Organizational Learning and Shu Ha Ri
Shu Ha Ri is a martial arts concept that describes the stages of learning to master something. Shu is about learning fundamentals, and techniques. Ha is about learning all of the exceptions to the fundamentals, the special cases that you have to overcome to perform the fundamentals in the real world. Ri is about being able to do something perfectly and without effort. It is a progression that you have to go through to master anything.
Have you ever tried to dribble a basketball between your legs or behind your back? Have you ever tried to pitch from a pitchers mound? Have you every tried to throw a karate kick? When you first do these things, they are very hard. You will look awkward and feel foolish. If you are determined to learn, you can practice them until you feel you can do it. This is Shu – learning the fundamentals. The first time you are actually dribbling through traffic in a game, or pitching to a big guy with a bat, or trying to fight an opponent, these techniques are suddenly very hard again. You feel that they won’t work. You have to learn them all over again under the nuances of a real life situation. This is Ha – learning to perform the fundamentals in real life. Ri is when you can apply these techniques correctly without even thinking. And the gap between the people who are great at these things, who have reached Ri, and those who haven’t is really big.
I took Shotokan for a number of years. Shotokan is a strict martial art. There aren’t a lot of fancy moves and there isn’t a lot of improvisation in the forms. I found this restricting at first and I asked my master, Mister Takashina, why we couldn’t improvise new moves like other maritial arts did. I can’t demonstrate his unique Japaneese/John Wayne accent so I won’t even try.
"Dennis, William Shakespeare had 26 letters, just like you. He perfected the use of those letters. Giving you more letters may impress some people, but it won’t make you like William Shakespeare. Your challenge is to focus on perfecting the application of what you already know."
I see this as one of the fundamental challenges of organizational learning. The techniques that work in the classroom or in a book, don’t work the first time given the challenges and exceptions that aris in real life. So, people either "go by the book" even when it doesn’t make any sense. Or, they go about doing whatever doesn’t get them fired. You see this when people are enforcing policies that clearly are destructive to the people around them. You also see this when people are just going through the motions and not trying to do any better than what is expected.
We don’t strive to transcend to Ri in business. There are many techniques and opportunties for unbelievable improvements in performance. They require the desire, effort, and practice to get them through Ha to Ri. Ri is not performing without intention. It is being able to perform something in the real world perfectly and without effort. Watching Dwayne Wade play basketball, Roger Clemens pitch, or Chuck Liddell fight are examples of Ri. Have you seen examples of Shu Ha and Ri in your organization? Where have you let Ha stop you from improving performance? Where do you need to strive for Ri?