Please read the attached page and can you teach me how to answer the following questions:

In the "Wise Leader" article, the Japanese concept of a ba is introduced in the third ability section.

1. Do you see value in this practice? (Please specify where you are from.)

2. Do you think it could be utilized or applied in different cultures or countries? (Please state the specific country for comparison.)

3. Why or why not?

THE BIG IDEA THE WISE LEADER The Six Abilities of Wise Leaders Wise leaders make decisions only after they ngure out what is good The third entails constructing and testing hypoth- gin to understand one another's motivations and for the organization and society. eses. For example, the employees in every Seven- feelings. They become more willing to listen and Eleven Japan store-including high school students empathize. By the third day, they've often made an and homemakers who work part-time-decide what inductive leap, overcoming their personal issues and merchandise to order. Because each store caters to arriving at a team-based view about how to solve a They can quickly grasp different customers and faces different situations problem. the essence of any situa- at different times, employees cannot rely on rules Companies can set up a ba in any number of tion or problem and intui- set by headquarters. Nor can they mechanically fill ways: in project meetings, training programs, ad hoc tively fathom the nature and meaning of people, shelves by ordering the same amounts of the same study groups, informal hobby groups, conferences, things, and events. things each day. Every time a staff member places an company-sponsored family or sports events, smok- order, she is encouraged to build a hypothesis about ing rooms, cafes and canteens, virtual meetings, in- what customers want. When ordering beverages, for tranet systems, and blogs. A ba can be top-down or They constantly create example, she must rely on her knowledge of local bottom-up. The CEO should initiate the former kind. informal as well as Five months after Utsuda became Mitsui's president, formal shared contexts customers' needs and also take into account factors for senior executives and such as the weather, school schedules, local festivals, in 2002, he started a kurumaza (sitting in a circle) employees to construct power shutdowns, and so on. meeting that took place once or twice a month dur- new meaning through ing lunch or after work. It was open to any employee their interactions. Wise Leaders Create who registered on the company intranet and wanted Shared Contexts to discuss the meaning of good-quality work for em- They know how to use Phronetic leaders constantly create ployees, the company, and society. Over six years, metaphors and stories opportunities for senior executives 117 meetings involving 2,000 employees took place. to convert the essence of their actual experiences and employees to learn from one The participants reviewed Mitsui's past business into tacit knowledge for another. In Japan a bayplace, space, practices-some of which were controversial, ow- individuals and groups. or field) refers to the context in which relationships _ ing to compliance issues in foreign countries-and are forged and interactions occur, Those participat- future aspirations. ing in a ba share information, build short-term rela- A bottom-up ba, which companies outside Japan They exercise political tionships, and try to create new meaning. For exam- may find easier to use, gives employees firsthand power to bring together ple, an informal ba may take place at a bar or a pub, experience of how consumers use products and ser- people with conflicting goals and spur them to where strangers talk casually about their immediate vices. Eisai, known for having developed medicines action. concerns or problems, sometimes triggering insights to treat dementia, sends all its researchers to take or solutions. care of patients. The employees learn how patients In a more formal or organizational setting, a(ba behave, take medicines, bathe, and communicate They encourage the permits participants with a shared sense of purpose with caregivers. They gain a deeper understand- development of practi- to interact closely. Each member sees himself in rela- ing of the needs of patients and their families-and cal wisdom in others, especially employees on tion to others and tries to understand their views and of the company's mission of human health care as the front lines, through values subjectively. Membership is voluntary. In that articulated by Haruo Naito, Eisai's president. One apprenticeship and sense, a ba is a shared context in motion, with par- employee told us, "I was completely focused on the mentoring. ticipants coming and going, relationships changing, development of medicines, but at the hospital, the and contexts shifting over time. focus was not on medicines. Drugs are only useful in Honda's waigaya (short for the onomatopoeic certain situations. The training gave me fresh aware- waiwai-gayagaya, which imitates the hum created ness of the purpose of drugs and how we should de- by people's voices when they meet) is also a ba. As velop them." many as 30 members of a project team will get to- gether for three days and nights at a hotel or ryokan Wise Leaders (inn) with a hot springs. In the evenings they drink sake and visit the communal bath. Although there is no agenda, people typically begin by bad-mouthing 4 Communicate the Essence Phronetic leaders must be able to communicate in a way that every- their bosses and sharing frustrations. As the mem- one can understand. The essence of bers start spilling their guts over sake, it isn't unusual a situation is often hard to express, for fights, verbal or even physical, to break out. On so they must use stories, metaphors, and other figu- the second day, barriers start to melt as people be- rative language. That allows individuals grounded in 64 Harvard Business Review May 2011