The China Dialogues
Our China Dialogues are not seminars, workshops, or formal presentations. They are actual dialogues between Brian Duckworth and Raymond Newkirk as they discuss the real, up-close, and mostly hidden experiences of doing business in China. In choosing dialogues rather than seminars or workshops, Brian and Ray seek to more realistically present the experiences of other leaders as they embarked on their own China programs. Differing greatly from seminars in format, our China Dialogues are specially designed to improve management decision-making about the China Connection. We designed our Dialogues for relevancy, connectedness, and immediacy - Relevancy in building your China Connection, Connectedness in linking your plan to the realities of doing business in China, and Immediacy in providing the information you need to make decisions now about avoiding risks tomorrow. Our China Dialogues Program is outlined below.
The Softskills Programs
Knowledge, Understanding, & Wisdom
The Newkirk Group specially designed two core modules to enable clients to rapidly transfer the insights gained during the dialogues into successful action. Our goal is not simply to inform clients but to enhance their action in China. We lead clients along the journey from information and knowledge to understanding and wisdom.
The first core module, Communicating with Tact and Diplomacy in China, enables client to assimilate the insights gained in the China Dialogues and properly place these within the political framework of communication, tact, and diplomacy. We all need to communicate better, and we need to do it appropriately with tact and diplomacy. This powerfully succinct program perfectly fits into ourChina Dialogues. Not only do clients gain realistic insights about the Pitfalls and Tarpits of Doing Business in China but they also learn how to diplomatically communicate within an environment plagued by such pitfalls and tarpits.
The second core module, Building Resiliency for Succeeding in China, further enables you to assimilate the insights gained in the China Dialogues and properly place these within the interpersonal framework of resiliency and self-mastery. We all need to master our interpersonal environments, and we need to do it as resilient individuals able to handle the unexpected twists and turns of an unfamiliar environment. This brief module also perfectly fits into our China Dialogues. Not only do clients gain realistic insights about the Pitfalls and Tarpits of Doing Business in China but they also learn how to rapidly develop the personal resiliency needed to master the unfamiliar situations they will encounter within an environment plagued by such pitfalls and tarpits.
The China Dialogues Program
Dialogue One: Understanding the Reality
of Business in China
Session One: Your Worldview Matters in China
Brian begins the Dialogue by describing the complex landscape specific to his experiences with clients pursuing business in China. Here the Dialogue offers no theory but factual experience. Brian discusses what really happens in various situations in China as opposed to what most business leaders naively expect. Here the Dialogue describes the actual as opposed to planned process of doing business in China. Brian helps clients separate the "Hype" from the "Reality" of the situation to better prepare to counter the unforeseen contingencies that regularly occur. Through Brian clients gain an indepth understanding of the pitfalls and tarpits that await you as you attempt to do business in China.
Ray addresses Brian’s comments by introducing a practical and powerful method for taking stock of the clients' all important worldview, (their own Weltanschauung) and placing it within the worldview of their Chinese host. Here the Dialogue enables clients avoid the messes experienced by those who have never learned how to describe their worldviews appropriately. Clients come out of the opening session knowing a lot more about the realities of business in China. They will also know how to locate their worldview within the context appropriate to their mission in China, or any other country. Believe us when we say that one's worldview matters in China.
Session Two: Navigating Between Civil Society and Third World Corruption
"If you are not careful when doing business in China, you will kiss your business in China goodbye."
Brian begins this session by describing the day-to-day transactional environment facing Americans in China. He discusses the problem of corruption and its impact on the best laid plans of Americans who jump on the China Connection bandwagon. Here he addresses the need to forge enduring relationships to overcome the fluid attitudes about truth, honesty, and corruption and their impacts on contracts. Since the long term Chinese vision of business excludes foreign ownership of businesses within China, Brian discusses the problem of maintaining corporate independence, intellectual capital, and competitive strength. Brian helps you restructure your thinking about the business attraction of China. He leads clients to bridge the wide gap between how clients see their future in China and how China sees the American role in helping China eventually do it without "outsiders". Regardless of the hype and theory of proponents of the "flat earth" visions of the China Connection where it is expected that broader commerce overcomes essential differences, Brian leads clients to navigate the very real and dangerous threats to their long term business health. Through Brian clients gain a more indepth understanding of the reason behind their Chinese host’s encouragement to form their own China Connection. A hint: China thinks in terms of centuries; we think in terms of business quarters. Just remember, your Chinese host already knows better than you what they want to do with your operation five or more years down the road.
Ray addresses Brian’s comments by leading clients to identify the most noteworthy hallmarks and milestones of a civil society, the ones that clients count on to prop them up in their drive towards business success. Ray and Brian lead clients to better understand what they actually face in China as a contemporary American business persons from a civil society taking a significant risk in a very different and often uncivil country. Here the Dialogue helps clients recognize the hidden symptoms and pitfalls of the all pervasive corruption and gauge its cost as a factor in their business planning and expected cost of operations. Clients come out of this session with valuable insight about the very real challenges and risks they face from day one doing business in China. Along the way they better understand how their expectations fit within the context appropriate to their mission in China, or any other country. The conflicts clients will encounter between their civil point-of-view and attitudes of intolerance for corruption are daily occurrences in contemporary China.
Session Three: Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy in China
The Communicating with Tact and Diplomacy in China Program enhances our first two sessions. While learning about the Pitfalls and Tarpits is essential to achieving business goals in China, clients discover that communication skills is vital to building successful business relationships. Regis Smolko designed the Communicating with Tact and Diplomacy in China Program to share specific insights in interpersonal communications that better facilitate the application of the wisdom clients attained in the Dialogues.
In this Session you learn hard-hitting techniques that vastly improve your ability to communicate professionally in China with tact and diplomacy. Clients find that this Session easily justifies itself as small but vital improvements in their communications approach pay off quickly in at least three significant ways by: (1) saving untold hours of wasted time; (2) reducing misunderstandings associated with inadvertent confusion associated with ill-conceived communication strategies, and (3) establishing a firmer foundation for tactfully negotiating with the Chinese as clearly as possible.
Regis Smolko designed this program to improve and jumpstart communication skills in China. This powerful program builds upon the information provided during the Dialogues to enable clients to build a repository of vital information essential to successfully communicating in China. Moving from a working model of communications to solutions of conflict resolution through more artful listening, this Program consists of the following modules:
- How Communications Work In China
- Tact & Diplomacy when Communicating in China
- Preventing Miscommunication in China & Managing It When It Happens
- Methods of Communicating in China
- The Art of Persuasion & Negotiation in China
- Conflict Resolution & the Art Of Listening in China
The Communicating with Tact and Diplomacy Program complements our China Dialogues. Regis designed it to give clients every possible advantage as they open business in China. Clients may view this program as a special consulting or coaching opportunity to refine their communication skills in and out of China. This complementary program provides the opportunity to better assimilate and use what clients have previously learned in the Dialogues. Here clients take the next step by building powerful communication strategies, methods, and skills to ease their transition into China. Since clients will need all the help they can get as they embark on their China Connection, The Newkirk Group designed their China programs and consulting services to make such help available.
The Communicating with Tact and Diplomacy Program is a dynamic program of connected modules. It is concerned with the universal structural regularities of human communication, general types of communication processes and their relevance in China, the problems of transforming these processes in building the successful China Connection, and the basic principles of organizing any elements of communication in nature, practice, and cognition in China. This Program is particularly relevant to our Dialogues program because it has much in common with our objective to help clients avoid the pitfalls and tarpits of the China Connection. In this way, it outlines, complements, and further illuminates the China Dialogues.
Session Four: Building Resiliency for Succeeding in China
Building Resiliency for Succeeding in China Program links the previous sessions and enables clients to take the next step when putting everything in action. Al Garrotto designed this session to enable clients to better prepare themselves psychologically and spiritually to overcome the unfamiliar challenges they will face in China. This Session assists clients in taking stock of their personal strengths. It enables them to determine their authentic versus apparent readiness for succeeding in China.
Here clients learn the hidden techniques that vastly improve their ability to manage themselves in China. Al leads clients to a knowledge of the special characteristics that enable them to succeed against all odds in unfamiliar situations. Understanding that all success is deeply personal, being deeply rooted in intrinsic values, beliefs, histories, worldviews, interconnected events, discernments, and decisions, Al Garrotto designed this Session to improve clients' decision making skills. Here clients learn to leverage the three previous sessions by: (1) comprehensively exploring the essential components of a full human life; (2) identifying the interconnected events that move each life forward towards greater success and fulfillment; (3) identifying the key elements in one's philosophy of life that enable one to make positive changes in response to challenging situations, and (4) defining a step-by-step process for making wise personal decisions during crucial times in China.
Al Garrotto designed this program to enable clients to better care for themselves as they embark on their adventure in China. This powerful program moves from a working model of the human person to a wisdom-building process for enhanced decision making. It consists of the following modules:
- Understanding Yourself for Improved Success
- Building Your Personal Time Line to Enhanced Resiliency
- Fine Tuning Your Philosophy of Life
- Making Enhanced Decisions Using a Wisdom Building Process
The Building Resiliency for Succeeding in China Program complements our China Dialogues. Al designed it to improve clients' self-mastery skills as they open business in China. Clients may view this program as a special consulting or coaching opportunity to better understand themselves as they encounter a completely new business culture. This Session provides the opportunity to better identify one's skills and personal tools for success. Here clients take that added step so essential to success by building powerful decision making processes to enable them to better master their challenges in China.
The Building Resiliency for Succeeding in China Program is a coherent program of integrated modules. It concerns the: (1) universal components of a full human life; (2) understanding of the unified journey that all human beings face; (3) key elements in a philosophy of life, and (4) basic steps involved in making wise decisions for oneself. After all, if clients cannot make wise decisions for themselves, how can they make wise decisions for their organizations - and how can they claim to be resilient? This Session is particularly relevant to our China Dialogues program because it has much in common with our objective to lead clients to avoid the pitfalls and tarpits of the China Connection. In this way, this Session outlines, complements, and further illuminates the China Dialogues.