Taking the Highroad Blog

The Global Virtual World: What is Lost and How Do We Compensate?

March 22, 2011

I want to clear up something right away. I love technology. I’m not one of those crotchety people that tells stories about how great life was before all these newfangled devices. I have this blog, a website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, an iPhone, and documents in the “cloud.”

I would also be hard pressed to deny the positive influence that technology and the virtual world have had on recent events and on business. Think of Egypt and the role the Internet played in their eighteen day revolution. Think of CEO’s making critical decisions sitting in Cisco Telepresence meeting rooms with life-sized images of each participant. I even think of my own ability share culture by taking videos on my iPhone in India and sharing them with my clients.

Regardless of how we feel about technology, in the words of a Zen master, it is what is. The generations below me will only know the pervasiveness of technology and when they enter the workforce they will likely be part of multiple global virtual teams.

We know what we have gained from all of this virtuality: The ability to meet without traveling, to work across time zones, and to benefit from the diversity of thought.

My question is what have we lost?

This past January in India I had the honor of talking to a Professor from a University in Vadodara. Wisdom seemed to ooze from every pore of his being, and quotes from every word out of his mouth. I asked him about India’s growth and development, wondering about the impact on the country’s culture and values. While we had a long discussion on the subject, his initial answer stuck with me.

He said “Nothing is lost.”

When I think of the virtual world I can’t help wondering if this is true. I conduct virtual training on a regular basis, everything from complex half-day courses with web-based breakout rooms to a simple broadcast presentation over the phone. While I enjoy these engagements, I have never been able to agree with those who say that virtual work is fast approaching the feel and effectiveness of face-to-face. For me something is missing and I set about trying to find out what. The answer, as usual for me, came from Asia.

At a recent conference in India I sat next to a student from a nearby university. As we talked we got on the subject of virtual training and I told her my feeling that something is missing, but that I couldn’t figure out what it was. She looked reflective.

“I might have an idea,” she said. “As a Hindu I believe that every person has energy that emanates from them, energy that is physical, that can be felt and moved. It’s like an aura, you could say. When you work virtually no matter how good the technology is, the aura is missing.”

That was the best explanation I had ever heard. It reminded me of how my good friend and colleague Peter, a program manager at Cisco and a Vietnamese native, told me he was going to send his positive qi (pronounced chee) my way for a successful presentation. Simply put, qi is energy, a vital part of trust and effectiveness.

We cannot deny the losses we experience when we do virtual work. To do so in my opinion would be counterproductive. But the virtual world can be liberating. As my colleague from Britain put it, “I’ve been able to work with my friend Bob for fifteen years because we don’t have to work in the same office!”

How do we manage the loss and maximize the benefits of technology? Here are my contributions:

  • Don’t lose the ability to give someone your undivided attention. Yes, we have the opportunity to be in the virtual world almost every second of every day, but that doesn’t mean we must always choose that path. Try participating in one conference call where you actively listen and do not multitask at all.
  • For at least a part of the day, try doing one thing at a time. Shut down your e-mail and focus on engaging your creativity. To block distracting websites, try this application: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/
  • Make intentional, scheduled efforts to connect with people virtually on a personal level. For example, about once a month or more I go through my Skype contacts and see who I haven’t talked to in awhile. If they are online I ping them and say hello, just to catch up.
  • Use Skype video for every first-time virtual meeting. If you have a new client or colleague and you will not have the chance to meet in person right away, plug in your video camera and see each other’s faces.
  • Budget in time and resources for face-to-face meetings, especially for new teams. You can establish a highly effective virtual team, but remember that the qi will be missing. Meeting face-to-face early on can solidify trust and fill up the bank account for future interactions.

What do you do to manage virtual loss? How do you use technology to connect? I look forward to your comments.

Cultural “Baggage”: The Key to Business Success Around the World

March 3, 2011

In today’s blog we will examine why knowing the “why’s” of different cultures determines your level of success in business with them. Using the United States, Germany, and India as examples, we will dive into our cultural “baggage!”

In the United States, people sometimes use the word “baggage” to describe their past personal experiences and influences, especially the negative ones. I propose a new use of the word. When I think of baggage, I think of what you check in at the airport when going on a trip. You carry your suitcase everywhere you travel so that you may have a little home away from home. Just like that baggage, we carry cultural suitcases filled with not only our personal past and present, but also that of our culture’s history, geography, religious beliefs, and more. Our workplace behavior comes from somewhere, it has an origin, and so does that of our global partners. The question is, how much do we know about what’s inside the baggage of both sides? Without the answer to this question we risk operating in global business only from our own set of rules.

Let us take India as an example. When I survey my American clients about their challenges working with India, the answers rarely vary. Here is a sample from a client:

“They seem to lack a sense of urgency,” the American says, “and we’ve had a lot of projects bumping right up against the deadline, or over it. The way they go about their processes seems inefficient, spending multiple hours on something that should take less time. And I don’t always get responses to my e-mails asking about the schedule.”

When I surveyed the Indian counterpart, here was their response:

“When the U.S. client changes the scope of the project dramatically they expect us to keep the same deadline. We have a hard time to tell them “no” but then we have to work eighty hours a week to catch up. They are not forgiving on the deadlines and sometimes they are not emotional. They just keep pushing but don’t always give us the information we need.”

If we don’t look to the cultural baggage from both sides, this U.S./India team could fall apart. In this one example several issues creep up.

Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik provides great insight into this case. As I mentioned in a previous post, a strong belief exists in India among a large part of the population that death is not a period, it is a comma. Rather than a beginning, a middle, and an end, one goes through the circle of life through reincarnation and lives again and again. Dr. Pattanaik gives the example of India’s Ganesha festival, where the god Ganesh is made of clay, kept for ten days, and then dissolved. This shows that everything ends and is renewed again.

In the United States, by contrast, the Judeo-Christian value system is prominent. Here the belief is you live once, you pass away, and you go to heaven or are joined with God. This way of life and death is a line rather than a circle. Many other belief systems exist in both countries and are equally valid, but the influence of these majority beliefs is hard to deny.

Let us now apply these perspectives to our U.S./India team and we can begin to answer “why.”

From the American perspective, if you believe you only live once, you will want to hurry up and live. You will tolerate little “inefficiency” and want everything in your one life to be perfect. As a result you may achieve a lot but have little patience for wasting time. In addition, the history of the U.S. contributes to the American client’s struggles. As the early American colonies were established in part to shake off the class-based societies of Europe, Americans had to define their standing by what they had measurably accomplished. Without results, how do you define your work?

From the Indian perspective, if you believe you live again and again, you will be more flexible with time, knowing that eventually things cycle back around. This is manifest in many aspects of Indian society such as the thali meal vs. the sequential four course dinner, cremation vs. cemetery burial, and driving habits. Schedules are subject to change and emotions take a high priority.

Of course, other issues are at stake in the example provided – the American’s assumptions about inefficiency in India (if you want to see true efficiency click here to read about the Dabbawallas of India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala) and the difficulty the Indians have saying “no” to the client, even if they cannot meet the schedule. But understanding the underlying beliefs would have given some immediate solutions to this team, at least to begin examining the problem.

Another example from author Patrick Schmidt is that of German and American teams. Americans sometimes experience frustration with their German counterparts’ need for perfection in quality, order, and certainty. Germans similarly become frustrated with their American colleagues’ tendency for quick decisions, brainstorming in meetings, and “time is money” attitude.

If you think of their comparative histories this is no surprise. Germany has suffered a great deal of wartime trauma beginning with the Thirty Years war and lost 35% of its population in the 1600s. Other horrible conflicts followed. Such trauma has in part shaped a culture that strives for stability and order. By contrast, the United States built a nation in a relatively short amount of time which meant decisions had to be made quickly, time was money, and uncertainty was part of being a separatist explorer. These are only two factors in the cultural suitcases of Germany and the U.S. – think of how many others lie inside!

While globalization and the younger generations of these cultures are impacting the values described here, to assume that cultural baggage has dissipated or disappeared is a risk not worth taking.

Before you head out on your next global business venture, even a brief look inside the cultural suitcases of all parties, including your own, will lead to optimized teams, better negotiation, improved relationships, and greater collaboration. In a globalized environment can we afford not to collaborate?

Let’s discuss: What is your cultural baggage? How has it played out in your professional and personal life?

Tip: Doing business abroad? Try the Travelers History Of… series http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_20?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=travelers+history+of&sprefix=travelers+history+of

Efficiency or Charm: What’s It Going to Be?

May 19, 2010

The economic downturn scares me, and not for the reason you might think. My company, Highroad, has weathered the storm well and we’ve continued to seek new ways of building bridges between cultures. No, the recession scares me because of the hidden costs, the ones we don’t think about until one day we wake up and discover that what we’ve lost is not just tangible – it’s a matter of soul, a pillar of an organization’s survival. Let me explain.

Earlier today I stumbled upon a quote from my favorite author, archetypal psychologist Thomas Moore.

He said, “When we tell stories of the past, do we emphasize efficiency or charm? Do we ride the Orient Express because we know it will arrive on time? Do we visit Antarctica because the accommodations are so comfortable? Ultimately, what satisfies the soul is that which is captivating, spellbinding, or full of charm.”

That statement made me freeze, forget the dinner I had planned to get on the stove, and reach for the computer to write this entry. Now let me clarify something right away. I am a big fan of results when I work with an organization. One of my biggest work-related challenges is when I give a two-hour workshop for a conference, for example, and I may never get to know the impact of what I offered. Similarly I worked in software development for many years at my former job, and my left-brain was always looking for a way to make things more efficient for better results. After all, you can’t just do something for the sake of doing it. Whatever you do should have significance for the organization, and that significance should be measured.

Or should it?

Herein lies the dilemma, and the recession has only made this more sticky. Many of the world’s most successful companies built their market share on lean practices, return on investment, and creative cost cutting measures. While research, development, and innovation do occur in these environments, true creativity is still often constrained by the larger goal of keeping the company growing and viable.  Since the economy turned sour, I believe this pendulum has swung even farther toward the side of efficiency and measurement. Because every penny counts, and every second is worth a certain number of pennies (or dollars), companies demand more justification for just about every step taken, and we can all understand why. These are scary times. In today’s climate, people often do the work of two or three team members and everyone has to make more out of less.

While I respect the need to measure mission-critical activities and achieve efficiency of thought and word, I also believe we need to be charmed.

No organization will survive without innovation, yet we often downplay the elements needed to encourage it such as people’s stories, a sense of adventure, color, and unreasonable dreams.

I believe that in the down economy and into recovery we must seek both charm and efficiency, and in greater force than ever before. Nowhere is this more important than when working across borders. We need leaders that can not only achieve results across countries but who are curious, open, and excited by what they can learn from other cultures. We need people to hold their own values dear while integrating meaningful parts of other value systems. We need daring stories of risk and of roots, of wild invention and calm diplomacy.

And I believe that while we do need efficiency, we may need charm even more. We do not necessarily need to fix what is broken from our down economy. We need to enchant it until it comes back to life.

Now more than ever we need to listen to our staff, ask them about their passions and what they most like to work on. We need to encourage our subordinates to take more risks and play to their strengths. We need to trust employees more and watch the clock less. We need to meet with team members one on one to talk about their concerns and listen to their stories. And we need to study the root causes of our successes, not just our failures. Once we do these things and the spark comes back to weary organizations, we can proudly put our Six Sigma belts back on. We just need to remember to keep igniting the spark of curiosity again and again. Our organization depends on it.

For my part I’m going to start a new type of blog entry that you will see from time to time called Blast from the Past – Travel Tales for the Not So Faint of Heart. In these entries you will hear of giant rats in Nepal, pregnant camels in India, bugs in my food in Thailand, and more stories from my early adventures. The purpose? To charm and delight, and to spur the adventurer within.

What stories, places, moments, and people have charmed you? Please use the comments section to tell us! Let’s start a charm epidemic. I promise it won’t hurt a bit.

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