Tip of iceberg

The way the world is interwoven recently, mandates to have a deeper insight in the different culture. Each country is unique in its culture, ranging from the typical behavior to ‘undiscovered’ facets. There are special traits that come in the light of the other culture.

Everyday in this world of globalization, many people come into contact with the other country people for business, education, sports and, planned and unplanned meetings. They interact with each other and sometimes feel so weird about why someone behaves and does a thing in that way. Some accept or don’t care it whereas some ridicule it; but most of the people would certainly agree with me that the outsider to should respect their culture per se. I feel they are right,… ummmm … how?

Each culture derives different habits over a period, and in fact there are many criteria that play important roles such as geography, prehistory, environment, food, language, religion, education, beliefs, trends, demography and so on.  The locals are already aware of and have well accepted these habits. When the outsider, who is unaware of these local habits, come in and notice them; they may feel strange sometimes, because they are trying to see these habits or traits through their own culture’s lens. Most of us see only the outward actions and behaviors that are only a tip of iceberg and we miss to look deep inside what lies below the surface. We should avoid passing the judgment based on what the tip of the iceberg represents.

Iceberg Model

When people are involved in the business, it is better to know the other’s culture to understand them well. Sometimes these help the individual to negotiate in a win-win situation. and so It bring competitive advantages for the business.

The Last Lecture

I have been suggested by one my friend Kerri about this video and the book published on the same recently. This is about a person named Prof Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) from Carnegie Mellon University and his childhood dreams.

I have gone through this You tube video and really got encouraged and touched by his excellent speech.

I have got the lessons for my life.

1. Look/find something good from every person

2. There is always a way to make things better

Close the ‘Distance’

The human life is interwoven through the relationship. If we remove the relationship from the human life, it is as like a dried bush. The relationship waters the bush and makes it active.

Anywhere we go, we are involved with people. We interact with new group of people and it becomes our identity. We have family, team, office, college, school, gym and so on kind of group of people. We have different roles and responsibilities in each of them. Each role has its own importance and the same way it demands its own tolls.

The human is so selfish that it would like to see the what benefits can be achieved before starting any relationship. Many a time a people have shallow relationships with some people, and the close with some special people. To achieve the close relationship, the person sometimes compromise, lose ego and try to make the other people happy in any way. In other form, people would like to close the ‘Distance’ in other sense.

The better the distance is closed, the better the relationship is and better the life is. It is required to put the efforts by each end. Sometimes one has to initiate though other party is not interested. It takes sometimes, but it works and the life is better.

1 + 1 = 3, 4 or 10

Recently I have been listening to Audio book of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People of Stephen Covey. In the habit 7, he talks about the synergy after achieving all other habits.

Two people doing the work individually or later combining their work cannot produce the better than when they do it co-operatively together. 1+1 can be half or two. The half result is produced when their combined energy is negative. 1+1=2 means just transaction when somebody buys from a shopkeeper.

When the people’s energy is combined together positively, it can produce unlimited results. The end product is the result of individual’s opinion, understanding and common goal to achieve something. Thus, it can last longer rather than just a fix for the the instance.

Each individual thinks and perceives the World differently according to their personal experiences. Thus, while working together, such a diversity has to be well respected to gather as much information. The diversity approach can help the project to be executed considering all the aspects and the synergy generated is tremendous. The end result is more than what it is used to be in traditional approach.