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From our newsletter (Vol10No3):
Guanxi, Networking and Chance Meetings
The Synchronicity of Business and Romance
It is said that the Chinese guanxi is
responsible for ninety percent of business success in China and
globally. I often tell the managers who attend our Asian business
culture workshops that if they want to succeed in business, they
should find an overseas Chinese who is willing to die for them.
In other words, they are willing to let them enter their guanxi.
If at the end of my two day workshop, our Aussies get a glimmer
on how to do this, I know they will do well in the years to come.
Guanxi is Chinese networking yet it is not. Guanxi is the English
old boys network yes, but not quite. Guanxi is not how
you do it but who you know. Well, it is both. Guanxi is a cobweb
that is intrinsic in Chinese culture for thousands of years.
In the late 60's and 70's when the women's movement first took
off in Australia, women tried to master the art of networking
in order to break through the patriarchal sexist corporate walls
and ceilings. I had thought then that it was quite cold and calculating,
a deliberate and heartless way of meeting people who we hope,
will be of use to us one day, and in return we owe them a favour.
This morning as I climbed into the plane heading for LA, I opened
the Financial Review and there it was - a whole article on networking
and how it had failed. The smug little ego in me started to read
with glee. Yes, my feeling was right two decades ago.
The real Guanxi, the one that really works for me, is usually
tinged with a heavy dose of spirituality. By spirituality, I
mean the connectivity between people that defies logic and rational
explanations. It is the connection of souls. In the Taoist and
Buddhist/Hinduist worldview, all of us are fragments of an universal
soul. And the universal language of soul communication is love.
The soul knows that falling in love is an accident, a chance
meeting. One shouldn't really go searching for love. Love finds
you when you are ready. Similarly with business. How many times
have you tried everything, done all the right things, but no
contract eventuate. Yet many will tell you of great successes
through a chance meeting. So Guanxi is about connecting on a
deep archetypal level. I believe it is to do with synchronicities,
meaningful coincidences.
This morning, while standing in the queue, waiting to board the
plane for LA, I turned around to the man behind me and muttered
something about the long queue and he agreed. We got to talking.
He turned out to be a lecturer from Monash University, Caulfield
campus. Guess where Moni used to teach? A synchronicity, a chance
meeting.
Gaunxi always has an element of an 'accident', but it must also
be empowered with good intention. Some call it luck. I call it
love or ren in Confucianism. Soul talk.
Usually for me, the most effective Guanxi happens by 'chance'.
I met my husband by 'chance.' And it lasted 35 years. I got my
first job by 'chance' and it lasted 27 years.
How can we tell when a 'chance' Guanxi occurs, whether romance
or business? One is usually suffused with an awesome energy when
it occurs. It has the quality of 'we have met somewhere before',
'this has happened before'. We share something significant in
a moment of time. We usually remember the person long after he
or she has continued on his/her journey. What they have left
behind is a fragment of their soul. What we have given is a bit
of ours. We have loved in a moment of time. A lovebyte has been
shared.
How does the universe work? It works for us. Through an energy
called love. Skeptical? Just answer this question. Would you
choose to have love in your life or not at all? Didn't someone
say it is better to have loved than not love at all? Be open
to the synchronicities in your daily life. They come to you to
smooth the way, to remind you that "life is a mystery to
be lived, not a problem to be solved." Just like love.
Light and love
Postcript to my editorial:
I arrived back in Melbourne as this goes to print. The trip was
a wild success on many fronts, personal and business. Leaving
Waterloo, Canada, I flew to Singapore via London. In Singapore,
my childhood friend of 50 years, Evelyn, had set up a meeting
with a company called the Julia Gabriel School of Speech and
Drama in view of a possible joint venture! (Evelyn owns a kindergarden
business based on Accelerated Learning in Kuala Lumpur for the
past 13 years). Julia's son, Mark Gabriel, is into Accelerative
Learning and had just bought over a company called Quantum Learning
which is derived from the principles of Accelerated Learning.
Now in Melbourne, I look back on my trip to Waterloo and can
say without a doubt that I enjoyed some amazing loving kindness
all the way and to crown it all, I launched the Heartwork workshop
in London. A huge success. I met up with Angela and Kevin Filmer
who played the part of the taxi driver in our play: Our Man in
Beijing. Angela was the stage manager. They gave me much love
and sweetness. That is what I called success loving friendships
that is beyond time and distance. The good news? I have come
back with renewed energy to continue living and learning. And
growing.
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