Solving CHINA's Unknown Unknowns (Book Introduction Preview)

Introduction 

"They need a Chinese-speaking consultant," said the recruiter trying to convince me to consider what was essentially a contract position.

I'd led people and projects before but had never considered becoming a consultant who spends continuous months onsite at the client to assess, create, and then implement new processes. 

"The client is a Dutch company. They have this annual 40-week continuous improvement program at their three major sites in Europe, the Americas, and China. But this program fails in China every year, so the client requested a Chinese-speaking consultant this year."

"And by the way, you'd be working onsite at a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) in Nanjing for the next 40 weeks." 

It was a joint venture with China's largest state-owned chemical producer. Since the partnership began, they have essentially been trying to overcome the Iron Rice Bowl (铁饭碗 tiěfànwǎn) mentality that still influences Chinese behavior to this day.

Someone entrepreneurial, who’s willing to take risks and continuously seeks to achieve better results has the polar opposite mentality of an Iron Rice Bowl that literally means you will never go hungry because you have a bowl that's always full of rice, the Chinese diet's main food staple.

In practice, someone with an Iron Rice Bowl mentality wants to collect a paycheck with a comfortable job by maintaining good Guanxi (关系) relationships. When this mentality meets a request for new processes or ways of working, it naturally responds with lip service, expressing what the other party wants to hear as a means to give and preserve Face (面子 miànzi) without any real intention to follow through. 

Now, it's not difficult to imagine why these "Western" process improvement initiatives fail every year in China. Having "effective meetings" is the antithesis of exchanging praise during extended tea ceremonies throughout the day or endless drinking toasts over dinner.

As far as my role, we achieved all milestones and deliverables on time and exceeded the stretch KPI target along the way. The client verified the new process improvements were still intact six months later, so we avoided any contingency penalties had there been a reversion. Meaning, people aren't behaving one way when you are there and differently once you are gone. 

Before we continue, this story isn't about leading change in complex multicultural environments, though you may likely enhance this ability by getting the most out of this book.

This book also isn't specifically about doing business in China, which would be overly broad, not to mention that China isn't homogeneous as most incorrectly assume. That said, you should first recognize that China is a land of contractions. Most people feel this way because they learn certain things about how Chinese people behave and then experience something completely different.

You shouldn't be surprised nor confused by this because CONTEXT, even subtle variations, may result in very different behavioral patterns. But rather than just telling you to have more situational awareness, I will teach you a Balance of Extremes (BOE) Mindset Adjustment Exercise to help you gain greater clarity and insight into the situations you will likely encounter.

In the end, this book offers a blueprint for delighting the people you will encounter in China and reversing the fortunes of preventable disappointment along the way.

Unknown Unknowns

What happens to your probability of success when there are things you don’t know you don’t know?

Anyone who's lived or worked in China long enough has experienced an unexpected disappointment despite genuine intentions to be helpful, supportive, and even generous. These "unexpected disappointments" are symptoms of our unknown unknowns coupled with our inability to “think different” when a foreign situation calls for it. 

Myopia and a lack of awareness, cultural, situational, and self-awareness prevent most people from adapting culturally and adjusting psychologically. This means you don’t fully understand cultural dichotomies and their implications, nor do you give enough attention to the ramifications of the words and actions you choose. This is why we will analyze in the pages that follow how your attitude and persona might cause an unintended negative impression. In other words, we will pay careful attention to how you are perceived by those you seek to influence.

Solving CHINA’s Unknown Unknowns means you realize the influence your attitude, mindset, and approach play in winning the China game, and you strive to make continuous adjustments to achieve more favorable outcomes within its rules. 

You can think of it as training and conditioning to use the Art of War against the Art of War (孙子兵法 Sūnzǐ Bīngfǎ).

A Winning Attitude

PMS (performance management systems) projects typically have four major milestones divided neatly into weekly and daily deliverables that track and monitor every input into the system to catch deficiencies in real-time to implement corrective action. We always begin with training to get project participants familiar with new tools and processes.

For the local team in Nanjing, we began by teaching "effective meetings," the cornerstone of all process improvement initiatives. Historically, this is when communication between the foreign consultants and Chinese staff begins to break down.

Imagine using a short leash to anchor your puppy away from where the children are playing and visualize her desperate attempts to break free and join the action. Puppies just want to play and not be held back. 

Chinese feel similarly constrained when forced to follow a TOR (Terms of Reference) to control who can say what and for how long during mandatory meetings every single day. Traditionally, Chinese people reach a consensus thru an unstructured ritual of giving praise and offering empty promises that leave all parties feeling good about their egos. 

Thus, our natural tendencies, habits, and preferences are where cultural dichotomies need to be analyzed and then reimagined to get us into a state of mind that projects an ATTITUDE that’s more palatable. 

Yes, it's as simple as managing others' perceptions, but the challenge is shifting your attention and making sense of nonsensical things.

My Dutch predecessors refused to deviate from the project charter, which is why they came up short even though everything they shared would have been beneficial. They also became keenly aware that they were receiving lip service but were helpless to overcome it. 

Solving CHINA’s Unknown Unknowns is about delighting those you would otherwise find difficulty reaching an agreement with and influencing their perceptions in a positive way that supports your overall objectives to achieve a win-win outcome. 

Proactive Listening

What do I mean by "delighting," and why does it matter?

When our values, priorities, and expectations are different and misaligned, which we'll analyze in-depth in the AWARENESS & EMPATHY section, we enhance our bargaining position by addressing how someone feels.

We are all emotional creatures, but the same incentive or provocation doesn't trigger our emotions similarly, which is why EMPATHY can create so many advantages. 

When you recognize and learn how to delight those you need to trust and empower, replacing skepticism and contempt, you will significantly increase your odds of success.

I spent the first four weeks in Nanjing, pushing back against my global project manager in The Netherlands instead of following the standard operating procedure (SOP) because I knew it wouldn't work.

"These processes work everywhere in the world, so don't tell me they won't work in China." 

I almost got myself fired!

I allowed the project to fall behind schedule by refusing to impose more stringent protocols. Instead of forcing everyone to follow the new procedures, I hung out daily with the VP of Marketing & Sales in her office, my workstream counterpart for Commercial Excellence. We drank tea and got to know each other, and I listened with a novel curiosity until we discovered the way forward.

No, this story isn't just about "listening" and developing friendships, so we'll expand on a concept I call PROACTIVE LISTENING throughout this book.

We began developing our Guanxi relationship in Chinese terms. Then along the way, we realized a mutually beneficial outcome of having external consultants onsite, so we aligned our goals and adjusted the project charter to include her wish list of initiatives. Subsequently, this program received immediate top-down support.

Top-down mandates are typical in a Chinese hierarchical bureaucracy, but lip service persists in creating inefficiencies. In Chinese culture, this is actually expected and well accepted. Chinese people are accustomed to responding this way to their superiors, which is traditionally the safest way to avoid any negative consequences. 

Therefore, I also had to delight the local sales team tasked with implementing the new procedures to achieve our goals. 

Perhaps I was lucky that one salesperson was a huge fan of NBA basketball. Maybe I was fortunate that I preferred eating at the local cafeteria, drinking and sharing Chinese tea, and going outside for smoke breaks even though I don't smoke.

Are these the reasons why the local Chinese sales team began inviting me for dinner after playing basketball together? Is this why dinner and drinking eventually lead to Chinese KTV, colloquially referred to as the next stop (下一站 xiàyīzhàn) reserved for insiders who have deep Guanxi relationships?

There's no way to say for sure, but I recall that I was always CURIOUS about how they felt, about everything, project-related and personal. We talked for hours every day about nothing, and I naturally presented myself as an equal even though my workstream counterparts were the VP and CEO. 

CURIOSITY, which we will discuss throughout this book, should be natural, but it can be powerfully influential with purpose.

And I shouldn't forget to credit my driver, the personal chauffeur assigned to pick me up at the train station on Monday mornings who drove me to and from the hotel every day and night. I sat in the front seat instead of the typical back seat reserved for VIPs, and we chatted as if we were from the same alma mater.

Did acquiring local Nanjing insights help me foster closer Guanxi relationships with my client?

At a minimum, my 40 consecutive weeks in Nanjing were more pleasant from knowing local places to visit, things to buy, and places to eat. But the benefits of this relationship pale in comparison to my history with an unlicensed taxi driver (黑车司机 hēichēsījī) in Shanghai who granted me mafia-like resources at my disposal should I ever need to "resolve a problem" (解决问题 jiějuéwèntí). 

I'll share this story in the WINNING INTERACTION PATTERNS section, but you should be mindful that every relationship matters, even when you aren't looking for the phantom stakeholders.

Interaction Patterns 

Why do many foreigners feel China is a land of contradictions where every consideration seems to result in some kind of dilemma?

Perhaps it is more meaningful to focus on how we can reverse the negative interaction patterns that consume a disproportionate amount of our time and mental energy. 

In my experience, born and raised in the Deep South of Atlanta, Georgia, I was always fighting against what I wanted to do and what I wanted to say because my inner voice never stops reminding me that you "get what you give." 

I eventually discovered a dilemma because what I offered was rarely received as I intended, and what I got in return often felt empty and meaningless. I once prided myself on having the ability to see through someone's BS, but viewing Chinese behavior through this lens caused me to misinterpret their acceptance of me altogether.

My natural desire for people to "just speak the truth" because I could handle it and would appreciate it put me at odds with those who think and communicate in relative terms. In other words, our interpretation of TRUTH is a fundamental cultural dichotomy. 

I was taught to answer directly, replying YES or NO to a simple YES/NO question, but this becomes impossible relative to what we expect when the other person thinks in relative terms, sometimes referred to as circular reasoning.

Imagine being asked whether you want court-side seats at Staples Center to watch the LA Lakers play the Golden State Warriors without any additional context. Even as a huge NBA fan residing in Southern California, my answer would be, "it depends."

How much will the tickets cost? What day is the game?

The point is, whenever your Western logic asks a Chinese person a question, it likely lacks the context for them to answer to your satisfaction, and their inclination to always give Face or Mianzi (面子 miànzi) in their replies will further remove you from the answer you seek.

So, my first killer tip is to "stop seeking explicit answers." 

In an environment where everyone is likely to tell you what they think you want to hear that will result in the best outcome for themselves, asking direct questions becomes pointless. So within this context, we all need to develop the ability to think and speak more rhetorically.

Throughout this book, I hope you will learn to focus your attention on trends rather than facts and cultural cues rather than direct answers, as your capacity to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity will pay generous dividends over time.

Message from Gene J. Hsu, Author

The working title of my upcoming book has changed to Solving CHINA’s Unknown Unknowns.

My purpose remains unchanged, which is to help foreigners understand how to delight and influence Chinese people in a positive way in order to form more constructive (Guanxi-based) relationships, but I realize the things we don’t know we don’t know (unknown unknowns) is at the heart of our misunderstandings, misperceptions, and missed opportunities.

Stop asking whether the West should decouple with China, and instead divert more attention to how you can thrive amid the evolving world order.

My goal is to help you “think different” about China and its people so negative biases can be replaced with something mutually beneficial and constructive.

Please email me at [email protected] with any comments, especially the bad ones.

Thanks! 谢谢??

Chat soon,

Gene

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