On Monday the Responsible Business looked at the Egyptian protests from the tendency of many leaders to blame others for shortfalls that happen on their watch. I proposed that this was less an example of scapegoating than lack of capability to think systemically and read emerging patterns correctly. A significant contributor to this blame game is leaders’ poor intrinsic capability to manage how they see situations, interpret them, and respond.

There are a few thought leaders who speak well to this void in capability and we will look at the work of one of them today. Matthew May, the author of The Shibumi Strategy: A Powerful Way to Create Meaningful Change, views leadership from such a perspective. His personal leadership fable looks to principles that, when taken to heart, bring breakthroughs in business, work, and life. To highlight their intrinsic nature, he refers to them as Zen principles.

Each of May’s principles fosters the capability to overcome the blame game and the loss of force in life, and leads to using life’s unexpected setbacks and challenging opportunities to transform oneself. Together they provide ways to deal with the situations we all find ourselves in at some point in life. As May suggests, “When approached as an opportunity…unforeseen trials can often result in a life-changing breakthrough.” In my words, it takes intrinsic capability to really benefit from external opportunities.

The Shibumi Strategy offers a fresh perspective on the challenges we all face at some point in work and life. Reading the fable, we connect with Andy, the lead character, and his journey. The fable is brought to us in the form of shibumi—a Zen concept without direct translation in English but connoting effortless effectiveness, elegant simplicity, and the height of personal excellence. Through it, May offers the ancient ideas of Japanese aestheticsThese seven aesthetic qualities can guide the design of nearly everything, no matter if it is an action or an object. Each represents an intrinsic quality and set of capabilities. We accompany Andy as he grows through his experience of them.

The seven aesthetics are:

 Kanso ~ simplicity

Koko ~ austerity and the subtraction of the nonessential

Seijaku ~ quietude and stillness

Fukinsei ~ asymmetry and seductive imperfection

Datsuzoku ~ break from convention

Shizen ~ naturalness without pretense or artifice

Yugen ~ subtlety and suggestion

As I read through the fable, it is easy to experience as if it were the story of my own life. Each of us has faced setbacks, not always valuing them as an opportunity for growth and development into a whole person. The ability to experience life events as gifts makes one see immediately how silly it is to waste such opportunities by wishing they were different or blaming them on others. It offers insight into a different inner state that makes life a learning journey rather than just the fight for sufficient happiness and prosperity.

I find myself often listening to stories in newspapers, on television, or at gatherings about people who have no sense of how to deal with the struggles in their lives. They are not likely to listen to someone advising them on shifting perspective in order to see the world differently. It did occur to me as I read The Shibumi Strategy and listened to stories of the recent world crises that I might just start sending copies of Matthew May’s beautiful fable to national leaders and suggest it as bedtime reading. All of us could benefit from a little more shibumi.