#BELONGANYWHERE

BELONG ANYWHERE 

The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited India in AD 637 and wrote about his observation in his book “Si-yu-ki” (Record of the Western Countries). According to him the caste system was rigid but women would get an education and there was no purdah system, the common people were simple and honest. Though it had many religions, there was complete tolerance among people of all religious faiths. 

Such cultural accounts are very important in today’s globalized world.

As Chief travelling Officers of our own life, we must take account and respect other cultures, especially when in other countries. Being in IT Industry, I have been privileged to travel across the world and meet people from different cultures and spheres of life. In this series, I am sharing a few stories based on my experiences while working with people across the world.

What is your story?

click here to read all stories of BELONG ANYWHERE 

https://www.storyberrys.com/category/series/belong-anywhere/

Story 6: Who owns it ?

It was barely 6 months of my employment in ABC INC. and with this customer project assignment. There were 10 members in the project. Every member-owned a technical module of the complex system. Every week we used to have an audio conference with Chris who was the  technical program manager from customer side, he was operating out of Atlanta, Georgia (USA).

We all used to attend the meeting, but it was our project manager Kabir who would present the module-wise progress updates. Chris would ask questions and Kabir would answer. If Kabir needed any clarification, he would check with us, the team members. To avoid disturbing the rhythm of the meeting, we would either whisper or would write on a paper to him. Sometimes this would lead to a pause during the meeting and Chris would repeat “Hello, hello” a few times. Kabir would say “One second, Chris” and then would discuss with us offline and answer the question. Usually, Chris used to wait for more than one second. 🙂

This continued for a couple of months. One day, Kabir came to us. He looked worried. He told us that Chris has asked for a video-conferencing (VC) meeting with offshore team. Our center had a leased data link and VC equipment, but in those days, Video-conferencing was like organizing a big event. Kabir was worried about how would this virtual “face-to-face” meeting would go. It was 1997 and the technology and experience of remote virtual interaction were still evolving.

So, we had a few dry runs for this meeting. We pondered about how shall we dress, how shall we introduce ourselves, what to talk and what to not talk about in the meeting.  We the team members were stressed because before this we had never spoken to Chris directly. Well, we always thought that Kabir was only suppose to talk to customers. We were following the hierarchy.

Anyway, the day for the Video-conferencing meeting arrived. We reached the meeting room 20 mins before and waited. Those days, normally the customer-side team would initiate the connection. At the stipulated time, Chris rang the VCON dialer and we got connected. We saw a few unfamiliar faces. Probably they too saw the same :-).

The video quality was not great. We could see Chris waving his hand and after some time his voice came. There was a lag. The first thing we heard was, “Wow, you have a big team! I thought Kabir, only you are there in the team!“. and Chris laughed out loudly.

Kabir was embarrassed but he also grinned!

Chris’s team introduced themselves one by one and then it was our turn. We stumbled. Either we could not speak clearly, or we mumbled or we spoke with a heavy accent. For almost every person, Chris had to clarify one or two points. I was nervous too, and looked at Kabir for help. Kabir completed my half-spoken sentences.

After introduction, the meeting proceeded to status updates. When the first module owner started presenting, he could not do it convincingly. Kabir jumped in to help him but Chris asked him to let the module owner continue with the presentation.

This happened a couple of times, as Kabir would try to jump in whenever the module owner fumbled. Chris asked in a blunt tone “Who owns the module?” He then specifically asked Kabir to let the module owner continue the presentation.

We never had faced such an experience!

Well, somehow the meeting was over. Post the meeting, we retrospect what happened. We all thought Chris was rude. But Kabir clarified that he has met Chris earlier during his Atlanta visit, and Chris is a nice person, always speaks his mind.

Kabir said, “It’s different work culture. There everyone owns their work and reports their progress or issues themselves.”

The word culture struck me. I used to always think “Culture and religion” together, but this particular incident was not about “religion“, but definitely about culture. Culture, of how to work, behave and communicate at the workplace. And this was a completely new experience for me.

So, if you are beginning to work on a new project or new to the organization, then please do explore the cultural aspects of that region or organization. It will help to prepare you well.

Dinesh Kumar Singh