Focusing on the Well-being of Employees Who Aim to Mass-produce HappinessReport vol. 4: The Emotional Well-Being Workshop

Everyone can live happy and authentic lives. To help make this possible in the future, Toyota Motor Corporation has defined its mission as "Producing Happiness for All." It is challenging itself to create a better mobility society and community as a mobility company, in addition to car manufacturing. As part of this challenge, since 2021, researchers from the Toyota Motor Corporation Frontier Research Center, R&D and Engineering Management Div., Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc., and Toyota Research Institute have established the "Emotional Well-Being Research Workshop" to discuss the complex questions of "What is happiness?" and "What is well-being?" from various angles.

The previous three workshops^*1-3 were conducted in seminar format. We invited experts from diverse fields including biology, clinical psychology, event planning, game studies, social psychology, and engineering to discuss well-being from their respective professional viewpoints.

Based on the knowledge gained from our previous activities, we focused on considering the well-being of Toyota employees ourselves. While Toyota has approximately 380,000 employees^*4 worldwide, we specifically focused on those working in manufacturing sites. At these sites, we have valued the importance of acquiring higher skills and broader knowledge through work, and teaching each other like family members. However, we are facing issues such as a decrease in people wanting to work in manufacturing sites and some employees leaving their jobs after short periods. To understand and address these problems, more than 30 participants from Japan, the United States, and Europe gathered at Toyota Research Institute on the U.S. West Coast for a 2.5-day discussion. Participants included not only managers and HR personnel from manufacturing sites but also engineers, researchers, and even Toyota Motor Corporation's Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms. Otsuka, and Chief Scientist, Dr. Gill Pratt, exchanging opinions from various perspectives.

Dr. Gill Pratt's Question: How to Love Your Work?

"How can we make everyone love their work?" This workshop began with this question from Dr. Gill Pratt. He introduced examples of how Ina Food Industry Co., Ltd.'s "tree ring management" approach and Fred Reichheld's (from Bain & Company, Inc.) concept of "customer love" led to employees finding meaning in their work. He then encouraged the participants, saying, "We don't know the answer to how many employees can love their work and find meaning in it. That's why I want us to find the answer together in this workshop."

Our starting point for discussion was the "Eight keywords" shown in the article's banner. These keywords represent diverse perspectives on "happiness" and have been developed through discussions with various people during the activities of the Emotional Well-Being Workshop. We focused on the keyword "recognize" to organize the issues in manufacturing sites where diverse people with various values gather.

Using "recognize" as a focal point, our discussion on the causes of issues in manufacturing sites revealed that "mendomi^*5 (looking after others) has become more challenging." We found that this difficulty in mutually recognizing each other's values and ways of life, not limited to relationships between superiors and subordinates or seniors and juniors, was common in Toyota's manufacturing sites worldwide. Here, "mendomi" is a term used globally at Toyota, meaning to care for each other like family. However, we felt the need to reconsider whether we still expect the same traditional relationships in modern values and to rethink the concept of "mendomi."

When all participants deeply analyzed the causes, we discovered that factors differed by region, factory, and workplace even within the same country (the United States). Furthermore, we realized that the factors to be addressed and their priorities varied depending on each employee's values and environment. Despite being a common question across Toyota's global manufacturing sites, we found that a universal solution was difficult, and it was necessary to tailor approaches to each workplace's circumstances and to cater to individual employees.

My Situation is Different from Yours. Yet, We Can Live in Well-Being Together.

When considering how to support each employee and help everyone live in well-being, we tend to think in terms of good and bad: X increases well-being so it's good, Y decreases well-being so it's bad. But does this good-bad dichotomy always apply to everyone in every situation?

To address this question, Dr. Hiroko Kamide from Nagoya University (at the time), who also gave a lecture at the 3rd Emotional Well-Being Workshop, spoke about an important philosophical perspective in considering the value of things, titled "Monism of Duality." The most crucial concept is the "principle of three natures." It involves moving up one level from the opposing concepts of good and bad to consider a higher concept called "Not yet written (i.e., the function itself as it is before any value is assigned to it as good or bad. "Muki" in Japanese)."

Dr. Kamide explained the principle of three natures using box cutters and cars as examples. When thinking about making a box cutter, is having just the blade enough? Of course, without a handle, it can't function as a box cutter. We can't create a box cutter if we're stuck in the opposing concepts of "cuts" and "doesn't cut." Also, quoting Honda founder Soichiro Honda, she asked the workshop participants, "For a car to run, do you need an accelerator or brakes?" While we might instinctively answer "Accelerator!," we can't safely enable the function of "running" without brakes. In other words, it's by fusing the opposing concepts of "accelerate" and "decelerate" that we can create the function of "running."

Initiatives to improve well-being may not benefit everyone in the same factory or workplace equally. On the other hand, we learned from Dr. Kamide that even things that seem to decrease well-being could be reframed (transformed into good) if we return to the "Not yet written" concept. When discussing well-being, we tend to end up simply labeling things as X is good or Y is bad, but the workshop participants realized that we must pause and consider what the higher concept is that serves as the source of this good or bad.

Based on this realization, we delved deeper into the manufacturing site issue of "mendomi becoming more difficult" and discussed it further. Instead of viewing negatively that "young people are always on their smartphones" or that "veteran keeps saying things were better in the past," by recognizing the inherent value (the "Not yet written" concept), we can potentially reframe these negative aspects, "young people / veterans possess more useful information." Communication between seniors and juniors, or superiors and subordinates, is necessary to recognize the "Not yet written" concept and reframing of colleagues. Many ideas for specific approaches tailored to each factory's circumstances were proposed based on the concept that there might be a way of mendomi that promotes this communication. In the future, we plan to refine these ideas and conduct trials that will contribute to the well-being of people working in multiple factories.

Prospects for the Future: New Skills Born from Multifaceted Discussions

At the conclusion of this workshop, Ms. Otsuka, the Chief Sustainability Officer, expressed her hope that the insights generated from these discussions would evolve into new "skills" for happiness that Toyota employees worldwide could acquire. She stated, "It is crucial for the diverse members participating in this workshop to share their wisdom. Let's work together toward realizing our mission of 'mass-producing happiness' for the well-being of our colleagues and ourselves," before closing the workshop.

Gradually, we've been creating an environment where we can discuss well-being more multi-dimensionally. As the participants of the 4th Emotional Well-Being Workshop continue these discussions in their respective workplaces, tacit knowledge will be deepened and accumulated as explicit knowledge. I felt that by utilizing these insights, we could become a better company for our employees. As someone promoting future-oriented research, I aim to scientifically systematize the knowledge gained from workplace discussions and create a framework for understanding workplace well-being. Looking toward an era where diverse people work together, we aim to innovate sustainable manufacturing by approaching workers from their perspective. Please continue to look forward to the activities of the Emotional Well-Being Workshop.

References

Contact Information (about this article)

Frontier Research Center

frc_pr@mail.toyota.co.jp