An 'International' workshop

I attended an interesting workshop in my company this week which involves participants from Germany, U.S., England and Malaysia.

I was assigned to attend mainly to contribute ideas for improvement and problem solving. We had 2 days of problem and information sharing and the 3rd day the group sat down to brainstorm for ideas and solutions.

I spent most of my time observing and analyzing the difference among the people from different country and culture.

Germans - They focus on quality, firm on direction and decision, like to standardize everything, good at benchmarking, like to seek for innovative ideas and way to realize them. They can be of few words but with strong points and message. More to low profile but with strong stand. However sometimes they can be quite 'rigid' and proud.

Americans - They focus on problems and solutions. They are results driven. Can be quite proud too, outspoken and good at public speaking, no fear to speak out and to challenge, full of confidence and like to flaunt their knowledge. More high profile and like to be agreed on.

British - Mild, soft spoken, polite, reserve, proper, adaptable, open, friendly. More to low profile. Doesn't demonstrate as strong problem solving style as the American, but more organize in documenting everything and structurize the work around flow.

Malaysians (excluding me) - Kept quiet most of the time, fear to speak out and to challenge, reserve, inconfident and shy in front of the Amo. More to complying and to please. Care too much about who is the boss and who is not. Not so focus on the topic but cautious in not to say or do the wrong thing. Give priority to bosses to talk most of the time.

Me - Focus on analyzing, like to contribute ideas, hate to be restricted by seniority and status etc. As I was the only one who spoke out more among the Malaysian group in terms of technical sharing, my ideas were actually being discussed more.

From the workshop, I found one thing... i.e. it's just so easy to work with the Amo instead of chinese as it's much more straight forward, not so full of politics and crap.

Usually in our company's big meeting, the engineers don't get to talk much when there are bosses around. The small bosses listen to big bosses too. So most of the time, it's just a one way communication, i.e. the big bosses talk and everyone listens. That's what really suffocates me sometimes as big bosses in my company are not all very strong technically but vocally. So who are good at talking, talk all the time. This discourage the ideas and opinions sharing from the lower level who most of the time, know the issue better than the bosses. So the meetings are sometimes just for updating but not so effective in driving quality results.

I used to work for an American company where I get to just speak out freely but after working for the current company for few years, I almost forgot the freedom of speech as an engineer. Even after the workshop, though I felt quite enjoyable but I knew I might be screwed by my local management who attended the workshop, for being 'boh tua boh seh', ignoring their existence and for outshine them too much... Well, who cares about the crap!!