On the Job Archives - Page 6 of 7

Neil Miller May 8, 2014 Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, #PowerPlays, #See1See100, #ThinSkinned, #TimeIsEternal, On the Job

Don’t waste your short-term trip to India!

About the time you start packing your bags for your trip to India, the question dawns on you.

What am I doing?

Maybe it’s clear for you. You are training some colleagues. You are finding some suppliers. You are volunteering. You are choosing a vendor. You are attending a conference. (Do make sure you have the right visa for each of these!)

However, when you return and start unpacking your bags, you might suddenly realize the trip wasn’t as obviously successful as you thought it was. No one seems to be doing the things you trained them on. No one is replying to your repeated emails. All the processes you put in place seem to be falling apart.

You are left with a few pictures and a sinking feeling in your stomach that the trip was wasted. [Read more…]

Neil Miller April 16, 2014 Filed Under: #See1See100, On the Job

Publicity and PR Issues in India

Here’s a real story with some fictionalized details:

Two North Americans (Ryan and Joel) had come to India to establish some connections for their new NGO/non-profit (FreshMedics) that markets medical device innovations for rural villages. They had some large financial partners waiting in the background, but wanted to time any announcements of public support with the launch of the product and the plan. Their partners understood this, but were eager to be on the forefront of the launch.

On this trip to India, they were looking to make contacts and meet some manufacturing partners. Knowing the importance of relationships in India, they took advantage of any opportunity they had.

They were introduced to a man named Ganesh, who had done a lot of work in a local village. Most of his work had been through an internationally recognized service organization called SERVIndia.

Ganesh showed Ryan and Joel around the village. They met with the villagers and even participated in a special festival that happened to be that day, including some folk dancing. Everyone had a great time, and Ryan and Joel left extremely thankful for the first-hand look at the village.

The next day, Ryan and Joel opened up their laptops to find an email from Ganesh thanking them for coming to the village. He attached 50 pictures he had taken of the event. In the mail trail, Joel noticed that Ganesh had put together a five-page bulletin about their visit for SERVIndia with the headline “SERVIndia welcomes FreshMedics to Village!” The bulletin had been sent to the national director of SERVIndia, who had already commended Ganesh for his excellent work in the matter. Ganesh had posted the photos on Facebook and tagged Ryan and Joel in all of them in an album titled “SERVIndia and FreshMedics partnering to uplift villages!” [Read more…]

Neil Miller April 4, 2014 Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, #PowerPlays, #See1See100, Team Management

Implementing Processes in India

Implementing systems and processes in India is hard. Stories like this one from expats are very common:

I had just started a new assignment with the customer support team. The numbers from the latest survey showed we were losing a lot of customers due to poor service. The CEO wanted to see those numbers change quickly. [Read more…]

Neil Miller March 26, 2014 Filed Under: #GreyIsWhite, Communication

One Tip to become Indispensable in Cultural Communication

indirect communication

What is one communication skill that will instantly make you more valuable to over 3 billion people?

In our discussion of communication, we’ve seen that directness of communication can be related more to the delicacy of the relationship than the situation, we tend to judge others based on our own Communication Comfort Zone, and we can all find ways to expand our Comfort Zone.

What I’m going to propose next goes against nearly everything taught about cultural communication for years: learn to be more indirect.

Indirect communication gets a bad rap for being subversive, weak, hiding, lying, etc. If you’ve ever sat through an intercultural communication course, the following assumptions are painfully obvious:

Direct communication (Western version) is superior to indirect (Asian).
We need to fix people who speak indirectly.
You should be ashamed of yourself if you don’t say exactly what you mean all the time.
We would all be better off if everyone spoke more directly (Western version).

Why is that? Because these courses are sponsored, created, enjoyed, taught, and demanded by those who are more direct in their communication.

What if we rejected all those assumptions? What if instead of seeing indirect communication as a professional flaw, we hailed it as an advanced communication skill? What if instead of trying to fix other people, we actually learned something from them instead?

Sound interesting to you?

14 Reasons You Should Learn to Speak and Interpret Indirectly

[Read more…]

Neil Miller March 14, 2014 Filed Under: #PowerPlays, #ThinSkinned, Communication

3 More Ways to Expand Your Comfort Zone

This post continues with finding ways to rid your vocabulary of “What else was I supposed to say?” when it comes to communication.

Scenario 4:

You work at a small, specialized tech consulting company and are meeting with a big name client with whom you have a contract. Your services are unique, and you know that no one else in India offers the same kind of quality service you do. The client calls you in for an important meeting and wants you to advance the dates of your deliverables by two weeks. How do you approach the meeting?
[Read more…]

Neil Miller March 13, 2014 Filed Under: #PowerPlays, #ThinSkinned, Communication

Stop Using This Obsolete Excuse for Your Communication Breakdowns

It’s the easy, cop-out answer. In a communication breakdown, some people ask the question, “What else was I supposed to do/say?”

He really demoralized our team; how else was I supposed to respond to that email?
They haven’t kept a promise for our entire relationship; what else was I supposed to do when she said “definitely”?
He was acting like a complete jerk; what else was I supposed to do when he called me out in the meeting?

The question “what else was I supposed to do?” reveals two things about you. One is that you justify your actions based on the context and not the relationship. Two is that you have a very narrow Communication Comfort Zone.

As the international business world expands and becomes less western-dominated, the question “What else was I supposed to do?” will not be accepted as a valid justification for your actions. People with very wide Comfort Zones know there is always another option. They see multiple avenues when others have blinders on and only see their usual practices.

To help you expand your Communication Comfort Zone and keep you from becoming an obsolete communicator, here are three scenarios (all set in India, but can be easily transferred elsewhere) where you can test your ability to come up with an approach that avoids the narrow “What else was I supposed to do?” [Read more…]

Neil Miller March 10, 2014 Filed Under: Communication

Your Comfort Zone is Affecting Your Communication

Can you identify with this story?

Heather leads a team of Indians, and everything seems to be off to a great start. She meets with the whole team, sets out clear responsibilities, and makes sure everyone is clear on the common task. She schedules regular meetings to assess the progress so far, address issues, and praise good work. The project is going well, and everyone seems to be happy.

Then Heather gets her 360-degree feedback report:

“She can be very rude and overbearing”
“She gives too much importance to negative things, and doesn’t talk about the positive things we are doing”
“She is very direct in speaking to us”
“She does not agree with our suggestions”
“I am afraid to bring up things in meetings when she is there”

Yikes! Less culturally sensitive people might say, “That’s the price you pay for results” or “People need to grow up and learn the way the business world works.”

But not you. (Or Heather.)

Getting a report like this would really bother you, and would keep you up at night. You think, “What could I have missed? Why didn’t I see this coming?” You would replay all the conversations and meetings in your head and struggle to find a reasonable answer.

If you resonate with this scenario, fear not. There might be an easy explanation.
[Read more…]

Neil Miller March 7, 2014 Filed Under: #IndiasNotIndia, #See1See100, Book Reviews, On the Job

Book Review: Speaking of India

Speaking of India, by Craig Storti, 2007.

Speaking of India remains one of the better guides out there for people in the business world interacting with India. Craig Storti has given us some great paradigms and concepts to help cultures work together better. This book is quick to read and should be on your shelf if you regularly interact with India.

Personally, Storti’s writings provided my foundation for understanding concepts like indirect and direct speech and how communication styles can differ across cultures. I owe a lot of my understanding to his ability to clearly talk about the issues at place and some strategies for solving them.