Cultural Insights on Workplace Dynamics

Back then, we had this saying,

if there was an Indian person on the team,

everyone else could only compete

to be second in the boss’s eyes.

I really learned a lot

from Indian people. For example, in a meeting,

the manager would give

a very long speech.

When the manager holds meetings every day,

the meeting itself can be somewhat

tiresome,

and not very substantive.

When the meeting ends,

we feel like we’ve either heard a lot of the

manager’s emotions,

like how the department’s work lately

hasn’t been proactive, isn’t efficient,

or hasn’t produced good results,

and the boss is very angry, and so on.

Then, when the meeting is over,

you feel like there’s nothing concrete left for you to do.

Within less than an hour or two,

the Indian person would jump right in,

send an email to all his peers,

with the boss copied.

The email would go something like this:

Uh, everyone,

today we had this kind of meeting.

The significance of this meeting

to our work at this moment is truly

monumental. It allows us

to consider whether our output

for the company offers the best value,

and to reflect on whether,

when doing routine tasks,

we keep the big picture in mind,

whether it enables us at this moment

to consider whether what we do is

closely aligned with the company’s

strategic goals for this year, and whether we are moving toward them.

He’d throw out all this kind of language,

using parallel phrasing, and every

section would stand on its own

and have real substance.

After saying all that, he’d say, “We’re very grateful to the manager

for holding such an important meeting

at such a critical time,

allowing everyone

to feel this sense of alertness.”

Then he’d summarize the three

ideas, five proposals,

and 12 steps the boss mentioned in the meeting. Bam.

I suggest that this afternoon,

all of us peers immediately

hold a brainstorming session

to divide up the items

I just listed.

Everyone is welcome

to add to what I said above.

If no one has any questions,

then at whatever time this afternoon,

if everyone is okay with it,

I’ll send out the invitation,

and then sign his name.

You know, the first time I saw

this kind of email,

I felt completely blown to pieces.

There may also be something about how Asians

in globalized companies are

What puts us at a disadvantage is our

ability to break through and express ourselves. We're easily shy,

and embarrassed.

These are all things that I have

seen vividly in the workplace, all real-life cases.

But what does this have to do

with? Perhaps if we take a look,

we will find that age and length of employment

are not all that different either.

Of course, I do not want to attribute it to

the fact that Indians just know this

set of tricks, that this is what foreigners do,

not something I would do.

But what I am saying is, in this

work, what I saw was his proactivity,

and what I learned from it.

Can I catch up with him?

At that time, I definitely could not.

But then, in turn,

he had a motivating effect on me,

and was someone I could learn from.

Then perhaps I spend a few months

trying to follow in his

footsteps, right?

But you need to know, someone who can give a cup

of water actually has a

whole bucket of water, and more. So when I learned

this skill,

he would bring out actions at an even, even, even higher level.

So when you say

proactivity, if I had to use a

um, group

to rank them,

Indians would definitely come first.