Preparing for the Import Expo Requires a Cool-Headed Team
Ji Lude, May 29, 2018.
The China International Import Expo is the world's first national-level expo with imports as its theme. It is an unusual exhibition. Therefore, it cannot fully copy the models of past successful projects, nor simply follow established routines. While pursuing speed and efficiency, it should also maintain some calmness. For this reason, I suggest that a cool-headed team be included in the preparation framework. In other words, there should be a team that does not do specific frontline work but acts as a relatively calm observer.
I. Why is a cool-headed team needed?
First, it is needed to better achieve the goal. The CIIE has economic indicators: enough participating countries and a substantial amount of procurement. But indicators are not the same as goals. If the main goal were simply exhibitor recruitment and buyer invitation, expanding and strengthening the Canton Fair would be enough. Why then hold the CIIE?
China's foreign minister Wang Yi said that in 2018 China would make every effort to hold four major home-field diplomatic events: the Boao Forum for Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the China International Import Expo, opening a new chapter of win-win cooperation between China and countries around the world. Therefore, the goal of the CIIE should be understood from the perspective of China's overall diplomatic strategy in the new era. It is an effort by China to advocate building a community with a shared future for humanity.
When this grand goal is converted into specific preparation work, it is broken down into small goals for various subsystems. The successful operation of each subsystem is the foundation of the overall goal. For various reasons, such as unreasonable decomposition of goals, poor coordination among subsystems or restrictions on originally planned resources, each department may basically complete its own task while the overall goal is not achieved. This phenomenon is not necessarily the responsibility of any one link in the work system, but someone must analyze and point out the reasons. A cool-headed team does not undertake specific work and can therefore continuously track the overall goal and take on this task.
Second, it is needed to better adapt to environmental change. With the development of modern information technology, the world has become increasingly flat. Something that happens in one place can be transmitted instantly to other places. If the response is slow, opportunities may be missed or problems may occur. For the CIIE, the world's first national-level expo focused on imports, it is extremely important to understand in a timely way how the world outside China views the event.
When the environment changes, work policies and routes must also change. To avoid treating only symptoms, a team should be freed from specific work constraints, supported by big data, and able to observe global dynamics from a macro perspective, describe the development of the situation, analyze the causes of trend changes and propose countermeasures from the perspective of the overall CIIE preparation work.
Third, it is needed to better summarize experience and form a positive mechanism. Unlike the World Expo, the CIIE is held every year. This requires normalization of the working mechanism and also leaves room to gradually improve work quality, improving each year and moving closer to the goal.
This requires a team that does not participate in any specific work group, but focuses on recording the process and judging deviations. Management has a Deming cycle principle known as PDCA: plan, do, check and act. Its essence is the cycle. Before each cycle ends, deficiencies are checked, and adjustments are made when the next cycle begins. In this way, the work can gradually approach the goal.
Based on this analysis, the cool-headed team has three responsibilities: observe overall work progress and write periodic analysis reports; widely collect external information and analyze the situation; and record history, summarize experiences and lessons at the end of each year, and propose improvement measures for the following year. These tasks do not occur only in the first year of preparation, nor are they temporary measures. They should be long-term work. With such a team continuously providing intellectual support, the CIIE can keep learning and improving year after year and will not fail to meet central expectations.
II. How should the cool-headed team work?
A cool-headed team does not participate in specific business work but carries an important mission. Therefore, many major projects now form expert teams for this purpose. However, whether experts can truly play a role is not simple. It is common to see expert groups or advisory committees created for projects or local governments. Some merely show respect for talent; some are sincere but remain distant from reality and do not play much role. Based on my experience working at the World Expo Bureau research center, three points should be noted.
First, choose suitable members. The role of a cool-headed team is mainly systematic thinking, so it should avoid both purely theoretical researchers and purely practical operators. The CIIE is not a research institution but a concrete project. Completing practical indicator systems is essential. Research reports that build models, explain systems, argue at length, speak broadly about China and the world or simply copy key points from high-level speeches lack relevance and have little practical value for the CIIE. On the other hand, if the organizer only wants to know exactly how a task should be done and expects experts to provide specific answers, that expectation will likely fail. Sometimes external experts are commissioned to study a specific task before it begins, but the final report is far from reality and cannot be implemented, which causes people to lose trust in experts. The reason is that experts are treated as frontline operators rather than as clear-minded observers who can think systematically and identify problems.
Therefore, members of a cool-headed team should generally have rich work experience and the ability to extract patterns from specific affairs. Familiarity with a certain business area is important, but systematic thinking is even more important. In addition, I have always believed that big data experts are necessary for many current projects. By contrast, purely theoretical researchers or skilled workers confined to a single position are not very suitable.
Second, establish an appropriate working mechanism. Every field has its specialization, and it is unrealistic to include professionals from all fields. Therefore, inviting broad participation from society is a good method. But when many people are involved, there must be a proper mechanism to ensure that the cool-headed team works effectively rather than becoming decorative. First, needs must be clarified: when what kind of research report is needed, and what the main problems of CIIE preparation are. Second, a contact mechanism is needed. Because many cool-headed team members cannot all enter the CIIE system, the team should operate in a connected way: the CIIE preparation organization should have full-time personnel, while many team members remain outside. Full-time personnel should use appropriate methods to let all team members understand basic preparation progress and let specific members understand progress in particular areas.
Third, responsibilities should be clear. It should be clear who writes external situation analysis reports, who proposes consultation and diagnosis, and who conducts work summaries. Even if there is no formal report task, members can be required to provide several opinions or suggestions from time to time and at least pay attention to preparation progress. Evaluation should also be provided: those who are serious and responsible should be praised, and those who are not competent should no longer cooperate. Certain treatment should be provided, such as communication allowances or permission to use the title of expert group member externally. This creates a sense of responsibility rather than only nominal membership.
The meaning and working mechanism of a cool-headed team have been on my mind since I compared the World Expo and the CIIE. As this short article was being finalized, I learned that the CIIE had established an expert committee, and I was fortunate to be invited as a member. But I know I am not an expert. I am only trying to collect materials on the preparation of the Shanghai World Expo, hoping its experience can inspire large-scale events in Shanghai. I am willing to continue working in this direction.
