I crossed the street today.

If you’ve never been to Hanoi, Vietnam, you might not know what a feat that is and why I would feel so proud about being able to accomplish it.

Let me set the stage. In a city of about 4 million, there are very, very few traffic lights or stop signs. In fact, they seem non-existent. That used to work when the traffic consisted of bicycles, but picture the streets of today, clogged with an endlessly moving stream of bicycles, motor scooters and cars, and you get an idea of the difficulty of crossing the street. It looks impossible.

I’m visiting my friend who has been an expat here for almost five years. (She’s a photojournalist and interculturalist; her husband is a labor relations mediator helping the Vietnamese move into a market economy.) They talk about the traffic and crossing the street as a cultural experience.

Hanoi is a city galloping into the modern world. Your first impression as you drive into the city from the airport is the traffic! All the vehicles honk at each other–all the time–and it doesn’t make any sense. That first trip into the city is a hair-raising experience that makes you want to close your eyes and pray. But, actually, as it turns out, there is a rhythm and flow to the traffic. Like other cultural phenomena, you just need to understand it to be able to see the logic that exists under the surface.

The Vietnamese are Buddhists, and as such, seek harmony. My expat friend, Brenda, explains that they are “yielding” rather than competitive in their driving habits, and that the honking is simply to alert others to their presence.

So, crossing the street amid the never-ending flow? I was assured that if I just kept my eyes open to the traffic and made eye contact with the drivers and kept moving slowly and predictably, the traffic would just open and go around me!

I took a deep breath and waded in. We held hands and just began to walk. “Don’t freeze,” she said to me, “just keep moving slowly.” And, sure enough, we crossed the street. We did it again and again and the cars and bikes always coursed around us, quite politely, like moving through a school of fish. Indeed, they are not agitated or intense; the feeling is very orderly, in a strange way. But, you cannot dart across the street, nor can you fight it. You have to have a guide on your first cultural crossing.

Now, my next task? To do it by myself!

I was born in Vienna and every time I come back here I seem to find someone to mention that to. As an American, I kind of expect to have people ask me where, in what part of the city, how long ago did I leave, and questions like that. Somehow that never happens and all I get is a funny look from the Viennese that I mention it to.

So it suddenly dawned on me that people are embarrassed to ask what is perceived as personal information. As a matter of fact, they are even embarrassed to hear me telling them what they feel is none of their business and certainly not a conversation they’re anxious to pursue.

I, of all people should be aware of the strong sense of privacy that these people feel. I’m struck every time I’m here at the thickness of the doors, for example, and how even in offices doors are often kept closed. People don’t ask questions that could be perceived as personal, which even includes things about family and what you did last weekend. These subjects are reserved for conversations with friends, not strangers.

-Mike

“Welcome to Asia” I said to my friend as we walked through the corridor leading to the Cathay Pacific lounge, and we were still at LAX!

I’ve lived in Asia for a couple of years, and have had close lifetime family relationships with Japanese and Koreans, and yet I am continually struck by the way the ambiance changes — almost the air you breathe — when you simply open a door and enter an enclave that is decidedly Asian — no matter what continent or country you’re in.

It immediately made me think about the simple acts we perform every day. Anyone who’s read the most basic etiquette books on traveling or doing business in this part of the world knows about handing and accepting a business card with two hands. But, do many of us wonder why? We just know it’s polite, and we do it in return.


That simple act of using both hands — handing me my menu on the plane, giving me my landing cards, and offering my coffee on the tray — signified so much to me. I think it symbolizes the effort, the intention of respect, the importance of your connection and relationship to that person.

There’s a small, but extraordinarily important quality to those acts. Somehow, it conveys the idea that the giver is doing nothing else at the moment but relating to you. And, it makes me think of the enormous importance of gift-giving in Japan, and the way in which families and friends relate to countrymen when they leave their home countries and come to the United States. From the tiniest act to the most grand, relationships with each other is what it is all about.

- Charlene

One of Vienna’s most revered artists is Gustav Klimt, and on this visit the Belvedere palace museum here had an exhibition of his works. The exhibition displayed one of his most famous works, “the Kiss” –

(click for larger image)

The Museum tour on tape pointed out how the robe covering the lovers shows very hard-edged geometric shapes over the man and softer round and oval shapes on the cover over the woman. Then the part that covers them both is full of a mixture of all kinds of shapes, showing the beautiful pattern of diversity and how much richer design can be when it is accepting of all shapes and sizes.

I thought it was a pretty profound statement for an artist that died in 1918.

- Mike

Why a Blog About Culture?

If there is a difference between the skills required to be successful in business between this decade and last, it is our ability to harness the intellectual contribution of the people we work with. In today’s world, we’re always working with people from around the world–figuratively or literally. They’re either sitting next to us or at the other end of a virtual meeting.

Eliminating barriers to communication that enable us to understand and appreciate what people are saying and what they need from us in order to maximize their contribution is a key skill of contemporary managers. All of us are made richer by hearing and learning about each other’s experiences–what works interculturally and what doesn’t. This blog is dedicated to sharing experiences, insights and opinions about global cultural diversity.

Over the next few weeks, we will be traveling through Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and we think this is the opportune time to begin sharing our experiences and asking you to share yours.

-Charlene Solomon
EVP, RW³