The Leadership Japan Series By Dale Carnegie Training Japan

A Wet or Dry Sayonara?   In most Western economies, a colleague’s farewell is no big deal, just a part of the tapestry of business.  If there is some turnover and the recently departed are being replaced, then that is considered the natural order and life moves on.  Darwin explained it all a long time ago.  Managers applying a typical Western business approach to departures in Japan however, may skip the need to communicate with those left behind.  Underestimating the emotional component of colleague separations here is a big mistake.   Most Western enterprises are “Dry” rather than “Wet” ecosystems.  Dry meaning logical, ordered, efficient, unemotional, competitive and oriented around the survival of the fittest.  Wet on the other hand is more emotional, nuanced, interdependent, harmonious, inefficient and more forgiving of human frailties.  After living here for nearly thirty years, carefully observing the differences with my native Australia, I would proffer the unremarkable conclusion that Japan much pref