One of Hong Kong’s top finance industry leaders asked me recently “which side are you on: China or Hong Kong?” The intent of the question was to see if he should talk to me. Being a self-declared Pro-China advocate himself, assumed my being Canadian meant I was Pro-Hong Kong and our dialogue would end there. Instead my reply surprised him. “I love China and I love Hong Kong. I don’t side with one or the other, I side with dialogue”. This opened the door to a long conversation which only ended when I had to depart for my next appointment.
Read MoreIn person dialogue is beneficial except when you misread other people. Building on Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Talking to Strangers, I highlight the types of people Gladwell suggests we watch out for and how to protect yourself from dishonest suppliers, clients, staff etc.
Read MoreStuart Thornton is CEO of international start-up www.hoolah.co. Stuart shares Hoolah’s value proposition (start), why he is an entrepreneur (2:06), the importance of passion (3:10), attitude (3:50), three types of people (4:30), his journey (5:45), bravery (7:00), the hardest step (7:45), and creating a market to win (7:47).
Off camera Stuart shared the importance of networking (with admins, suppliers and customers), intuition (or paranoia), introspection, and suspending the assumption you are an industry expert, as ways to sense and keep abreast of change as it is happening.
Stuart asks his direct reports to raise their hand to show how they feel about a particular change. Five fingers outstretched means “OK”. Five folded fingers means “no way”. 1-4 folded fingers results in dialogue why. “How many fingers” is a great method to stimulate dialogue in the midst of change.
Another tip “don’t hire talent if you don’t need them”. Companies that hire talent then find a role for them forget that talent wants to hit the ground running.
Read MoreHeidi Hollinger and her outstanding production crew from Canada interview Peter Nixon (starts at 13:35-21:28) on Hong Kong business customs and cultural context. Together with the perspective of other societal leaders this created a popular documentary for global broadcast in both English (Discovery Channel) and French (TV5). This documentary keeps appearing year after year due to the valuable information shared on how to do business in Hong Kong.
Read MoreDaniel Lu has been in the payments industry since the start of digital payments 25 years ago. From his perch at the leading edge of change he shares key tips for CEOs wanting to lead, negotiate and manage change. Recorded in Singapore in October 2019.
Read MoreCCP has banned my book Dialogue Gap despite dialogue being exactly what’s needed to overcome their current problems with the USA, Hong Kong and beyond. Learn what caused the censors to get nervous about a handful of pages out of 250 pages explaining the dialogue skills and methods needed in China and elsewhere today.
Read MoreI met Stephanie at a client event and she offered to do a song for dialogue. Here is the initial result. I hope you like it.
Read MorePeter Nixon shares his thoughts in response to the 2014 Occupy Protests. Five years later many of the issues remain and are intensified in the 2019 Democracy Protests that have racked the city.
Read MorePeter Nixon shares the importance of dialogue when bad things happen to good people, including yourself.
Read MorePeter Nixon is asked for negotiation advice by the senior adviser to the Ayatollah of Iran. Six years later negotiations between Iran and the USA remains a key issue for both countries. The world needs Iran to rejoin the family of nations.
Read MoreI coined the term 'Dialogue Gap' to suggest that at a time when the world needs more dialogue we're actually getting worse at it. Conversing is the heart of dialogue and is best done face-to-face. I define communication as sending information and dialogue as thinking together. Communication and dialogue are not the same and communication should not be used in place of dialogue. Although dialogue starts with communication, many situations need more than just communication to achieve optimal outcomes. If you try to resolve situations needing dialogue by using transmission-style communication, you usually just make things worse.
Read MoreOn the 4th of July 2008, US national day and my father’s 85th birthday, I was given the opportunity to dialogue with Emiko Okada-san, one of the few remaining survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on the City of Hiroshima. My work had taught me that dialogue, not bombs and aggression, was where the optimal outcomes would eventually be found for the problems of today. I had learned that killing made dialogue a whole lot harder so I sought out the chance to meet Emiko Okada because I felt her personal story somehow made her so much more credible as an international spokesperson for dialogue.
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