           |
 |
"I'm doing my own laundry again. I'm making my own photocopies. I'm going to the mailroom by myself. I do my own grocery shopping. I like regaining control over the little details very much, even though some things take more time than they did in India." |
   |
Blogs From Abroad: India
THE LONG JOURNEY HOME
After two and a half years living in India to help launch a new technology lab in Bangalore, my assignment has come to a close, and I have taken on a new role in California. I have been flying back and forth between India and the U.S. for the past two months, helping to transition my successor. As of July 1, I'm officially settled back in the Bay Area.
I spent the day today with the American half of the family I loved and lived with in India. One of the patriarchs of the family, Roy, died in India last November. Roy was born in the U.S., moved to India, made his fortune there and returned to the U.S. late in life. But when the end was approaching, he chose to return to India for the last seven months of his life.
In a way, I can understand his choice. I love the U.S. and my friends and family here deeply. But what India has taught me, so far, is so deeply moving and, well, so fundamentally human, I can understand why he would want to return there for the end.
Adjusting to work and life back in California has in many ways been a huge relief. I find myself being ecstatic that everything is so clean, so well-organized and running so smoothly. I no longer have a constant underlying urge to walk around with a garbage bag picking up litter. A few days ago I happened to be walking past the guys who collect the garbage cans in front of my home, and I stopped and said, "Thank you so much for doing this work for us." They looked kind of surprised at first, but then smiles did come and they said, "You're welcome!" They probably thought I was crazy.
At work, it's also the little things I notice that are making a big difference. Our office setup is much different in the U.S. than it is in India. There we have very large buildings and campuses staffed with thousands of people in a single location. In the U.S., most of our people work at client sites, so our own offices are much smaller. I don't have to wait for an elevator anymore. There are no cleaning people permanently stationed in the restrooms here, which have only three stalls compared to 15 or 20. I like the quiet and the peace of this new situation. It's a mild and welcome reduction in my overall stress level.
The readjustment to the self-service nature of the American lifestyle has been amusing. I bought a new car when I got back, and after driving it around for a few days I ran out of gas in downtown San Francisco. When the policeman who came to help me asked what had happened, I was forced to admit that I simply had not thought about needing to fill up the tank. After two and a half years of having a driver in India who took care of the car for me, I had simply failed to consider if the tank was full!
I'm doing my own laundry again. I'm making my own photocopies. I'm going to the mailroom by myself. I do my own grocery shopping and even a little cooking. I like regaining control over the little details very much, even though some things take more time than they did in India. I feel like I'm back to running my own life now in some basic way. Everything in India seemed just a little remote, like I was operating everything through a haze of other people.
I have a close colleague here in California who moved here from India after university about 10 years ago. I asked him over lunch the other day what he remembered most about his own early experiences living in the U.S. He said that he remembered feeling like the place was empty. Where are all the people?
I agree. While it's a relief to not have the crush of people and complexity of all their needs surrounding me constantly, I do miss them.
India is all about humanity – humanity "writ large," humanity at scale. In trying to come to terms with the overwhelming needs and sheer presence of all those people, I somehow became more alive and more aware and, I hope, more human.
I hope I can stay that way now that I'm home. I don't miss the mess and complexity and confusion. But I do miss the daily dose of having to be truly human. And who knows, maybe in the end I will make the same choice as Roy.
Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line. . . . . . . . . . .
RETAINING WOMEN
With International Women's Day approaching on March 8, I've been reflecting this week on the role of women in the workplace here in India. Having been in this male-dominated field for almost 25 years, I find it sad that fewer than half of the women in India who have college degrees are in the workforce. By comparison, almost all of the qualified women in China and Europe work.
What I find even more surprising is that women in India get educated at almost exactly the same rate as men. According to The Business Standard, one of India's leading newspapers, the percentage of skilled women living in India's cities (14 percent) is close to the level for men (16 percent). The average annual growth rate in skilled women (7 percent) is about 1.5 times higher than the rate of growth among skilled men. Women represent 38 percent of those in higher education, but only 18 percent of the well-educated workforce.
So why are more than half of the qualified women staying home? In my experience, with a few rare and laudable exceptions, all childcare, eldercare and household work falls to the woman in an Indian marriage. A very senior female executive at one of my competitors recently quipped in a public speaking engagement, "In India, men are judged by their work and women are judged by their relationships."
I see this up close in my team. One of my most talented young engineers, who happens to be a woman, came to me about a year ago to tell me that she would be getting married and, as a result, would have to quit my group. She said that my division is considered to be a "serious" group where people work hard. Therefore, she felt that once she married and assumed household duties to support her husband and in-laws, she would have to find a less demanding job. She made it clear that this was a well-known compromise for married women. I was absolutely shocked by this conversation, and it took total concentration to keep calm and keep smiling at that moment. Fortunately, I was able to convince her to stay and give the balancing act a try.
Realizing this was a systematic problem, I immediately implemented a group-wide policy for which anyone with childcare or eldercare responsibilities would be eligible – not just women! It's a package that includes flexible work hours, occasional work-at-home days, a laptop and a paid Internet connection from home.
The good news is that by making this policy real and visible, several of our best team members have been able to achieve a much better Life/Work balance. And I'm happy to report that even a few men have taken advantage of the policy. I'm very proud to say that many other supervisors here are adopting similar policies offered by our company, and we're well on the way to making these practices very generally and broadly applicable. We have also been focusing on hiring, training and retaining a much larger percentage of women from the higher education channels we work with.
Tomorrow I have the privilege of spending an hour with our top 25 women recruits, who are graduating from university in about a month and will be joining us shortly thereafter. The session was billed to them as a chance to hear from a senior woman about work and Life/Work balance at Accenture. But from my perspective, it's not about sharing my experiences with them; it's about learning what exactly it is going to take to make their careers fundamentally possible. By investing the time to learn about this next generation of women in India, I hope with all my heart that we can keep them engaged and help them have a balanced and successful career. Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line. COMMENTS Hello Lin,
I enjoyed reading your blog Lin. You have analysed the work culture in India so well. I agree the thoughts an Indian lady shared with you - "In India men are judged by their work and women by their relationship".
I used to work in India in Bangalore and now have been working in US for quite sometime. Even though you are away from home (India) and relations, but still I experience the bounds of relationship which sometimes hinder the productivity at work.
Reading this blog, ladies who are stuck in this cycle should realize the situation and concentrate more on their career to get ahead in professional life by learning to balance work and life.
Also, I appreciate your initiative or infact Accenture's initiative to give an opportunity for women to work from home and enhance their career further.
Swati
. . . . . . . . . . THAT'S MINE Posted on March 4, 2008
Part of my job as founding director of Accenture's R&D organization in India is to hire, train and hand over leadership to a local leader. As part of this handoff, I recently turned over the planning and execution of our group's quarterly off-site meetings to a very competent man who is gradually taking over leadership of the team.
The first big change he made was to move the two-day meeting to a truly remote location – not just to a hotel across town, but instead to a resort many hours away by bus, which meant everyone would have to be away from home on a Friday night. Now, I would have never planned something like this. But everyone else seemed to think this was totally acceptable, so I didn't say anything.
A bigger surprise came when we got to the resort and were checking into our rooms. I had very kindly been given a large suite for my exclusive use. But everyone else was paired up and sharing smaller rooms! Nervously, I watched for their reactions as roommate assignments were handed out with keys. I expected grumbling and perhaps even a small rebellion. But none came. In fact, it seemed like fun to them to find out whom they'd be staying with. They charged off happily in buddy pairs to install themselves, laughing and throwing arms around each other.
Witnessing that really got me wondering: Is my sense of personal space and control over my time and stuff really that different than theirs? Over the next few days I kept my eyes open to this and more examples emerged.
On my way to the office in Bangalore's famously heavy traffic the following Monday morning, my driver almost broadsided a small car, packed with four people. The other driver had run into the intersection we were crossing without slowing at all, which is unusually bad behavior – even by crazy Indian driving standards.
I noticed a big "L" sign inside the windshield and asked my driver, "Is that a driver's ed car?" He said, "Yes, madam. They take turns." I had no idea what he meant by this until I looked closely into the car and saw that it was not a family of four inside, but instead four people of about the same age. My driver said, "Fifteen minutes each for one hour." And then I got it – these people were sharing a driving lesson!
Later that day at the office I noticed that one of my co-workers was letting someone I didn't recognize into the office next to mine, which belongs to a German colleague. I asked him what was up, and he said that he didn't think the owner of the office would mind if we let a visitor use the space for the day. I asked him if he had permission from the owner in advance and he said, "No, but why would she care?" I explained that if it were me, I would definitely want to be asked before someone occupied my personal space. He seemed very surprised, in fact almost shocked, that I would feel this way.
I grew up having my own bedroom, a clearly planned schedule that included inviolable time to myself and a set of plainly labeled personal possessions. I'm starting to see that in comparison with my Indian colleagues, this has made me what you might call a selfish person.
But these are my attitudes: I definitely wanted to have that Friday night at home to myself. I would absolutely not have wanted to share a room with anyone at the off-site. Driving lessons should be all about me – not the other driving student who could, in fact, kill me. And my office is first and foremost mine – not a shared resource, unless I say it is.
What can I say? I'm very grateful to have had this time in India so that I could recognize these things about myself. But if you want to use my office, I still want you to ask in advance.
Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line.
. . . . . . . . . .
FROM THE LAP OF LUXURY
Part of life for me here in India is about coming to terms with luxury. There's something about living in a chaotic, polluted and often resource-starved world that makes me crave all things luxurious.
There are some obvious ways that this plays out for me. For instance, I often spend Saturday or Sunday afternoons at the Leela Palace, an incredibly beautiful hotel near the airport. It has nice restaurants, an upscale shopping mall (even by American standards), a coffee shop that actually sells decaf cappuccinos and a beauty salon whose staff have become some of my best friends here in India (even though they still insist on calling me "madam"). And though I never used to be an expensive jewelry kind of girl, I've made a few runs through Tiffany and David Yurman shops this year on my trips back to the U.S. These luxuries have helped me feel a little better in a way that's really hard to describe. Perhaps it brings me some kind of balance.
But I'm gradually realizing that the biggest luxury of all is one that I carry in my head: I am incredibly lucky and blessed to have grown up in a world where I felt I had real control over what happened to me. I grew up with everything I needed. There wasn't chaos in the streets, pollution controls were firmly in place, there were plenty of policemen, and people voted (and it had real effects). Because of all of that, I grew up believing I could have a direct influence on what happened around me.
This deep feeling and idea that I could control outcomes also came from how the educational system worked in the U.S. I was encouraged to speak up in class, to challenge my teachers and classmates from a data-driven and rational perspective when I disagreed. Being able to simply regurgitate content and answer exam questions was helpful, but it would never have been enough to make me a top student. I had to be original, think for myself and try hard to create new things. The mantra in graduate school and in the software startup companies I used to work for was always, "We're changing the world!"
I am often frustrated when people (customers, colleagues and service providers alike) stop and make excuses when their environments block them from reaching their goals. Driving to outcomes "no matter what" is not always a natural attitude in those around me here. One of the most senior leaders in my office often reminds people that "job not done plus an excuse does not equal job done."
I have learned to be patient and regularly remind myself that not everyone grew up in a world of luxury where things mostly went the way they wanted them to. Certainly I have had to accept that on a daily basis I just can't have what I want here. There's too much traffic; the office isn't open; the person I need to speak with isn't there; there's no lettuce left at the store – you name it, there are barriers to what I want.
No wonder my Indian colleagues are so laid back! It's a survival skill in an overcrowded world. And so I'm starting to understand that this deeply held belief I carry – that I can influence and change the world – is the biggest luxury of all.
Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line. COMMENTS This in an interesting blog. The outsider's perspective on what is an important but very foreign market is fascinating. The only negative I see is the name of the blog "Pink" is overused. E Hi Lin You doing great. Dropping a few opinion(s) for the para(s) of "From the lap of luxury": First para: Chaotic situation is very much a state of mind. From your previous post: "Looking back, I can see that any danger I experienced was only in my head." The same apply to chaos. Second para: Leela...has gone ahead of many other luxurious locale. There are many upcoming locales in Bangalore that go way ahead of many malls in different countries (even G7 nations). Third para: "real effects" part made me smile. You are comprehending the approach in India. Yet there are different factors involved. Fourth para: Consider this ... Are you changing the world or channeling the change in the world? Fifth para: FYI .. resistance occurs when the focus in on the path. Focus on the goal goes provides a different point of reference (unlike the one used when the focus is on "the path to achieve the goal") Sixth para: State of mind, prior to any event, plays a great role in the the event. Seventh para: Round the clock awareness is the biggest luxury of all. regards, Amitabh . . . . . . . . . .
CAN'T SAY NO
People in India are generally very agreeable. Most of the people I interact with really want to get along with me. There's always plenty of help available when I ask for directions, for instance. Or if I want to get something done at work, all I have to do is ask. I've found that people will agree to pretty much anything, as it's deeply ingrained in their culture to be kind and generous.
During my first few weeks in India, I was amazed that all of my colleagues were so helpful! I had arrived in India with the task of opening a new technology lab for Accenture. I had what seemed like a herculean challenge ahead of me: erect a new building, build out lab workspaces from scratch, hire a team of 40 talented R&D professionals, get projects going and put together a fancy formal launch … all in nine months. I was terrified! So you can imagine how happy I was when I got here and every phone call I made and every meeting I went to yielded so many helpful, positive responses.
After about six weeks, though, I looked around and realized that I wasn't making all that much progress. I didn't have committed space in the new buildings being constructed. I didn't have a single team member to work with. And I didn't see that situation changing anytime soon.
What was happening? Everyone I talked to was enthusiastic and helpful. Where was the disconnect?
I've since learned that there are different kinds of yes's in India – and that most of them mean "maybe, I'll think about it" at best, and often mean "no way, I'm never going to think about this again after this conversation." It's an art for a Westerner to distinguish between the shades of yes, because it's very subtle. But I've figured out a few ways to get calibrated that have helped me become much more effective.
For instance, when trying to organize, staff and launch a project, I will typically lead a meeting here exactly as I would in the U.S. – working with the team to lay out stages, milestones, resource allocations and risk analysis. But the difference is this: At the end of the meeting, when we're all sitting around looking over our plans and agreeing on the work and who's going to be responsible, I don't just say, "OK, thanks! Great work, team. Let's get cracking!" and pick up my notebook and leave the room with an inspirational surge of enthusiasm.
Instead, I settle down into my seat with a long, deeply patient breath and I say, "OK, thanks. Now, let's talk about what might prevent us from making this happen. Preethi [names changed to protect the innocent], you go first. What might get in your way? Things that are completely out of your control, that might prevent you from meeting your goals and deadlines here?"
You'd be amazed at what comes out after I ask this question! Nearly every time I get very detailed information about what the team already knows will prevent them from doing what we've agreed to do. Because my Indian colleagues are so deeply tuned to being agreeable, they don't want to say "No, we can't do that" during the planning process. So I've had to find a socially acceptable way for them to say "no" and give me the information I need – up front when it counts.
Having this kind of awareness about how my Indian colleagues think and talk about things has made a huge difference in my ability to both stay sane and get things done. Oh, and by the way, I no longer ask directions from strangers. You wouldn't believe the wild goose chases I used to go on! Imagine a world where it's more polite to make something up than to say you can't help. You get the picture. Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line. COMMENTS I thoroughly enjoyed Lin's blogs. It is always quite a thrilling experience to know how a foreigner views you, your country and your behavioural pattern and to get an opportunity to have a good laugh at yourself. The way she has discerned our shades of Yes's is a real revelation. I probably will now always take a pause before saying Yes, just to figure out what do I actually want to convey. Her strategy to start with the negatives I always find quite effective. All my students normally expect that my first question to all their project submissions will be: "Why the project will fail"? During my stay in the former Soviet Union where expecting a immediate NO for any request from the officials was the norm, we used to play games with my friends to convert a No to Yes with reasonably good amount of success.
Abroad often I meet two kinds of people: India-lover or India-baiter. Lin's analysis of her firsthand observations are refreshingly balanced. When we return to India from an overseas trip, always get overwhelmed by congestion, dirt, inefficiency and lack of all other taking-for-granted-attributes of the West. Actually my generation who grew up in an inefficient mixed economy, wanted to leave India primarily because of the efficiency, scientific progress and quality of life in the West. However, at a later stage in life I find many of my friends and family members every year desperately wait for their annual visits to friends and relatives they left behind long ago. This makes me feel that probably the utility value of India and the West for an Indian undergoes a qualitative change at different periods during his/her lifespan. If professionalism based on formal relationship is the prime attraction for a young person to migrate to the West because the efficiency and quality it brings to life, then the casual and unplanned life based on informal and social relationship is the main cause to long for India at a later stage in life. Lin has very intelligently observed the social attachment aspect. It is also true that such relationships at times seriously interfere with much needed business efficiency and 'civilized' norms (By the way, I recently went to attend a public lecture where the speaker had answered a call while addressing the audience!!!). While trying to emulate the productivity, punctuality, civic hygene and similar desired aspects of the developed world, we must not miss the positive sides of indianness, as some young professionals working abroad tend to do. Whether we want a highly efficient society where everything gets done as promised/expected and old parents are also sent to old-age homes in large numbers OR a less efficient system but with fewer number of old-age homes is obviously not a very easy choice to make. It is important to find the right mixture of both. A couple of years back during a visit to Nagoya city my Japanese interpreter was proudly informing me that Nagoya's GDP was greater than South Korea and Australia combined which inadvertently prompted me to murmur that probably many families in the city were leading the life of highly efficient robots. I could see the irritation on her face. I was sad that she couldn't notice my sadness and worry.
Coming to population, the situation in India seems to be not that bad as it appears. The inefficient and corrupt planning system has produced a skewed distribution where Indian cities are overpopulated and infrastructure crumbling. Density-of-population-wise (population per sq km) India (336) ranks lower than countries like Netherlands (392), Belgium (341), Japan (339), Singapore (23,660), Vatican (1,886).
Abhijit Ahmedabad, India.
I couldnt help but laugh (or is it descent to say smile) at the interpretations. There are couple of points though. I remember the saying "There are jokes and there are Jokes." The same applies to people in India. Having traveled across the 4 zones of India, I have begun to avoid branding a behavior as permanent. Many a times I remember "Preethi [names changed to protect the innocent]" who said, "Its situational." This article requires couple of iterative upgrades to brand it "A view about Indian behavior". I did experience similar situations; and the approach mentioned is very informative. Yet the phrase "World is your reflection" does have a stand. I have experienced diverse behavioral patterns across India. Lin - Thanks for the approach to handle such yes wrapped no. regards,
I just read Lin Chase's article on "Saying Yes in India". In the 3 minutes it took me to read this, it has literally changed so many of my future meeting. I am a business owner in Silicon Valley - and work with many technology firms. I also work wtih many engineers, many of which come from India. I have always very positive experiences and interactions, but now understand the barriers I've fallen prey to. I have a new tactic when attending meeting. I have never had the opportunity to visit India, but feel I just received a vital inside piece of information from a trusted friend. Loved it - cheers maureen . . . . . . . . . .
AIRPORTS IN INDIA The first time I arrived in India I was faced with an overwhelming crush of people as I left the airport. I remember feeling a mild sense of panic – as if I had to fight my way through just to get to a place that felt safe.
Looking back, I can see that any danger I experienced was only in my head. All those people meeting that late-night plane from Frankfurt were simply joyous relatives and dutiful servants greeting their much-loved family members and employers after a long journey.
Now I'm a pro. I pass calmly through most of the Indian airports regularly in the course of doing business – noticing entire families, from the smallest baby to the eldest dadi (granny), escorting their beloved traveler as close as they can to the secured entrance of the airport. And when I say close, I mean close! In most places the police have taken to erecting barriers at entry doors to create a little breathing room so they can perform their document checks in relative peace.
In the Bangalore airport, there's a glass wall next to the escalator that rises from the international check-in desks up to the immigration and customs departure area. Family members press themselves en masse into this space, hoping for a last glimpse of a loved one. Riding this escalator is always a strange experience for me – "No, I'm not who you're looking for – and yes, I too hope they have safe travels …."
The Mumbai (formerly Bombay) airport has been rebuilt and is absolutely beautiful. All the other major cities, including Delhi, still face big challenges in getting their infrastructure upgrades done. Brand-new international terminals in Hyderabad and Bangalore are long-promised but have yet to materialize. There isn't enough X-ray equipment, so security lines are often painfully long. Lounge facilities for business-class travelers are extremely limited. Even where they exist, they are typically small and sparse when compared with those in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Yet somehow, despite the fact that there's no good shopping, the crowds are unwieldy and the restrooms are unusable, I have grown to love these Indian airports. The story of life in India compared to life in the West is told so clearly: "We may not have the cleanest and shiniest buildings or the money to make this a luxurious experience. But we have each other, and we love each other, and we are here for each other in force." What more could I want from air travel than to be reminded what it's really all about? Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line. . . . . . . . . . . LOOK AT ALL THE PEOPLE Posted on November 30
Surfeit. I had to look it up. It means "an excessive amount." Yes, indeed. This surfeit of labor impacts everything I experience here.
It means that it was possible for my company to grow its India headcount from 200 to more than 37,000 in less than five years, now hiring almost 3,000 people a month on an ongoing basis.
It also means that it's possible to have a lot of help. Every little thing in life here takes much more time and energy than it does in the self-serve, automation-oriented West. Shopping means going to multiple stores and stalls scattered all over town. Driving and parking to get to the stores is a nightmare far beyond anything even a Manhattan resident can imagine. Plumbing, hot water and electricity are not to be taken for granted – and are not necessarily available during the 45 minutes I set aside for chores on a Thursday night after the kids are in bed. And the list goes on.
Of course, overcrowding and shortages exist because there are so many people here, and because an overburdened infrastructure is in need of a major revamp. But that kind of circular thinking doesn't get you anywhere – because the people are here, and that's the reality of the situation, and like everyone else you have to learn the art of patience and the need to be flexible.
Even with the surfeit of people, I've noticed there's a culture of respect and charity in India. Given the enormous disparity between rich and poor, people with means genuinely feel that it is their duty to provide and care for those less fortunate. My friend Susheel, for instance, recently took in an elderly man with fading eyesight who was wandering homeless. He gave him a job as a gatekeeper and a place to live and made arrangements for much-needed cataract surgery. The doctor who will do the surgery and provide the aftercare is Susheel's sister, Rekha. All of this was arranged easily and naturally, with very little discussion, as if it were the natural order of things.
I still get hot under the collar every now and then about how crowded India is. But then I remember that one way to look at it is that it's an amazing opportunity to give, share and experience a unique culture. I often remind myself how lucky we are in the West and that we shouldn't take anything for granted. Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line. COMMENTS It was really interesting to read Lin's blogs. I am basically Indian IT professional, currently posted in USA. Blog gave different and most important - true perspective of Indian IT culture which I became part of, without resisting much, especially communication methods. I really wonder, why we Indians, who adapt and follow US/UK or any another country's working culture easily when working in that country, do not try to get best practices back to India. I wonder when and if work environments will truely become global in near future! - Pallavi I really enjoyed reading Lin Chase's article about life and business in India. I've never relocated out of the US for business and found it quite interesting to hear about how things are done in a place such as India, where we know there's a lot of people and a lot of fast moving industry happening out there. It will be interesting to see if any of the "Western Ways" will take root in India over time, or if they will stay rooted in how they perform business. It also made me appreciate some things I take for granted here in the US. Jackie
I lived in India for 3 years. It is great to read Lin's blog. She is right, as you embrace the contradictions sense emerges and in India co-operation and relationship building is vital. In UK and USA we adopt a much more individualisitic approach to our working lives. In India all of life seems to centre around the collective-community really does matter. I adopted a cafeteria approach to my wonderful time in India, picking the things I loved and leaving aside the things I found difficult. It worked and I left with amazing memories of a country full of dynamism, kindness, colour and talent...and a smattering of the frustration sometimes too! Looking forward to reading more Helene Kydd The blog on India, written by Lin Chase is terrific. Similar to Lin, I used to live and work in India and found that Lin captured the essence of India marvelously! It's true that when things are sometimes inconvenient, we forget to see the beauty that both the East and the West have to offer. Thanks, Lin for a kind reminder. Carol . . . . . . . . . .
EXCUSE ME WHILE I TAKE THIS CALL Lin Chase here, writing from my office in Bangalore. This is my first PINK blog from India, where I've been living and working for almost a year and a half. It's been a wild ride so far, and I'm sure it will only get more interesting as time goes on. So I look forward to sharing my experiences with you! I've been in the office since 9:30 a.m. this morning, in meetings with various people on my team and up the management chain. Everyone I've interacted with so far is Indian. Later on, starting around 6:30 p.m., that will change – when phone calls with other parts of the world begin. This is pretty typical – Indians in the morning and Westerners in the evening. Most of my interactions with my Indian co-workers are face-to-face or by telephone. I don't use e-mail or IM very often. Rather, people here really love to use cell phones. And they don't use voice mail. They value and rely upon live, real-time contact to get things done. I have colleagues who have hundreds of phone numbers stored in their cell phones, and they use them all regularly. And unlike in the U.S., where it's a major faux pas to take a call in a meeting, Indians rarely turn off their cell phones when engaged in another conversation. Instead there's a lot of, "I'm in a meeting; I'll call you in 10 minutes." Unfortunately, a lot that gets promised doesn't materialize quickly. I think this happens partly because people are very busy and partly because they tend to expect that I will revisit something if it's really important. It usually takes multiple follow-up conversations to really get something going. This is because relationship-building, networking and being agreeable (even if you don't agree) are extremely important here. I've had to adopt a "relationship-first" attitude in order to make progress in my work. As you might imagine, this has been a big adjustment for me. I came from a world where e-mail, IM and voice mail were critical communication methods, and where agreed-upon tasks and deadlines required little follow-up. Business culture in the U.S. is a lot more "plug and play" than it is in India. That is, people who don't know each other can come together quickly to get things done. But now I'm getting used to the Indian way, and I'm starting to see the beauty of the system. The wide network that results from all the phone calls going back and forth is very powerful. More often than not, when one of my conversations is interrupted because a colleague answers his mobile phone, the call is productive for the business. In harmony with the local business culture, I have disabled my voice mail and become one of those annoying people who will take a call when you're talking to me – but only if the phone number on caller ID starts with "+91," of course. :) My growing understanding of what my Indian colleagues need and expect in interactions has helped us shape technology strategy for multishore collaboration both for ourselves and our clients. I'll write about that more next time. Until then, thanks for welcoming me to the site. And please do post comments – I'd love to hear from you! Lin Chase is director of the new Accenture Technology Labs in Bangalore, India. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "India" in the subject line. COMMENTS I am pleased to find another expat who's working abroad and reading Pink. I've been living in Greater China for the past 11 years. I now live in Hong Kong in a regional role. I've been to India quite a bit and enjoyed reading Lin's perspective. After reading this article, I was so astonished by the way the Indian communicating. In China, people often keep their cell phones off, or on the quiet status. It's a big faux pas to take a call in a meeting. Besides, I was astonished either why people In Accenture India don't work in a way like other people work in foreign country. It seemed that they just like to work in the way they preferred. But in my country, people who work in a foreign company often work under the way of their foreign colleagues. |
|
