One of my favorite books when I was a child was “The Little House” by Virginia Lee Burton. I decided to skim through it to relax, while I was struggling through a series of delicate meetings this past week.
The pictures are pretty and made me feel warm at heart. The story of the little house meant a lot for me in the process of seeking the potential area for agreement among the parties involved. The story tells what the little house watched through four seasons and the changes and transformations which took place around it. It reminded me how things are perceived differently by different people present at the same meeting. Thus we need to consider how each party sees and interprets the plan, and not just sticking to your own perspective.
I used to love this story and felt so close to the house! It had a happy ending, and I was always so happy that the little house was happy at the end. It seems the delicate meetings in the past week have ended happily as all of us came to an agreement.
You can learn a lot from small things such as a children’s book. There was no question that the book had an impact on me as a child, as I hear from my parents that I asked them to read it so many times. The book brought back a lot of memories and at the same time, brought me some lessons I can apply now.
Yoko Ishikura is a Professor at Hitotsubashi University ICS in the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy in Japan. She has held positions as a professor at the School of International Politics, Economics and Business of Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, as a consultant at McKinsey and Company Inc. Japan and a visiting professor at Darden School.
Professor Ishikura is a consultant to a number of multinational companies and has been a frequent speaker at management conferences, seminars, and workshops throughout the world. She was a member of the Regulatory Reform Committee for the Japanese government and the International Competitiveness Commission for METI. She is currently a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum.
She is the author of Strategic Shift from OR choices to AND paradigm, Building Core Skills of Organization , and the co-author of the following publications: Managing Diversity in the 21st Century, Strategy for Cluster Initiatives in Japan , and Building a Career to the World Class Professionals – all in Japanese. Her books in English include: Asian Advantage, Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management and Trust and Antitrust in Asian Business Alliances.
Professor Ishikura’s current research interests are focused on global competition, innovation, and knowledge management. She received her BA from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan; MBA from Darden School, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia; and DBA from Harvard Business School.
