報・連・相（報告・連絡・相談） ho-ren-so (report, touch base, and discuss)

Creator:	Chizuko Heyer
Language pair:	Japanese to English
Discipline:	-
Definition / notes:	In the ho-ren-so way of working, the initial instruction given is typically rather general or vague. The person who has received the request then goes and does some initial research, thinking, or planning. He then returns to the requestor with a plan or an outline or a first draft. The requestor then reacts to this with some input, usually in the form of corrections or other negative feedback. In some cases, this can be a myriad of corrections in red ink, or as in the case of my book project, a request to go back to the drawing board. Then, over the life of the project, this pattern repeats itself. The person doing the work approaches the requestor to bounce something off of them, ask a question, or get their input. The back and forth occurs multiple times over the course of the project, so that the entire process is truly a collaboration between the two. Japanese take it as a given that ho-ren-so is a good way of working and that it is common to people from other countries. They often expect their American colleagues to do ho-ren-so, without realizing that it’s not natural to them. They also fail to recognize that for many Americans, the back and forth of ho-ren-so can feel like micro-management, and that going back and forth multiple times to perfect something can feel excruciating.
URL:	http://www.export-japan.com/jcu/sample/index.php?page=ho-ren-so