Control & Management Principles according to I-Ching

In the real world, things seldom happen according to plan. We hire managers to manage projects, expecting them to take initiatives to resolve whatever issues that may cause the work to deviate from plan. At times, we may even need to change the original plans. At times, we may need to suspend work for a while to resolve certain critical problems; may be just to wait till the storm has passed. At times, we may over-react and make the situation worse rather than better! The statistical control theory people tell us to accept certain deviations from the norm as normal. Interfering with a statistically stable process will only make it worse. I-Ching provides us the following four hexagrams.

1. Be Realistic and Follow the Principles & Seasons - #25 无妄 Not Bizarre  
2. A System to Ensure Just Enough of Correction - #60 節 Control  
3. Discipline+Punishment to Correct Bad Behavior - #21 噬嗑 Biting 
4. Stop! Contentment in Position & Wait for the Green Light - #52 艮 Mountain

C1 Be Realistic and Follow the Principles & Seasons - #25 无妄 Not Bizarre  

The first principle on Control & Management is to be realistic or be practical. There are physical laws and other behavioral laws that one must accept and cannot be violated without negative consequences. A simple on timing is the seasons. There is the right time for doing the right thing. So, here are the key points that one take note:

     * Be Realistiic and Practical

     * Follow the principles and seasons.

     * Be watcful. Don't go for short-term successes at expense of long term.

     * Stick to the principles and short term challenges will correct itself.

C2 A System to Ensure Just Enough of Correction - #60 節 Control

We need a proper control system to ensure smooth operation and to guard against over exertion of corrective actions. Here are five key recommendations:

1. A set of Desirable Attributes or Factors– the righteous virtue and conduct.
2. A set of Targets telling us what is just right.
   If it is a project, there must a plan first. If this is a flow, there must be operating ranges.
3. A set of Measurements and continued monitoring system. 
4. The systems and the process of controlling must be efficient and effective. It cannot be too much wasting resources and even hurting people. Neither it can be too little to loose direction.
5. We should ignore variations from the targets within certain control limits. We trust the system to correct itself.

C3 Discipline+Punishment to Correct Bad Behavior - #21 噬嗑 Biting

Discipline and punishment need to be administered to ensure bad behaviors are not repeated and be corrected. The rules, expectation and consequences must be made clear at the start. It is only through practice and through mistakes that we can learn the right behavior. It must be applied according to the situations and person and be balanced.

C4 Stop! Contentment in Position & Wait for the Green Light - #52 艮 Mountain

There must be traffic light type system to warn us when to stop and when to go. We should dare to stop when the season is over or our position is wrong. We don't always have to be on the move. When the time or the position is wrong, we need to be patient and be contented with staying at our current position. We take this time to equip ourselves and to prepare for the next big thing. We don't need to be envious of others and try to copy their practices that are not natural to us. Premature movement and incorrect copying do more harm than good. 

Note: For all the principles presented, digging deeper into the related hexagram with the detailed study of the 6 line-stages of the hexagram will give us further wisdom. The details of the complete 64 Hexagrams can be found in Manage Change with I-Ching (registration is required).


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Lim Liat (C) 30 May 2012

Making I-Ching Come Alive!

Learning is best done when we see a need for it. So here is a regrouping of I-Ching 64 Hexagrams into a broader categories for ease of application. Each category is a real life situation with which we can easily identify. We can pick the category that best suit our need and then dig into the Hexagram to find the jewels of wisdom needed. Hope you can enjoy the wisdom of I-Ching better this way.

After writing two posts on the applications of I-Ching, namely for Relationship Building in Relationship Building According to I-Ching and for Leadership in 4 Basic and 5 Orientation Principles of Leadership from I-Ching, I find it may be more useful present the wisdom of I-Ching in a more organized way for ease of applications.

The General Principles of I-Ching

Let me first recap the main principles of I-Ching wisdom.

1. Principle of Continued Cyclic Change and through 6-Stages within the Cycles.
1. Life is about growth and growth is change. Yet the change is predictable. 
2. Change follows a cyclical pattern and it follows certain unchanging principles. If we can predict well, it means our predictive model is working well. Hence we can take steps recommended in our model to influence the predicted outcomes. We are therefore responsible for the outcomes and the well being of our life. 
3. If you follow EW Deming's definition of the job of a manager, which is to predict the outcome accurately (and thereby take steps to influence it), then you must master I-Ching. 
2. Principles are derived from the working of Heavens of Earth.
1. If you believe in a God, then the principles are the ways of God as taught in the Bible or other religious books. They are also the natural order of nature as God has created. If you don't believe in a God, then the principles are the ways of working of nature including the cosmos, living things and the eco-systems.
2. The thinking of man has changed from the 20th century thinking of man conquering nature to the 21st century thinking of man following and using the working of nature. It is back to the 5000 years old thinking of I-Ching.
3. Principle of Righteousness
1. Righteousness is about obeying the principles of Heaven and Earth, i.e. the Laws of Nature and of God.
2. It includes virtues like love, justice, integrity, faithfulness, purity, fairness and balance between extremes.
4. Principle of Integrative Dynamic Balance of Bipolar Forces
1. Between polar attribute pairs of Yang and Yin.
2. Yang – Yin pairs include:  Action – Response, Male – Female, Day – Night, Hot-Cold, Hard – Soft, Push – Pull, Move – Stop, Forward – Reversed, Open-Close, Future – Past, Truth – Love, Justice – Compassion etc.
3. There is always Yin in Yang and Yang in Yin and never only one extreme. It is the interaction of Yin and Yang that produces the abundant of varieties of life.
4. Bipolar is just a simplification in our thinking. In reality, it may have more than 2 factors. Our job is then holding the multiple factors in tension to fit the situation we are in.
5. Principle of Abundance from Harmony, Flow and Sharing.
1. Fortune is not just an accumulation of things. Fortune is not just about abundance, but about harmony of interactions, smooth flow and sharing of abundance.
2. It is about harmony between men and heave(God) and Earth(nature).
3. Harmony is unity of diversities and not uniformity.
4. Synergy is of diversities with each contributing its strength to the growth of the whole.

The mind-set of I-Ching master is 

1. Base on the foundation of the Righteousness Principles
2. Decision should depends on the situation and more specifically on the timing(trend) and positioning(terrain) in relation to the situation.
3. And holding in balance among the multiple demands and views of the stakeholders.
4. The balance is dynamic and not static as the implementation of any change program triggers further changes.
5. It is like driving a car. Even when we plan the destination and the routes, we need to watch for the traffic, the behaviors of the car in front, at the back and around us. We may meet up with traffic jams, road blocks, bad weathers, flooding, earthquakes, and even faults in our own car. 

In short, read - apply - watch - adjust over time, space and multiple agents.

The Re-Grouped Applications Based I-Ching Mind-map.

Here is the my latest ( I improve it over time) mind-map:

Let's start with the first, "Leadership", in 

4 Basic and 5 Orientation Principles of Leadership from I-Ching



The complete list is:

1. Making I-Ching Come Alive! The Key Principles & Applications
2. 4 Basic and 5 Orientation Principles of Leadership from I-Ching
3. Control & Management Principles according to I-Ching
4. Relationship Building According to I-Ching
5. Stage 1 Start-Up and The Guidelines from I-Ching
6. Stage 2 Developing Your Business - Some Jewels from I-Ching
7. Stage 3 Waiting for the Next Big Thing - Insights from I-Ching
8. Stage 4 Overcome Obstacles - Some Nuggets from I-Ching
9. Stage 5 Growth - 8 Keys for Scaling Up
10. Stage 6 Success that Lasts - 5 Keys for Staying at the Top
11. Stage 7 Joy of the Truly Rich - 5 Gems from I-Ching
12. Stage 8 Preventing the Inevitable Decline - 3 Guides from I-Ching
13. Stage 9 How to Get Out of the Pit - 5 Transformational Wisdom from I-Ching

Lim Liat(C) 30 May 2012