The Shibumi Strategy

One of the questions always posed to Matthew May is: How do I apply the principles of elegance and elegant solutions to my life in order to create meaningful change? The Shibumi Strategy is one of the best ways to answer that question. Shibumi is a Japanese word that describes the height of personal excellence, elegant performance, and effortless effectiveness. It is without definition. Appropos of the current economic environment, The Shibumi Strategy is a personal leadership fable that tells the story of Andy Harmon, a hardworking family man living an idyllic surburban life in fictional Twin Falls, who suddenly finds himself facing a crisis when troubled times force his company to close. With few options and many limitations, Andy must do something to avoid uprooting his family. Through his struggle, and with repeated guidance from both his sons Aikido teacher Kumi, who delivers subtle lessons in the form of personal zen principles, and his wife Lizzy, a volunteer librarian who regales him with minifables, insights from her yoga classes, and keeps him current in the science of the mind, Andy comes to understand that it is often the involuntary challenge, the setbacks, that harbor the power to transform. Approached as an opportunity no easy task when simple survival is the first order of business these unforeseen trials can sometimes result in an altogether new and more elegant lease on life. Andy experiences just such a transformation, gaining the insight that not only does a breakthrough require a difficult barrier to break through, but that a breakthrough moment often comes after a protracted struggle with a problem, followed by a break from it. In other words, break is a big part of breakthrough.

Part One, a business parable, offers a pathway for leading oneself to a personal breakthrough that follows the basic structure of the story chapters-commitment, preparation, struggle, breakthrough, transformation-embedding key lessons in the form of zen aesthetic principles applied to life and work.

Part Two, the Practicum, expands on the five-phase breakthrough cycle, and offers short insights, practical takeaways, exercises and tools for the reader to pencil through.