Going around the Roots

When I worked at Nissan, I learned about nemawashi. Nemawashi is a Japanese term that means “going around the roots.” In the literal sense, it’s applied to preparing trees to be transplanted. In a business setting, it’s a philosophy for gently and effectively promoting change.

If you’ve ever transplanted a tree or shrub, you can see how apt the metaphor is. If you try to simply uproot the plant, it will stubbornly stay put. If you dig too forcefully, you may damage the roots and it will die. And if you don’t dig in a broad enough circle around the roots, you might get the plant mostly free with one stubborn root holding the plant in place.

But if you go gently around the tree and coax out each root on its own terms, the tree releases easily and will thrive in its new home. This is exactly how skilled change agents make change look easy. The work is done quietly behind the scenes.