Taking the Highroad Blog

On the Highroad to Space: A Day with NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center

March 30, 2011

In this blog we will share insights from our day at Marshall Space Flight Center as well as our plan to contribute to international cooperation in aerospace!

Dreams do come true, I can say with certainty. Those who know me well can tell you, I am a grand fan of NASA and a student of the early space programs in particular. My book shelves are filled with astronaut biographies, histories of the Mercury and Apollo programs, and photography books depicting the space shuttle era. My husband often marvels (and teases me) about my arcane knowledge of mission statistics.

Space, however, has always been more than a hobby. Like many children in my culture I dreamed of reaching the stars, but the dream never went away. I took three years of flying lessons from age fourteen to age seventeen, and my original major in college was aerospace engineering. I was serious.

The problem was that having a full time engineering career in the aerospace field never fit me like a glove. You can likely tell by now, dear readers, that I greatly Read more...

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 thi Read more...

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 Read more...

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Emerging Markets

February 25, 2011

In today’s blog I will share some up-to-the-minute information I learned yesterday at the Emerging India Summit held at Emory University. Although the focus was India, discussions also included other emerging markets and the results grabbed my attention. Read on to find out ten things you might not know about developing markets.

It’s Friday afternoon and I’m about to shut down my office, but I wanted to end the week by sharing some brief thoughts that enhanced my perspective on emerging markets. Now keep in mind that statistics often draw suspicion because people wonder how accurate the numbers are and what the agenda is behind them. What I’m sharing here I do not claim to be the “truth,” but rather the perspectives of highly respected academics, researchers, and business people.

1.)  According to Dr. Jagdish Sheth, respected author and Professor of Marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, the generation gap in India is on Read more...

Culture, You Complete Me: A Lesson from Jerry Maguire on Global Collaboration

February 16, 2011

In today’s blog we will use the movie Jerry Maguire to explore how cultures outside of our own decrease our struggles and enhance our strengths. The result of working abroad or on mixed-culture teams is a more “complete” you, a you that’s ready to thrive into today’s market of global collaboration.

For those who haven’t seen the movie, Jerry Maguire is the story of a sports agent searching for more meaning in his work. Along this journey he develops a complex romantic relationship with his assistant, Dorothy and a deep friendship with his main client, an outspoken football player named Rod. Throughout the movie, Jerry struggles with his fear of getting close to those he loves and therefore stays stuck in his shortcomings. His friends must force him to confront those fears and find the deeper meaning he is looking for.

In the scene shown above, as Jerry rides the elevator Read more...

Return to the Scene of the Riot: A Day in Kolkata, India

February 3, 2011

In today’s blog: I return to the Howrah Station in Kolkata, India, scene of the infamous Calcutta Railway Riot, for the first time in thirteen years. There’s even a video! We explore how the city has changed, and important lessons to be learned from India.

Even the name of the city has changed. I could hardly believe when I landed in Kolkata last week, a place I knew thirteen years ago as Calcutta, and the first city in India I ever visited. For those not familiar with the story of the Calcutta Railway Riot, click here to read: Calcutta Railway Riot. I returned here last month to work with the Indian counterpart of one of my U.S. based clients, and from the moment I landed in the airport I could feel the change, not just in Kolkata but in myself. The city and I were like mirrors of each other, and I wanted to see my relationship with India through her lens.

So much in India revolves around the Read more...

Slumdog Millionaire? I think not!

January 13, 2011

Well, folks, I am back in India and having a whirlwind adventure already! In fact, it’s been hard to keep up with writing down everything I see and feel. Today, I returned to Calcutta, now Kolkata – a city I haven’t seen in thirteen years, and a city in which I started a riot. But more on that later.

After landing in Mumbai and trying to shake off jet lag, my hotel manager suggested I take a Reality Tour where you spend an afternoon walking around the Dharavi slum, a community that generates revenue through a variety of industries, and the area where some of the movie Slumdog Millionaire was filmed.

That movie always created a sore spot within me. While it was a great Hollywood story and may have some grains of truth, in my opinion the film just solidified stereotypes of India that do not represent large swaths of the culture. Think dusty, hot, poverty-stricken, and snake charmers. On my 2006 trip to Mumbai I wandered around for hours in the Andheri “slum” and found a very functional village-like atmosphere, with people who spoke Read more...

What is Cultural Intelligence and Do We Have It?

January 5, 2011

The other day I asked a client what search terms they used to find me on the Internet. He replied, “I put in ‘cultural intelligence.’”

This was no surprise, as this phrase has gained popularity in the business world recently as an alternative to “cultural competence.” If you weren’t deemed culturally competent than the only alternative was incompetence! I’m not sure I agree, but that fear exists.

The phrase “cultural intelligence” also calls attention to the fact that there are multiple forms of intelligence. Consider Daniel Goleman’s model of Emotional Intelligence which focuses on the skills that drive leadership performance. Cultural intelligence is defined in organizational circles as the ability to recognize the impact of and adapt to differing cultural backgrounds for best results. Sounds good, right?

Yes, in my opinion. I like this definition. But I started to wonder if it wasn’t missing something. Can we really define cultural intelligence? How do we know if Read more...

Lessons Learned from India: Preparing to Return to the Scene of the Calcutta Riot

November 28, 2010

Unlike some of the women I’ve encountered in my own culture, that of the United States, I have no trouble admitting my age. After all, in the true Zen fashion I have learned to love what is, and I am thirty eight years old, about to turn thirty nine. That is a fact. Sure, I travel to the salon about once a month to cover the gray, because to be gray-haired looks too unfamiliar. I don’t feel like myself. That notion, however, is exactly the one I want to call into question now.

As many of my readers and clients know, my cross-cultural career began in earnest when I accidentally caused a riot in a railway station in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. For those who don’t know you can read the story here (http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/wander-tales/the-calcutta-railway-riot). In those days, my early twenties, I traveled differently. My budget was about five dollars a day and I rode only loc Read more...

The Day I Walked to Maine: Why Borders Still Matter

October 27, 2010

On a recent trip to see my step-sister Johanna we decided to walk to Maine. Yes, you heard right. We walked to Maine. Don’t get too impressed yet, though. Let me start at the beginning.

In my world of building U.S. or Europe/India teams a lot of talk buzzes around about globalization. In the minds of many of my clients, globalization is about the dissolution of borders through technology. Nowadays teams can talk to each other through Cisco Telepresence, a room specially designed on each end so that people look life-sized to each other. The sound is amazing too, with almost no delay when each person speaks. I did a training this way once and I relished the ability to see multiple people sitting “across the room” from me.

We have Sharepoint, LinkedIn, Facebook, iPhones, iPads, and a million ways to transform information. Does this mean that borders are becoming less significant? I say “no way.”

If you are a frequent traveler you may disagree with me. As a Westerner you migh Read more...

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