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Lessons From a Rainstorm

Foreword: Thank you very much to the Reddit.com community, specifically http://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/, for their support and feedback on this blog so far. Please feel free to comment and offer your own interpretations, as the ones contained in this blog are solely my own.

Lessons From a Rainstorm

“There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.”

Yamamoto Tsunetomo in Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, translated by William Scott Wilson, pg. 44.

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This is one of my favourite passages. I believe it asks two important questions of us. How prepared are we for possible problems? And, how do we react under pressure?

The Calm

A Samurai seeks resolve. This means knowing how they will react ahead of time when faced with conflict. When things go wrong, some companies run around in the rain. But ones resolved from the begging stand to make the best decisions, even if a soaking is inevitable. Public Relations professionals call this a contingency plan, and it is often part of their crisis management strategy.

Maple Leaf Foods, a Canadian meat packing company, reacted to a tainted meat crisis in Aug. 2008.

Take Maple Leaf Foods for example. In Aug. 2008 their public relations department reacted to a tainted meat disaster which caused the death of 12 Canadians. Their handling of the situation was so well done it serves as a great learning opportunity for any communications professional. The key to their success was their resolve. Even though Maple Leaf knew a storm was coming, they didn’t panic. Instead they followed their crisis management plan, and despite getting soaked, saved a lot of face for their brand.

The communications Samurai is two steps ahead of everyone else. They are constantly weighing and anticipating problems. And when the time comes, they remain resolved and stand behind their plans.

The Storm

You are driving down a very hilly road. Rain is pounding the pavement and everything is slick. Coming over the crest of a hill, you see a two cars have just collided and are blocking the road. You slam on the breaks, but quickly realize there is no avoiding the incoming collision. What do you do?

Ideally, like a Samurai in the rain, you will identify that indeed there is no avoiding the outcome of the situation. The best thing you can do if you are going to crash, according to an ambulance attendant friend of mine, is attempt to go limp to minimalize injury; something completely unnatural and against instincts. I’m sure I would just make a stupid face and lock up like I had rabies. But we must ask ourselves; is it possible to develop a mindset that makes this decision possible?

Like a Samurai, if one is caught in a storm and everyone else is running and panicked, a good communicator remains calm. If you want others to be composed, if you want to diffuse a situation, you yourself must remain composed. Good decisions come from a calm mind.

It is not true that the communications Samurai reacts well under pressure – as that implies they react at all to pressure.

The Sensei and the Rhetorician

The Sensei

Someone once asked my Sensei “What is the secret to being a good kicker?”.

My Sensei replied simply, “Kicking”.

Likewise,

Tsunetomo, in Hagakure, says “According to Master Ittei, even a poor penman will become substantial in the art of calligraphy if he studies by imitating a good model and puts forth effort.”

Both my Sensei and Tsunetomo say the same thing, learning is in doing.  If you want to be good at something, the only way to get better is to try. For a Samurai, life was like a puzzle with no answer; the best one could do was always be working towards solving it, even if they knew they would never be able to.

The Rhetorician

So, what can we as communicators learn from this? Well, my rhetoric professor already has a name for this type of learning, but you won’t be finding it in any dictionary. Rhetorical pedagogy is the term used to describe learning from example. Have a problem? LGBYF (Let Google Be Your Friend).

For my professor, learning is a lot like kicking. There is no secret to being a good communicator. If you want to be a good writer, write. If you want to be an expert in social media, tweet. And if you need guidance, there is always a Sensei, rhetorician, or Google, there to help.

The Samurai communicator learns by doing, by failing, and by watching others who have succeeded.

Bushido, Blogs, and your Way.

Bushido

Somewhere, in all of us, there is a warrior. Although some cultivate it more than others, if this wasn’t inherently true of all humans, surely the very genes that make up ‘you’ would have died long ago. This is a good thing, because I believe we are all at war. Maybe not in the most direct sense of the word – but we are always locked in battle with our environment, others, and most importantly, ourselves.

If we are at war, than there is a lot we can learn from the Samurai. Their code of conduct, Bushido, is a philosophy that empathizes loyalty, modesty, mastery of one’s craft, and most importantly, honor. These are not just traits of a great warrior, but also of a great communicator.

Blog

This blog will examine the writings of Tamamoto Tsunetomo, a Samurai scribe who lived from 1659-1719. His book, Hagakure, is a manual for Samurai wishing to live their lives according the doctrine of Bushido. The version I have is translated William Scott Wilson; from what I have read this was no easy task, and I have much respect for Mr. Wilson and thank him very much for making this great work available to English speakers. Hagakure contains passages of wisdom passed down from Japanese Samurai. I will interpret Tsunetomos’s passages through the lens of a communications professional. I also hope to draw wisdom and lessons from my own Sensei, as he has been a role model for my professional conduct and dedication.

Your Way

To a Samurai, Bushido was the Way. This meant an endless dedication to the betterment of one’s self and his craft.  More importantly to the Samurai, it meant a dedication, bound by death, to his master. For us living in Canada or the United States, our Way is obviously very different; to serve another without question is considered foolish in an individualist culture. But what if we didn’t serve a master, but instead our goals, dreams, ambitions, friends and family? You can follow your own Bushido with Samurai dedication. Your own Way.

My Way, is the Way of the communicator.