind and waves while shaking their oars.

Reader Chen Changjiu: How can a small enterprise improve efficiency, reduce decision-making risks and costs in the process of decision-making?

Qu Jingdong: For some small and medium-sized enterprises, the key is to make the enterprise grow rapidly, regardless of whether it is confrontation or not, as long as the efficiency is high and the business is big, that is the foundation. If there are many technical talents in the enterprise, their creativity should be mobilized to improve everyone's efficiency. Of course, the optimization of the project is also very important, which requires constructive communication to optimize the plan through collision. In the specific implementation, if you find partners to do it together, the cost will naturally be reduced.

Dong Haiyang: First, as a manager, you must believe that the potential of your employees is unlimited. Second, to establish a culture of positive positive interaction, such as "constructive confrontation".

Lu Moudu: As a small and medium-sized enterprise, it should be the most effective to introduce the tool of "constructive confrontation". The cost reduction you're talking about is exactly where it's good at. You can design a meeting scene in the early stage of the project, import the "constructive confrontation" tool, and make some guarantees in terms of performance and control, and the effect will be more prominent.

Reader Shiqing: What kind of platform does an enterprise need to carry out "constructive confrontation"? In addition, when carrying out "constructive confrontation", what should be paid attention to, so that foreign monks do not read the scriptures incorrectly and eventually become four dissimilars?

Qu Jingdong: Our enterprise really needs a foundation, instead of blindly launching "constructive confrontation". This is an accumulation process, and I recommend starting at the higher end of the pyramid, such as the marketing department, or the creative department. I recommend Chinese companies to learn the business philosophy and strategic marketing of some Korean companies. After all, they are all Asian companies and share some common oriental cultural backgrounds.

Dong Haiyang: In the manufacturing industry, a small technical improvement on site can save a lot of money. Therefore, it is necessary to use the enthusiasm of each person to fight against it. But at the same time, we must adhere to democratic centralism, especially when it is centralized, we must pay attention to execution.

Lu Moudu: I would like to talk about what kind of companies cannot use "constructive confrontation". First, if the conflict in the enterprise has been intensified; second, the decision-making efficiency of the enterprise is very slow. It is not a question of whether the decision is correct, but that the decision cannot be made. In either case, "constructive confrontation" is not appropriate. In addition, avoid simple emotional confrontation, be sure to pay attention to methods. Therefore, in addition to training, it is necessary to establish a corresponding dynamic mechanism to encourage employees to speak the truth.

Reader Huang Haidong: I think the function of constructive confrontation is nothing more than two levels. The first is to assist decision-making, integrate and strengthen information symmetry; the second is to create an organizational culture of active communication. In terms of information, "constructive confrontation" is a better way of team communication. Second, it can play a role in activating the tissue.

"Constructive confrontation" is based on the background of the knowledge economy. If it is a labor-based enterprise, the value it generates is not high. In addition, the confrontation formed by people with different knowledge structures in different ways is valuable.

In addition, constructive confrontation must have an open cultural basis, especially relying on the advocacy of leaders. Of course, a standardized process should also be established to ensure that the confrontation unfolds smoothly, and this mechanism should be formed within the organization.

Dong Haiyang: I agree with you. Enterprises must establish a benign and positive culture, such as a "constructive confrontation" culture, to encourage employees to form positive interactions. However, this kind of "constructive confrontation" is not suitable for being introduced into Chinese local enterprises on a large scale, because the soil and culture cannot support the confrontation between lower levels and higher levels.