Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs
Jun 9, 2022
Discussion#3 on Japan's infamous "Reading the Air" concept.
Blogs from The Third Way Working Group
- When (on what TPO: time, place, occasions) we should or should not read the air is the important question to develop effective communication skills.
- When you sense the air of inertia, boredom, stagnation and negative energy etc, you should change the air. But if you sense the air of serious group efforts, celebration, condolences, sympathy, someone hesitating etc, you should read the air, i.e. sense the situation and feelings of the people around you and act accordingly.
- The air also contains some cultural and geographic traits. They are different not only between Japan and America or any other country, but also between California where people tend to be overly positive and New York where people tend to be overly direct. So if you read the air depending on where you are and with whom you are, you could communicate effectively.
- As a business leader, when you output, it is important that there is no room for misunderstanding and confusion. So when you communicate, make sure nobody has to read the air. They should exactly know what you mean because you communicate exactly what you mean. However, when you get input from others, you should take into account that they may not be telling you the whole story or the fact-based information because they may be reading the air and consciously or unconsciously limiting their communication. So always consider there may be some unspoken part when others talk to you.
- The air can become water and ice when the temperature drops. By objectiveness and cool-headedness, a business leader should bring people’s unspoken feeling (air) down to logic (water) and further down to facts (ice).
- Generally speaking, Western people seem to be much better than the Japanese to put on the table different views, challenging comments as Devil’s Advocate and even disagreement, without upsetting others and being seen as complaining. This is probably due to the shared goals of the company clearly understood, and the internal discussions are objectively conducted with logic (water) and facts (ice) rather than with unspoken feelings (air).
- Many people find the tempo of the Japanese movies and TV dramas are too slow compared with Western ones. Also, some Japanese leaders present the context (background info etc) too much and too long in their presentations. Probably there is no direct link with reading the air but it’s important to be aware of this issue.
- Results vs Journey. The Westerners focus on results. But the Japanese focus on journey. In Japan because you treat journey also importantly, a lot of context (journey explanation) is expected. Results are hard facts. But journey explanation is much more based on subjective, feeling, unspoken emotions, that is the air!
- When you sense the air of inertia, boredom, stagnation and negative energy etc, you should change the air. But if you sense the air of serious group efforts, celebration, condolences, sympathy, someone hesitating etc, you should read the air, i.e. sense the situation and feelings of the people around you and act accordingly.
- The air also contains some cultural and geographic traits. They are different not only between Japan and America or any other country, but also between California where people tend to be overly positive and New York where people tend to be overly direct. So if you read the air depending on where you are and with whom you are, you could communicate effectively.
- As a business leader, when you output, it is important that there is no room for misunderstanding and confusion. So when you communicate, make sure nobody has to read the air. They should exactly know what you mean because you communicate exactly what you mean. However, when you get input from others, you should take into account that they may not be telling you the whole story or the fact-based information because they may be reading the air and consciously or unconsciously limiting their communication. So always consider there may be some unspoken part when others talk to you.
- The air can become water and ice when the temperature drops. By objectiveness and cool-headedness, a business leader should bring people’s unspoken feeling (air) down to logic (water) and further down to facts (ice).
- Generally speaking, Western people seem to be much better than the Japanese to put on the table different views, challenging comments as Devil’s Advocate and even disagreement, without upsetting others and being seen as complaining. This is probably due to the shared goals of the company clearly understood, and the internal discussions are objectively conducted with logic (water) and facts (ice) rather than with unspoken feelings (air).
- Many people find the tempo of the Japanese movies and TV dramas are too slow compared with Western ones. Also, some Japanese leaders present the context (background info etc) too much and too long in their presentations. Probably there is no direct link with reading the air but it’s important to be aware of this issue.
- Results vs Journey. The Westerners focus on results. But the Japanese focus on journey. In Japan because you treat journey also importantly, a lot of context (journey explanation) is expected. Results are hard facts. But journey explanation is much more based on subjective, feeling, unspoken emotions, that is the air!
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