Non-combat applications/corporate realm

[parrapiti]

As I promised on another thread, here is an edited translation and invitation to share more about non-combat applications from our Shaolin Chi Kung and Wahnam Taijiquan to daily life.

As suggested in the Spanish part of the forum, there is plenty of information about the benefits of the Shaolin arts to Health, Vitality, Combat, Spiritual Joy, etc., both in Sifu´s books and on the forum. The basic idea of this thread is to focus on another aspect of these applications of Taijiquan principles and Chi Kung experiences to daily life - metaphoric applications for the Western World´s corporate realm.

Several of us are part of this forum becuase we practice/teach Wahnam Shaolin Arts, but most of us have different jobs that are not directly related to the Shaolin Wahnam School, so each of us is an "expert" in different fields other than the Shaolin Arts, so everytime one of us makes a sudden link between his/her martial arts practice and his/her own job, sharing it through this forum will expand our perspectives about the dimensions of this practice.

Apart from teaching Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung and Wahnam Taijiquan to the leaders of our community in Latin America, I am a corporate consultant for an organizational developement firm based in Colombia. Part of my job/hobbie is to research and implement new ways through the application of non-western wisdom to generate personal/corporate developement. It is important to clarify that the term non-western and western does not relate to geographical areas of the world, but more to philosophical approaches to one´s way of life, so a different perspective for this could be "applications of non-traditional concepts to the modern western corporate world".

Lately I have been implementing a workshop on "Basic Fundamentals for Negotiatios" that incorporates concepts such as:
- Five Elemental Processes.
- Be straight, be relaxed and Smile from the Heart.
- the Art of Yielding (thank you Sifu Marcus Santer for your great thread about this topic...)
- Internal Force and "verbal Fa Jing"
- Timing and Spacing
- Start later arrive earlier
- etc.

If others are interested in these topics, I will continue adding and will start explaining. I know other instructors and practitioners are involved with corporate consulting also (Juan Pablo, Diego, Jose Antonio, ...) and it would be great to hear and share with all!

Best regards,

Piti Parra Duque

[LeeWeiJoo]

Siheng Piti,

Count me in Applying our concepts and skills to the corporate world is something new to me. Please do continue sharing with us.

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

[barrys]

Siheng Pitti,

I am very interested in what you have to share. When I get chance I will share some of my experiences as well.

Barry

[parrapiti]

Lee Wei Joo and Barry!

I am looking forward to reading your comments on this thread, too. I am leaving to the mountains of Central Colombia for a couple of days and will not have e-access, but will write on my return to the "virtual" world again!

Piti Parra Duque

[Antonius]

It's been a while since I've seen any mountains (none in Florida). Please say hi to them for me, Piti.

[joko]

I am looking forward to reading your comments on this thread, too. I am leaving to the mountains of Central Colombia for a couple of days and will not have e-access, but will write on my return to the "virtual" world again!

Piti Parra Duque

And which part in our world which is not virtual?

Joko

[Jonny Say]

Dear Piti Sipak,

I would also be interested in hearing your experiences especially about the concept of 'verbal fa jing'.

All the best

[Jose Antonio]

Great thread Piti! Count me in!
Jose Antonio

[Mark Blohm]

Dear Siheng Piti,

Looking forward to everything, especially the 5 elemental processes.

Mark

[parrapiti]

Entry #1

Back from the mountains (Anthony - you are always a guest here, come teach, share, practice anytime...).

So here is a bit of info about the topic in hand:

While learning Wahnam Taijiquan with Sifu Wong at Sifu Rama´s place in Costa Rica (www.shaolin-wahnam-center.org), my brothers and I started making connections to his teaching sequence and our corporate workshops. Juan Pablo specializes in Strategy, Diego in Creativity and Innovation, and I focus especially on Human Interaction, High Performance Teams and Negotiations, so each of us linked it in different ways.

Here are some bases for my link between Wahnam Taijiquan, Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung and Fundamentals for Negotiations:

1.- Most of our negotiation skills are based on our capacity to debate. When we train our negotiation skills, we usually train our rational part. In negotiation workshops it is common to see the focus on developing such concepts as "separate persons and problems", "concentrate on interests, not on positions", "insist on objective criteria", "find the Best Alternative of a Negotiated Agreement",... The developement of these argumentative criteria is very useful, but it is like external training in martial arts. The Power in a Negotiation (Pn) is a relationship between our argumentative skills and our foundations/fundamentals (Pn = A+F). Even though the position of the variables doesn´t affect the outcome, I think it is clearer to put it this way: Pn=F+A. Having concious fundamentals increases the potential of arguments, very much like having the correct stances to increase the potential of our arms and hands. But as we know, it is not enough to have a correct stance to be able to use our arms and hands to absorb, neutralize and/or redirect an attack. It also requires that we learn harmony, internal force, correct timing and spacing, ..., so the same is applicable for negotiation skills. Debate skills without the developement of the non-rational aspects of a negotiation are not enough. We need to also focus on aquiring emotional, perceptive, intuitional skills to interact with our counterparts. And all this is not enough if our basic stance is not correct (concious): A negotiation is an interaction that focuses on maximizing the valuable outcome for the maximum of parts involved. If we don´t keep this in mind, soul, body and heart throughout the interaction, then the negotiation is just a rational battle with shortsighted outcomes.

More to come!

Piti Parra Duque

[parrapiti]

Entry # 2

Back again...!

2.- If we use this definition of negotiation (an interaction that focuses on generating the most value to the maximum of parts involved) as the basis for any interaction, then our "basic stance" is correct. But in our corporate world it is not easy to focus once and again on this simple principle, when most interactions are based on principles such as "winning is not the main thing, but the only thing...". As in Wahnam Taijiquan, we have to focus on stance training to generate a good bedrock for other aspects of the practice. And "Stance Training" for corporate application has the same basic rules as the regular Wahnam practice - One should be "standing upright", relaxed, and most importantly Smile from the Heart.

Standing Upright is not meant only physically, but in negotiations one should always go back to the original definition mentioned earlier, re-check that "basic stance" again and again and be able to readjust it anytime one finds it out of synch, until it becomes natural. As in martial arts training, it is good to have a qualified master or instructor, or a good sparring partner to keep an eye on this and help refocus. Before one tries to apply this into "real combat", one should practice this with interactions that require less emotional involvement and that have low expected outcomes. If one learns to do this in this kind of settings it will become second nature and will come out easily at more difficult negotiations.

"Relaxed" is a term that is not easily understood in our Western World. It is commonly mistaken for unaware, disorganized, non-caring,..., but as in martial arts it refers to non-tensioned. If emotional tension is present, physical tension will join in and the mind will not be able to focus and be flexible at the same time. These three aspects go hand in hand, so if one of them gets tensioned the other two react alike. It doesn´t matter where this tension starts. A relaxed negotiator looks calm, feels calm, is calm, so his/her mind/heart/body are completely present, ready to act and react with firmness and flexibility at the same time. Many Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung practitioners that are involved in high level executive decision-making always mention that this art truly helps them to be alert and relaxed at the same time.

"Smiling from the Heart", one of the main fundamentals of our Shaolin Wahnam School, is essential at negotiating. When an individual learns to Smile from the Heart, he/she is connected to everything in the Universe. One is both integral as a human being (physically, intelectually, emotionally,intuitively) and in Togetherness with All. In this way, the only possible outcome of any interaction, be it a negotiation or else, is of maximium benefit for the maximum of parts involved. Perception and emotion focus on the counterpart, the mutual interests, the persons that are involved, the mind plays with the criteria, the possible outcomes, and the intuitive part searches for the options with best mutual benefits, usually surprising both oneself and the counterpart.

More to come. Looking forward to your comments and additions.

Piti Parra Duque

[LeeWeiJoo]

Dear Siheng Piti,

It's amazing what smiling from the heart can do. We keep ourselves focused, joyful, in the moment, and to be mentally alert and fresh. This is something that I have only recently become aware of, and am trying to incorporate into my everyday life.

Looking forward to the next installment

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

[parrapiti]

Entry # 3

In a recent private e-conversation with Sifu Marcus Santer we were writing about Yielding and Negotiations. Here is part of what I wrote:

One of my reasons to practice/teach Wahnam Taijiquan is because I´ve found it to be a great metaphor for many applications in the corporate world.
Recently, I´ve been teaching executives "fundaments for negotiations". Here, we have come to realize the importance of "yielding" as a concious role of a negotiator:

We usually come into a negotiation looking to win. Our negotiation power
focuses on our rational capacity to debate and find comparative strenghts
on our services/products/prices/discounts... Usually, when focusing on
this "Argumentative" side of negotiations, we forget about "the
Fundamental" part of it. As if we would forget our stances in Taijiquan and
focus only on arm/hand movements. This fundaments include the concious
capacity to yield gracefully to allow the counterpart to "attack" with
arguments, giving us the opportunity to generate new perspectives in the
negotiation. Yielding in a negotiation does not mean giving up or losing,
but offering vulnerability through questions about the counterpart´s
perspective to allow the full debate to happen, very much like the tacic of "offering an opening to create an opportunity to attack" used in Wahnam Taijiquan. Once we have attentively and actively listened to their offer, and have asked with real interest to fill us up with more info about it , showing interest in finding a new outcome, the counterpart usually feels less threatened, opens up and allows for both parts to find a more reasonable outcome. This is a very difficult habit to aquire. we tend to enter a debate with "force against force" causing a no-exit situation. We both lose, but each feels they won "their one case", becuase we proved the other one wrong. Yielding is an skill which needs to be trained and practiced until it turns natural. A negotiator that knows how and when to conciously yield has better
fundaments to make his/her arguments more effective.

Piti Parra Duque

[parrapiti]

Hi all!

The basic idea of this thread is not to post my opinions for others to read, but to share different views about corporate applications of the Shaolin Arts, so we all can benefit with different perspectives. I am looking forward to reading your entries, too!

Piti Parra Duque

[Ray]

Dear Sifu Parrapiti (Sorry I don't know which is your last name),
I fully agree that verbal yielding is an important strategy to learn not just in the corporate world but in everyday life.
To be honest I learned the principle of verbal yielding from the Dalai Lama, where he utilized it in his book The Art of Happiness.
Often times though I have realized that in the corporate world other sad situations take place such as the seniors taking advantage of the newbies, mind games and manipulation, and stealing of the ideas of others and calling it their own. How would one defend themselves from situations such as these using the principles that we train with?

Best,

Ray