We are all the same, nothing to fear: a report from China

Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi

Where to start from my trip to China? Orphanages, learnings from the meeting of a huge global company meeting, walking the streets in a not-so-strange city... Let's start with the kids.

Special Needs, Special Kids

We visited two orphanages.  It's orphanage two I'd like to focus on (video below!) -- a child care center for mentally disabled children, under-funded compared to its fancy counterpart across town (and in Shanghai, across town is at least an hour drive or more).  My friend Tim Shriver has lead the Special Olympics and spoken to me for years about both the need for and the joy volunteers get from working with these kids.

As often as I've said it, it's still difficult to put our anthropological instincts aside and go into a totally alien situation without some fears.  This was a home for 200 mentally and physically disabled children. But having now toured so many orphanages and homes for children in need, what I found distinguished this one wasn't so much the disabilities, but the immediacy of the warmth we experienced.

Typically these kids take a moment or two or three to warm up to strangers but because they are so often starved for the basic love and touch, they come around pretty quick. Not here. You walk into the room and the children instantly smile and open their arms and come toward you as if you were their caregiver for years.

The care and love of the full-time caregivers at this orphanage was obvious, and I'm sure it takes amazing patience. Although maybe not: I thought that my own patience would have been tried after a while, but not true at all. The children were so effusive but never burdensome, just joyful and remarkably respectful not just of us but each other.

Again, I was struck as I was in Guatemala by the amount of sharing and taking care of each other, making sure everyone got something.  I think I have found a new interest in these kids and I look forward to volunteering sometime soon at a special olympics.  Yet again proving to myself that service is one of the greatest gifts I can give myself.

As for their needs, they are less funded than the traditional orphanages, so we were asked to bring the basics, like toothbrushes and towels.  Their bedding is on a last thread and just a thousand more dollars will buy for them new sheets and pillowcases.  There are many simple things like this that these kids need, so I hope you will join me and donate a little to get them the basics they need.

New Perspectives on Global  vs Local

The day after I was front of room for a global company having its leadership meeting in china, which gave me a super business perspective, both historically and on today in China.  Business has such an opportunity there to deliver growth.  Shanghai is exploding -- it will be the next financial center of Asia overtaking Tokyo.

It's an interesting dilemma, I must imagine, for the big companies to balance their global reach alongside local needs, particularly in such a high growth area as China.  I remember at Starwood and Deloitte hearing the constant nagging of these regions for more funding, but it never really sunk in. I identified similar situations with several local country leads I met on this trip.  They could clearly grow faster if they were given the resources they need.

The global policy decisions are also interesting.  For instance, what is called a small or medium sized account today in China could grow exponentially into a big account very soon, but is treated by "global" terms as a small account and relegated to a phone center.  Yet the company who invests in that "small" relationship with personal sales and service today will certainly have the advantage over those who choose to service virtually and without the personal relationship (of particular importance to Chinese culture where they LEAD with relationships more than America - I found our work strongly resonant there).  And finally, sales people are not as expensive in China (people not their scarce resource) so the personal service is not as prohibitive. So do you relax a "small" account and allow it to be served locally?  Or leave it to the judgment of the local leader? Interesting, and a real challenge for big companies.

As for the primary reason I was there, I love my job.  It's frankly so easy.  Take a group of individuals, divisions, functional heads and just point out that they will have greater success and joy if they CHOOSE to relate better. Then give them the simple pathway and also have them experience it right there in the room... Well, the praise for the obvious never ceases to amaze me :)

The Surprising Peace of Shanghai

I did a lot of walking around this city.  Shanghai is huge but actually quite manageable. The streets look like our streets, except for the volume bike riders in the winter. They seem to understand better than we do how to avoid bad traffic. But often I found myself strolling and just thinking, "how peaceful." Maybe it was a state of mind following my service work, but it was far from the bustling, intimidating China I expected.  I look forward to my next trip a great deal.

See you there for the World Expo in the summer!?

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11 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

  1. Keith,
    Thanks for the update on your good work at the orphanages in China.

    I spent 2 weeks in Shanghai last month to facilitate training programs for a global client there and while I can't say I found the traffic or the streets calm, the city had a definite energy and the people a clear desire to learn and grow. And they were very proud of the fact that they were going to host the 2010 World Expo and would have a chance to welcome guests from all over the world.

    Your work on candor and vulnerability will be very helpful in China. I found that while relationships are crucial to success there, they are founded on respect - which often prevents people from criticizing or giving feedback to their peers or managers since it might cause the other person to "lose face." It required a lot of practice and encouragement before they could view feedback as a gift which could help the other person and demonstrate their own commitment to continuous improvement. (I blogged about this in Jan 2009, when I returned from my first trip to Shanghai http://gildabonanno.blogspot.com/2009/01/feedback-is-gift.html )

    Eventually, we got them doing improv exercises to help them connect with each other, which also helped to break down the barriers between the participants from all over China as well as Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand.

    I also took a quick weekend trip to Beijing to see the Great Wall - what a sight! I hope you get a chance to make it there if you haven't seen it yet, although it's quite cold this time of year!

    I look forward to more of your posts from your service and business trips.
    Gilda

  2. Dear Keith,

    I have enjoyed your writing so much. Your and your colleagues' insights on relationship building have had a transforming effect on my life.

    This particular blog entry really intrigued me. It reconfirms my belief that one can find peace anywhere, anytime if one truly connects with oneself and with the surroundings the way you did. Do you know when you will be back in Shanghai for the World Expo? I work for a major American university, and toward the end of June I will be accompanying our president on her visit to Shanghai and Beijing. It would be fantastic if you are there around the same time; we would love to invite you to join us for a guided walk through the expo and at our networking events.

    Please feel free to e-mail me. We hope to see you in China and beyond. Thank you for everything you do!

    Sincerely yours,
    Jen

  3. Keith

    China has $2T in foreign reserves. Why aren't they taking care of their own people? I feel a sense of anger towards the Chinese government, and shame that that anger can't help but punish those in real need. I must turn down this request.

    If you are setting up business and social relationships in China I can see the merit in helping with local social needs, but as a society I need to be convinced of the merits of aiding their social welfare system. To some extent the global issue becomes illuminating need around the world. And trying to put pressure on countries like Sudan, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia that don't have decent civil rights and social safety net systems.

    Nick
    in Maryland

  4. That's a tough one. I can appreciate not wanting to enable a repressive govt with little to no recognition of human rights. But a suffering child is a suffering child. Political pressure and providing relief are both noble pursuits.

  5. Nick, it seems that you don't understand the nature of foreign reserves. It's not cash that the govt can just spend. The Chinese government has done a tremendous job in the past couple of years to balance growth and change. But unlike the American start-from-scratch attitude, Asian cultures believe in a process that could be called stepwise improvements (which is actually far more effective that the American approach). And the Chinese government has done an incredible job incorporating this slow change while encouraging growth but balancing the two. If China would follow the American or European suggestions of immediately switching to a western society with western style democracy, western style laws and western style values, not only China but the entire Asian hemisphere would collapse and destabilize the global market for years – not to mention the turmoil it would cause in the lives of the people. The only way China can improve is by slow change - and it does. The Chinese people have experienced (and coped with) so much change in the past 2 decades - I argue that no American or European could handle that much change in that short time frame.

    Of course it is easy to compare the "status quo" and notice the human rights violations. And the lack of care for orphans. And the environmental issues. And many other things that are far from perfect in China. But China is moving towards it - at a pace that enables the people to follow. Pressuring the government to speed up that process in a "start from scratch" manner is more damaging than helpful - so governments with more intercultural understanding don't use bully tactics but use relationships and friendships to offer help to improve things. Pressure and China-bashing is just making things worse.

    And by the way: especially America should be really careful with its China-criticism. The US is the largest economy in the world - but there are over 40 million people entirely without medical insurance. Why does the richest country on earth not take care of their own people?

    Why does the US spend more money on warfare than on education - resulting in one of the worst education systems in the western world? Why does the richest nation on earth not take care of the education of their own children?

    And when talking about the human rights situation in China, it should be noted that the US is operating a network of illegal detention centers where prisoners are held illegally, without a trial or access to a lawyer or even basic human living conditions (Guantanamo prisoners were held in wire cages - most Americans would not even make their dog live in these conditions). Even children were detained there - for years and without their parents. Many prisoners of these camps are tortured routinely - even tortured to death. A UN report just mentioned the similarities of this US-operated prison network to the Nazi concentration camp network. Sure, the magnitude of the crimes is by far not at Nazi level - but the attitudes in dealing with human beings certainly is.
    A western democracy that tortures people, illegally invades countries and kills hundreds of thousands of people there, operates concentration camps and doesn't care one bit for human rights, international law or the United Nations Charta is REALLY not in the position to criticize ANY other nation.
    Yes, the situation in China is not perfect – but the Chinese government is moving in the right direction. And it doesn’t need criticism from nations that are not much better – instead it needs help from friends to keep going and make the right decisions.

  6. Keith, your recent trip to China including stop over at the disadvantaged children center changed the way people thought of tourism or business trip. Your act of kindness and extending helping hand to the less fortunate children is building a great bond of relationship between people of two countries separated only by boundary of the Pacific Ocean. I am sorry to say that my recent trip to Beijing covered most historical locations, great dining opportunities, shopping, and no chance to visit or help disadvantaged children or elders. Fortunately, the ever popular internet such as your blog will help us gain more understanding of two different cultures. We need more bridges - social networking portal sites in connecting us together. It will be a great idea to locate the orphanage organization in a global directory where people can find more information about it. It seems such organization is underfunded and probably will not have an website presence. If possible, I like to extend the helping hand in identify the organization you have visited and let people connect with the children in need.

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