Krishnamurti - being what we are

"Don't you see, it is really an extraordinary thing that you are so afraid to be what you are.; because beauty lies in being what you are. If you see that you are lazy, that you are stupid and if you understand laziness and come face to face with stupidity without trying to change it into something else, then in that state you will find there is an enormous release, there is great beauty, there is great intelligence."

Think on these things  - chapter: The attentive mind
In response to the question: "Why do I hate myself when I don't study"

Cross-cultural awareness, competences and other related jargon. Training ideaS

I am reproducing an interesting article about cross cultural training... It presents simply what is quite simple. Which is 1000 times better than what most so called expert do: making something simple complicate and trying to make sound simple the resulting complexities. None of this here. Thanks to the author whose website is mentioned below:

Terminology within the cross cultural communications field can sometimes be baffling to those reading the literature, websites or promotional material. Many ask what is the difference between 'intercultural' and 'cross cultural'? What is 'cross cultural awareness' as opposed to 'cross cultural knowledge' or, are 'cultural sensitivity' and 'cultural competence' the same thing?

 With a view to clarifying some of the above mentioned terminology, this article will examine terms used in relation to building cross cultural understanding within the business world. Cross cultural understanding simply refers to the basic ability of people within business to recognise, interpret and correctly react to people, incidences or situations that are open to misunderstanding due to cultural differences.

The fundamental intention of cross cultural training is to equip the learner(s) with the appropriate skills to attain cross cultural understanding. Once the foundations of cross cultural understanding have been laid, the learner(s), either through continued training or experiences within the workplace, gradually attains a more acute appreciation of cultural differences.

The different types of appreciation are cross cultural knowledge, cross cultural awareness, cross cultural sensitivity and cross cultural competence. Although all the terms may appear similar in meaning, subtle differences exist between them. 'Cross Cultural Knowledge' is critical to basic cross cultural understanding. Without it cross cultural appreciation cannot take place. It refers to a surface level familiarization with cultural characteristics, values, beliefs and behaviours. 'Cross Cultural Awareness' develops from cross cultural knowledge as the learner understands and appreciates a culture internally. This may also be accompanied by changes within the learner's behaviour and attitudes such as a greater flexibility and openness. 'Cross Cultural Sensitivity' is a natural by-product of awareness and refers to an ability to read into situations, contexts and behaviours that are culturally rooted and be able to react to them appropriately. An suitable response necessitates that the actor no longer carries his/her own culturally determined interpretations of the situation or behaviour (i.e. good/bad, right/wrong) which can only be nurtured through both cross cultural knowledge and awareness.

'Cross Cultural Competence' is and should be the aim of all those dealing with multicultural clients, customers or colleagues. 'Competence' is the final stage of cross cultural understanding and signifies the actor's ability to work effectively across cultures. Cross cultural competency is beyond knowledge, awareness and sensitivity in that it is the digestion, integration and transformation of all the skills and information acquired through them, applied to create cultural synergy within the workplace.

Thanks for this valuable article taken from the following web http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/cross-cultural-understanding.html

What seems to me is the importance of appreciation. The practice of appreciation is what will help seeing the intention beyond and connecting with what is really good in every thing. Culture is often the make up for wanting to do things properly. Because of the general positive inclination of any culture, this very trait is often used and abused by groups of people wanting to draw power and benefit from society - either by their position or by their business or practices. That is how culture or cultural features become degenerative - ie they lose their meaning and become mere instrument of power or control -. This is obvious in some rituals - often religious rituals whose meaning is lost - or some table manners - where to put our hands or forks or knife, whether using hands or not etc... -

A deep training directions would be look very seriously for as many reasons as possible why a behavior A is good and  why its opposite A- is also good. Practicing that. Then practicing that on our personal top 10 of what we believe is right - right in business relationship - right at home - right with children - right with friend.

Then the same should be practice with someone else list. Before that, the "someone else" list should be "de-personnalised" ie it should be re-written by someone else (who would read it though) and following that, it should be placed in a box for someone else to pick it up randomely.

This technique would enhance the practice of appreciation, detachment, distinguishing between person and the behaviour. It would help de-personnalise issues while bringing to light the purest intentions (the top ten of what is right). It could create an "arch" of understanding - well above persons, ego and behaviours - under the light of pure intention and universal values, where we all stand equal and united.

Quite a high aim and surely an interesting training session.

Open space facilitation

Great, authentic sharing about practical 'Open space' facilitation:

Open space technology is an ‘innovation’ that has been created to provide a forum for development stakeholder interaction. It works by breaking away from the stilted western influenced ‘one-man shows’ where an ‘expert’ occupies a position of power, usually on a raised dais with, the others sitting in a square or semi triangular shape below him. In open space there is no boss and the no real rules of interaction. The format is meant to ensure everyone is able to interact with everyone else.

First the people sit in a circle.

There is a minimum of ceremony. The gathered people start by identifying the key issues that have brought them together. If several issues are identified then the circle will break into several smaller circles to discuss each of them and suggest solutions. A closing circle will later be created to bring all this input together. Everybody who wants to speak has a chance to do so. There are no titles here, no affectations and no honorifics. The cleaner sits shoulder to shoulder with the manager and the driver surprises everybody by her well reasoned and animated contributions. It is amazing how much openness and trust this simple but powerful tool brings.

Open space technology was created by Owen Hanson in the 1980’s as a methodology for conducting meetings. He acknowledges that, in developing the methodology, he was influenced by ‘his experience of life in an African village.’

http://nkahihu.wordpress.com/

Learning and facilitation. How to learn? How to teach? How to reach

It seems to me: learning how to teach is learning how to reach

I am impressed by the following metaphor when it comes to learning, reaching and reaching out: infusion / waiving. In future posts, I will elaborate on the analogies between these seemingly very different fields.

Infusion:
how to let a subject infuse? penetration, penetrability, diffusion, time and space of contact, mixing without disturbing, blending, getting the flavor, getting the essence...
Pictures below can help relate and bring us a little step further in elaborating a clearer notion of an "infusion-based learning and facilitation"



 


Waiving

The long process(es) - creating thread, dying, weaving, the shuttle, going up and down, the science involved (it is very exact in a way - it goes thread by thread - and if not exact, it will look awkward) , the long, gruesome, time-consuming practice of it and how it is learnt (passed on from mother to daughter - as some form of apprenticeship - and how it often reflects on someone's maturity level or level of preparedness - like in the case of a young bride who is completing her own work or tapestry, or as a matter of fact it could be batik though batik is not about weaving).

Buckminster Fuller in the Critical Path is making explicit allusion to weaving patterns of South East Asia and those weaving patterns that use tri-angular weaving (three points of contacts which make the pattern almost indestructible).

     



 

Cross-Cultural Managment - Various concept and approaches

Cross-Cultural Management - Various concept and approaches
As part of our usual methodology, we explore the immediately-available material on the subject.
We try to cross a few approaches, from which we get a bigger picture understanding
We are then able to articulate what we believe is key to our own approach - namely the dimension of appreciation inter-linked with the various dimensions of communication especially listening, silence and questioning.

Below are some parts of the first step: understanding various approaches...

Cross-Cultural Management:A Knowledge Management Perspective Description Cross-Cultural Management, A Knowledge Management Perspective forges a break with the concept of culture that has dominated management thinking, education and research for several decades. Culture rather than being presented as a source of difference and antagonism, is presented as a form of organisational knowledge that can be converted into a resource for underpinning core competence. "If books are to be judged on the effect that they have on the thought processes of the reader Professor Holden's book is outstanding.  This book will provide both a valuable theoretical underpinning and many insights that will move the study of cross-cultural management and knowledge management into the age of the knowledge economy - an achievement that will pay dividends both to researchers and practitioners for many years to come." Prof Anthony Wensley, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Toronto

Features Criticises cross-cultural management studies for being dependent on traditional concepts of culture that are too detached from the everyday cross-cultural aspects of knowledge sharing, networking and organisational learning in the global economy. Proposes a new notion of culture based on the modern corporate world in which undergraduates, postgraduates and managers will work. Suggests new boundaries and directions for cross-cultural management education and research.

Table of Contents PART 1: ANTHROPOLOGY S AWKWARD LEGACY TO THE MANAGER'S WORLD  1. Culture: the specious scapegoat  2. The anthropologist's legacy  3. Some consequences of culture's consequences  4. Navigating knowledge management  5. Towards culture as an object of knowledge management PART 2: CASE STUDIES: MAKING SENSE OF CULTURE FROM A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE  6.  Case study 1: Novo Nordisk: cross-cultural management as facilitation  7.  Case study 2: Matsushita Electric: A learning history  8.  Case study 3: LEGO: transferring identity knowledge  9.  Case study 4: Sulzer Infra: creating one winning team PART III: REDESIGNING CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AS A KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN  11. Language: management's lost continent  12. The cross-cultural management and the translation of common knowledge  13. Cross-cultural management: synergies for participative competence Glossary

Back Cover "If books are to be judged on the effect that they have on the thought processes of the reader Professor Holden's book is outstanding.  This book will provide both a valuable theoretical underpinning and many insights that will move the study of cross-cultural management and knowledge management into the age of the knowledge economy - an achievement that will pay dividends both to researchers and practitioners for many years to come." Prof Anthony Wensley, Associate Professor of Information Systems, University of Toronto "By positing that cross-cultural management is a form of knowledge management, he broadens and reinvigorates the entire subject area at a stroke.  Researchers, practitioners and consultants are supplied with an array of new concepts, models and insights and , to some extent, a new language - all of which have been long overdue.  For the foreseeable future this will be the leading book on cross-cultural management." Prof Dr Gerhard Fink, Director of the REsearch Institute for European Affairs and Chairman of the Faculty of Business at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration "Holden's book is a milestone in the development of cross-cultural management.  It represents a conceptual shift in the field, one that many have been waiting for, redesigning cross-cultural management as a knowledge domain.  These new concepts will become references for practitioners as well as for researchers and trainers.  In the academic world,  where cross-cultural management is more and more to the forefront, no-one can afford not to have read this book." Marie-Therese Claes, ICHEC Brussels, Business School and Catholic University of Louvain Cross-Cultural Management: A Knowledge Management Perspective forges a break with the concept of culture that has dominated management thinking, education, and research for several decades. Culture, rather than being presented as a source of difference and antagonism, is presented as a form of organisational knowledge that can be converted into a resource for underpinning core competence.  FEATURES and BENEFITS:         " Focuses on 'cross-cultural interdependence' rather than tradititional views of comparative differences and similarities between cultures thereby suggesting new boundaries and directions for cross-cultural management education, research and practice for students and managers for years to come. Key to the text are four case studies of global companies which analyse rarely observed, yet everyday issues for organisations within the global economy- cross-cultural communication behaviour. " Supplies models and a glossary of terms to clarify the new concepts which ally cross-cultural management with knowledge management, providing an accessible, learning-oriented student and manager resource. Nigel Holden holds visiting professorships at the Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration, the Leiden University School of Management and the Kassel International Management School. He was formerly Professor of Cross-Cultural Management at Copenhagen Business School.  He has wide international experience as a management educator, researcher and consultant and has been a keynote speaker at academic and business conferences in the UK, various EU countries and the USA. http://www.pearson.ch/1471/9780273646808/Cross-Cultural-Management-A.aspx

George Smoot on the design of the universe | Video on TED.com

It was said that Buckminster Fuller understood the architecture of the Universe. I take it to mean that he had a perception of how Universe of Nature organized itself, and continues to organize itself. And here is a guy sharing about the design of the Universe. This should be interesting, I haven't not watched this yet while posting this blog

George Smoot on the design of the universe Video on TED.com

Being childlike - a life of promise and efforts - Learning with Joy

30 April 2009 and 10 May 2009

An important part of myself has been, ... an important part of my life has been to keep in touch with some precious childhood memories.

These are not really the usual childhood memories, like Christmas, parties, holidays or even people. These are more like impressions - lasting impressions. My problem has been to be able to express them. Even understanding, or 'locating'  them has proven difficult. In fact precisely because of this difficulty to understand or to locate them, the ability to express them and share them has been greatly impaired... like limited.

Today, I think that a conscious decision, an important, deep decision that somehow I - or something in me - took, was to remain faithful to these impressions and somehow bring them to life.

***********

A lot of my professional, entrepreneurial life has been determined - like led - by that desire and that 'implicit' decision. In fact - it seems - my professional life became about that:

              bringing to life and getting in touch with strong, lasting child / child-like feelings    

Only recently - I would say these days, do I start to learn more and approach these feelings closer again.

What are they? Whom are there? The taste of the mango lies in tasting it - words are at loss. Only today is society more willing to invest and investigate into these... Early childhood development, children feelings and intelligences are being studied with a more open mind.

In this 'conflict' or 'tension' between the growing human being and the child, it is often the growing human - more specifically the adult - already grown up - that will look at and judge the child, it is often the growing human - more specifically the adult - already grown up, that will look at and judge the child.

Shall the adults' views prevail over any other? In fact are there been even any others? Rare are the instances in our modern world. The Little Prince stands out in his confinement and solitude. Far away in history are the stories or the representation of child-king, in ancient Egypt or during the Khmer kingdom.

In a world designed for the adults to WIN, shall we be surprised that little be made to uncover what is it that the child has and the adult not?

I am not saying that children should win nor that education is a fallacy and responsibility a mirage. I am giving my best at becoming an educated, responsible adult. But where so many of us, so often fail, isn't it worth to turn back and look at the whole equation differently?

1- What can we learn from children? Is there anything that adult can learn from children?
2- When it seems that from birth the fragile infant 's life is suspended into the adults' hands - primarily the mother and father - is that that children can only take and adults give?
3-Besides love and gratitude is there anything that we adult can receive and our children give?
4- If one has to admit that yes adults will have to win, does that mean a contrario that children must lose? Above the all too common scheme of domination, dependence, sometimes contend and humiliation or their reverse - adoration and glorification - is there another path of win-win openness, education and inclusion?

In view of the multiple talents deployed by our children, the world of adults is put into question...

a/ Yes - no 5 years old created the atomic bomb or the space shuttle or the compass or the chopsticks... Nonetheless if a comparison is possible by any standards the field of possibility for each man seem to shrink with years for most.

The smart student becomes a great professor, the dynamic teenager becomes a successful businessman, the playful boy a talented architect etc... a great violinist, scientist, sportsman...at most. And for most of us, an employee, a staff, a clerk, a worker, a farmer, ...There is absolutely no shame in this status, positions, occupations... And for sure they can be the subject of much pride and accomplishment.

Just that the spectrum of resources being used, the intensity of efforts and the depth of progress being made seem to pale when you compare how much is between achieved between 0 to 6 and 7 to 77. Isn't it? Maybe it could become the subject for new researches for people who have the time and money...

b/ Another reason why we question the world of adults and its traditionally accepted dominance over the world of children is the blatant failure - and irresponsibility - the lies, the perversity that seem to pervade every level and every aspects of the adult's society

Since my daughter was born, besides becoming - maybe - a subject of pride for a loving father - she also become a subject of wonder, such wonder as I encounter with any infant: I cannot help but wondering at the great efforts - inhuman for us adults it seems - over-human efforts my daughetr is making to ajust herself to her new environment and world: conquering, managing space, time, langage, food, objects.... She goes through all those previously unknown dimensions at high speed, overcoming all obstacles one after the other.


Besides signals of pain and absolute needs, she is only smile and laugh. There is an immense sense of enterprise. What drives her?