I used to have one compulsory full credit course in HR-'Organisation development'. The prof who used to take these classes was a very seasoned fellow,having chaired lots of distinguised posts.He has this knack of giving vivid examples during his classes.
Once i remember ,during one of the rare informal moments in the class, someone made this comment of the plethora of jargons being used in B-Schools. The statement was point to two particular jargons:
a. Holistic Approach
b. Cross Cultual Intervention / Exposure
My prof then made the following statement:
"betajee, real life mein aisa zaroor koi moode(turn) ayega, jab tumhe in jargons ka mutlab samajh mein ayega"
Very recently i joined a german IT product company which is a market leader in its space and beleive me, my first months's stint itself has taught me how much these cross cultural exposure matters.I recently attended a German Cross cultural training capsule. Sharing the following gist with you:
- Germans are very punctual
- They strictly keep personnal and professional relations apart
- They are very diligent
- They shall get closer to you once you impress them by your work
- They respect a 'deadline' to the core.
- They are a no-nonsense lot.
- They are extreemally process oriented.
- They dont do anything in haste. A german will put a lot of thought before coming out with a fool proof output.
I have been interacting with a german colleague since i joined this new company and intially things were really tough for me. I had come from a indian company and the work culture was really different there. I used to think how one can work in such a process driven culture where everything is set and iam supposed to just plug and play here.
But now after spending one month here, i realise the value of having a set of standard process and systems in place. The incremental productivity is way high than how i used to work in my previous company.
Also due to some strange resons even my german colleague is now much friendly and cordial to me so i can presume i stood upto his expecations.
Over n Out.