【The Professional voice PREX, JAPAN】Mr. Makoto RYOKE, Osaka Prefectural Government [4], motivation and setbacks Mr. Ryoke experienced.- PREX Island

Lecturers / Specialists Working style
【The Voice of Professional】Mr. Makoto RYOKE, Osaka Prefectural Government [4]

Last time, we posted the interview about  his working attitudes and some methods he used to create better solutions for the work that he was involved in.

This time, we are going to ask the motivation and also setbacks Mr. Ryoke has experienced.

*Q. (Satomi OKUMURA, PREX staff)
*A. (Makoto RYOKE)

Q. 
You have been privately working on the activities which you used to be involved in for your work. What motivates you to work to such an extent? Do you enjoy working as a local government officer?

A. 
Working as a government officer is a privilege. Government office work is the work in which we can do something directory for the society. I think that humans feel happy when they are useful for other people, so essentially, I don’t think that people who work as government officers are less motivated. However, in reality, a result of a questionnaire shows government officers are lowly motivated. I think it is because they cannot get the feeling that their work and measures are helping people directly.

One of the reasons is its personnel change system. In Osaka Prefecture, employees are transferred nearly every three years in order to train generalists by allowing them to experience various fields. It is effective to maintain the organization as it leads to promoting management skills; however, it is not suitable to train personnel who work for policy making or in cooperation with outside of the organization, such as industry-academia collaboration or public-private collaboration. In other words, it can train “macro personnel” but not “micro personnel” for the actual fields. That is why they cannot gain self-esteem, feeling directly useful for other people.

In my experience, I used to have doubts about being away from the actual fields, but when I heard a lecture of a national government officer saying, “Even if I have been transferred, I treat the work with which I have been involved in after 40 years old as my lifework”, I thought it was an eye-opener and wanted to put it in practice. Therefore, even if I am transferred, I will try to keep involved with the work including people who I got to know as long as I have a chance. I am going to consult a company tomorrow, too. I am grateful to be relied on as a local government officer. I think that I enjoy being useful for someone directly.

Q. 
What setbacks have you had while working? How did you cope with them?

A. 
I think I have had setbacks, but I have forgotten what they specifically were. Mr. Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic said, “Failure becomes a failure because you give up in the middle. Carry on working until you make it, then there will be no failure.” Even if my suggestions are turned down or not realized due to external factors, I try to think, “It was too premature a plan and the time was not right”, and tell my staff, “It is not quitting, but putting in a ‘drawer’, so sometime in the future, the time will come to open the drawer. It is not a failure but increasing the number of your drawers. If you put it in the bin, it becomes a failure. Things which are really needed will see the light someday.”

Oct 1, 2019
【The Voice of Professional】Mr. Makoto RYOKE, Osaka Prefectural Government [3]

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(Interviewed by Satimi OKUMURA, PREX staff)

• Date : October 1, 2019
• Name : Okumura