If you feel that you’re buried in management crap that is getting in the way of you doing your work, why not secretly send your managers this article from Fast Company – a miracle might happen and some of them might feel that moment of zen:
“‘People who join Toyota from other companies, it’s a big shift for them,” says John Shook, a faculty member at the University of Michigan, a former Toyota manufacturing employee and a widely regarded consultant on how to use Toyota’s ideas at other companies. “They kind of don’t get it for a while.’ They do what all American managers do–they keep trying to make their management objectives. ‘They’re moving forward, they’re improving, and they’re looking for a plateau. As long as you’re looking for that plateau,it seems like a constant struggle. It’s difficult. If you’re looking for a plateau, you’re going to be frustrated. There is no ‘solution.”
Even working at Toyota, you need that moment of Zen.
‘Once you realize that it’s the process itself–that you’re not seeking a plateau–you can relax. Doing the task and doing the task better become one and the same thing,” Shook says. “This is what it means to come to work.'”