Ikigai is a Japanese concept that roughly translates as “reason for being.”
It seems to me that the more people in your workforce who are operating in a state of Ikigai, the better.
You will already have a handful of colleagues who are working in this flow state. You will, almost undoubtedly, be able to name them without too much thought, because they will be people who strike you as being so different to everyone else.
They are doing the right things, in the right frame of mind, at the right time. They will be well-loved, almost magnetic individuals, and they will be achieving all of these things with what seems like minimal effort.
You may also think that they are slightly eccentric.
Four elements must come together for an individual to create the State of Ikigai in their life. They are as follows:
- You must be doing what you love.
- The world must need what you do.
- You must be able to be paid for what you do.
- You must be doing something that you are good at.
All four of these criteria must be fulfilled for a person to be considered as working in a state of Ikigai. Many of us can tick one, two, or three of these criteria, but how many of us can tick all four?
Consider your dream job or vocation for a moment. Imagine and feel occupied by that work. Only, does it feel like work? Has it, in essence, become effortless?
After all, what is effort? Effort is the resistance to what is. When you are swimming through a pool, an effort is required to overcome the resistance of the water. But, in the seconds before, when you are diving through the air towards the water, there is less resistance. You are in a state of flow. Nothing can stop you from entering the water with grace and poise.
Ikigai is the state that removes the effort.
What is also interesting are the outcomes that occur when two of the conditions meet in combination.
When you are doing what you love and combining it with what you are good at, you have passion.
Consider Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890.) Many might argue that Van Gogh was the most celebrated painter that ever lived. There was no doubt that he was doing something at which he excelled. I would suggest that his love for art was so all-consuming that there was nothing else he could be doing, even if that obsession came at the cost of his sanity.
But, as is often documented, Van Gogh sold very little art during his lifetime. Nowadays, if Van Gogh sold just one of his paintings, he would become an exceptionally wealthy man overnight. Unfortunately, in the latter half of the 19th Century, Van Gogh found it hard to be paid for his art, because the world felt it did not need it. By the time that the art fraternity realised his genius, the star of Vincent van Gogh had already burned out, in the brilliance of his passion.
If you are doing what you love and doing something that the world needs, then the philosophy of Ikigai would describe you as having a mission.
Mission-driven people are unlikely to be paid very much for their work. Similar to those guided by passion, they may even be happy to do the work for free. Why? Because it has to be done and because it must happen, for the greater good.
It is possible that mission-oriented people are not that good at the mission they are trying to achieve. I might wish to plant one million trees in deforested areas of the Amazon. It would be an exceptional mission to have, and the world definitely needs it. But if I have struggled to raise funds, supporters and plan logistically, I might find myself in South America, planting what trees I have managed to fund, one by one and by myself. In such a case, I could not say that I was operating in a state of Ikigai.
If you are doing something that you can be paid for, and it is also something that the world needs, then this can be deemed as a vocation. Consider the vital service carried out by somebody that works on a trash cart. This job is definitely one that the world needs and is willing to pay for, as it adds so much value. But the refuse collector might not be totally in love with their job. She might find her true flow state exists when writing fiction or going fishing. In this case, as love sits elsewhere, our bin collector would not be in a state of Ikigai.
Finally, imagine doing work that you excel at and that you can be paid for. In this case, you are working in a state of profession. What you do may not really be needed by the world, and your heart might not be in it one hundred per cent.
Our task, in creating a learning environment which respects people is to help our friends and colleagues find their own Ikigai.
In the workplace, we can do this by inspiring and empowering people to make their own daily changes. Each time a person falls back in love with their life and aligns their work to what the customer needs, we should celebrate. We have taken one step closer to perfection.
We do not change businesses one process at a time, but one person at a time. Lean is an entirely people-focused mindset, and Ikigai is its True North.
