18 Mar 2018

Cross culture is the unspoken issue in many a  global collaboration. When global conglomerates seek out Indian talent to work with them, a lot of attention is focused on quality of work and cost arbitrage. But there is one important aspect that gets left out. Here's an example. A large Dutch financial organisation is seeking to outsource its IT business to a large multinational ...

16 Mar 2018

Cross-cultural communication or the lack of it could well be the missing ingredient in a ‘dream team’ you set up.   The truth is – the world is not as flat as it seems. And while a President somewhere is busy trying to build a wall, what he does not realise is that there is really no need to do so. A wall already exists. Everywhere in fact. Especially when two cultures come together. Wha...

16 Mar 2018

Cross-cultural communication can make friends. And it can make... well...enemies. Or not friends. Here's one memorable conversation I've had with someone. This young man was an Indian working in Germany. He had been there for almost 8 years when I met him to do a cross culture workshop. In an informal dinner he talked about his challenges studying, living and working there. While h...

14 Mar 2018

Cross cultural communication is one of the biggest disasters that technology has enabled. Seriously. Picture this scenario (quite a common one at that) Bob is running a very important project out of Texas, USA. His counterpart in India, Raj is now on a call with him. Here's a conversation that takes place between two people who speak English but whose communication styles are diffe...

13 Mar 2018

I walk into a room that is seems to be partitioned.  Not in the real sense of the word, but you-can-cut-the-air-with-a-knife kind of feeling. There are two factions here, although neither will ever mention that. That would be ‘politically incorrect’, wouldn't it. It’s always Us vs Them. It’s the In-group vs Out-group. It’s your country vs mine (and guess which one is better!) And...

02 Mar 2018

You there! Yes you! With colour in one hand and the water balloon in the other. You're right here in India aren't you? Well, you might as well be in Germany (See Link Below). Or Ireland. Or Australia. Because that's where increasingly Holi is being celebrated. In its true spirit. In all the glory of its colour. (And in probably a safer way.) But I'm jumping the (water) g...

27 Feb 2018

The blue moon is back tonight. Don't miss out on it. Thought I'd share my earlier post again today and suggest you share it too! I don't have stunning pictures of the phenomenal lunar eclipse that occurred in January (the one above is from the Google Gods). But I did see every square byte of internet space crammed with breathtakingly beautiful pictures of the celestial phenomenon. Now...

29 Sep 2017

And now to the final day and the final colour. A colour that's rich not only in its significance but also in history and legend. Here's a bit of background on the colour purple. Purple in the olden days was a difficult dye to come by, making it the colour only the very wealthy could afford. Here's an extract from an article from The Guardian (Link below) Tyrian purple was made from t...

28 Sep 2017

So much of Pink is considered a colour for girls. But here's what Pink actually stands for. Here's what I wrote in an earlier post on this colour Remember the day you wore a pink dress and felt wonderful? Felt supremely confident yet compassionate?  And felt like you could…well.. rule the world?  Wasn’t it the loveliest of pinks? Weren’t you quite the royalty? Get ...

27 Sep 2017

For everything that blue represents, it's the most used colour for logos globally. BLUE is Calm and Logical. Stands for : Serenity - Stability - Peacefulness. Blue is associated with the sky and the ocean, which both evoke feelings of tranquility and security. It has also been proven that people are the most productive when they work in blue rooms. Blue is also known to curb appetites,...