Jason Patent

Success in China

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Brief hiatus

Posted by Jason Patent on Wednesday, October 21st 2009   
Categories: Uncategorized    
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Tomorrow I head to China for some consulting work. I’m hoping to have the chance to post but I may not. If I don’t, then I’ll resume posting the week of November 2nd. Until then…

Scrutability

Posted by Jason Patent on Tuesday, October 20th 2009   
Categories: Communication    Tags: Communication
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One of the most hackneyed Western stereotypes is that “the Chinese are inscrutable.” I’ve never really been clear on what that’s supposed to mean. I think mostly people have meant that it’s hard for a Westerner to know what a Chinese person is thinking, based on what they say. Which makes sense, given the high-context [...]

Truth and Trust: Prove it

Posted by Jason Patent on Thursday, October 15th 2009   
Categories: Trust    Tags: Trust
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What does it mean to trust someone? It means at least that: You think the person has your best interests at heart, i.e. has good intentions toward you. You think the person generally says what they believe. You and the person share some set of values and/or objectives that are independent of either of your [...]

Truth and Trust: More than meets the eye

Posted by Jason Patent on Monday, October 12th 2009   
Categories: Trust    Tags: lying, Trust, truth
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American notions of truth and trust are founded on an underlying faith that more information is better, and that information, all things being equal, should be made available. This follows from Americans’ universalist perspective on the world, and also from our “Layer 1″ and “Layer 2″ perspective. Information is treated differently in China. It tends [...]

Truth and Trust: Absent malice?

Posted by Jason Patent on Tuesday, October 6th 2009   
Categories: Trust    Tags: lying, Trust, truth
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In an earlier post I wrote about how we humans judge ourselves on our intentions, but judge others on their behaviors. We can’t avoid this: we can only judge based on what we have access to, and we just don’t have access to others’ intentions. When we see unfamiliar behaviors, we have even less than [...]

Truth and Trust: American lies

Posted by Jason Patent on Monday, October 5th 2009   
Categories: Trust    Tags: lying, Trust, truth
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From the last post we could get the idea that Americans are absolutely devoted to truth, which could make us feel smug compared to the “truth-relative” Chinese. Before we get too certain about that, let’s look at some evidence that points otherwise. Back in 1981, Linda Coleman and Paul Kay, a graduate student and a [...]

Truth and Trust: Chinese truths

Posted by Jason Patent on Wednesday, September 30th 2009   
Categories: Trust    Tags: lying, Trust, truth
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There are plenty of circumstances in which Americans consider it okay, even desirable, not to tell the truth. (Take the age-old example of the Nazis coming to your door asking about the Jews you’re hiding in your attic.) Still, on balance, Americans believe in telling the truth. Or, more to the point, Americans think of [...]

Truth and Trust: Being lied to

Posted by Jason Patent on Tuesday, September 29th 2009   
Categories: Trust    Tags: lying, Trust, truth
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So much misunderstanding between China and the U.S. occurs around truth and trust. In their more candid moments, Americans will often share with me that the Chinese are “inscrutable” and “dishonest.” If that’s our starting point, it’s predictable that we will either fail, or be miserable in whatever small successes we can gain. Today we [...]

A universal problem

Posted by Jason Patent on Monday, September 28th 2009   
Categories: Dimensions of Culture    Tags: Dimensions of Culture, Leadership, particularism, Trompenaars, universalism
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One way to think of universalism is that it’s just another cultural characteristic; that, just as “specific” is different from “diffuse,” “universalist” is different from “particularist.” That’s all well and good. The problem is that universalism has some mischief hidden inside that can cause serious trouble if we’re not aware of it. Here’s what I [...]

What have you done for me lately?

Posted by Jason Patent on Thursday, September 24th 2009   
Categories: Dimensions of Culture    Tags: achievement, american views, ascription, chinese views, Dimensions of Culture, Hampden-Turner, Trompenaars
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A fourth dimension of culture used by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner that impacts Westerners in China — especially Americans — is what they call “ascription” versus “achievement”: All societies give certain of their members higher status than others, signaling that unusual attention should be focused upon such people and their activities. While some societies accord status [...]

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Featured Articles                                          Why the lotus flower?

Recta-fication...

A recent post on Dan Harris's China Law Blog referred back to a 2008 post [read more]

Recta-fication

Fish poop...

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Fish poop

Two quotes...

In earlier posts I've quoted from Jack Perkowski's Managing the Dragon: How I'm Building a [read more]

Two quotes

The blind pursuit of happiness...

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The blind pursuit of happiness

Leveraging goodwill...

Over Labor Day weekend I got together with an old friend — a fellow I [read more]

Leveraging goodwill

Goodwill hoarding...

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Goodwill hoarding

Assume nothing...

I was thinking about the qualities of the culture-savvy leader as I read this piece [read more]

Assume nothing

The Culture-Savvy Leader: Resource-minde...

Any leader needs to be mindful of resources. Leaders are often evaluated on how they [read more]

The Culture-Savvy Leader: Resource-mindedness

The Culture-Savvy Leader: Equanimity...

In any organizational setting, leaders are best off keeping their cool and avoiding big swings [read more]

The Culture-Savvy Leader: Equanimity

The Culture-Savvy Leader: Empathy...

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The Culture-Savvy Leader: Empathy
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