A FEW THOUGHTS

The website SmashingShare just came out with a great list.. Don’t you just love lists ? It’s like it makes the life so much easier for all the rest of us. It is already put in order and categorised.. Alright, anyway .. the list this time, which I though was quite cool was the “10 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make As a Freelancer” ! And I will be the first to admit I have done some. Maybe I have done them all, but they are really true, and if someone can learn from this – then cool !

When travelling to new countries, what is the major obstacle ? Language!
Reading through the Matador Network I see they just came out with a post on One page printable language phrases from single-serving.com which I think is a really great idea ! They offer both one-page phrasepamphlets to put in your pocket for a lot of different languages. I counted at least 20 with full pamphlets covering both Basics, Introductions, Around Town, Numbers and more… For some of the languages they also offer mp3 files to get a feel of the tone. Really great - and the best .. it is free

Doust thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
-Benjamin Franklin

Many years ago I used to work in the “theater business”. I worked both behind the stage as a stage technician and for many years I worked part time as a host/attendant at one of the major theaters. Nice gig when you were young. Those days I got to see a lot of theater. Actually most of the major plays that was on. And it was great.

Yesterday we went to the opening night of the play “Don Carlos” by Friedrich Schiller at ”Det Norske Teatret“ in Oslo, first time in the theater for maybe 2-3 years. A very nice experience, which also inspires to try to go more plays from now on. I think I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the theater and this was kind of like a boost, though not the least challenging one. It was one of those plays were you can not look away and let your mind wander for a second, no superfluous furniture or props on stage. The play was set up with very elegant but minimalistic set design and the dramaturgy was very basic but efficent.  All you had was the gestures, facial expressions and dialogue of the actors.

The play reminded me of the joy of good theater. The joy of just listening to a good dialogue. I try to compare with both reading a good book or watching a good movie which I also enjoy very much, but I can’t. They are very different experiences, all to be enjoyed, and not to be compared.

“It is never too late to give up our prejudices..”
Henry D Thoreau

I am getting sick and tired of paper. Getting paper, reading paper, storing paper, going through paper over again and again and finally tossing paper out (in the paper recycle bin of course). There doesn’t seem to be much initiative in the business world to eliminate, or reduce, use of paper even though the solutions are there. Every week I get invoices, magazine, advertising pamphlets, ordinary mail and just tons of garbage in my postbox. All these could have fit perfectly in my e-mail (and some in the spam filter of course..). I almost never buy a newspaper (in paper). I only read them online. I do like the feel of a good book, but it seems like maybe the iPad or other devices will cure that soon too.

So, today I feel like I took the first step towards my area of paperless society. I had a gigantic box filled with user manuals for everything from hard drives to tv’s, cameras and dishwashers. I took them one by one, found the electronic version online, downloaded it and stored it. I then threw the paper manuals in the recycle bin and went for a walk. I feel this is a good step in the right direction. Next step for me is to purchase a small scanner and scan all mail I receive, while I try to convince my accountant to receive vouchers and bills through e-mail. I also hope to train some of the organisations sending me mail to “go electronic”.

I am looking at a Canon P-150 , or at least something in that size range. If someone has experience on this or similar scanners, please let me know what you think.

I have to share this one with you… Wear your seatbelt!
(first seen at Thomas Moen )

Just wanted to give you a look at the winter in Oslo these days. It is terribly cold, but it sure can be beautiful too:

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Both for those of us who enjoy and charish the possibility of being alone – without being lonely – and for those of you who just doesn’t get it yet; Collette Bernhardt  recently wrote a post for Matadorlife on “Being With Yourself: Lessons in Lone Ranging“.

I will also recommend, by Michaela Lola the “6 Reasons to Wander Alone” at “BraveNewTraveler” describing some of the joys of being on the road alone.

Together with a client (large international corporation) I recently attended a workshop looking at, and discussing, cross-culture elements and awareness. I found the workshop to be very interesting and giving, so I figured I’ll try to give a brief recap of it here.

Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from another

Geert Hofstede

What is Culture? Culture is a shared system of attitudes, values and beliefs. First of all I found it interesting to discuss all the elements that, when brought together, constitutes to what we call culture, and identify all the different types of culture we have:

• National & regional culture
• Corporate culture
• Professional culture
• Gender and age
• Religion

And within these you have different dimensions; direct vs indirect cultures, rules vs. relationship oriented cultures, time, hierarchy, individualist vs. collectivist cultures, non verbal communication. All these types of culture we can break down to many elements. Just think of the differences in language, dress code, food, public holidays, way of thinking, beliefs, attitudes and values.  All these elements are important factors that contribute to a diverse community. And for an international company it’s important to both be aware of, respect and take care of the different dimensions in this. Building and preserving a corporate culture can, in my opinion, only be done by respecting each employees personalculture.

Now, working together in a corporation like this does demand that you are able to sort out the different dimensions of this. Escpecially being aware of the non-verbal communication is extremely important. It’s not a secret that working together across boundaries like language, time zones and different tools for communication can cause misunderstandings and discontent . Being aware of this is half of it. The other half is adapting and contributing to adjustments in a positive way.

Imagine that you have a project with project members and stakeholders from United States, Brazil, UK, Germany, Norway, Russia, Malaysia and Japan. Most of the meetings are probably over web or phone, so the project teams are more or less “virtual”. Communication will be only in written or orally and you will seldom see any body language unless you use video conference. It’s quite likely that during your project you will face more than one challenge due to cultural differences and misunderstandings. Just trying to arrange a meeting that works well in each timezone will be a challenge. We also need to think about all the hidden messages in what we say. Some cultures are more direct and some have more hidden expression. Just look at  the possible meanings of these statements:

So being aware of the cultural filter of each other and the fact that when we say something we “encode” it, and the receiver doesn’t necessarily “decode” it the same way, is very important. Another important thing is also to be aware of the pitfalls of stereotyping and generalizing. However, looking at the different ways of decode/encode messages it was interesting looking at the Lewis model which in fact “stereotype” this in National Cultural Profiles. This is a way of looking at the majority of certain countries and how you can expect to experience the different types  of behaviour and leadership.

Looking at these different profiles we can clearly see how one can misunderstand one another as there are so clear differences in how we:

• talk vs. listen
• network through official channels or through connections
• plan in details or in general principles
• show or hide feelings
• do confrontations logically, emotionally or not at all
• handle direct truth vs. diplomacy

Let us remember it doesn’t have to be another country. You can easily find cultural differences, for instance between a project manager and a programmer.  Being a project manager I see some clear benefits of being aware of these issue and try to be open about them when managing cross-cultural teams:

• Bring cross cultural communication up as an issue at a very early stage and let the team be aware of it
• Define basic project team culture and rules
• Make team members curious to learn about the others
• Prepare agenda and do action minutes with deadlines in your meetings
• Limit number of participants and include the “silent” colleagues
• Avoid criticism in public and do not dominate

Cross-Cultural Awareness is a very large topic and not easy to summarize in a workshop, minutes or a blogpost. But it is important for each of us, both in working with other cultures and in our everyday life. So…

• Know yourself
• Be open and curious
• Get to know the other

And by that

• Improve effective communication and cooperation