Applying Technology of Participation (ToP®) in an Authoritarian Culture

1. Applying Technology of Participation (ToP®) in an Authoritarian Culture Wenjun Du, M.S. Jason Jixuan Hu, Ph.D. Wintop Consulting Group Washington, DC, USA Shanghai, China www.wintopgroup.com

2. Facilitation Practice in China • Culture Differences • 18 Practical Tools • ToP®- Technology of Participation • Wintop Facilitation – Roundtable Leadership • Wintop Practices and Cases • Overall Observation • Conclusion

3. Culture Differences • Why Facilitation? • Western Society: general consensus, group leadership, and cross-functional teamwork are all widely accepted concepts and practices • China: long time personal charisma leadership, hierarchical leadership dominated culture, i.e., an authoritarian culture • When get started? • Attention since 1986(LENS) • Introducing into China in 2003 through Wintop

4. 18 Major Practical Facilitative Tools in Organizational Change • Search Conference （1960） • Future Search （1982） • Technology of Participation® （1984） • Strategic Forum （1987） • Participative Design Workshop （1971） • Gemba Kaizen® （1986） • Fast-Cycle Full-Participation （1992） • Whole System ApproachTM （1994） • Preferred Futuring™ （1969） • SimuReal （1975） • Organization Workshop （1978） • Whole-Scale Change™ （1982） • Dialogue （1985） • Open Space Techonology （1985） • Appreciative Inquiry （1987） • PCIR Conference Model® （1991） • Think Like a Genius® （1993） • Real Time Strategic ChangeTM （1993）

5. ToP® - Technology of Participation • Group Facilitation Methods • Focused Conversation • To help the group to have a comprehensive conversation within limited time • Consensus Workshop • To focus collective wisdom on reaching consensus within the group, thus to have implementation support from everyone in the group • Action Planning • Action schedule and individual accountability based on the commitment from the group

6. ToP® - Technology of Participation • Participatory Strategic Planning • Vision • Underlying Contradiction • Direction • Implementation

7. ToP®Technology of Participation

8. Common Activities in Organizations 5 Yrs Planning Annual Planning Quarterly Planning Change Management Guidance Quality Improvement Process Improvement QC/TQM/KAIZEN ISO/BPR/6SIGMA Implementation Problem Solving Team Building Corporate Cultrue Corporate Regulation Synergy Coordination All Management Fields

9. Wintop Facilitation Roundtable Leadership Training Course PAP – action plan III-1 Action to solve issue Action to solve issue Communication Skills I PQI – quality improve III-2 Prevent Problem Prevent Problem Consensus Workshop II PSP – Strategic plan IV New system, new direction Basic Advanced

10. Based on the core skills of ToP® Redeveloped for the China market Clear explanation of ‘why this method’ in training More practices in training More skills added Enhanced Communication Module Sets of communication tools including listening, questioning, conflict resolution and more group discussion templates Participatory Quality Improvement So that people can get process improved on site in the participative way rather than waiting for experts Wintop Facilitation Roundtable Leadership Training Course

11. 4DST - Wintop Facilitation Training Course Design Path Culture 4-D System Thinking Operation Process Structure System Optimization＝(Structure ＋ Culture ＋ Process ）＊Time

12. Wintop Practices and Cases

13. Case I – Private Sector • An animal food manufacture company with over RMB100 million revenue per year • Has 10 sub-companies in several provinces in northern China area • Training all top-managers in sub-companies • Attendees ages from early 30s to late 50s, with strong ‘driver’ personality • Results: • some people started to copy manuals and spread methods in their own sub companies • Quote from vice chairman of board: treat facilitation as a necessary pathway, not just a method, to help the business develop stronger

14. Case II – State-Owned Company • History: over 100 years, cosmetic industry • Attendees: most people from the same department, ages from early 20s to late 50s • Results: • Young people like it very much, older people feel it is too late to learn. The methods should be available in Universities. • Quote from VP, an MBA graduates from CEIBS: It is a good, practical methods that I couldn’t learn from CEIBS MBA program. • By product: training not only teaches the methods but also creates closer relationship among team members. • Follow Up: • Small talks after training, people talking about how ‘constructive inquiry’ they learned during the training helps the conversation in their families. • Official interview a year later: some trainees told us it is hard to use in the work place because the boss does not support.

15. Case III – Public Listing Company • Company background • Rapidly growing sportswear companies with over 600 employees and many OEMs • Average age is 28,leaders are all result oriented, not really pay attention to training, but like to make things happen through process • Facilitation service: • Cross departments project – a simple tool to help clients’ buyers • Short time for the result – within a month • Designed and facilitated total 3 days event during which we mainly used focused conversation method and consensus workshop • Result: a comprehensive work-flow with step by step explanation and an easy use excel tool as their training product • Observation: • People feels happy and very relaxed when first time the boss was not in the meeting • The meeting atmosphere got a little intense when second time the boss attended

16. Overall Observations • Authoritarian culture is still dominant in many Chinese companies • More leaders, most of them are young generation of the founders of business, have realized that the business growing needs more team inputs. • Many young managers, leaders went to MBA/EMBA programs to learn new stuff, however, they found those content in the curriculum are still distance to their daily working life. • Companies under more competition pressure in the market are trying hard to find new ways of promoting innovation, creativity, and collective wisdom.

17. Conclusion • Time is ripe in China to promote a participatory working environment and a facilitative leadership style. • ToP®/Wintop FacilitationTM methods are practical tools to enable groups to have a greater capacity for sharing the knowledge and wisdom of every member and to foster team wisdom. • It is just the beginning.

18. ToP®/Wintop FacilitationTM:Top Secret of Winning for TeamsThe Methods to Build Learning Organizations The Foundation for Organizational Change and Creativity Any questions, pls contact Wenjun Du, M.S. Jason Jixuan Hu, Ph.D. Wintop Consulting Group wenjun@wintopgroup.com jjh@wintopgroup.com Http://www.wintopgroup.com Thanks！