Asian Professional  
Development   

Mission

We are concerned about what we call a "crisis" of excellence.  Over the last thirteen years our organization has worked on the development of  Asian employees and managers.  We also worked with non-Asian managers to build more effective relationships with their Asian employees and colleagues.

We have met and worked with many gifted Asians and Asian Americans who have exquisite credentials, but who have not been given the "unwritten rules" to be successful in corporate America.

We are offering a training and development program called: Corporate Skill and Political Savvy for Asian Americans.  This program offers training, coaching and follow-up that can enhance the interface between the employees, manager and teams.

In the course of our work, many Asians have communicated their extraordinary commitment to excellence and have also  expressed the pain and frustration about miscommunications and misunderstandings that block their progress, or slow the team effort.  It is not customary for Asians to surface this frustration ... so the "crisis" is one of submerged feeling and pain.  The "opportunity" is in being able to offer a program that serves to inform and to offer tools that build rapport and possibility and helps to alleviate the frustration and move through crisis to opportunity!   

CONTACT: Inter-Change Consultants
isystems@erols.com

The Program

Training

Presentation
and
Communication
Skills

Coaching

Follow-Up 

 Communication Contrasts

Seminar A)

POLITICAL SAVVY:
The "Unwritten Rules" of Corporate Life
That You Need To Know

Duration: 
Size: 
Audience: 

Workshop Description:  

Objectives:  

• Learn the "unwritten rules" of US Corporate Culture

• Understand the importance of visibility at meetings and on projects

• Build a relationship with one's boss while making him or her look good

• Develop strategy to manage your own career

• Practice the art of small-talk and socializing

• Understand one's own cultural assumptions and behavior which
  may reinforce stereotypes that limit one's effectiveness at work

• Practice how to give / receive positive and negative feedback effectively
  
  

Topics Include: 

• A cultural framework to understand the underlying cultural
  assumptions of US and other cultures about relationships,
  communication styles, teamwork and manager / employee expectations

• "Unwritten rules" articulated

• Video case studies

• Role play of typical situations at work

Seminar B)

THE SAVVY MANAGER:
Maximizing the Contributions of
Asian-Pacific American Employees

Duration: 
Size: 
Audience: 

Workshop Description:  

Objectives:  

• Introduce a diversity framework that will assist managers in understanding their own cultural assumptions as a basis for understanding the cultural assumptions of others.

• Compare and contrast US / APA cultures regarding expectations of manager - employee relations, conflict, performance evaluation, teamwork and work styles

• Practice cross-cultural communication skills for listening, asking questions, identifying conflict, managing effective meetings and building teams

• Learn how to build relationships and identify motivational sources

• Learn how to give positive and negative feedback, especially during performance evaluations.

"I have known Liz Young and Phyllis Haynes from Inter-Change Consultants since 1994.  I have always been impressed with the work and the knowledge they have on cultural diversity in the workplace and related issues.

The powerful model of High - Low Context has been one of the most effective concepts that helps our team to understand more about our team dynamics and cultural differences.

As a first generation Asian American, I am 'trained' and brought up as a high context person. As a manager in the workplace, I often found myself caught in a predicament in working with my leaders, my peers, as well as my staff since most of them are low context. The workshop and teambuilding activity that Liz and Phyllis delivered has helped us tremendously in closing some of these cultural gaps." 

Peter Moy
Technical Manager,
Lucent Technologies

"Liz Young is a powerful agent for change and personal development. She brings her many years of service to the Asian American community along with her dynamic skills as a speaker, coach and consultant. She has inspired many Asian American professionals to bring their best selves to the work place and to business." 

John Wang
Executive Director
Asian American Business and Development Center

"Meeting Inter-Change has been one of the best things that has happened in my career. I work with Elizabeth Miu-Lan Young and Phyllis Haynes who are helping to guide me through my career transition -- it's like having two wise sisters whom I can trust, value and respect." 

Theresa Kim
Ernst & Young

"Elizabeth Young's political Savvy and Corporate Skills coaching helped me improve my communication skills and understanding of the "unwritten rules," in the following ways:

• Have confidence and ability to express my feelings. They also helped me to talk in meetings and in one-on-one interactions

• Improved my acknowledging and listening skills

• Able to articulate my strengths and talents strait forwardly and to highlight my diverse background (lived / worked in 5 countries)"

Abraham George
Lucent Technologies

"Elizabeth Young has provided me with the insight and the skills to understand and function well in a professional environment. As a new student leader with a vision, I did not know how to approach people with my interests.  With Liz's mentoring, I was able to speak directly with the president of my college and communicate the needs of the Asian American community on campus.  He agreed to sponsor the first annual Asian American Day on campus, which was attended by almost 100 students.  She has given me the ability to voice my self and negotiate for student needs."

Juliet Chin
President,
Asian Students Collective, Hunter College

About Liz Young:

Elizabeth Miu-Lan Young co-founded Inter-Change Consultants in 1987. She's a specialist in multicultural diversity training focusing on Asian issues at work. She has been active in the New York City Asian community for the past 30 years. She taught the pilot Asian American experience course at Hunter College and the University of Southern California. She was the first director of Project Reach - a program working with Chinatown street gangs.  She also worked in a garment sweatshop to better understand the immigrant experience She was a senior research associate with an Affirmative Action consulting firm headed by Dr. Kenneth Clark.

Ms. Young has presented "Corporate Skills" and "Political Savvy" workshops at National 4 A (Asian Americans Affirmative Action) conferences at Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs. She has also co-facilitated a similar 5-Day course in Hong Kong and Jakarta. She is on the faculty of the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute and presents her, "Fending off Culture Clash", intensive around the country. She is also a  member of Asian Women in Business.

Ms. Young is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and has received extensive training in organizational development.