Episode 66: The Reality of Trinity’s Unique Systems, Part 8: Building a Connected Organization with a Culture of Taking on Challenges

“Real Management | The Successes and Failures of Business Management, Told Candidly by a President Without a Script”

In this program, I, Hossy—also known as Hoshikawa Tetsumi—talk candidly about management and what goes on behind the scenes, based on my own experiences.

Real Managementis released every Friday morning at 6:00 a.m.

Good morning. I’m Hoshikawa Tetsumi, also known as Hossy the free spirit.

Last time, we only talked about blogs and the Blog King, with a bunch of digressions along the way, and that ended up being the whole episode.

At Trinity, every employee basically sets personal goals every year.

For example, it’s not a work goal like, “I sold 100 million yen last year, so this year I’ll sell 120 million yen.” Those kinds of goals exist separately, of course, but this is about setting personal goals.

In fact, they don’t have to be related to work at all.

Exactly. Dieting—that’s a good example. Some people have set dieting as their personal goal.

At the beginning of the year—or rather, when a new fiscal period starts—we always have each person set a personal goal. Basically, they decide on a personal goal unrelated to work after discussing it with their manager. When I say “discuss,” I mean they basically say, “I want to challenge myself with this,” or “I want to get this qualification.” The rule is that it has to be something where you can tell whether it was accomplished or not.

If it’s dieting, for example, they would declare a specific target, like what weight they want to reach from their current number, or what body fat percentage they want to reduce from and to. They report those concrete numbers themselves.

Then, in the end, you can determine whether they achieved it or not. For example, if someone who weighs 60 kilograms aims for 55 kilograms, it’s obvious once they weigh themselves. If it’s getting a certification, then they just need to obtain the certification. The condition is that it must be something where you can clearly tell whether they did it or not. For example…

Right, right. Things like becoming kinder to people have criteria that are too vague and difficult to judge, so we make it something clear-cut, something that can be judged quantitatively. The purpose is that, even if it’s not work-related, we want each person to challenge themselves in some way.

Ultimately, we want them to take on a challenge in a way where the outcome is clear. Even if it has no direct connection to work, the act of challenging yourself and accomplishing something happens every year through this system. We want people to engage with that and become able to achieve their goals—that’s the original purpose.

Basically, it adds points to their annual evaluation.

Also, generally speaking, taking exams costs money, right? So we cover those costs up to around 30,000 yen.

There are quite a few cases where just the exam fee alone costs around 10,000 yen. In that way, when a new fiscal period begins, everyone decides to work toward some kind of goal.

For example, someone in marketing who does a bit of design-related work might take the Color Certification Test. More serious ones include TOEIC, the Kanji Proficiency Test, or bookkeeping.

Let’s see. Chocolate sommelier, for example.

Exactly. There’s no rule saying it has to be a certain type of goal. With something like chocolate sommelier, if you pass, you get something like a certificate, right?

If they submit that certificate, that’s enough. What they actually learned as a result doesn’t matter at all. For example, with chocolate sommelier, they learn about the history of chocolate, cacao-producing regions, knowledge about beans, and so on. Just like a wine sommelier, if they gain a certain level of knowledge and pass the exam, we consider that OK.

Whether that content is useful to the company or not doesn’t matter at all. If it was a plus for the person, then that’s good enough.

Right, the difficulty level really varies depending on the person.

The Kanji Proficiency Test also becomes quite difficult at Level 1, and with TOEIC, if the target score is low it may be easy, but aiming for 850 requires a fair amount of effort.

Huh? What certification?

Yoga? Not “yōga,” but yoga?

So what we generally call yoga.

Does it go up to Grade 1?

Why did you take it?

Why were you interested in it? I mean, I do think it’s something anyone can do in life, regardless of gender, but it’s not exactly a genre that men suddenly tend to become that interested in, is it?

Religion, definitely. As an organization, it’s probably the best system.

If someone above tells people something, they believe it and inevitably take action.

They do it because they genuinely want to help.

Yes.

Yes.

I see.

I see. Even if it was a simple online format where you just click through things, if you could obtain it as a certification, I’m sure it would have been recognized, at least in principle.

The important point is that the act of setting a goal itself has great meaning.

Just setting a goal already makes a difference, so in the evaluation, people can earn points simply by setting a goal.

They don’t even have to obtain the certification.

Exactly. In the end, with difficult things, success isn’t guaranteed. If someone takes on an exam that’s considered very challenging, it’s not as if they’re certain from the beginning that they’ll pass. They study desperately from that point on, and only then does it finally come within reach.

If we evaluated only the result, people would end up choosing only easy things.

Because it’s directly tied to evaluations, it basically gets reflected in their salary. If we emphasized only results, people would choose only extremely easy goals. Of course, the best outcome is to take on a challenge and achieve results, but our system is designed so that people still receive added points even if they don’t get the result.

Setting a goal itself may be something anyone can do, but once you put a goal out there, your attitude afterward changes significantly. This didn’t begin as a simple “certification acquisition support system”; it started from the desire for each person to take on a challenge with a sense of purpose.

There was someone who, like Gajirou, loved baseball, and apparently there’s a qualification for baseball coaches. They were taking on that challenge.

Like getting certified as a baseball coach.

Yes. Among the development members, there were also people who wanted to try getting a welding certification.

In Trinity’s work, welding is not really a field that’s normally very relevant, but there were people who challenged themselves with things like that. As for languages, there have been several cases before. English, of course, as well as Italian and Chinese.

Exactly. It’s quite practical.

Italian didn’t have a strong direct connection to actual work, but it was more of a personal hobby. And within the 30,000-yen limit, it can be used not only for exam fees, but also for things like buying textbooks or paying seminar fees.

I’m not really sure. But when it comes to learning a language, you inevitably need a certain amount of time.

It’s not something you can finish in a few weeks. Learning a language does require a fair amount of time, and for example, if you go to a language school or take personal Italian lessons with an Italian person once a week, either online or in person, that costs money too. Language-related things inevitably get expensive.

But if it’s something you originally wanted to do yourself, and the company provides support for it, then it’s extremely meaningful.

Yeah, that’s true.

That’s right. With languages, it may gradually become possible to learn without spending much money.

Another excellent point about this system is that, generally, exams like these are often held on weekends.

People study and take the exam while balancing it with work. So if they take the exam on a holiday, it is treated as a workday.

Exactly.

If you set things up this far, you can’t exactly not follow through.

It eliminates all the reasons someone might hesitate to take on the challenge, like “it costs money” or “the exam is only on a day off.”

Some people might say, “If I don’t pass, won’t I just lose out?” But that’s not the case. The very act of setting a goal and deciding to challenge yourself becomes something that earns points in your evaluation.

In this way, while removing the obstacles one by one.

Exactly. You gradually run out of reasons to say no.

In this way, in addition to the system of setting personal goals, we also announced it externally under the name “certification acquisition support program.”

Next, I’d like to talk about the internal club system. The idea was that if members who don’t usually interact through work had opportunities to deepen their relationships outside of work as well, they could get to know each other’s personalities and deepen mutual understanding, which would ultimately strengthen teamwork across the organization.

The system is set up so that if three or more people get together and do an activity, the company supports the activity costs up to a limit of 3,000 yen.

No, 3,000 yen is provided per person.

As an official company gathering, we have a social event once a month. Separately from that, there is an internal club system. The basic condition is that three or more members gather together.

I don’t remember exactly what the first club was, but even before the system was fully established, there was something like a skateboarding club. Also, although I haven’t talked about it much in this Podcast, one of my hobbies is actually airsoft, or survival games.

There is what you might call an airsoft club, where people enjoy games using air guns, and I myself belong to it. After I left the company, its activities stagnated for a while, but now I think about four members are at the center of the activities. Since I’m an outsider now, I’m not counted, but I still enjoy playing with them.

Yes. With the people from the airsoft club, I basically play together with them about twice a month.

The only club I belong to is the airsoft club, but something I was very conscious of was that during club activities, I would absolutely not talk about work.

That’s something I always keep in mind. Of course, I don’t intend to stop other members from talking about work, but I personally try to avoid it as much as possible. During airsoft, I mostly just enjoy talking about the game, air guns, or casual private matters.

During club activities, we often ride together in a car to get around, and recently we’ve often been going to nearby fields in places like Kawagoe and Ageo.

The pace is about twice a month. It’s not that everyone has to participate, so the members who are available get together and do the activity. Then the members other than me receive a subsidy of 3,000 yen per person.

When you play airsoft, it usually costs around 3,000 yen.

So that much comes back to them.

The price differs quite a bit between indoor and outdoor venues, but indoor places usually cost around 5,000 to 6,000 yen.

Indoor venues are basically close to train stations, so the fees tend to be higher. If it’s a place in a central area that we sometimes go to, such as Ikebukuro or Kabukicho in Shinjuku, it naturally costs a certain amount.

On the other hand, outdoor venues often make use of large areas of land at low cost, so the burden on the operators is lower and the usage fees are relatively moderate. I’d say they’re around 3,500 yen.

As for the airsoft club, I myself belong to it, and it is still active now. Also, I think this one has been continuing for quite a long time, but there is a club called Meguri-bu that is quite active.

Its activities are pretty wide-ranging. It’s like everyone goes around visiting art museums and museums together.

Yes. They go to see art or the Hello Kitty exhibition about once a month. It’s the kind of thing where they look around together, have a meal, and then go home. I think there were about five or six people involved.

At that level, it’s easy to join casually.

In the case of airsoft, you basically need an air gun. We can lend out the ones we own, so the barrier isn’t that high, but this is even more casual.

I remember there was also mountain climbing. That may have been a separate activity from Meguri-bu, though. And recently, there’s the gardening club.

When Yohei came, he said he was working on plant-related products, didn’t he? Including Yohei, I think there were three or four people who liked that kind of thing.

I suppose they grow something?

I don’t know the details.

For example, there are things like Pilates, escape rooms, and puzzle-solving games.

They go around to various places like that.

There are all sorts of things. The purpose is communication between departments—rather than having interaction stay only within the same department, it’s about including members from other departments as well. I think the rule was that at least one person from a different department had to be included.

For example, if there were five people in the sales department, I think the rule was that they couldn’t just form a group of three from within that department; they had to include at least one member from another department. We did it with the aim of revitalizing horizontal communication within the company, which would contribute to improving the organization’s overall teamwork.

From that perspective, for lunch as well, if someone invites members from outside their own department and several people go together, the company subsidizes the cost of that lunch.

This is separate from the clubs.

Right, right.

I think we could go about once a month, at least.

Also, as a system started by Yohei or Bon, there was one where you could nominate an executive and go to lunch with them.

Of course, the company pays for the lunch.

Yes.

The person you choose doesn’t have to be the executive in charge of your own department. Basically, the main focus is on deepening communication across departmental boundaries.

Since we only had about twenty-something employees, we ran this kind of exchange program based on the idea that it would be better to deepen mutual understanding rather than know nothing at all about each other’s personalities, hobbies, or interests outside of work.

As an aside, the monthly social gatherings were originally held for that kind of communication as well. I called them “drinking parties,” but I think more than one-third of the members at Trinity didn’t drink alcohol.

There was absolutely no need to force yourself to drink, and in fact, about a third of the people didn’t drink, to the point where the term “drinking party” no longer really fit.

We would rent out a restaurant space, basically a large room where twenty-something people could gather, somewhere close to the company. One thing we did was decide the seating order randomly.

Exactly. In the end, even if you try to improve communication within the company, if people are free to sit wherever they want, they usually sit by department.

Even if you want to talk to someone in particular, it’s hard to find an opportunity if everyone is grouped by department. So every time, we would force the seating arrangement to be random regardless of department and announce it in advance.

That way, someone might end up sitting next to me, Yohei, or Bon, and interaction could also happen with members from completely different departments. We thought that by making it a random system like this, it would be easier to achieve the original purpose of the social gathering.

The social gatherings are outside working hours.

Of course, the company covers the full cost, though.

Let’s see.

That may be true. Since many new people joined after I left, things may have changed in some way.

That was how it was at the time. The situation may be different now. Ultimately, whether something counts as work probably depends on whether participation is mandatory.

Since participation is voluntary, it isn’t work.

In that sense, company trips are the same. If someone doesn’t want to go, they don’t have to.

So this time, we talked about two themes: setting individual goals and the internal club system. We introduced systems created to encourage challenges and to strengthen team capabilities.

That’s true. Of course, business is something you build logically, and work should fundamentally be that way. But when you’re working together, you can’t do everything mechanically. A product doesn’t sell just because development makes it, and the business doesn’t work just because sales has incredible selling power.

In the end, there is an aspect where the entire organization makes the business work, so I believe team strength is extremely important.

How has it been?

Oh dear.

Ah.

How many people is that?

With a group of that size, I wouldn’t really expect it to turn out that way.

I see. Understood. Well then, next week, I’d like to talk about a different theme. We look forward to having you again next week.

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