Nathaniel and Sheree back in Australia

Introduction

Over the last two years I have learned a number of lessons about management. Some of them have been learned the hard way and other have been learned by talking to other people. In this article I’ve tried to summarize some of the most important lessons so you can try to avoid these mistakes.

In China a lot of these management problems are related to “saving face”, which is part of Asian culture. In the west these same problems are often called “office politics”. Whatever the cause the outcome is the same: They generally help a specific individual at the expense of the company.

All of these problems are related to authority and responsibility.

• Authority means that you:
  • Get the praise if the project succeeds.
  • Can be allocated resources and make things happen.
• Responsibility means that you get in trouble if the project fails.

What Works

Responsibility with Authority

If a single person is responsible for a project and has authority over the project then they have the motivation to make sure that the project succeeds. This doesn’t guarantee that the project will be a success but does improve the odds.

A Group with a Group Leader who assigns Responsibility and Authority

The chairman is not responsible for the output of the group. He/She is only responsible for assigning responsibility and authority. So if a task isn’t assigned to anyone then the chairman is responsible for that mistake but individuals are responsible for their individual projects.

What Doesn’t Work

Responsibility without Authority

This almost always means that the project will fail. It generally happens when a manager assigns a task to an employee without giving them enough authority to complete the task.

Authority without Responsibility (Kingdom Building)

This happens when roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. The two most common forms are:

• Large unproductive departments (More employees = more important)
• Managers taking on titles without taking on the work. (More titles = more important)

Equal Group Authority with equal Group Responsibility (Blame Game)

If everyone has equal authority and responsibility then everyone assumes that someone else will do the work. If one person does all the work then everyone else still gets the glory. If no one decides to do the work then when the project fails then it is easy to blame someone else for the project’s failure.

Equal Group Authority with Individual Responsibility (Burn Out)

This scenario is similar to the “Chairman scenario” the main difference is that the chairman delegates responsibility and authority. In this scenario the individual is responsible for the project but doesn’t have enough authority to make sure it is successful. This scenario works for a while but eventually the person responsible for all the mistakes that the group makes will burn out.
This post is really different from the other posts in the blog and I would really appreciate feedback. Either directly or in the comments.

Returning To Australia

After a lot of soul searching we have decided to return to Australia at the end of Sheree’s contract in July. It has been an interesting two years and we have both enjoyed being over here with its ups and downs. The only regret that I have is that we have not seen much of China apart from Beijing. Over the last 6 weeks we have been trying to compensate and have gone to a number of different places. So far we have:

• Gone Go Karting

• Went to a Hot Spa with our Home Cell.
• Went to Xi’an and saw the Terracotta Warriors
• Went to TainJin and saw the concessions.
• Went to the New Summer Palace and saw the marble boat.

Go Karting

We went Go Karting with Ingrid and Alex from Language Calls. The most interesting thing about the racecourse was that it was indoors. When the temperature is below zero for almost four months it make sense. Because it was indoors the track was a lot tighter than some of the other ones we’ve been one. It was also really noisy but that just added to the excitement. Each race was only 6 minutes which does not seem like a lot of time but when each lap is about 30 seconds the 6 minutes seems like a really long time. Sheree was won by a lap and had an average speed of 34.3 kph.

Hot Spa

We went to a Hot Spa with some of our friends from Home Cell. We had bible studies, lots of praise and worship and a really good time. I don’t think we have many photos of the Spa and water park because we were to busy having fun but that’s life. My favourite ride was the man made wave … although that may be because I was the only one able to surf for more than a couple of seconds

Xi’an

Sheree organised the holiday to Xi’an which was a nice change. She found some really cool apartments near the center of town. We got to see al the major attractions in Xi’an:

The Drum Tower & Bell Tower

The Terracotta Warriors

The Bumpo Village

The Big pogola.

The Wall (We found out the hard way that it takes just over 1.5 hours to ride all the way around it)

We also go to see some other attractions:

Kites that stretched as far as you could see into the sky.

Some snacks in Moslem street.

Jiaoza Banquet.

TainJin

We went to TainJin with some of the teachers from Sheree’s school. The hotel was really nice but the bus trip there took almost 5 hours. We went on a tour through TainJin looking at all the concession(sort of like embassies) and hearing about TainJin’s history. I think one of the most memorable photos was looking at all the people fishing right next to the no fishing sign.

The photos from the TainJin holiday probably look really boring since the photos are mainly of buildings but in China they are really out of place and it almost feels like you are in another country when you go through some of the concessions.

New Summer Palace

We went to the New Summer Palace with Jon because it was his last day in Beijing. The day was windy and cloudy and rather depressing. I was freezing and to be 100% honest the jade boat wasn’t that impressive. I’m glad we want but I’ve seen so many temples in Beijing that they are getting a bit boring. We didn’t go to the palace itself because it cost an extra 30RMB to go there and we had ran out of time.

Future Plans

When we get back to Australia I am planning to go back to university and get a Graduate Diploma of Education. Eventually we would like to travel again and it will be easier if we are both teachers at the same international school. We will both:

• Get medical insurance.
• Flights back to Australia every two years.
• Paid an international wage.
• Leave work at the same time.
• Get the same holidays.

That should make it a lot easier the next time we travel.

Till next time…

Before I start telling you about our Chinese New Year. Here are the photos. Unfortunately most of the photos were on Mum’s Camera and I forgot to get a copy before she went back to Thailand. I’ll try to upload some more later on.

For those of you that don’t know the Chinese have a lunisolar calendar which means that the Chinese New Year isn’t the 31stof December. Chinese New Year generally happens sometime in February and in China it’s a big deal, a REALLY big deal.

For the whole month everything goes a little bit crazy (like Christmas in Australia but with 1 billion people). Here are some of the things that happen:

• Almost all the Chinese get to take a 9 day holiday BUT 4 ofthose days are weekends and they have to work the entire weekend before the holiday, so they only really 3 days off but if you try to explainthat to them they’ll adamantly say they get 9 days off.
• Many part time employees take the entire month off.Lots of English schools shut down for the whole month.
• Virtually everyone goes home.
• There are virtually no cars in Beijing and most of the pollution goes away as well.
• They start selling fireworks 3 days before Chinese New Year and lots of Chinese people spend up to a months salary on Fireworks and food for the banquets.
• On Chinese New Year the fireworks start going off as soon as it gets dark and by midnight they are constantly going off in every direction.
• The fireworks keep going for the next 2 weeks.
• It’s traditional to make Jiaozi (dumplings) during Chinese New Year.

This Chinese New Year was extra special because my Parents and Daniel decided to visit us (after having some problems with their visas). Here is a breakdown of what we did:

• Tuesday – Sheree picked them up from the airport and then took them to the Great Wall with some of our friends from Yizhuang.
• Wednesday - We all went to Longqing Xia to see the Ice Festival with some of my friends from work. On Wednesday night we let off about $200 worth of fireworks (We carried them all around in a suitcase) at 10pm then went back to the apartment on the 9th floor to watch the fireworks till about 1am.
• Thursday – We relaxed and got a massage at the hair dresser. We were going to go chair skating but they had already packed up for the year
• Friday – We were going to go to the Pearl Market but it was closed fortunately the Toy Market behind it wasn’t closed
• Saturday – I went Skiing with Daniel while everyone else relaxed at home. We took a bus there and back unfortunately whenwe tried to catch the bus back to Beijing it was full so we jumped in a van with about seven other people. I had no idea were we were going but the lady next to me was going to Beijing as well so I figured if we followed her we’d make it back. In the end we found out that the van was going to the first bus stop so we were able to get on the bus and make it back to Beijing.
• Sunday - We didn’t do much on Sunday apart from say goodbye and send Mum, Dad and Dano off to the airport.

Overall Chinese New Year was a lot of fun. It was great catching up with my parents although I did neglect Sheree a bit that week (I tried to make up for it the next week).