Barbara Gibson // This site brings together the various aspects of what is perhaps best described as my "portfolio life." I'm a strategic communication professional of 25+ years; a Past Chair of IABC, an intercultural communication consultant, and an adjunct professor for Hult International Business School. But my primary focus these days is working on a PhD, researching the intercultural competencies needed by global CEOs. So if I'm a bit sporadic in blogging, you'll understand why.
This article, posted here with permission from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), is the cover story in the May/June 2012 issue of IABC’s Communication World magazine. It’s my take on the findings of an IABC Research Foundation study, “A View from the Top: Corporate Communication from the Perspective of Senior Executives,” conducted by Shugoll Research and sponsored by Marketwire.
Another wonderful RSA Animate presentation, by Steven Pinker, on communication and human social relationships. His 10-minute talk is fascinating, but it comes alive with the animation.
I should also mention that I'm a Fellow of The RSA, and I highly recommend attending lectures it offers. Always mind-expanding.
Special thanks to my friend Akvile for sharing the video with me.
Was thinking about how to kick off this week's focus on intercultural competencies with my Management Communication classes, and came across this lovely video by Anna Mindess accompanying a blog post on San Francisco's KQED site, titled "Eat with Your Hands for a Sensuous, Intimate, Mindful Meal."
Anna's discussion about cross-cultural eating reminds me of one particular experience a few years ago, on a visit to Malaysia. Throughout a wonderful day with my hosts introducing me to new foods (interspersed with sightseeing), I tasted and appreciated everything offered. They seemed surprised and delighted by my willingness to try everything, and kept telling me there is one food, durian, that none of the Westerners would ever eat, because it smells bad to them. I assured them that I'd be happy to try it, but the day wore on and it was never offered. At one point, we walked through a grocery store, and I got a whiff of a very strong odour, but they hurried me along and only told me later that it was the smell of durian.
Finally, in the late evening, our car stopped at a durian stand in a parking lot along a busy roadway. Being outdoors, with the automobile fumes, helped to weaken the overpowering smell of this unusual fruit. They gave me plastic gloves. The vendor split open this large prickly fruit that resembles a hedgehog, and I was invited to take a piece of the fleshy inside. My hosts watched intently, waiting for me to reject this beloved food, sure that at the last moment, I'd turn out to be just like the rest. But I held my breath, embraced the opportunity, and took a bite, and was rewarded with a delicious and totally new flavour. Their response was joyous, and it was a bonding moment for us all.
That experience drove home to me that food is about much more than eating, that the rules, expectations, preferences and rituals surrounding food and drink are deeply embedded in culture, and that in a cross-cultural situation, rejecting a beloved food can be tantamount to rejecting the host. Willingness to cross those cultural food barriers can demonstrate acceptance and trust.
For several years now, I've been speaking at conferences and workshops on the topic of social media, to audiences made up of experienced communication professionals and business executives, most in the 35+ age range, and most of them "newbies" when it comes to social media. Many of them were resistant to trying out these new communication channels, but were pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones, largely out of a fear of becoming obsolete. Their belief was that all young people -- digital natives -- are "good at social media." So they felt they needed to hurry and catch up.
I've seen this digital native mystique carrying over into employment, with companies favouring young hires for social media-related jobs, assuming a level of skill that often wasn't evident. They spend all their time on Facebook, ergo, they must be experts.
Now that I'm spending most of my time with digital natives, and teaching them about using social media for business communication, I've learned something important: being native to the digital world doesn't make you an expert, any more than being native to a country qualifies you as a tour guide.
Although 99.9% of my students are highly active on Facebook, few have any experience with most of the other platforms. Many of them struggle with blogging, don't "get" Twitter, worry about privacy, and don't have a clue how to use social media beyond chatting with friends and posting pics. Exactly like the more mature newbies I've worked with. They have to be convinced, coached, and prodded, just like the rest of us. They still have a learning curve to get over, and I'm not seeing any significant difference between the young and old in the speed with which they go from newbie to competent to expert.
It's good news for communicators "of a certain age," that we're not lagging behind the 20-somethings, though we certainly need to continue pushing ourselves if we want to stay competitive. Being a newbie at anything, whether online or offline, is hard for everyone, regardless of age. The advantage of experience is that it helps us have the confidence that we can get past that uncomfortable stage.
For my students and other young readers, I think the lesson here is that if you want to compete in the current tough job market, you'll need to work to develop your skills as well. Take advantage of the digital native mystique while it lasts, but push yourself to develop real expertise in social media, beyond just what you use to keep in touch with friends.
My new teaching term started this week, so that's another thing that has me feeling like a new beginning. I love that feeling, all optimistic and enthusiastic.
And since a big part of my curriculum this time includes social media, and this week's first assignment is for each of my students to create a blog, I decided it's also a good time to make a fresh start on my own blog. It has languished a bit in the past year, taking a back seat to all the other things demanding my time and attention. But like the dreary winter, that's all now behind me. I'm optimistically recommitting myself to regular posting.
So here's to new beginnings!
June is shaping up to be a killer month for me, in terms of presentations. Actually, the speaking will be the easy part, compared to the flights, with three conferences back-to-back (in Italy, the US and Germany). But am very excited about each of them. So here's the line-up:
June 20-22
International Association of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management (IACCM) & CEMS Doctoral Student Workshop
Naples, Italy
June 24-27
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) World Conference
Chicago, USA
June 29-30
Global Leadership Competence Conference
Konstanz, Germany
Came across this infographic, thanks to a post by my friend Neville Hobson (aka @jangles), and thought it particularly relevant to share with my Master of International Business students:
Two weeks ago, I was planning to buy a new iPhone battery, because I thought mine was nearly shot. It only seemed to be holding a charge for a few hours, even with only light use. Luckily, because of a trip, I didn’t have time to deal with it at the time. But throughout my trip, I had to charge the phone at least twice a day. Then, while killing time waiting for my niece’s wedding to begin, I mentioned the problem to my sister’s friend, Tim, and he replied by asking “How many apps do you have open?”
“Open?” I asked, “um, what do you mean?”
He took my phone and proceeded to close down all the currently open apps that were sucking up my battery (while gleefully counting them, there were 54, by the way). That was it, instantly my battery was “fixed” and is now performing as it did when the phone was new (18 months ago). I felt pretty stupid, but I’m betting I’m not the only one that missed this when the new OS rolled out last year that added the multi-tasking feature. See, I knew about multi-tasking, but just didn’t realize all those apps were staying open and draining the battery.
So in case anyone else needs to know this, here’s how to close apps not in use:
Double-click the Home button (the same way you would to access the multi-tasking feature). The apps that appear at the bottom of the screen are all open. If you scroll them to the side, you’ll see every open app. Press and hold any of the icons, which will make a little red circle with a minus sign appear in the upper left corner of each icon, and they begin to wiggle.
Now all you have to do is touch the minus sign to close any app you don’t need to keep open (don’t worry, it won’t delete the app, just close it).
That’s it. Thanks, Tim, for saving me the cost of a new battery!
Mr Juvin said three walkouts had been held on most days since English-speaking bosses began managing them earlier this year.
"Our former director left in January and his replacement is an acting director abroad," said Mr Juvin. "He is English and does not speak any French. So we cannot communicate with him." Mr Juvin said staff at Saint-Marcellin-en-Forez, most of whom belong to France's CGT trade union, had previously not gone on strike for more than two decades.
"We haven't withdrawn our labour for twenty three years," said Mr Juvin. "Maybe this is because we could speak to our bosses."
Pierrick Dumont, CGT representative to the factory, said: "I don't think it's up to us to make the effort to speak English. We're French workers based in France."
Diane Gaillot, CEO of Thermal Ceramics in France, said: "The problem is that the former director had a unique opportunity to go abroad and we have not had time to recruit a new director."
She added that the situation was temporary and they were currently looking for another director who will speak French.
Miss Gaillot said the company had four sites across France, but the one in Saint-Marcellin-en-Forez, which is not far from Lyon, was the only one suffering industrial action. She added that a meeting about the problems was due to be held in Paris on Thursday.
France has a notoriously nationalistic workforce, with staff frequently complaining about the growing anglicisation of working practices within the global economy.
This encompasses everything from English being used as the exclusive language of business to reduced lunch breaks.
Thermal Ceramics is a division of the British Morgan Crucible Company, which was founded in London in 1856 and has since expanded all over the world.
