We have initiated Øredev Extended, a conference for decision makers within or connected to the information management field, in the Öresund region. The conference will be a forum for discussing coming trends and case studies within information management. In your opinion, in what way are conferences like this a good way of getting new experiences? - Yes, of course. We are flooded with information these days from every angle, but there is no substitute for getting it face to face. It is more memorable. We have a set-up where we mix seminars with round-table discussions, what opportunities do you see in that set-up? - Dialogue and discussion are one of the best ways to learn. In your seminar you state that “The leaders who will succeed best in the 21st century will be those who can go beyond linear processes and engage with people different from them at emotional and spiritual levels." What personal qualities and characteristics would you say will be most important for employees in multinational environments in the coming years? Any particular differences in wished-for qualities within different regions/cultures? - Western companies need staff with relationship skills even more than people able to complete tasks. Westerners, or the machines we use, are good at tasks, but tend to be weaker at building human bridges and relationships - especially in the hi-tech industries. You can broadly categorise different regions and cultures as having dominant sets of skills. They can benefit by learning the skills that do not come as naturally to them.
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Within Europe , it seems that the subject “globalisation" is very topical at the moment. Would it be possible for you to say something about how this word is perceived around the globe, and what is read into it in different parts of the world? - Not an easy question, and I can only speculate. But for the emerging economies like,Brazil ,Russia ,Indiaand China, globalisation probably represents more of an opportunity than a threat than it may do in the West. For example, not only has hi-tech provided thousands of jobs for Indians with IT skills, but has affected the lives of millions of ordinary Indians by connecting them through mobile phones, when telephones were a rare luxury for them only a few years back. But it all depends on your perspective, and from what angle you look at globalisation. The movement of people from one country to another, and into working for global concerns is a challenge none of us should underestimate. Business logic, politics, technology and transportation are forcing us to globalise at an unprecedented rate. But change and speed cause stress, and it is under stress that we cling most tightly to our cultural norms - what we learned earliest. This can cause tensions, misunderstandings and breakdowns in trust if it is not managed. You represent a company, which among other things offers training and support in cross-culture. Your training is based on a model dividing different cultural types into different categories based on how people act (the categories are called linear-active, multi-active and reactive). Now, you are invited to a conference in Sweden, with mainly Swedes and Danes attending your seminar. How have you - and be honest now J - adapted your seminar to fit the Scandinavian audience? - Actually, there is not a huge need for adaptation in Scandinavia because our approach was initially developed for linear people - diagrams, powerpoints etc. And we began this sort of training in Finland and Sweden. It is more of a challenge - just as one example - to present our material in Russia, where audiences are not so interested in what your project on screen. There, I would use fewer slides. I also rely on different slides for presenting the model than in Scandinavia- more pictorial than text-based, and have the slides translated into Russian in the handouts. Russians also usually give you a very short speaking slot: Half an hour is the norm.
But perhaps even more important than the material is the tone, pace and style when you are presenting to different cultures. In Russia, for instance, I would try and make some sort of direct emotional appeal to the audience. In the USA, I try and keep it simple and results-oriented. In Germany, detailed and theoretical (e.g. the history of the model). In France, logical. In Scandinavia a calm pace with some humorous anecdotes tends to go down well, as in the UK, but the Danes tend to need a bit more convincing than the Swedes. For a truly multicultural audience you have to try and steer a middle course, but if you have for instance a mixed German/USA audience, you could provide the detail the Germans want in the handouts. |
