Before I begin my dialog entry, from the party metaphor - pardon me while
I smile and shake a few hands - ahhhh!! it is good to be back --
As a participant in a team dialog including two Frenchmen, I observed a
fascinating dynamic. The activity the team was engaged in was dealing
with enterprise data models, which are diagrams (abstractions) used in
information engineering to depict the business relationships of common
data elements such as people, products and customers.
As with most team dialogs, there was often heated discussion about "just
exactly" what these abstractions should look like. The Frenchmen would
encounter a place (space, I not sure what the right word is) where they
could no longer think in abstract English. When this occurred, they would
look to one another and begin to converse in French. Having become the
de-facto leader, when this happened I would request an extended break.
This gave everyone a chance to relax and an opportunity for the Frenchmen
to explore their abstract ideas in their native language. Almost one for
one, when we re-grouped, the Frenchmen were able to explain in English the
idea or ideas which stifled their creativity before the break.
This experience taught me a great deal about cultural differences. It
also helped me understand why global sharing of ideas and ideals is such a
complex and difficult puzzle.
The giving of one's soul is very often a gesture, a glance, a wink, a
smile, a hug. These are also culturally biased. What is acceptable in
some cultures can get you killed in others!! These become very difficult
to share across the Internet.
Chris Michel
NCR Corporation
1529 Brown Street, EMD-5
Dayton OH 45479
chris.michel@daytonoh.ncr.com
--"Michel, Christopher J" <michec@uh2297p01.daytonoh.ncr.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>