The Art of Kintsugi — 7 principles that can foster our business culture
How a century-old Japanese tradition can shape the culture of work towards an authentic and beautified business
An organization has certain rules, procedures and traditions to follow on how to do things properly. Sometimes it is not easy to look at our blind spots and the things that have hurt us and continue hurting us, but in order to achieve real transformational change, it is necessary to look at all fragments of our organizational systems.
Ten years ago, I visited my mother’s native country to film a short documentary about Kintsugi, but I would have never expected to personally learn so much from Kintsugi, much less to think that I could extend this philosophy to the business world. The first contact I had with Kintsugi was in 2010 and by 2019, I was hosting a dinner about the Art of Kintsugi in Lisbon at the House of Beautiful Business. Nowadays when we speak about organizational culture, it is common to see many organizations still operating on a surface level. Although Psychological Safety and Emotional Intelligence are now mainstream, our cultural language knowledge still remains infantile, so to speak. We also need to discuss organizational resilience and adaptability.
“Kintsugi provides us with a wonderful perspective and visual language that helps us to look carefully at the way we usually do things in our organizations. Kintsugi, which means “golden joinery”, is based on an ancient Japanese and Chinese tradition that has been around for hundreds of years.”
Why is it Important to Talk About Kintsugi?
We understand the demand to prompt changes within our organizations. It is difficult to find an industry unaffected by external disruptive change, from global politics and climate change to technological change given on a macro and micro level: generational change, war for talents, work culture and new media.
Over the past couple of years, we have been able to observe and analyze external changes and to develop a clear voice coming from our inner instinct that tells us it is about us — we are the ones that need to change. Change is inevitable and affects almost all areas, so it is necessary to fix our systems, our culture needs, the way we operate, the way we learn and our strategy. They all need to change. We are desperate for a new approach; transformation is in the air.
We are still standing near the shore scared by the raging waters, incapable of making a movement. How can we change while having to face these moving elements?
We need to find some ground to remind us of our roots, lying beneath the surface, and this is only possible if we are open to look at everything with honesty — to see the whole, true picture. Kintsugi provides us not only with a challenge, but also with an opportunity. The outcome of this artful process proves that it is not only about putting the broken pieces together, it is also about true transformation after embracing the imperfection.
It is unusual for organizations to foster a language and culture that emphasize imperfect statuses as they have a black and white perspective. We either celebrate success or celebrate failing as part of a “failing-forward” culture. It is not easy for us to embrace the tension of imperfection and this is even more difficult for organizations. Try to picture a town hall meeting without brilliant presentations and eloquent speeches.
“The cup is not the same again, it will never be the same again. It has not lost its form completely, but it is in fact a new and unique art by itself.”
How Can We Bring Kintsugi into Our Organizations?
As mentioned before, I would argue that Kintsugi could open a narrative for our organizations. A friend recently forwarded me a Kintsugi video made by a German bank that focuses on their organizational culture in a very sophisticated way. It is rendered in high-quality, and although this method has all my respect, I find it to be way too polished (perhaps the opposite of Wabi-Sabi), as it utilizes Kintsugi in a “performance” (“Leistungsfähigkeit”) context but misses out on the originality and origin of Kintsugi.
We often experience this with Japanese culture, since it also applies to Ikigai and leads to many misconceptions (a complete westernized misunderstanding and wrong labelling of the whole philosophy). These approaches often do not even scratch the surface and miss out on the true and historic meaning of the philosophy and its core. How is that possible?
“It is perhaps easier to see the gold than to look at the scars that have granted its place.”
From these philosophies, a craftsmanship has been developed over the last hundreds of years and that is why the philosophy is accessible to us: these artisans, true masters in their craft (Takumi), provide us a visual expression of this century-old philosophy. Their art is a precious gift that provides a Gestalt to us. It allows us to grasp a small and unique excerpt of the philosophy, to learn after this opportunity. We are asked to watch, to wonder and to meditate over this process, which takes time in the same way that the Kintsugi process does.
7 Dimensions of Kintsugi
To come to a comprehensive understanding of Kintsugi, one has to examine it from a faceted perspective. This posits that Kintsugi is multiplex and dimensional, and to examine its dimensions is to arrive at a point where Kintsugi begins to make sense and becomes a richly embedded philosophy that can change the structures of our organizations for the better.
- Impact: Kintsugi is impactful and this impact isn’t hard to see. Organizations are therefore supposed to let this impact lead them into meaningful change. What impact looks like to each organization is different, but one thing that is certain is the consistent visibility of opportunities that lead to impactful change.
- Sealing: If anything is understood about Kintsugi, it is its magical healing powers. Kintsugi takes the broken and creates beauty out of it. The same applies to our connections within and outside the organization. The merging of our various experiences is something that is bound to happen when Kintsugi is allowed to take place. This does not only connect us — creating deep purposeful relationships — but also helps us heal from our individual and collective brokenness.
- Artistry: Kintsugi is an ancient practice that requires the finest and most exquisite craftsmanship. As it is with many other artistic endeavours, Kintsugi strives for artisanal excellence. Long before it became a philosophy by which many live their lives, it was treasured as a unique traditional handcraft that with patience and creativity would lead one down the road of mastery as we see in Takumi.
- Sustainability: In an age when sustainability is getting more acknowledgement, there is almost nothing that embodies the virtue of sustainability like Kintsugi. Kintsugi involves a sustainable process that takes what already exists and creates form and structure around it. We are talking about a process that esteems the rejects of our world and breathes new life into them by giving them a uniquely beautiful future. From the broken vessels to the golden lace and the reusable paper wraps they come in, Kintsugi bridges and recycles the past and future in an incredible way.
- Authenticity: Not very many people are able to show off their flaws and vulnerabilities, but in Kintsugi, it is counter-intuitive to try to hide them. The authenticity of Kintsugi means we get to bare it all; our scars, our weaknesses and brokenness. We don’t get to hide anything. This honest and authentic art form depends on the opening up of ourselves just the way we are. What is deemed broken and imperfect is much more than an essential ingredient of Kintsugi, it is the very life it breathes. Here is the upside, once you apply diligence and patience with the skillfulness of a craftsman, in the process you may discover a new, original uniqueness. It is a challenge, because it is unforeseeable in the beginning, but over time it will form its Gestalt to finally reveal its beauty and originality. This will lead to a unique story for the organization which will impact everyone inside of it and will set a mark in the memory of the organization, providing the needed momentum for transformational change.
- Slowness: Due to the fast-paced nature of our modern world, this is probably the least admirable dimension of Kintsugi. But there is no way we talk about the beauty of Kintsugi without reiterating the patience required to bring its restorative power to life. Kintsugi is slow, patient and still. As we have mentioned earlier, we quickly learn that there are no quick fixes, no shortcuts to life. Sometimes we just have to slow down, take a deep breath, focus and be still. When you put in the time, you create a fertile and rich ground for growth to commence. When we were filming our documentary, we learned that the restoration process takes a lot of time. It might be interesting for you as much as it was for us to learn that the master did not work on the broken piece for most of the time, but rather kept the broken vessel on a shelf waiting for the next step. Our organizations nowadays are facing high pressure and an immediate demand for change and adaptation, which leaves us little space for reflection. People in leadership take 2.5 minutes time max for every decision they have to make. On the flip side, Kintsugi teaches us patience. When things break, our diligence is required. Diligence and patience are a must when it is time to repair what is broken.
- Beauty: The end goal of Kintsugi is to create beauty. This is where we end up if we meticulously follow all the necessary steps involved. For many people, sights are on the beauty from the inception, but this could hinder us from experiencing the true beauty of Kintsugi. We need to put in the work in order to achieve this new form of beauty which is unique. There is beauty in healing. There is beauty in being conscious. There is beauty in organizations standing up for more than profits. Indeed there is beauty in being proud of one’s uniqueness. All this and more is what Kintsugi teaches us.
Concluding Thoughts
It is imperative to have all contexts on Kintsugi before applying it, otherwise, all the great opportunities that we could receive from it would either be lost or not fully exploited. Organizations can certainly look at themselves in the mirror of Kintsugi to see where they are doing culture wrong.
For many, it has been viewed as a subsurface phenomenon for so long without realizing Kintsugi is better visualized as an iceberg where the real work goes on underneath. If we see corporate culture as an iceberg, then a lot of programs and initiatives would shift their focus on the fundamentals.
Kintsugi can be an eye-opening metaphor for organizations to have an honest look at their corporate culture. Culture goes deeper and Kintsugi can take us down that deep cavern.
To quote Edgar Schein’s alternative definition of Mindfulness which he gave in his talk at Google, “Mindfulness, in connection to culture, is a situational awareness of how culture inside of us and around us is dominating our thinking”. He goes ahead to explain what culture really is and how it determines or predicts our behaviors. Culture, he says, “is the accumulated learning you have had in your group experience” and being aware of that is simply Mindfulness
With that, Kintsugi does not only enable us to start a conversation about the deeper parts of our corporate culture, it also enables organizations to learn and grow. Of course you have to be bold to apply Kintsugi, because it basically comes down to decision making — to adopt or decline. However, the question to ask oneself is, “do I want to see the full picture or do I just want the glamour and shine that comes with it?”
Written by Motoki.
