Organization: Efficient or Chaotic?
If you’ve traveled around the world, you may have noticed that the approach to organization varies widely. From your own perspective, these approaches may seem more or less organized in comparison to your own. Many times, the way things are organized in other cultures can be a distraction, since it may be hard for you to understand why, for instance, a complex bureaucracy is needed to send a package overseas, or why people resist forming into a single-file line to pay at a store. The following will help you decipher why organizational systems vary across cultures.
Above: an image by Yang Liu. To the left is the artist’s perception of how people wait in line in Germany, and to the right is the same procedure in China.
Oftentimes, ideas on organization are linked to the perception of time. In countries where time is thought to be outside an individual’s control, as in India, organization is prone to be loose and flexible, allowing for change if unexpected challenges arise along the way. Strict adherence to any formal process is not a requirement to achieve a goal.
Conversely, the attitude towards organization in countries, e.g. Switzerland, where time is highly controlled, the approach to any action is usually preconceived and quite rigidly structured. Falling outside this structure would be detrimental to the process, it would reduce your productivity and it would be seen as a lack of organization.
In either situation, it is crucial to understand that following a protocol or adhering to an outlined guide may or may not be required of you. Knowing this in advance will reduce the frustration involved in cross-cultural misunderstanding.
Going about your daily life, it’s necessary to understand the root and cause of different organizational systems in different countries. These systems are inherent to the rules and flow of traffic, parking, walking or bicycling, sanitation and hygiene. It’s also important to keep in mind the way people tend to react to hurdles, and whether a hurdle in your mind is the same in the minds of others, as these behaviors are cultural. For example, in developing countries, you’ll probably be the only person distracted by the presence of livestock in areas where humans dwell and work. In parts of the US, you might be surprised to learn that you’re legally obliged to cross the street only when a signaling machine tells you to.
Without foresight, it’s very easy to be dismissive, distracted or angry whilst visiting, working or living in other cultures. Overall, it can obstruct your understanding of others. How can you learn to be successful in these situations? The quickest route to adaptation is to confront such differences, to understand where they come from and to accept them as culturally-rooted behaviors that are deeply embedded in societies. If you’re able to truly acquiesce with the reality of the culture you’re in, you’ll soon overcome the distractions and hurdles to maintaining a familiar level of organization, allowing you to see how to work your way through a starkly different environment. Equipped with an expansive global mindset, you can tune your thinking to fit the location and the culture, which will lead to more successful planning and results.
