“You can’t fix a problem in Iraq with an 8,000 mile-long screwdriver!” proclaimed Terry Brake in his session on collaboration in virtual teams, at the Conference on High Performing Global Teams. I’d never met Terry before but am a fan of his work – and just like his books – his session was filled with insights and practical information. As he described, no longer do we have a simple ‘work place’ but agile ‘workwebs’ that are virtual and protean. And, a global virtual team consisting of  people distributed across time and space, whose task it is to collaborate, is a form of this. Terry’s session focused on his integrated set of virtual team perfomance indicators…

A serious topic, but Fons Trompenaars had us laughing, smiling and entertained in his usual inimitable fashion during his keynote address at the conference for High Perfoming Global Teams held in York, UK, last week. His main message to the audience was that creative individuals are a necessary but not sufficient part of a team for it to be effective. High performing teams need not only a diversity of roles but in particular leadership where the dilemmas between these roles are reconciled. This is the role of the Servant-Leader, reconciler-in-chief. However, his debunking of Michael Porter’s ‘Added-Value’ concept was interesting …

With sessions by Dr Fons Trompenaars and Dr Dick McCann to start off each day at the international conference on High Performing Global Teams, I knew I was going to be in for a treat.  The conference, organised by Jeremy Comfort (York Associates) and Dr Peter Franklin (Dialogin), was such an outstanding success that delegates asked for it to be extended to three days next year. A line up of ‘who’s who’ in the intercultural and team working fields ensured that there were some key practices to be shared and new thinking to be learned. Whether you were a business person, practitioner in the field, trainer, academic or researcher, there was something for everyone. For those who missed it – make sure you don’t next year!

The Jewish New Year – Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah (literally ‘Head of the Year’) marks the first and second days of the Jewish New Year. It is also the Day of Judgement and the Day of Remembrance. It’s a time for some serious thought about life and a chance to ask questions about your actions throughout the year.

Find out more about Rosh Hashanah.

Chusok Thanksgiving Day is a public holiday in South Korea.

The Chusok Harvest festival is one of the most important festivals in throughout the world, whatever culture or religion it might be, or however it is named; Thanksgiving in America, Pongal in India and Chusok in Korea. This festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth Lunar month of every Lunar year. Let us see more about the Festival of Chusok, its Legacy, its rituals and what it means to the people of that culture.

Find out more about the Chusok Festival in South Korea

I was recently sent this photo taken by Jules Hersman which I have named The Colours of Diversity.  What occasion it is and where it was taken, unfortunatley, I do not know. I just smiled when I saw it. A Google search has not enabled me to find Jules Hersman though I did find reference to a voluntary worker of the same name.  Are you out there Mr. Hersman? I’d love to hear from you and the story behind the photo.

 I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Cindy King a cross-cultural marketing expert living in France.  As Twitter was our interview medium, I haved blogged our conversation for those who missed the ‘live’ performance. 

‘Tweets’ are limited to 120 characters per post, so sometimes it’s a challenge to articulate what you think in so few words!  In part one of the interview Cindy asked me about my background and this can be found on her site. Part two, as blogged below, is all about cross-cultural things.

There is a deepening and increasing inequality between men and women
in Italy. The cause of the probelm is being firmly laid at the feet of the Italian Prime Minister, Belusconi.  Equality campaigners have suggested that the continual portrail of women in the media in a demeaning and  sexualised fashion has set back their cause by at least 150 years.

 Having been brought up in the UK and witnessed (albeit I was very young at the time) the women’s liberation movement and bra burning antics of young female students, I thought Britain had a gender-equal society.  It wasn’t until I went to work in Finland, about 15 years ago, that I realised how unequal British society was. It therefore came as no surprise when I heard that the top places in the Global Gender Gap Index went to Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland.  However, finding Italy in 67th position (lagging behind Chile and Azerbaijan) was quite a shock!   Why not check out where your country fits in the league table?   You may be in for a few surprises.

I’d really appreciate your help… I’m lecturing on ‘Sharing Knowledge Across Global Teams’ at a conference in the UK later on this month and still busy researching.  I’d really appreciate different cultural opinions and would love you to leave a comment on this blog for me.

The effective managment and sharing of knowledge in global organisations is seen to be a key competitive advantage. Large firms have been intent setting up Knowledge Management Systems so knowledge can flow easily around the world. However, ‘knowledge’ is viewed differently by different cultures.

In Anglo-Saxon cultures, ‘knowledge’ is viewed as a commodity, owned by one person, that will give him/her a competitive advantage in the workplace.  The more s/he has the more the market will pay in terms of salary. Knowledge is a closely guarded secret and gives someone their worth.  For other cultures, it is not knowledge of THINGS but knowledge of PEOPLE and NETWORKS that is the valuable commodity. Yet other cultures view knowledge as only being valuable when it is freely shared by all.

What is your CULTURAL view on this?