ATLAS interviews Jason again
Building on this interview the gritty startup ATLAS did with me several months ago, they recently interviewed me again as part of the "meet the board" series. [Historical note: ATLAS has since morphed into LeadersAtlas.]
Meet the Board: Jason Patent
Dr. Jason Patent, American Co-Director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, has forged his own path to the forefront of the conversation about international China education. Jason’s pioneering work in intercultural training over the past two decades makes him uniquely qualified to identify the areas in which cross-culturally competent professionals can contribute to companies’ success internationally.
Jason’s current role at the HNC puts him at the intersection of the classroom and the workforce. Read on for his advice on how to get the best out of both:
In your China career you’ve been a business consultant, educator, and author. Is there a unifying theme that you can draw out of your diverse experience?
What unifies all these experiences is a commitment to understanding, both ourselves and those who are different from us. If you look at the state of humanity, it’s not pretty. Despite all the technological advances that have the potential to connect us, we’re still killing one another.
Decades of findings in psychology, linguistics and neuroscience have shown that almost all of what we believe has been programmed into us by our perceptual systems, languages and cultures. We’re not rational beings, despite what our minds may tell us. If we want a better future for the species we have to start by looking at our unconscious assumptions. Only then can we choose what to keep and what to reexamine.
Could you say a little bit about your vision for the Hopkins-Nanjing Center as it prepares students to get meaningfully engaged in building the US-China relationship?
I see HNC headed in a more global direction, so that it’s about more than the U.S. and China. What would the Center look like if we had, say, a few students from Japan each year? From India? From Russia? The list goes on.
Also, with the addition of a full-time career services professional to our Nanjing staff, we’re in a great position to help our students find careers where their talents are maximally leveraged. When combined with our intensified efforts to build an active community of alumni, we’re putting in place an infrastructure for our graduates to have the maximum possible impact on the world using the utterly unique skill set they’ve built at the HNC.
What are the most important skills and attitudes that you encourage international students at the HNC to acquire?
It’s the same for both international and Chinese students, and relates to question #1: be skeptical of your own truths and be open to other truths.
What roles do you see international HNC graduates playing in China business?
Translated into the business world, the seemingly high-minded ideas I’ve been talking about translate into efficiency and endurance: HNC grads, armed with these skills, will help businesses operate with lower costs in the short and long term, and with smoother cooperation with Chinese partners. Things will move more quickly, and turnover will go down. This builds strengths for long-term success.
Where do you see the most room for improvement in the way international students are educated about China?
The sorts of skills I’ve been talking about building — doggedly questioning our own truths and laying the groundwork for other truths — are best learned in a structured environment, with skilled facilitators, over the course of months and years. I’m teaching a course at HNC that helps build these skills, but there is still a structural problem that the world at large views these issues as “soft” and peripheral, rather than as the most hardcore learning issues there are. More courses on China should begin with questioning ourselves, rather than with treating “China,” whatever we take China to be, as “out there,” as something independent of our perceptions and biases.
How do you advise HNC students and other young professionals developing China-focused careers?
Two things. First, I tell them they need to do the work of translating their skill set into something a hiring manager can understand. “Cross-cultural” and “bilingual” just don’t cut it. What do these skills mean for any given job description?
Second, I urge students to get whatever experience they can working in an actual company. Future employers will want to know what specific experience students have had in this or that industry and function. Knowledge of China and Chinese by itself is not that valuable in the eyes of most companies. It has to be supplemented with actual experience.
Why did you join ATLAS’ Board of Advisors?
ATLAS is on the cutting edge of China business and of global business. They are actively demonstrating, and advocating for, the value of the sort of talent developed at HNC. They are doing the hard work of translating the abstract “language” and “culture” skills into terms that matter for companies. As ATLAS grows and becomes more successful, there will be more and more happy companies who owe their success to these types of talented people. More and more people and organizations will begin to see how crucial these once-“soft” skills are to success.
The ultimate result is more global interconnection and more understanding, which is good for humanity.