Is Everything Social and Not Technical?

This was the subject of are recent post. Before re-reading this I had been thinking the thought was everything cultural and not technical. I think the danger of this thought in a Globally Competitive world is that we see cultural differences when we shouldn’t. Two recent stories illustrate why I think this way:

• My company had a previous outsourcing agreement with a consulting agreement in India. More recently opened up an office in the Philippines and began hiring full time employees. When speaking of the progress on this business development, my Vice-President, who is French, fielded a question from a fellow employee who is of Indian descent.

“Why are we moving away from India and towards the Philippines?”

“I would expect this question, coming from someone from India”

“I’m not Indian, I’m American”

This was met with subdued applause.

• When meeting with some of my colleagues in Sweden, they were somewhat down about some discussions that had with my group in St. Paul. A discussion had gotten derailed on a single word. Expressing to me that they felt this was due to their poor English skills. My response was that this individual could get derailed on a single word, regardless of nationality or language skills.

My recent thinking be sensitive to social and cultural issues, but don’t assume that it explains everything.

Nothing to with Outsourcing -- Again

Another personal experience that had me laughing very hard recently -- my son had two loose teeth that were scheduled to be pulled. He had not lost any yet so he was excited about the Tooth Fairy coming and leaving him his first financial reward. That combined with his desire to avoid getting them pulled by the dentist had him working quite diligently to remove them himself. The fist one got pulled out quite late at night. My comment was, “I guess the Tooth Fairy has already made the schedule for the night.” So he waited for the second night. He stayed awake late that night and rose before I did in the morning. He realized that the tooth fairy had not arrived. He left his tooth on a chair in the family room. My wife and left the money on the chair with some explanation about why the tooth fairy did that.

That same day he worked hard on the second tooth and got it out. After the rough experience the previous two nights, I made sure I put the quarters under his pillow after he fell asleep. He awoke to the find the money while I was in my shower. When I came downstairs, he rather excited said, “Dad, I got a Crown”. Realizing that one of the coins was not a quarter but a single Swedish Crowns from my trip to Sweden, my wife and I could barely contain our laughter. As I walked out the down, my wife and I realized that the Tooth Fairy was in line for a Performance Improvement Plan!