Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Heart-broken truths and our neighborhood innovators
I feel really sad and heart- broken after the Tuesday class as I realize that so much of our Eastern cultures that we value for a life time have become a huge obstacle to advance in the U.S. It is tremendously hard to change one’s behavior and code-switch to be an effective global leader. Of course, it is always easier for you to say if you were raised in American/Western cultures in your entire life. You just need to be yourselves, no changes in values, no code-switching, no culture shock, etc.. In addition to praising innovative CEOs and Fortune 500 companies, I think we should give more recognition and supports to those silent innovators that live around us and contribute so much to better our community. Let’s say my aunt- Connie for an example. She is a Harvard graduate with an honored J.D. degree; nevertheless she has devoted her whole life working for non-profits, helping immigrants seek residency, and offering free/affordable legal counseling for the poor. She could be so much more and makes a fortune, yet she is completely content with what she chooses to do in her life without a slightest regret. I am sure each of us has a story like that to share, and that our society owes them a big gratitude.
I was definitely looking forward for Tuesdays class, all prepared for the interesting games Joyce would have lined up for us.
The video on Carlos and George helped put a "picture" to all the fancy leadership terms we had been learning like power distance, high context, self- aggrandization etc. I think a lot of people have been in Carlos's situation, where they have to play the boss and the subordinate all in one day. The video truly showed us how coming from different cultures with differing values and norms can have a huge impact on getting what you want. It also helped me understand the term code switching ( even tough neither of them did it in the video) and the necessity of being able to decode different scripts to ensure effective communication.
The ball game was a fun task. In the beginning I thought " Oh this is cool, we're just throwing around the ball, wonder what lesson lies beneath this??" , but as Joyce starting making it harder I started seeing the point. Our group went from incremental to transformative in a jiffy when we were told the other group is doing it in FIVE SECONDS!!!!! Thats when we started coming up with really innovative and efficient ways to pass the ball around, and those in my team would be proud to say that we even came up with a technique of doing the exercise in ONE SECOND.
The video on Carlos and George helped put a "picture" to all the fancy leadership terms we had been learning like power distance, high context, self- aggrandization etc. I think a lot of people have been in Carlos's situation, where they have to play the boss and the subordinate all in one day. The video truly showed us how coming from different cultures with differing values and norms can have a huge impact on getting what you want. It also helped me understand the term code switching ( even tough neither of them did it in the video) and the necessity of being able to decode different scripts to ensure effective communication.
The ball game was a fun task. In the beginning I thought " Oh this is cool, we're just throwing around the ball, wonder what lesson lies beneath this??" , but as Joyce starting making it harder I started seeing the point. Our group went from incremental to transformative in a jiffy when we were told the other group is doing it in FIVE SECONDS!!!!! Thats when we started coming up with really innovative and efficient ways to pass the ball around, and those in my team would be proud to say that we even came up with a technique of doing the exercise in ONE SECOND.
Spark Imagination
So I don't know about you all, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Spark Innovation article namely the five (5) step process of Empathic Design and the Observing in Cyberspace portion of the reading. How does one get the job where you are paid to sit at a cafe, or some other comfortable public place of business, and watch people be people? It is brilliant to literally track the end user in relation to their use of any given product or service. There have been too many times I have purchased an item and found a fault in the functionality of the product could have been solved by simply "asking the end user." Companies may be catching on...finally and thanks to companies like IDEO.
Weekend Warriors
Urrr-ahhh, a full weekend of Globalization! I just completed a course in negotiations and found the Stakeholder Dialogue Exercise built on the various negotiation techniques I just learned. I found the negotiation portion of the exercise especially intriguing in that we all sought to find a common end goal and negotiated from that point; a technique that was emphasised in our negotiation course. Also, the exercise in which we mapped out the the Stakeholder Perspective form was especially helpful and ensured that we all came to the table a complete picture of the issues at hand. Having, knowing and understanding the "Other" perspective can only help parties come to a common ground and equally feasible solution for all. Overall, I have spent a many weekend over the years at Rose Orchard and by far this weekend was a perfect mix of lecture, activity and fun!
February 2nd 2009
I was looking forward to this class, even though we had a full weekend of Global leadership! I could relate to most of the material that was discussed in this class. Having worked for Canadian and UK based companies and having lived here in US for a while, I could relate to the code switching part completely. I have had so many experience where I was not sure how to behave and I had to ask around and observe so that I could behave in a manner sensitive to the culture I was in.
I distinctly remember one incident when our manager had come from UK for training and one of my colleague was late for the meeting by 10 minutes which is not a big deal in India. My colleague did say sorry and explained the reason, but to her it was a great deal and she confronted my colleague in the meeting in front of everyone which was very awkward for all of us in the meeting and for my colleague. I use to wonder that while we were given training on the UK culture in our induction, why weren't these managers given some training on Indian Culture before they came!!! In that company it was all about us learning their culture and that's it. The video of Carlos and George also highlighted the fact the cultural sentivity should come from both the parties. I feel sometimes its also important to understand which culture has the authority in the sense if your manager is from UK, English culture has the authority and its important to understand his/ her culture more than him/her understanding subordinates culture.
However, I do feel that such extreme behaviour as showcased in the video rarely exsist these days because everyone is exposed to so many different cultures and there is a increasing sensitivity towards each others culture.
I distinctly remember one incident when our manager had come from UK for training and one of my colleague was late for the meeting by 10 minutes which is not a big deal in India. My colleague did say sorry and explained the reason, but to her it was a great deal and she confronted my colleague in the meeting in front of everyone which was very awkward for all of us in the meeting and for my colleague. I use to wonder that while we were given training on the UK culture in our induction, why weren't these managers given some training on Indian Culture before they came!!! In that company it was all about us learning their culture and that's it. The video of Carlos and George also highlighted the fact the cultural sentivity should come from both the parties. I feel sometimes its also important to understand which culture has the authority in the sense if your manager is from UK, English culture has the authority and its important to understand his/ her culture more than him/her understanding subordinates culture.
However, I do feel that such extreme behaviour as showcased in the video rarely exsist these days because everyone is exposed to so many different cultures and there is a increasing sensitivity towards each others culture.
January 26-Day One
"We Are the World" may have been a better title for this blog because as I looked around our class, I realized we have a global environment right at Rose Orchard. The effects of globalization are evident in the study body of the SJSU School of Business. It was good to be back in the mix after the long holiday months and being out of the classroom. B297 is a welcome course after intense accounting requirements and the like. This class appears to offer a practical application of communication tools for those working in a global setting, or not, and I would imagine a mind-shift will occur without question. I look forward to what will come...
Tuesday, Feb 2nd
I walked into the class last night with "Jet lag" from weekend learning. However, the inter-cultural communication video and the game we played kept me going.
The video (Carlos / George) interaction will definitely raised my sensitivity when it comes to dealing with cultural diversity at my work place. Next time I have communication breakdown, I will first ask myself whether I was in the right "script" before blaming other side.
The "ball game" reinforced the difference between Manager and Leader i.e. incremental vs transformational thinking. As we all expand our responsibilities at work, we need to train ourselves to change our thinking style from incremental to transformational. Another great learning for me.
The video (Carlos / George) interaction will definitely raised my sensitivity when it comes to dealing with cultural diversity at my work place. Next time I have communication breakdown, I will first ask myself whether I was in the right "script" before blaming other side.
The "ball game" reinforced the difference between Manager and Leader i.e. incremental vs transformational thinking. As we all expand our responsibilities at work, we need to train ourselves to change our thinking style from incremental to transformational. Another great learning for me.
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