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By Bob Pack
 DS
partner, Yaping Li, of Shanghai, is coming to Seattle in March
to meet with the CDS Board of Directors to discuss ways to
promote Dependable Strengths Articulation in China. His visit
coincides with the March 6-10 DSA Facilitator Workshop at
the University of Washington, where Mr. Li will be featured
as our special guest presenter on a team that includes Jean
Haldane, Allen Boivin-Brown, and Jerald Forster.
Yaping Li first learned of Dependable Strengths from Bob
Masuda, a friend and partner in the U.S. who knew the Haldanes
quite well. Yaping received his DSA Facilitator training in
Seattle in March 1995. Among his instructors were Bernard
and Jean Haldane and Jerald Forster.
Yaping says, “I believe the potential needs for DS
come up to the surface in China nowadays. [As] people are
facing severe competition and many social problems, they have
come to understand the importance of self-responsibility.
DS is an effective tool for people to learn that one has to
take responsibility for self. Furthermore it helps people
identify what they have and how to use those best parts of
the self to achieve what one wants to accomplish.”
Yaping hopes to offer DSA to a wide range of populations
in China, including:
- Migrant workers in urban areas
- Laid-off and unemployed workers
- Students in universities, high schools, and secondary
technical schools
- Young business professional
- Human Resource managers
- Professionals who are taking on leadership roles in various
organizations
Currently, Yaping offers DSA workshops in Shanghai to people
in their 20’s, but he has plans to broaden the age-range
of participants to include people age 14 to 45. As one of
the 10 largest mega-cities in the world, with a population
of 17 million, Shanghai is a vast field for expanding the
DS community. Yaping plans to extend DSA training out beyond
Shanghai to the many small towns in the rural areas.
Yaping acknowledges that the Dependable Strengths philosophy
represents a very different way of thinking about the individual,
compared with the view of traditional Chinese cultural values.
Traditionally, in China, the individual has been encouraged
to selflessly integrate and merge into the group, for the
highest good of the group. DS introduces the concept that
the individual can best serve that highest good by knowing
and practicing his or her Dependable Strengths.
One indication that China is ready for DS is the fact that
many of Yaping’s workshop participants are eager to
join him in promoting the Dependable Strengths Articulation
Process. Here is what they are saying:
- “DSAP is very helpful in terms of changing my concept
towards self and increasing my self-confidence.”
- “After the DS training, I understand myself much
deeper, I get clarity of my own DS, and I know which road
is most appropriate for me to drive. I believe these kinds
of inside changes will [have] a profound impact on me for
my future.”
- “Without any doubt, DSAP will help participants
to know self better, and learn how to use their own dependable
strengths to plan their own career and accomplish their
life goal. It also strengthens one’s ability to face
dejection and frustration. Above all, it helps me understand
that I, myself, am my own “savior.”
Yaping Li is a senior executive with
special leadership skills and expertise in career development,
success motivation skills training, community organizing,
and policy and resource development. Yaping has master's degrees
both in Management for Not-for-Profit Organizations from The
University of Kent in England, and in International Public
Policies from the SAIS of Johns Hopkins in USA. With a wealth
of extensive global experiences, Yaping worked as the Chief
Executive with YMCA of China, Junior Achievement International
China and helped them establish operations in China. He is
now the President & CEO of US China Youth Charity. (From
Ingition
International.)
Bob Pack, M.A., CWDP, is a Lead
Counselor with the Washington State Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation, and serves as an adjunct member of the CDS
Executive Board.
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