Run every minute for a cultural shift

Cultural shift

We have no choice but to change. The world is moving and shifting fast; you know that.  Take for example a multi-national company having a mix of cultures and backgrounds working towards identical goals. In working with multi-cultural setups, it happens that each culture is pointing fingers about the shortcomings of another’s culture, rather than trying to imbibe the best of both cultures that enables them to progress toward their common goals. Therefore the need for a cultural shift will start only when all agree and actually practice in their daily actions – rather every minute.

One good example is how meetings proceed during cross country people participation?   First of all other country men will be at meeting venue at least a minute early. As usual some of our Indian colleagues will arrive at the venue very late giving excuses of late arrival of the train, traffic and flight delay. This is a cultural issue where we don’t respect others time and commitment. It’s because of our casual approach. During discussion on any point some of our Indian colleagues will respond in chaos and in groups we speak tend to very loud this is also a systemic cultural habit we need to break. When it comes to the actions of other country men, they spend too much time in discussions and clarifications, and are never ready to deal with changes and uncertainties, which is also a big cultural issue for them, which they need to break.

When I was a kid my mother gave me a responsibility to feed cows everyday being a south Indian family rice was the main dish for food for the family and cows too. Every day I was very eager to feed them, cows were very keen to eat and I was enjoying those moments. About 20 years later: I wanted to feed cows with same type of food (rice dishes) but they were not eager to eat delicious rice items. I was upset with that reaction from cows because an anticipated joy moment became a sad moment for a while when I discussed with neighbors and they educated me that they feed cows “Roti”, which is an Indian bread.  

As a kid I was feeding an Andhra southern part of India cow and 20 years later initially I failed to feed them because I never understood the culture and/or eating habits of a Gujarati cow.

One more example: How the world class companies perpetuate the culture?

• By systematic indoctrination of new members in the cultural fundamentals
• By screening and selecting new employees that mesh well with the culture
• By the efforts of senior group members to reiterate core values in daily conversations and pronouncements
• By telling and retelling of the company legends
• By regular ceremonies honoring members who display desired cultural values and practices under complex conditions and situations
• By visibly rewarding those who display cultural norms and penalizing who do not

We must to align our behavior for the change, which we would like to attain as a cultural shift.No more casual behavior will work to win our dreams.