Trivia: What is "Hou-Ren-Sou"?

Q.

What is "Hou-Ren-Sou"?

A.

"Hou-Ren-Sou" is a concept introduced in Japanese business settings. Perhaps, it is one of the first things company will teach you as a new hire. 

Hou is short for houkoku (to report), ren is short for renraku (to inform), and sou is short for soudan (to consult). This concept represents a reporting structure where employees are to keep supervisors up to date about the status of tasks, communicate and inform those involved properly, and seek advice and approval from a supervisor at all times.

You might notice that you're CCed into many emails that might not directly concern you, but this is because your workmates feel it's important to keep you in the loop. On the flip side, you might need to ask yourself if you've been communicating enough, up to the level that is expected of you by your managers and teammates.

This practice of “Hou-Ren-Sou” is the root of building and maintaining trusting relationships with Japanese coworkers. The word hourensou actually means "spinach", so you can remember this as "Spinach Reporting"!

What do you think about this business culture?

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