Coworking Is Not About Workspace — It’s About Feeling Less Lonely 12-31

Working remotely has many benefits: flexible hours, no commute, and autonomy and control over how you work, to name just a few.But as any remote worker will tell you, there are also considerable challenges. According to a variety of studies, isolation and loneliness are among the biggest complaints.

Working remotely means missing out on the human interaction and social aspects that being in an office provides.According to Vivek Murthy, the former Surgeon General of the United States, increasing numbers of remote and independent “gig economy” workers is one of the key reasons for the growing “loneliness epidemic”. Murthy also points out that loneliness is much more than just a social problem. It’s also a health problem, “associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.”

Our research on coworking spaces show that these shared, member-based workspaces where remote corporate workers, startup employees, freelancers, and others “work alone together” can substantially reduce the isolation and loneliness associated with remote work. Some of the key findings from our surveys of coworking space members show that:

87% of respondents report that they meet other members for social reasons, with 54% saying they socialize with other members after work and/or on weekends

79% said coworking has expanded their social networks

83% report that they are less lonely since joining a coworking space

89% report that they are happier since joining a coworking space

Our initial research objectives for these studies were not focused on the social side of coworking. In fact, the studies were developed to explore the role that work-related networking plays in coworking communities. The study results show that professional ties are strongly enhanced by membership in a coworking space:

82% of respondents reported that coworking has expanded their professional networks

80% reported that they turn to other coworking members for help or guidance

64% said their coworking networking was an important source of work and business referrals

The research also showed a variety of other work-related benefits associated with coworking membership. Most members (84%) reported that working in a coworking space improved their work engagement and motivation. Most also reported being able to concentrate better due to fewer distractions compared to working from home or in coffee shops.

But despite focusing on the work aspects of coworking, our research found that it was the social ties of coworking that proved most valuable to members. When asked to list three words that best describe coworking, three of the top five words mentioned by coworking members — community, fun, and social — relate to social aspects.

Other studies confirm these findings.

For example, researchers at the University of Michigan found that coworking members report much higher levels of “thriving” than traditional employees. Their work shows this is in part due to the community aspects of coworking spaces, which allow members to socialize and interact with other members. Another study, Coworking Spaces: A Source of Social Support for Independent Professionals, reports that the main reason most members work in coworking spaces is for the social interactions.

As a society, a growing number of people are facing the isolation and loneliness associated with remote work — and they’re working alone longer. Gallup reports that, despite a few high profile examples of firms moving away from telecommuting, the number of corporate employees working remotely continues to grow. Gallup’s data shows that 43% of American employees report that they work remotely at least some of the time, up from 39% in 2012. Gallup also reports that the people who work remotely “at least some of the time” are spending even more time working remotely. The number of independent workers (freelancers, independent consultants, etc.) is also increasing, with most of these people working remotely.

For companies, allowing and paying for employees to work out of coworking spaces offers many benefits. In addition to reducing remote work loneliness, coworking spaces provide excellent business and technology infrastructure, strong networking opportunities, and exposure to innovative companies, products, and services. Companies will also benefit from having happier, more engaged, and more productive workers.

Independent workers should also consider coworking. They often benefit even more than company employees from the social aspects of coworking and find that the professional networking opportunities help to generate new business. While independents have to pay for memberships themselves, most consider the cost well worth it. (Coworking spaces range in cost from $45 per month to over $1,000 per month, depending on the space and location.

A good estimate of the average cost for the U.S. is around $350 per month.) Our research found very high satisfaction rates: 90% of respondents reported being either highly satisfied (79%) or satisfied (11%) with their coworking space; only 5% reported being dissatisfied. More to the value point, 94% reported the price they paid was fair (77%) or a bargain (17%). Also, most coworking members plan to continue to be members in two years, with only 4% reporting they likely won’t be members over that time frame.

The coworking industry has been growing at a rapid pace for the past five years. Our current forecast is for this growth to continue, with the global number of coworking space members increasing from roughly 1.6 million today to about 3.8 million in 2020.

It’s clear from the research that a major driver of this growth is the social aspects of coworking. Humans are social creatures who like being around other humans, and regardless of advances in remote work technology, this won’t change. The early coworking pioneers recognized this and focused on building supportive communities that included social activities. One of these early pioneers, Alex Hillman of the coworking space Indy Hall, went so far as to say “coworking is not a workspace industry; it’s a happiness industry”.

Simply put, by creating community and reducing isolation and loneliness, coworking benefits both organizations and workers due to greater levels of work engagement, productivity, and worker happiness.

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Predictions and Pitfalls In the Workplace: 6 Things to Watch For in 2018.. 12-16

As the year winds down, it’s a good time to reflect on the year that was and the trends reshaping the nature of our work and workplaces heading into 2018.

The main driver of this change? It continues to be the increasing scale and use of technological solutions to traditional and modern workplace challenges. As we progress beyond the advent of connected work apps and online platforms of the past five years, we’re preparing to move past other impactful organizational shifts — like the rise of remote workers.

All this is to say that 2018 is going to be another significant and very interesting year for both workers and their relationship with the workplace, and there are some key things those in the HR space should be aware of.

Here are my predictions on what will be making an impact in the year to come.

1 – The app and information overload will continue

Apps and SaaS online platforms have become as standard in our jobs as Microsoft Office, and while they have added some great new tools and abilities to our work day, they  are also increasingly making work more challenging. How? By giving us more programs to juggle and making information more scattered and difficult to retrieve.

Though this overload is hard to stop. We’re seeing the rise of a new solution that will greatly expand in 2018: the use of AI-powered assistants that can plug into the various apps and platforms we already use and retrieve the information we seek on our request.

With developments in natural language processing, we can now have a text chat with a helper bot and ask questions about diffuse information sources that it answers in plain English.

2 – Employee engagement efforts will get smarter  

Making employees feel more connected, engaged and happy at work has become a major priority for workplaces and their HR teams. We’ve seen a lot of enterprise firms getting flexible with their approach to employee work-life balance and adopting some of the more casual approaches to work and workplace rules seen in trendy tech startups.

This will continue in 2018, but at a higher level: efforts to engage employees will be given a major boost by smart new digital tools that let HR better monitor and react to engagement and office culture.

Underlying AI technology — like machine learning — is now parsing the language used on workplace chat platforms, and even in employee emails, to analyze employee sentiment for potential negativity, a sign of disengagement, and doing so on an office-wide level.

Expect this to become more widespread as new tools read more telltale signals. Researching whether such engagement tech is right for your HR challenges will be key in 2018.

3 – Diversity and inclusion will be an even bigger priority

This past year saw some major corporate scandals around diversity and inclusion, leading to more awareness and calls for change. There have been some major shots across the bow, and we’re seeing executive teams start to make some major reforms to modernize their workplace makeup and culture.

This will be a significant priority in 2018, not only in response to very public scandals but also because of the fact that more inclusive, diverse workplaces have been linked to higher productivity and are now recognized as better for innovation and new ideas (and more attractive to Millennial hires).

At the ground level, HR should be aware of the new set of equity tools designed to eliminate unconscious bias in recruiting practices. You can now have your job-posting text read by an AI bot who will suggest more inclusive language, and another will help screen resumes in a fairer way.
This is a fast-growing area, and one every HR department should be evaluating for fit.

4 – More human workplaces, more collaboration

Can smart tools using AI and machine learning make work better?

We don’t have a complete answer to that yet, but we are seeing the needle start to move with the application of AI software to areas with a direct impact on our workplace mood and empathy levels. This includes the physical design of our offices to be more human-centric, and assistants that can read our emails as we write them and let us know if we’re coming off as unprofessional.

At the same time, the importance of collaboration is rising as the micro-jobs that eat up our work day are automated by virtual assistants — tasks like booking meetings and drafting routine documents. With more time for creative, deep-thinking work, more value is being placed on employee collaboration, which is becoming a key factor in firm performance.

Both these trends are going to get bigger in 2018, and successful workplaces will want to stay on top of them.


5 – Remote workers are the norm, and can do more

Having an employee work from home once elicited some quiet skepticism around the water cooler, but those days are now long gone. Indeed, leading workplaces now treat remote work as a standard feature, one that can not only let employees be more productive, but opens the door to a truly global workforce that provides a deep bench of talent.

Working remotely was once a bit awkward in terms of work routines and processes being locked to a physical space, but the digital workplace has gone a long way to throwing off those restrictions. Come 2018, and beyond, this will become the standard, and expect a majority of high-performing firms to have a constant chunk of their staff permanently off-site.

Our workplace tech stack has adapted to this new reality, and as more software migrates to the cloud with files accessible 24/7, we’ll see remote working grow tremendously.

This will be further accelerated by the rise of smart tools giving remote workers new abilities that would previously have required a visit to the office, such as creating and exchanging routine documents and meeting with HR for basic work-policy questions and assistance. The range of remote applications will continue its exponential growth, and is something the modern enterprise must be aware of and willing to adapt to.

6 – AI will go mainstream and get REALLY smart at understanding data

In what will be a seismic shift in 2018, enterprises will no longer require a computer or data science degree to understand and use the baseline and deeper functionality that workplace AI brings. Non-specialized knowledge workers will see the immediate benefits of these AI-powered tools, from frictionless collaboration and information sharing to quick and accessible new insights.

Yes, 2016 and 2017 both paved the way for the arrival of mainstream AI, and now we’ve reached a turning point, thanks to the standardization of third-party apps and integrations that can be understood and augmented by AI. This will allow employees to do more at work using previously inaccessible data, yielding new discoveries. To pick one example, 2018 will usher in the era of business intelligence beyond the usual, allowing employees to derive success metrics at the click of a button and gain new perspectives.

It’s clear that 2018 is going to be another exciting year for employers, workers, and their relationship with the workplace. HR teams should be aware of the upcoming shifts and opportunities to unlock new value, and, understand how to properly use data, insights and emerging tech to supercharge everything from employee engagement and productivity to organizational structure and IT.

Happy New Year!

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Get More Done by Focusing Less on Work 02-09

Get More Done by Focusing Less on Work

When people want to get more done at work, they double down on the time they put into their jobs. They adopt a new productivity approach, stay at the office late, work weekends, revamp to-do lists, and try to cram more into every day. But what if the secret to performing better at work, and feeling more satisfied, isn’t to put more effort and energy into work butless? Instead of working harder and longer, what if you better integrated the four domains of your life – work, home, community, and self?  My research has shown just that: By focusing more on the areas of life you care most about, even if those aren’t work, you’ll perform better at your job.

In July 2013, I wrote a piece and launched an assessment on HBR.org meant to help readers take a clear view of what they want from — and can contribute to — each domain of their lives. My advice to people was to carefully consider the people who matter most to them and the expectations they have of one another. 

I then suggested that they experiment with small changes to see how those tweaks affected all four domains over a short period of time — what I call “four-way wins.” I gave practical guidance derived from my book on how to conduct the experiment. (Seethis article for more on designing four-way win experiments.)

But — as I’ve seen in thousands of cases from years of field research, teaching, and practice — there are serious barriers to this type of integration, and even to trying small experiments. Those barriers are fear, ignorance, and guilt. People are afraid of change, don’t know how to go about it, and feel guilty even trying because they worry it will negatively impact others. If you can learn to minimize these barriers, you make it far more likely that you will try something new and successfully experiment, thereby getting more done and creating greater harmony in your life. Here’s how:

1. Lower risk by scaling the intended new action down so it’s manageable, and less frightening. Let’s say the experiment is to shut down your digital stream periodically so you can focus on people at home and in your community. Instead of setting the goal for three hours of detox every day, try three hours per week.

2. Gather information about what might and might not work by sharing ideas for action with stakeholders who’ll be affected. For example, let your boss know that for the next month, you’re going to try shutting down for three hours per week — and which specific hours you plan to do so. Explain to her how you believe this will benefit her and ask her what her concerns might be. If need be, adjust your plan so she sees it as a win for her, as well. Ideally, she’ll then want you to do this more often.

3. Deliberately assess the positive impact you expect your actions to have not just on you personally, but on the people who depend on you at work, at home, and in the community — reducing any sense of selfishness you might feel because you’re doing it for them and for you. With your boss, for example, agree on a metric (e.g., your attentiveness to co-workers or your level of crankiness) that assesses an aspect of your performance that matters to you both. Then, figure out a simple way to collect data on this metric so you can quickly capture the results of your experiment and inform any further adjustments.

It might seem counterintuitive that you will perform better at work if you spend more time with your kids, leave work early to volunteer at a local nonprofit, or take an hour out of your workday to go to the gym. But that’s just what happens.

My research team observed in a 2005 study of 300 business professionals a paradoxical result (reported in my book Total Leadership): when you undertake smart experiments with the intent of better aligning your actions and your values in a way that’s consciously designed to benefit yourself, your work, your family, and your community, you are likely to spend less attention on work while experiencing enhanced well-being and better performance (as assessed by others) in all domains. Consider the following chart:

As the chart illustrates, we found that what’s important to individuals didn’t change much over the course of the four months of the experiments we studied. People still rated each domain with the same level of importance. But participants shifted their focus of attention to better match what they cared about — that is, generally away from work to other domains — family, community, and self (mind, body, spirit). At the same time, their satisfaction in every domain increased, particularly in self. It’s easiest to make gains in this domain because it’s (usually) rated lowest to begin with, so there’s nowhere to go but up. Further, the positive spillover from better experiences in the other parts of your life has an especially good effect on your mind, body, and spirit. And not only did people’s sense of well-being improve across the board, their ability to meet performance expectations — as reported to them on a standard scale by key stakeholders — went up in all domains, too.

But, how can performance at work improve with less attention paid to it? There are several reasons:

• Clearer focus on results that really matter to the people around you.
• Less wasted effort on activities that aren’t that important.
• Reduced psychological interference across domains as a result of being less distracted, because you’re taking care of critical needs in those other parts.
• A virtuous cycle of benefits from one part of your life spilling over to other parts; for example, greater confidence, less crankiness, and a stronger sense of control.

Barriers to creating meaningful changes in where you focus your attention — your most precious resource — are real, and there are ways to surmount them. Take action that’s within your control and that you believe will benefit the people who matter most to you in all the different parts of your life, gather data on your impact, and continually adjust so you’re increasingly able to do what’s good for you and for them. Your mindset will shift as you start to see more opportunities for realistic four-way wins. You just have to look for them, as a leader, in all parts of your life, by doing the basics: Envision a better future and bring others along with you.

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Join the Global Elite 06-25

Join the Global Elite

by Gregory C. Unruh and Ángel Cabrera

You’ve read about and admired them, maybe met some of them. You’ve certainly benefited from their work: the growing elite of global businesspeople who are helping to define today’s international commerce. They are creating immense value for their companies and themselves—and, in many cases, making the world a better place.

The group includes top business leaders such as Carlos Ghosn, the Brazilian-Lebanese-French CEO of Japanese automaker Nissan; Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak, a UK-educated Bangladeshi who has worked in the United States for nearly 20 years; and Bob Dudley, the first American CEO of the British energy company BP.

 It also extends to lesser-known yet increasingly influential managers such as Saad Abdul-Latif, the CEO of PepsiCo’s Asia, Middle East, and Africa division, and Lalit Ahuja, who facilitated American retailer Target’s establishment of a second headquarters in India.

Most of these leaders have extensive international experience, speak multiple languages, and can tap into worldwide professional networks. But what really defines them is their ability to create value by helping their organizations adopt a global perspective. And thanks to the dramatic growth of international business in recent years, they are in high demand. 

During the past three decades, the value of exports across the world has increased from $2 trillion to $18 trillion, and half of them now come from emerging economies. In turn, the number of people working outside their company headquarters in foreign subsidiaries has rocketed from 25 million to more than 81 million, including notable shifts in the C-suite. 

As a consequence, 76% of executives surveyed by the United Nations Global Compact say that it’s important for companies to develop global leaders.

Our decade-long study of hundreds of these leaders shows that, despite its name, the “global elite” is not an exclusive group. Any businessperson willing to make a serious effort can join its ranks by learning to interact with and understand culturally diverse groups and organizations. Our own stories are indicative: We’ve both built global careers, but nothing in our upbringing suggested that we would. Our parents weren’t multilingual or multicultural, and they didn’t move us around the world as children. We became global by spending substantial professional time abroad and by connecting with people whose backgrounds and opinions differ wildly from our own.

You can’t rely on your company to expand your global horizons, though. Only a third of companies responding to an American Management Association survey in 2011 reported having programs in global leadership development. We know from our own experiences and those of the executives we’ve studied that a do-it-yourself mind-set is key. 

You need to push for assignments that deepen your international knowledge, and often you will have to migrate from company to company to round out your experience.

This article lays out a three-step plan of action for working your way into the global elite—and for making the best of your status once you get there. First, acquire the knowledge, skills, and perspective you need by both thinking and doing. Second, make use of your new global awareness by exploiting divergence, convergence, and networks. 

Third, transcend the boundaries of commerce to become a global citizen, ensuring that your work serves the world in positive ways.

Acquiring a Global Outlook

Cross-national, cross-cultural contexts are inherently complex, so developing the competencies required to join the global elite is neither simple nor quick. Even people born into international, cosmopolitan families and environments must work at it.

Learn by thinking. 

Begin to develop a broad outlook by teaching yourself to think globally. This starts with acknowledging that your existing frames of reference can lead you to misinterpret unfamiliar information. Specifically, you must:

Observe. Cultivate a curiosity about how places operate. Ask questions repeatedly, and don’t assume you know the answers.

Study. Formal education—in world history, economics, international affairs, politics, and international business—helps you broaden your perspective. Those subjects fascinate global leaders. But informal study is vital, too: Read international literature, take in foreign films, and so on.

Open your mind. Understand the importance of bringing out the best in people, regardless of where they hail from or what languages they speak. Respect and explore other cultures, welcome new experiences, and seize opportunities to work with people of other nationalities. Look at situations from multiple angles.

Open your heart. Develop empathy by learning about the issues that matter to people in other cultures. Invite an exchange student into your home or spend a vacation volunteering abroad. Globally minded companies such as IBM use international humanitarian assignments in emerging countries as leadership-development opportunities.

Learn by doing. Of course, learning through action is at least as important as the global thinking you nurture. Take these active steps:

Forge relationships. Cultivate contacts and friends across national and cultural boundaries. Foster trust by connecting with those people emotionally and intellectually. Don’t start by asking others to help you; instead, add value to folks in your network by assisting them first. Your new contacts will give you insight into unfamiliar environments, paving the way for global business development.

Events such as the World Economic Forum, the Boao Forum for Asia, the Clinton Global Initiative, TED conferences, the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival, and Google’s Zeitgeist are places where many global-elite relationships are first formed. You may not be receiving invitations to such exclusive gatherings just yet, but you can seek out international conferences in your own industry or in markets that interest you.

Start locally. Tap into your existing networks, such as alumni groups and professional associations. Social media has opened up new opportunities to connect and contribute from home. LinkedIn’s “network statistics” function, for instance, shows you the geographic reach of your network and where in the world it is growing fastest.

Work with others. Seek opportunities to collaborate with people from other cultures. Join teams that include members who hail from a variety of places and have disparate views. Those contacts will allow you to contribute to existing global initiatives in your organization and your community.

Be the center. Assess where you stand within your networks. If you’re at the periphery, move toward the middle by introducing people who would not otherwise be connected. Global leaders build bridges and transcend boundaries. They create value by connecting others—and enrich themselves in the process.

Go. International travel is vitally important, and it’s never too late to start. Firsthand experiences in foreign contexts will contribute the bulk of the knowledge you need to be a global value creator. While abroad, make sure you leave the hotel—and stay an extra day or two to explore. Accept an invitation from a local partner to attend a get-together with friends or family. Even if your agenda is fully packed, squeeze in a visit to a museum or attend a cultural event—it could be the most productive investment of your time.

Speak. Learn a foreign language and practice it with native speakers. Read articles or works of literature in the language you’re studying, and then discuss them.

Don’t stop. It can be tough to stay on the path toward global understanding. The impulse to regress or succumb to culture shock is very strong. You may need an enormous amount of cognitive energy to consistently resist your natural biases and your mental and emotional shortcuts. Staying on course requires discipline, awareness, and humility.

What all these steps amount to is a willingness to take risks. Successful global leaders put themselves in unfamiliar situations and challenge their mental models. Consider Saad Abdul-Latif. Before he joined the global elite, he was “just a guy from the neighborhood”—in his case, East Jerusalem. Because of curfews and travel bans, his exposure to the outside world was extremely limited, but his curiosity took him to the American University of Beirut and then to a job, in Kuwait, in organizational development and human resources management.

Abdul-Latif exemplifies both the thinking and the doing aspects of global learning. He observed, studied, and opened his mind and heart. He says, for example, that engaging with thoughtful people about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while he was getting a degree at the Thunderbird School of Global Management showed him that he could disagree with friends and colleagues and still live, learn, and work with them. Conflicting cultural perspectives might intimidate some people, but Abdul-Latif saw them as opportunities to expand his worldview.

During his many travels throughout the Middle East and the U.S., he was constantly seeking opportunities to collaborate and build lasting relationships with people from other cultures. The value of that atypical profile was not immediately apparent to recruiters, so he initially received a rejection letter from PepsiCo during his post-MBA job search in 1987. However, an alert HR director at the company discovered his discarded CV and called him about a position in the Middle East. 

The resulting interview led to a general-management career at PepsiCo that has included diverse roles in North Africa, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region.

During his rise at PepsiCo, Abdul-Latif’s ability to connect with others made him a central node in important networks both inside and outside the company. Today he is the CEO of a $7.4 billion division, overseeing the company’s operations in more than 100 countries. His territory includes roughly two-thirds of the world’s population. Abdul-Latif sees Asia as the epicenter of value-creating innovation. This year he opened a research unit in Shanghai (PepsiCo’s largest R&D center outside the U.S.) to develop local products, some of which he hopes will one day join PepsiCo’s world-renowned brands.

You’re in the Club. Now What?

Acquiring international knowledge is just the start. After you’ve built the competencies you need, it’s time to put them to use for your organization and yourself. Members of the global elite do that by tapping into three areas of value creation:

Divergence. Your job is to notice important differences among markets and to use those observations to create value. Beyond making the most of lower labor costs in developing economies, effective global managers explore how customer preferences, as well as employees’ skills and workplace needs, vary from market to market. And they use those insights to their advantage.

Convergence. At the same time, you should keep an eye out for commonalities—for example, widespread appetite for a certain kind of product or growing demand for a specific type of talent across a broad region, if not the world.

Networks. The connections you made before joining the global elite uniquely position you to identify or build trading networks and platforms that enable people in different regions to provide value to one another. You’ll be better equipped than others to find the right customers and suppliers, to link hiring managers with the best people for their staffs, and to encourage far-flung divisions to work together.

How the Global Elite Create Value

Lalit Ahuja, of Target, provides examples of all three means of value creation. After growing up in India, Ahuja traveled to the U.S. to study and learn about America and its culture. Then he spent years establishing the Indian operations for LG and News Corporation, which were expanding their global reach. Target hired Ahuja to help it outsource its IT operations to India. Using his understanding of U.S. and Indian business, Ahuja persuaded his bosses to instead establish what Target’s executives consider to be an extension of their Minneapolis headquarters in Bangalore. Target India now handles marketing and real estate development, as well as routine, commoditized work such as customer service and payroll.

Ahuja tapped into divergences such as lower wages and a time difference that allows Target India to maintain all back-office operations 24/7. He also capitalized on convergences between the U.S. and India, such as knowledge of the English language and the availability of well-educated workers. He made use of Target’s culture—emblemized by its clean red logo and customer-friendly attitude—to facilitate trust between Indian and American colleagues. “We’re all the same shade of red,” Ahuja says. His vision was realized with Target India’s first major project: a high-profile conceptual and architectural redesign of a Target store in Arizona.

Global Citizenship

Becoming a member of the global elite isn’t entirely about the bottom line or getting the corner office. Leaders who are truly global citizens understand the implications of their actions and take responsibility for them. They recognize that the prosperity of one person, one firm, or one nation depends on and influences the prosperity of others. As a consequence, they forge productive partnerships among business, government, and civil society that can have lasting effects in communities around the world.

In the past, leaders typically let national laws define the boundaries of their moral obligations. If their actions were legal, they were probably doing the right thing, or at least the right-enough thing. Many of today’s global leaders recognize that each decision they make either reinforces current practice or alters it. And where practice undermines shared prosperity, they work to change the status quo.

After receiving an engineering degree from the University of Arizona, Alan Boeckmann joined the Fluor construction company in 1974. He eventually took management assignments in the U.S., South Africa, and Venezuela. After rising to the position of CEO in 2002, he was constantly frustrated by the effects of corruption on the company’s international business, so he sought out like-minded government leaders who were interested in promoting cleaner business practices. In one country known for its corrupt customs agency, Fluor worked with senior officials to establish a second customs line staffed by agents trained in antibribery techniques. Boeckmann also cajoled his industry colleagues to change their culture, spearheading the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative at the World Economic Forum.

For Boeckmann and others, being a part of the global elite is about creating the world they want to live in. These leaders are inspired less by the numbers on their companies’ income statements and their own paychecks than they are by the variety of stamps in their passports, the cross-cultural experiences those stamps represent, and the opportunities they have to solve some of the world’s most vexing social problems. It’s this attitude that makes the members of this club a rare and extremely influential breed.

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How to Succeed as a Square Peg in a Round Hole

CULTURE COMFORT AT THE WORK PLACE CAN BE ACHIEVED BY GIVING UP ON THE CULTURE COMFORT..........

Weird it may look, but nothing is closer to the truth than the above statement. Every culture and a custom gives a certain level of mental and spiritual comfort to the person used to it. Especially, when you are in a demography or  where everyone wears the same feathers, staying within the culture and traditions appears to be the most natural thing. The trouble starts only when you are thrust into an alien culture on account of your professional compulsions.

Here, it helps if you can give up on, or relax on the fastidiousness in following the cultural or traditional customs. Giving up is inversely proportionate to the comfort you can gain the work place.

Now the article....

The continuous advent of new technology and the emanation of technology from the Asian and other countries have created a situation where cross cultural work environment has become common place.

Though work place is no worship place, people carry certain cultures, customs, mannerism and behavior patterns which have their roots in the upbringing specific to the regions. This makes the people of one region culturally and socially misfit in other regions.

They finally end up as “Square pegs in round holes”.

This usually happens internationally, but in vast and diverse countries like India & China, it can happen in different regions within the country.

The pace at which the world is becoming small everyday is inversely proportionate to amount of migration of people across the countries and continents. The people belonging to the local culture will always have an advantage over the migrants. At the same time, it is incorrect to assume that one culture is more business friendlily than other. Recent economic resurgence by Asian countries specially India & China has proved that giant strides can be effected staying within the conservative culture of the east.

So the time has come for a change, a change in attitude. Instead of complaining about the incompatibility, it is better, we level the playing field so that it is compatible to everyone, and prevents the loss of time, money and other resources.

It is the joint responsibility of the management and the concerned executive to make the acclimatization process seamless.

How to go about it???

1 Understand the culture divide as culture diversity

Just as we respect bio-individuality of human beings, similarly diversity of culture should be respected. A better working relationship can be established out of the understanding that different behavior is because of the different culture and not because of the lack or insufficiency of attributes.

For example disruptiveness is known as innovation in western culture, where as In eastern culture it is considered bad manners.

In a meeting western culture dictates that you need to be proactive, you need to initiate the discussion, lead the discussion, and beat others in making yourself heard by the management.

In Eastern culture each member is expected to be highly disciplined and respect the seniority of other members. He is allowed to speak only after the seniors have expressed themselves. He speaks only when he is asked for an opinion and then also speaks in a manner and tone that doesn’t hurt or contradict his senior. But he also speaks out his mind freely & participates actively within the confines of his culture.

So while expressive & effervescence are the need of one culture, quiet refrain and restraint, are the Hallmark of the other culture. A management that understands this diversity will put the expressiveness or lack of it in proper perspective & create affinity between the different team members.

2. Conduct research about the norms at prospective work place.

Conduct research on the culture & customs at the prospective work place. Prepare a mind set to accept what you get, and do without, what you won’t. If you are going to USA, it is better to habituate yourself with the American English.

It can be done by being active and participating in discussions on the social media platforms. Most of the discussions on the social media are in American English. You will find that most of the words are spelt differently in American English, when compared to what you must have learnt in the Queen’s English.

See a few Hollywood movies to perfect your English pronunciations. Many online interactive website are also of help, but they don’t teach you slang which is common place in corporate world. People use even four letter words without meaning any harm or ill will towards the other person. Please get used to take them normally.

In case you are going to UK, you need to perfect the Queen’s English, the work etiquettes, and even the dress codes. You also need to prepare yourself to put up with Color and Race discrimination at least in the initial stages.

3 Familiarize yourself with team norms.

Once you join the organization, first thing you do is familiarize yourself with team norms. Ask the team lead about the norms; put your difficulty level before him. Confabulate with your colleagues. Put up patiently with their barbs and jabs. Your restraint will help convert these into ocean of love and affection, and you will see helping hands all around.

4 Psych yourself for inclusive participation in the team.

Having won the first battle of acclimatization, you need to observe and mimic the mannerism & the attitude. This will help to psych you into a position of equality and confidence with other team members. Now you should start participating in the inclusive participation in all the team activities.

5 Dedicate extra time and efforts in skill building.

Now that, you are equal, or perhaps more equal than others in your team or even the blue eyed boy of the team, it is imperative that you devote extra time & effort to build your skills. You have the extra responsibility to make the management feel that your output is worth the investment made in you and it is prudent of them to invest in people with your culture background.

6 Be a role model for the people of alien culture.

Your adaptability, your sustainability, your delivery levels should convince people and the managements and help in building of cross culture teams everywhere.

7 Be the jolly good fellow of the organization and the corporate world

Now it is payback time for you. Be a friend philosopher and guide for the people from alien cultures. Be an incubator where new comers can find the initiation process healthy and enjoyable. Be charitable, and liberally spread your knowledge among the needy. Get on to the social media and help the people the world over in getting over the cross culture hiccups.

Best Wishes,

Shyam