Recent Entries
Seen on TED: Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
May 14, 2010 Creativity, Education System Leave a comment
Chinese Business Culture
Oct 18, 2009 Business Communication 2 Comments
I just experienced first-hand a glimpse of business culture in China.
Many people would have long heard that contracts and agreements in mainland China doesn’t hold much weight.
In fact, signing a contract only signifies the beginning of business negotiations. To a mainland Chinese, signing an agreement just means that they are ready and interested to deal with you. It says nothing that a deal has really been done.
In the western world and developed countries, signing an agreement SEALS the business deal and the details of the deal are specified in the agreement. I believe this is one of the major assumptions that has caused much grief for businesses trying to enter China.
I was recently asked to provide sponsorship for a magazine that a student organization, which I will not name here, wanted to publish. This publication is meant to inform new students of the university about the student organization and in turn, to attract them to join their activities in the years to come. In fact, other than monetary sponsorship, they asked for advice on how to improve the publication.
Since the student organization is of a career development nature which is in alignment with what I do, I agreed to the sponsorship and provide a fair amount of advice on how they can improve their publication to attract readership.
However, I wasn’t interested to just give (the money and advice) and forget. I know that if I do that, it’ll just be a once-off “donation” and the neither the student organization nor their members will receive any sustainable benefit. So, I decided that I’d like the student organization to do some “work” to ensure continuity of their value to the university student body. This culminated in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed by myself and the President of the student organization.
Interestingly enough, after the money was sponsored and the magazine published (i.e. I have fulfilled my end of the bargain), I didn’t even get any regular updates on the progress of work agreed upon. I actually had to email them to ask about what’s happening.
Shortly after, I heard from the President’s Assistant. I guess the President is now too busy to deal with me. His assistant was apologetic about the lack of communication and proceeded to give some updates, citing problems and issues, blah blah blah…then, she asked me to introduce my company and to let them know what we do so that they can arrange the necessary cooperation work accordingly.
At that moment, I could feel a sense of anger rising up in my stomach. But I had to remind myself that I am dealing with students. It is at this moment that I was reminded of the Chinese business culture and the significance (or the lack of it) of an agreement.
I’ll now have to figure out how to deal effectively with them such that our MoU is honoured.
Chinese 60th National Day!
Oct 1, 2009 Uncategorized 2 Comments
I just watched the grand parade in Beijing celebrating China’s 60th National Day and wow! What a display!
I thought about the communication that is intended in such a grandiose show. What message do you think the parade is purposed to send and who do you think the intended audiences are?
What’s the impact of the recession on employee communication?
Sep 27, 2009 Business Communication 2 Comments
Here’s a write-up this year reflecting three surveys that revealed how the economic downturn has effected employee communication, and what communicators predict for the industry in the coming 12 months.
Read it at http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/news/downturncomms09.shtml
Give your thoughts and comments back here.
Why can’t we communicate well?
Sep 24, 2009 Business Communication Leave a comment
Most of us are born able to listen, talk, gesture, as well as use various forms of expression.
However, does being able to talk or being able to type/write a message mean that we are able to communicate? And able to do so well? (What does it mean by communicating well, anyway?)
This sure doesn’t seem so because we still have lots of misunderstandings, miscommunications and conflicts today. This despite our so-called advancement in communication technology. This despite most of us being so “educated.”
So, what are the issues causes the problem? What can’t we communicate well? Is there a solution??
One major issue with the quality of our communication has to do with our ego.
Yup, pride gets in the way.
Most of us tend to treat ourselves as so important (in fact, more important than other people) that we often get hurt or offended easily by what others say or don’t say, do or don’t do. We often try to second-guess what others mean and try to read between the lines when there is none.
This particular “noise” in our communication environment is one of the most potent ones because it distorts the real situation and prevents us from being objective.
I believe that in order for us to start communicating effectively, we should take the first step to put our self-importance and emotions aside and ask ourselves, “What is the situation here? What are my objectives? How can I communicate better? What can I do to be of service to others involved?”
WHY??!
Sep 22, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a comment
On my way to the office this morning, I waited for a connecting MTR train in a queue behind a lady who was visibly pregnant. When the train arrived, the cabin was rather crowded and there was no available seat. The pregnant lady walked in to the centre of the carriage and held on to the railing. No one looked ready to give up his/her seat for her.
A lady who was standing at that time noticed the pregnant lady. She quickly walked over to the pregnant lady and signalled for her to sit down, pointing to this young girl (she looked like she was in her late teens or early twenties) who was in a seat directly infront of the pregnant lady. While pregnant lady insisted that it wasn’t necessary, the lady insisted otherwise, signalling stronger that the young girl, who was on her mobile phone, should give up her seat. It now became apparent to me that the young girl was some relative of some sort of the older lady.
The young girl then peeled her ear away from the phone and blurted, “Why??!” in an American accent. She looked entirely chinese, nothing American. Her mother (I’m assuming this) then told her in Cantonese that the pregnant lady was…pregnant and so, young girl should give up her seat. Then, she pulled young girl out of her seat much to young girl’s annoyance. They then had their little argument right at the door of the train.
This is not the first time I’ve seen youngsters oblivious and insensitive to needy people around them. I’ve also read a report in Singapore of a young girl who called a pregnant lady a “bitch” because she stared at her who was sitting in a “needy” seat.
What’s happening to our new generation?
Child’s Play
Sep 5, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a comment
When my nephew was 3 years old, he suddenly came up to the dinner table where the family was gathered for Christmas and said, “Popo (Granny) is Gong Gong’s (Grandpa) wife, Mummy is Papa’s wife, Ah Yee (Aunty) is Yee Cheung’s (Uncle) wife. And Cherry is my wife!”
Cherry, by the way, is his family helper or maid, as they are called here in this part of the world.
We all burst out laughing and his parents were quick to correct his “mistake”, “No, no, Cherry is not your wife. She is our helper.”
After further probing, we discovered how he arrived at that conclusion. He drew the “wife” relationship conclusion by observing which couples slept together. Since Cherry slept in the same room with him, it “naturally” meant that Cherry was his wife.
While his hypothesis was not accurate, his observation of the pattern was absolutely right on target.
Is that not how we learn? We observe patterns and draw conclusions. The problem with adults is that we have a huge ego and prefer not to chance sounding or looking stupid. Hence, most times, we keep our conclusions (sometimes, judgements) within ourselves and never learn that they are inaccurate, if they were. These becomes our perceptions and beliefs and filters what we see and hear everyday. Our actions, consequently, are shaped by these.
Thinking back to my nephew, no amount of telling him that his conclusion was wrong will help him understand the true concept of husband and wife (i.e. marriage, man, woman, etc.). He has to experience it for himself throughout his life.
Ducks at i-Cable
Aug 26, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a comment
i-Cable (of CableTV, Hong Kong) is full of ducks. The word “customer service” is an oxymoron for this company because they are neither customer-focused nor are they service-oriented. Everything is about them – their convenience, their products, their services, their time, their policies, their procedures, their terms…
Calling them is quite a challenge in itself. You get put through a machine phone answering system which makes you listen to a series of instructions and then directs you to press a series of numbers. Then, the machine tells you what you have entered is wrong and that you should hold for the customer service representative.
Well, I wanted to speak to a person in the first place.
And when you do get through to someone, they tell you to call another number which is “technical support.”
So, I went through the entire calling and pressing numbers and waiting process again to get another duck on the phone.
After identifying myself and describing the issue to the duck, she then proceeded to ask a series of verification questions afterwhich she asked for my name again. Hmmm…
And then, after going offline to check the connection, she returned to say, “From what I can see from here, your cable modem is on and functioning well. If you see 4 green lights on the modem, that means it is OK.”
Well, miss, if it was OK then we won’t be having this conversation, would we?
She checked again and returned with, “I got an indication that your computer is not on.”
Well, miss, if it is not ON, then I won’t know there is a problem with the connection, would I?
i-Cable gave no solutions and offered no course of action on their part. They simply reiterated the signs and symptoms of the problem, which I can see very well.
Such a situation is certainly not isolated and mostly happens with huge companies. It begs the question of how is it that they can remain in business being so self-centred?
Mighty, little cockroach
Aug 26, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a comment
My wife is usually a calm, collected person under even the most extreme circumstances.
Well, that depends on how “extreme” is being defined.
The one situation which will get her all worked up would be for her to be in the same room or car with a cockroach or lizard. Nothing else, as I have observed, will get her into a frenzy.
It always reminds me of what a Mathematics professor in my first university days once said in a lecture, “Fear is making giants of dwarves.” I have also read some authors saying that FEAR really is an accronym for “False Evidences Appearing Rear.”
While the lizard or cockroach may appear small, their threat is very real to many people. And because they perceive the threat to be real, their reaction towards them is one of fret, anxiety, fear and the approach is either fight or flight (this is mostly preferred).
There are many of such seemingly small and unconsequential situations in our lives. However, the way we see them often results in their becoming HUGE issues and problems and thus, we react (instead of respond) if a way so as to handle a HUGE problem arriving at a state of OVER-REACTION.
I wonder if such reactions wear out our system – body and mind – faster than the natural environment does.
