Across the world and around the corner

I know I have been absolutely awful with this lately; I guess I have been too busy / tired to collect my thoughts and reflect. My apologies.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to work with people from all over the world, and though I have teased others (see last post), I have to admit my own geography and general knowledge has been put to the test. Even when I know the small city, on a hill, in the most random part of Finland, it’s quite challenging for me to keep a conversation going with someone I have nothing in common with. Once you get through the usuals: Weather (Yep its stupid cold here in comparison to pretty much every other part of the world); What office you work out of; your experiences there, your preferences in food, music, liquor even (when you get really stuck) etc etc. the rest is sorta extremely difficult.

A personal philosophy of mine has always been “better to remain silent and thought a fool, than speak out and remove all doubt”, I don’t know where I picked that up from, because neither of my parents are like that, nor are my brothers, I may have to hire a shrink one day for me to untangle that one. I keep a lot of my opinions, thoughts, musings, ideas, and jokes to myself, as you can imagine not the best tool to be working with in situations like this, where you have to get to know people to be able to work with them effectively.

Though it has been challenging , it has also been such a great learning experience, it’s awesome to see how social styles and working habits are shaped by our environments, cultures, races, religions, and all sorts of things I won’t list (just because I don’t want to risk political incorrectness). Sometimes I have looked at team members and thought “geeeeze, disaster has a passport” (though technically the people I am referring to here don’t need a passport to get this far), and other times I think “how profound” (when I’m judging a book by its very unappealing cover). Everybody does things differently:

• Some people use humour as an entry into conversation
• Others talk too much to cover up their insecurities – trust me the way they talk 19 to the dozen you completely overlook the fact that they have large growths on the corner of their noses
• Others deafen you with their silence
• Some people have permanent standoffish facial expressions
• Others overwhelm you with their kindness
• People overbear you with their depth of knowledge in one area
• Groups of people are unnecessarily loud, everything they say must be screamed at the top of their lungs
• Some people plan everything – “lets go to dinner”, “yes, lets”, “ok how should we go there, maybe we should go up the stairs, and walk along the corridor, or maybe we should go outside the building cross the bath and re-enter on the bottom floor, or maybe we shouldn’t have dinner now”, “it’s just dinner dude, let’s just start walking, no need for a song and dance”
• People seek approval from every possible source before they make decisions
• Some people are VICIOUS about everything (Nigerians)
• As my man Pharell will say, some people are “Mr. Me Too’s” ... “Everything I say, you say “Me Too””

To cut a long story short, whoever you talk to, work with, play with around the world, they all have their own way of doing things, they have their insecurities, and like me they have their personal philosophies, based on their own life experiences and environment. We are all refugees of something, seeking safety in our social styles, and perhaps the best way to interact with each other is to get lost in the details.

Xoxo.