Getting Work Done

1. Horenso and how to receive instructions

Reporting, informing and consulting look alike but differ in whom they go to and what they are for. Work begins with receiving an instruction accurately and giving it back accurately.

Horenso (報連相) is a word made by joining the heads of hokoku (report), renraku (inform) and sodan (consult). Reporting means giving the result or the progress back to the person who gave the instruction; informing means letting the people concerned know a fact; consulting means asking for opinions or advice when you cannot decide. The key point is that the addressee differs: a report goes up, informing goes sideways and around you, and consulting goes to your superior or a senior colleague. The commonest failure of "I thought I had said it" is the gap where you reported to your superior but did not inform the departments concerned.

State a report from the conclusion. The order is: "About Company A, they have asked us to push the delivery date back by 1 week. The reason is a delay in their materials. The effect on us is..." If you start from what happened, the listener has to hold the information while waiting for the conclusion, and the decision is delayed. And the iron rule is that the worse the news, the faster you tell it. The more time passes, the fewer the moves available, so even when it is not resolved, put the facts out with the preface "this is not resolved yet." What troubles a superior most is hearing about a problem for the first time on the day of the deadline.

When you receive an instruction, if you are called over, go with a notepad and something to write with. As a basic rule, listen to the end without breaking in, but once you have heard it out, check for gaps against 5W2H, that is, when, where, who, what, why, how, and how much. In particular, always confirm the deadline and the form of the deliverable, meaning how far you are to take it. If you are told "as soon as possible," propose a concrete time from your side and agree it: "would by the end of today be all right?" The whole set of actions ends with repeating the main points back, and, once you are back at your desk, tidying up your notes and settling when you will start.

In work from home, things that would have carried naturally when desks were close no longer carry. Share briefly when you start a task, when you reach a break point, and when you finish. Chat has the advantage of letting the other person choose when to read, but it does not suit urgent business, so switch to a call or a meeting. For consulting that asks for a decision, do not go back and forth at length in text; make it a short call. Once you can make these three switches, work keeps moving even at a distance. On the other hand a call leaves no record, so always put what was decided into text and share it. Even where there is a recording, searching it takes time, so putting the main points into text cannot be skipped.

指示の受け方 6手順1. 呼ばれたらメモと筆記具を持って行く2. 話は最後まで聞き、途中で口をはさまない3. 5W2H の抜けを確かめる（とくに期限と成果物の形）4. なぜその仕事が必要かという背景も聞く5. 要点を復唱して認識をそろえる6. 席に戻ったらメモを整理し、着手の予定を決める

Key terms

report, hokoku (報告)

Giving the result or progress back to the person who gave the instruction. State the conclusion first and keep facts and your own opinion separate.

inform, renraku (連絡)

Letting the people concerned know a fact. It does not ask for a decision; the key point is reaching everyone affected.

consult, sodan (相談)

Asking a superior or senior colleague for opinions or advice when you cannot decide. Bringing the situation and the options with you gets it settled in a short time.

5W2H

The seven check items: when, where, who, what, why, how, and how much. Used to inspect for gaps when you receive an instruction.

interim report

Reporting progress partway through, before the work is finished. On long work, setting milestones and putting one in at each lets a drift in direction be corrected early.

repeating back, fukusho (復唱)

Saying the main points of the instruction you received out loud again, to check that your understanding matches.

Worked examples

Sources and basis: ※ There is no public regulation on this. It is an organized summary of widely accepted business practice

2. Priorities and managing your schedule

We cover how to line up several jobs held at once, how to report progress, and the legal basics on working hours and leave.

When jobs pile up, line them up along two axes: urgency and importance. What is both urgent and important comes first, but what decides your results is what is important yet not urgent, that is, planning, improvement, learning and building relationships. Unless you secure time for these first, they are always pushed back. What is urgent but not important, such as an inquiry you can answer at once, tends to get picked up first, and if you are buried in it, the important work always ends up right against the deadline. For what is neither urgent nor important, consult your superior, including on whether it may be dropped. When you are unsure, measuring not only by the deadline but by "who suffers, and how much, if this is late" makes it easier to decide.

PDCA is the idea of turning the four stages of Plan, Do, Check and Act. What matters is always to include the Check; leave it out and you repeat the same mistakes. In order to evaluate, you have to decide at the planning stage, in figures or in states, "what has to be true for this to be a success." Move to execution with a vague target and there is no way to evaluate afterwards.

Build a schedule by working back from the deadline. If you line up working time with no gaps, interruptions and rework will certainly make you late, so leave about two tenths of the whole as slack. Do not forget to include time waiting for other people's checks and approvals in the process. On long work, set your own interim deadlines and make interim reports at them. The moment you see you may be late, say the conclusion first and then tell them how far you have got, what the cause is, what you need, and by when you can deliver. Reports that are too fine-grained take up the other person's time, so it is best to set milestones and report at those.

Working hours have a legal ceiling. The Labor Standards Act provides that an employer must not have a worker work more than 40 hours per week, or more than 8 hours per day, excluding rest periods (Labor Standards Act Article 32). To have someone work beyond this, a written agreement must be concluded with a labor union organized by a majority of the workers, or with a person representing a majority of the workers, and filed with the administrative agency (Labor Standards Act Article 36). This agreement is what is commonly called a Article 36 agreement, saburoku kyotei (36協定). Do not start overtime on your own judgment; apply for it by the procedure the company lays down. As for rest periods, it is also provided that where working hours exceed 6 hours, at least 45 minutes, and where they exceed 8 hours, at least 1 hour, must be given during working hours (Labor Standards Act Article 34, paragraph 1).

As for annual paid leave, an employer must give 10 working days, consecutive or divided, to a worker who has been continuously employed for 6 months from the day of hiring and has reported for work on at least 8 tenths of all working days (Labor Standards Act Article 39, paragraph 1). After that the number of days is added to according to the years of continuous service. There is no obligation to explain a reason for taking it. However, where giving it in the period requested would hinder the normal operation of the business, the company may give it in another period (same Article, paragraph 5). In practice, the courteous thing is to apply early once your days off are decided, and to tell those concerned the state of the matters in progress, where to reach you while you are away, and the policy for handling things.

遅れそうなときの報告 5手順1. 遅れそうだと分かった時点ですぐ声をかける2. 結論を先に言う（当初の期限に間に合いません）3. 現在どこまで終わっているかを示す4. 遅れの原因と、必要な支援を具体的に伝える5. いつなら出せるかを自分から提案する

Key terms

urgency

The degree of by when something must be done. Measured by how near the deadline is.

importance

The degree to which the work affects results. Measuring by who suffers, and how much, if it is late makes it easier to judge.

PDCA

A way of working that repeats the four stages of Plan, Do, Check and Act. Skip the Check and you repeat the same mistakes.

working backwards

Building a plan by tracing the process back from the deadline. Allow slack for interruptions and for waiting on other people's checks.

Article 36 agreement, saburoku kyotei (36協定)

The common name for the labor-management agreement needed in order to have people work beyond statutory working hours. A written agreement must be concluded and filed with the administrative agency (Labor Standards Act Article 36).

annual paid leave

Leave of 10 working days given to a worker who has been continuously employed for 6 months and has reported for work on at least 8 tenths of all working days (Labor Standards Act Article 39, paragraph 1). No explanation of a reason is needed to take it.

right to change the period

The mechanism by which the company may give paid leave in another period where giving it in the period requested would hinder the normal operation of the business (Labor Standards Act Article 39, paragraph 5).

Worked examples

Sources and basis: Labor Standards Act (労働基準法) Articles 32, 34, 36 and 39 / ※ the rest is commercial practice with no public regulation

3. First moves after a mistake, plus requests, meetings and handovers

The worse things go, the more you need a pattern. We gather the first moves after a mistake, asking things of people and turning them down, meeting etiquette, and handovers.

The first move on noticing a mistake comes down to not hiding it and telling your superior at once. The order is: first stop the damage spreading, then state the facts, show the range of the effect, put forward an emergency course of action and ask for instructions, and last, summarize the cause and how to prevent a recurrence. Analyzing the cause can wait until things have settled; what is needed first is to stop the damage. Spending time trying to recover it by yourself lets the effect spread meanwhile. Do not open with excuses; put the facts out first with "I am sorry, this is what has happened," and explain conjecture and fact separately. Where there is a risk of information leaking, as with a misdirected email, confirm the company's response before contacting the other party on your own judgment.

When you ask someone to do work, convey four things: the background, the deliverable, the deadline and the volume. With only "please handle this," the person receiving it does not know what to produce and it has to be done again. A request is an act that adds to the other person's work, so check their situation, and if it is urgent, add the reason briefly. Speaking at length about how busy you are does not settle what the other person is to do. Conversely, when you turn a request down, do not start with a flat "I cannot"; put in a cushioning phrase such as "osore irimasu ga," and show the reason you cannot take it plus what you can do instead, for example a different deadline, only part of it, or another person. Taking it on lightly and then dropping the deadline causes far more trouble than declining at the start.

The quality of a meeting is decided by distributing the purpose and the agenda before it opens. Write into the agenda the items, the time allotted to each, and what you want decided at that meeting, and send the materials in advance. During the meeting record not only the remarks but the reasoning that led to each decision, and at the end read out the decisions and the action items to confirm them. What minutes must always contain is the date, time and place, the attendees, the items, the decisions, the action items, and the next meeting. An action item only works once all three of who, by when, and what to do are there. For an item where no conclusion was reached, unless you leave a record that it is unresolved and who will settle it by when, the next meeting repeats the same discussion. Minutes are worth more the sooner they come, so aim to share them the same day.

A handover is the work of creating a state where the successor can keep the work moving without asking you. Gather into a handover document the list of duties, the matters in progress and their status, the people concerned and their contact details, past background and points to watch, and where the documents and data are kept. A purely verbal handover always leaves gaps. "Promises that are not in any document" and "the background of something that nearly became trouble" are the parts that trouble a successor most, so always write those down and leave them behind.

ミスに気づいたときの初動 6手順1. まず被害が広がるのを止める（送信・出荷・公開を止める）2. 隠さず、すぐ上司に伝える3. 事実を時系列で説明する（推測と事実を分ける）4. 影響範囲を示す（誰に、どこまで及ぶか）5. 応急の対応案を示して指示を仰ぐ6. 落ち着いてから原因を調べ、再発防止をまとめる

Key terms

first move, shodo (初動)

The first action taken immediately after a problem occurs. Its pillars are stopping the damage spreading and telling your superior early.

preventing recurrence

Fixing the mechanism or the procedure so the same problem does not happen twice. Analysis of the cause comes after the emergency response is done.

cushioning phrase

A turn of phrase placed before a request or a refusal to soften the impression, such as "osore irimasu ga" or "ainiku desu ga."

agenda

Material distributed in advance giving the items of the meeting, the time allotted to each, and what is to be decided. Its purpose is to let participants come prepared.

minutes

The record of a meeting. Write the date, time and place, the attendees, the items, the decisions, the action items and the next meeting. Unresolved matters are recorded too.

handover document

A document gathering, at a change of personnel, the list of duties, the matters in progress, the people concerned, points to watch, and where the materials are kept.

Worked examples

Sources and basis: ※ There is no public regulation on this. It is an organized summary of widely accepted business practice