Being a CanDoo in the Other Culture

concerning being a CanDoo in an Other Culture . . .
The other night I was praying. I was facing some pretty tough issues that I hoped would go away . . . and I offered God money.

You are saying to yourself, “Seriously!?”

It’s true, no lie– and that’s the answer I heard in quick reply, “Seriously!?” What kind of fool am I? I tried to give God what He already owns—and an extremely tiny portion of it. I am glad I wasn’t struck dead immediately.

But this is what I am – I am a CanDoo. And my guess is that you also are a CanDoo.

For a few years we lived in an Indian-Pakistani section of London – about 95+% Indian-Pakistani, including some Somalis and Afghans – Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus. I was walking down my neighborhood street one day – this is after a couple years there – and I thought to myself, “These people really don’t like me. I don’t look or think like them. My core values and religion aren’t theirs. I probably make them really angry talking about Jesus.” I started to feel very unsafe. Then I began to think, “But I have the US Embassy. I could go there. And I have credit cards. And I started to list to myself the credit cards that were in my back pocket. I thought, “With those available to me right now, I can go get on a plane and just fly away.” I have ways to fix this if it really becomes a problem.

I am a CanDoo. And my guess is that you also are a CanDoo.

About 15 years ago, my missionary friend was locked up in an Asian prison. These are not nice places, and there was a lot of ambiguity about his sentence and how long he would be in there. I was in the US explaining this to a wealthy friend, who said, “Well, let’s go get him.” I looked confused and said, “What do you mean?” And he said (and I quote) “We’ll just get some guys and some helicopters, and go get him.” (He was talking mercenaries.) My wealthy friend is definitely a CanDoo. He’s got money and he CAN DO lots based on whatever that money will buy.

I visited an elementary school on the edge of the desert in West Africa, in Senegal. Because I used to be a public educator, a sort of expert in literacy and learning, I was very interested in what this Christian school with a majority Muslim population had going. I watched for a couple of days and made friends with the school’s Director. Then I said, “Here is what you CAN DO if you want these kids to learn better.” I was nice about it, but I just couldn’t help myself. I am a CanDoo.

I’m a pretty good observer. I’m a pretty good analyst. I was taught that way. I see most of the sides of an issue. I find root causes for problems. I think about solutions. And I project outcomes given a choice among various solutions. All this can go on in my head, and sometimes I can hold my tongue and not say anything, but usually I break my silence. I like my ideas. I have an idea, and I break my silence and suggest a direction, offer a proposal, point out a weakness, or talk about a better way. Essentially I say, “Look, this can be fixed. Here’s how.”

I am a CanDoo, and I know we can find a way to do this thing. Let’s roll.

There is something biblical about this. When I read my Bible, I saw what Paul did. I see Peter change and get it right. I see Moses become The Man. The Christians have got it and they are going somewhere; they can turn the world upside down.

When I read for relaxation, I read biographies about the founding fathers – this mix of a handful of very unique men, each different from the other, who managed to collaborate and lead a revolution that has led to the world’s most powerful nation. I grew up watching the first astronauts and all the subsequent movies about how they made it. Against gravity and malfunctions, a team of men conquered space and made it back alive. They were CanDoo’s.

When I watch TV, I enjoy seeing a crime solved in an hour, or even a problem in a sitcom resolved in half an hour. Even if a new difficulty is introduced to whet my appetite for the next episode, there’s a problem and a resolution, or at least some progress has been made. I expect progress.

This is how I have learned to see the world. It’s why I am speaking to you. We Can Do this. We can improve how we do things.

However, it’s a fact that many people, most people in the world, the majority, are not CanDoo’s. This raises a couple of questions:

• Can we CanDoo’s get along with them? 
“Of course we can,” we think.
• “Will they value us? Why wouldn’t they?” we say to ourselves. 
“We CanDoo’s can help.”

But if they are not CanDoo’s, what are they? How do THEY think about the world? 
What do they want to accomplish in life? Maybe, they don’t think about the world in terms of accomplishing anything. Maybe they think more about their relationship to past generations than about what is about to happen, about what’s coming next:

“Why solve a problem? Why plan for the future,” they say, “since
 we belong to what we have inherited. Our fathers have made us what we are. And we count on that. We cherish that and want to retain it.”  

“Problems,” they say, “-there have always been and will always be problems. Only God knows, and we are subject to whatever God brings along. Each day has enough worries of its own.”

But me? I am a CanDoo:
Born to get something done. Born to make the future a little brighter.

THEY seem quite different. They are different. (At least until I get hold of them.)

 

With OPPORTUNITY for ALL! BAM in the New American City!

Making THAT connection with new “Other-culture” people in American communities provides at least five opportunities:
1) opportunity to welcome the stranger
2) opportunity to create jobs, adding value to communities
3) opportunity to find innovation through new eyes
4) opportunity to share the love of Christ
5) opportunity to learn Other cultures

Who knows what might emerge from partnerships, coaching, or co-development of business? Why not partner? It may mean profit all around.

New immigrants need help understanding American cultural ways– not just about knowing how to turn on electric appliances or how to ride a bus to the grocery store, but what makes Americans tick.

New immigrants bring with them new eyes that see differently and maybe see opportunities and innovation old American eyes can’t. “Immigrants are now more than twice as likely as the native-born to start a business.”*

See Mark Canavera’s recent article, subtitled, “Enabling immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs to take flight in their new economy.” He describes a model Philadelphia initiative that resources immigrant entrepreneurs.

Wow – what a story! What a model!
DON’T MISS THIS!!!!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/7-kinds-of-kindness-model-ways-of-supporting-refugees_us_586321fce4b068764965bee4

Where is BAM as it relates to the American immigrant/refugee communities? OPPORTUNITY ON OUR DOORSTEP!

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* http://www.renewoureconomy.org/sites/all/themes/pnae/openforbusiness.pdf

7 More Sources towards Commonsense in the Other Culture

This is the second in a multi-part series on selected SOURCES to inform crossing into Other Cultures. Here are a few more “book-sources.”

A BOOK THAT MAKES SENSE OF CULTURES
Stewart, Edward C. and Milton J. Bennett. American Cultural Patterns: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Nicholas Brealey; 2nd Edition edition, 2005. This is a favorite. It is NOT a fact book on American culture; NOT a simple book. The route to Other-culture awareness crisscrosses the American sub-consciousness. A brilliant analysis that can put you on the road to commonsense in Other cultures.

I like this from an Amazon reviewer—
“This book should be required reading for anyone attempting to understand American Cultural Patterns invisible to Americans belonging to the dominant culture. In other words, if you were born in another culture or belong to a subculture in the U.S. this book will explain why it is so hard to communicate with “rational white managers who have been in the same business for decades”. . . Individualism keeps the sense of future limited to one lifetime (or the next quarter earnings). Linguistic features of English lead toward linear chains of cause, effect and outcomes. Other cultures experience relationships as community, time as seasonal or celestial, truth as intuitive . . . It is worth the fifteen cents a page I paid for it.”

GLOCAL
Pipher, Mary. The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community. Harcourt, Inc., 2002. An engaging book written 15 years ago, still timely. A best way to understand a culture that is foreign to you is to find and engage the owners of that culture, who now live down the street. In this sense, Pipher’s book is dual-pronged: a look at those of Other culture as they transition into “my” Home culture and a way to understand their culture.

ARAB-View
Nydell, Margaret K. Understanding Arabs: A Contemporary Guide to Arab Society. Nicholas Brealey, 5 edition, 2012. From the expert.

MISSIONS
Elmer, Duane, Cross-Cultural Connections. Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy Press, 2002.  This is basic. While aimed at Christian ministry, it is universally applicable.

CONFLICT
LeBaron, Michelle and Venashri Pillay. Conflict Across Cultures: A Unique Experience of Bridging Differences. Intercultural Press, 2006. Especially in the Other culture we’d like to avoid conflict, but of course culture is about difference and difference means conflict.

AFRICA-General
Maranz, David E. African Friends and Money Matters: Observations from Africa. SIL International, Global Publishing; Second edition, 2015. The roots of culture exposed.

KOREA-Specific
Boye Lafayette De Mente. Korean Etiquette and Ethics in Business. NTC Business Books, 2^nd edition, 1994. There are others in this series I have not read, but this one is very insightful.

 

What Business Needs to Know about Commonsense in Other Culture Workplaces: SELECTED BEST SOURCES

Here are some Best Sources about Commonsense in Other Culture Workplaces.

THE GAP. I’ve been reading on this subject for a couple years. Seems to me there are few if any sources that directly address this subject as related to BAM. The general consensus among business experts is that it is a very important area AND very, very neglected . . . with reportable negative consequences.

THE AMALGAM. Business and culture are inseparable. Business, as done in the America*, is done like Americans would do it. Business, as done in Other Cultures**, is done like Other Cultures would do it. (Are some of you trying to fit our square culture* into round culture** holes?)

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Adler, Nancy J. International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, multiple editions.
This is the classic textbook.

Foster, Dean Allen. Bargaining Across Borders: How to Negotiate Business Successfully Anywhere in the World. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1992.
Very readable.
Amusingly, Foster says elsewhere: “Cross-cultural competency is not what happens after listening to, reading, or interacting with information about how to behave in a particular culture in a particular circumstance.  Sleep is usually what happens when one listens to, reads, or interacts with passively accessed information like this.”

Gundling, Ernest. working GlobeSmart: 12 People Skills for Doing Business Across Borders. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing, 2003.
By the founder of Aperian Global. Probably the best.

Lederleitner, Mary T. Cross-Cultural Partnerships: Navigating the Complexities of Money and Mission. Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy Press, 2010.
Cultural difference and money matters seem to inevitably lead to conflicts. Sensitive and sensible help here.

Nolan, Riall W. Communicating and Adapting Across Cultures: Living and Working in the Global Village. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1999.
Start with Chapter 13 “At Work.”

Steers, Richard M., Carlos J. Sanchez-Runde and Luciara Nardon.  Management Across Cultures: Challenges and Strategies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press: 2010.
Dense with examples. From p. 79: “Managers must uncover hidden cultural assumptions to become aware of how culture is shaping the perceptions, expectations, and behaviors of all involved parties.”

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TERMS

“Workplace” refers to industry and commerce, or business practice in the broadest sense.

“Other culture” is any culture but your own.

“Commonsense” is how people in a culture think and act without much consideration for how to think and act; presumed expectation.

“BAM” is business as mission. For details, see http://www.ibecventures.com/blog/what-are-some-examples-of-triple-bottom-line-kingdom-businesses]

BAM’S Evil Twin is Your Business Partner!?

Is BAM’S Evil Twin Your Business Partner?

In this blog I usually consider BAM and talk about commonsense in the Other culture and how to get it. It’s time to talk about spiritual commonsense and how little we have.I know, I speak from experience.

The business of missions is always the work of Jesus’ followers.
The mission for which Jesus set himself apart is now ours (john 17.19, 20)- so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 john 2). We have the same attitude (phil 2) as Jesus. We are following Jesus outside the camp (heb 13). We are in Christ who is formed in us (gal 4.19)

We were a weighed down people, now resurrected in Christ and happily bowed down before our Father the King. Is this you? We are willing volunteers in this the day of His power (ps. 110:3). Not taken out of the world (jn 17 again) we daily feed on grace (heb 13 again) finding value at the altar, hoping to snatch some from the fire, sometimes forgetting but always turned again to remember that we ourselves have been and are being saved and delivered from evil.

In our day and culture, are we turned from that priority path of humility and grace by reconstructing missions as business? Our American task-orientation can be quickly fueled by self-reliance and ambition, or by mere tinkering to solve a problem and evolve a product or a process.

Men may rise to positions, but their power is not spiritual power. Boards with men of notoriety may give their stamp of approval to such business. The notion that WE are something (“good people”) was and still is often carved (like a dumb wooden idol) onto the landscape of so-called Evangelical endeavor. Do we develop plans and construct budgets and other infrastructures to support them, while lost on us is an infrastructure of the Spirit? Of prayer and the Word of life?

This is not about discarding business savvy or any utility within our culture that will advance the cause of Christ. To make missions as business, to effect missions from some source other than the current tap of Living Water is to work outside the Kingdom of God.

You can have this scheme or that – a compassionate and innovative enterprise that provides you entry into the devil’s domain in the wildest city—but if the power of Jesus’ resurrection is not in view, then it is likely that your calling is not to Jesus’ mission but to some other business altogether.

If we train by science and intuition so that there is every possible insight into the values, ways and intricacies of Other cultures, but we do not study the grace of God and the gracious God who extends His infinite goodness to us Cretans, then what business do we have?

You can write a strategic plan that seeks to lead a group of Jesus’ people into good works and gospel-spreading. It may seem a good plan in its scope and content and intent, including a spiritual component. It may win the approval of many and get financial support. It may seem the best of both mission as business and BAM. But, what of Christ? Where will He be? Will his Spirit stay or leave?

Will there be boasting of Christ in the Other culture? Yes, if we are found in a corner, in a closet, daily boasting of Christ. I say all this recognizing both my own inclinations to race TO DO and the Spirit who inclines me to be still and to devotion.

4 Steps to Actuated Cultural Knowledge

Actuated Cultural Knowledge
We’re live in 4-3-2-1 . . .

“When Jesus returns, will he be a Capitalist!?”

There was a pause and I looked over at Justin, wondering whether to feel pity or to laugh. The 45-year-old Muslim man looked at my younger Christian colleague with disdain and continued to hammer him:
“You can’t answer a simple question! You are out here on the street talking about Jesus and you can’t answer a simple question??”

I had spent hours on the streets of “globalized London,” and was not surprised to hear this man, who welcomed our conversation and was initially very congenial, turn adversarial. But Justin, as a newly graduated theology student, had been eager to be the lead as we engaged this man . . . so I watched for a while as Justin hung himself.

In the moment of the cultural encounter, you need more than a smart-topic degree, an MBA in International Business or the hutzpah to spearhead the foreign start-up.

How to be real:

1/ Become a Home-Culture Inspector and Know Your Own Cultural Habits. Operate from a conviction that even though you don’t always have access to a mirror, you are dressed in your Home-culture clothes. Make a habit of asking yourself WHY YOU DO WHAT YOU DO? Where does a fork come from? Why is “happiness” an entitlement and a goal in your culture? What is the source of your drive for efficiency and productivity? Try to be okay with not making yourself feel comfortable when you are on the scene in the cross-cultural context. This is an important platform if you want a view of reality.

2/ Make a Trusted Friend.
I didn’t much like Renaud when I first met him, but my friend told me he could be trusted. Renaud seemed a bit too sure of himself and his ability to get things done. But there I was a newbie, with rusty French, in an unfamiliar context, where local language was just as important. I needed to be led by the hand, at least for a few days. Insiders help.

Next level. I have come to know Rajesh and Nisha, Isaac and Joanna, Elrod and Elise, Rula, Mohamed, and others, as well or better than Home-culture friends. Their answers to my questions give me access to understand communities in and from four continents. These are more than “wiki-people,” doling out factoids, and more than temporary-Renaud. They are literally and intensely my shared humanity, co-weepers, co-rejoicers, and co-workers on the journey of life. When you sense and feel as they do, that’s actuated cultural knowledge.

3/ Designate TIME as your Agent.
Ask & Learn Why They do WHAT THEY DO- aka observe and listen.
Consciously designate Mr. Time as your agent to do this. Don’t expect immediate results and successes. Make time work for you and don’t be a slave to your Home-culture clock. I can’t tell you how often I’ve thought II had immediately connected to a new friend only to discover that I hadn’t. And, local practice is just that – no one is going to be heard who walks in off the street and straightaway tells them they have a better way. Nor can you negotiate (not right away) with a vendor who, for some (good but not apparent) reason, is bent on showing you his father-in-law’s town 40 miles away.

4/ Get to the Subsurface.
Use the superficial: No culture is going to show you its hand, you have to look for the “tells.” The operating systems of life and business in the Other Culture evolved, likely through centuries of tradition-building, politics, conflicts, and survival. You won’t find out what happened on the playground 20 years ago until you have been there for a while. But, make it a goal to dig deep into behaviors, decision-making, and what has honor. Discovering mindsets and worldviews will get you a seat at the table at the real party. Know your friends well and you will know their community, its hopes, goals and needs. There are no shortcuts to serious engagement. Blogs, books, and internet sites can only fill some needed informational gaps to you limit being the fool “over there.”

Cultural self-awareness,
Trusted local relationships, and
Your conscious investment of Time trying to
Get to the core of Other-culture habits will

These ADD UP to Actuated Cultural Knowledge.

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Note: The people are real but the names used here have been fictionalized.

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The Lean Start-Up Door to Commonsense in the Other Culture

How is Lean Startup process like engaging in an Other culture?

If you know “Lean Startup,” that sense of process should open the door to Other-culture commonsense. This blog entry is aimed at helping you have commonsense in an Other culture.

[I am thinking of THIS COMPARISON (in this blog) as a MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT: Where I am in error, and you see a better way, send me a note, so I can write an improved blog.]

Lean Startup Process (LSP) < > Other-Culture Engagement (OCE)
What can we learn from Lean Startup Process that can transfer
to produce Other-Culture Engagement?

LSP PROPOSES > “looking for a business model” not executing one
OCE discovers Other-culture commonsense, you do not assume you can operate within the Other culture based on your mind’s map of the Other culture.

LSP PROPOSES > forming a value hypothesis
OCE says you bring with you a set of values and also preconceptions.

LSP PROPOSES > experimentation over elaborate planning
OCE values and grows by repeated real life cultural encounters not thought encounters (books, internet, hearsay) about cultural ways.

LSP PROPOSES > “MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT”
OCE accepts that participants with their own cultural baggage, do and can engage Other-culture actors, scenes, and activities, at entry level capability– while applying learned skills and evolving towards full engagement.

LSP SAYS > MEASURE
OCE requires data derived from observation and participation. It requires keeping records of recurring patterns in meetings, conversations, and everyday exchanges – while *identifying new hypotheses and key questions.

LSP VALUES > customer feedback over intuition
OCE emphasizes 1) non-judgmental observations, *drawing limited/”doubtable” conclusions from de-culturated data; and 2) feedback from proven sources, informants, providing insider points of view.

LSP THRIVES ON > “LEARN”
OCE asks repeatedly and often, ‘What makes sense to them?’

LSP PROPOSES > “PIVOT” to vary design
OCE adapts behaviors and adjusts attitudes in order to communicate in Other-culture ways, patterns that make sense to them

LSP PROPOSES > “LOOP”
OCE requires constant data collection, testing of temporary conclusions, revising assumptions about the Other culture, and re-engaging Other-cultures insiders in ways that, as you the outsider understand more and more, make sense to them.

Steve Blank has said of Lean Startup, Using customers’ input to revise their assumptions, they start the cycle over again, testing redesigned offerings and making further small adjustments (iterations) or more substantive ones (pivots) to ideas that aren’t working.^

A very, very similar cycle of effort is required in Other Culture Engagement.

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^direct/indirect references to Steve Blank’s Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything in Harvard Business Review, May 2013 https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything

Peas in the Cultural Pod: Businesses and Churches

Whether at Home or in the Other culture, the peas of business and church are lodged in the pod of culture.

The other day my wife and I were asked for our help to solve a “church conflict issue” in a Latin American country about which we know little. I decided to spend some time surfing around to see if I could find any culture-related data that might “background” the conflict. Since I spend a lot of time considering business commonsense in Other cultures, I headed straight for sources that would give me insights into business management and conflict in that country.

What do you know? Businesses and churches in that locale operate on similar culturally-driven principles. Pastors like managers are directive and can seem a bit aloof. People expect to be told what to do and to hold the person in that role in quasi-sacred regard. Managers like pastors then always make an effort to get beyond the work of the day and make themselves available for counsel on a range of life issues. People expect help from the top down, and managers and pastors expect to be there for them.

American workplaces and church-places are more egalitarian than in that Other culture. We lay folk call the pastor Tom and take his wisdom seriously as a suggestion. We workers call our manager Hank. There is respect but little distance and formality. We will usually do it his way unless we can find a better way. We hope for agreement, but it won’t happen happily when it comes from Hank always telling us what to do.

Culture is not just an influence but a baseline on which businesses operate. That’s true for religion too. A few years ago, a theologian proposed that there is so much of American culture and so little of the gospel in religion in one sector of American religion that instead of Christianity it could rightly be called “suburban evangelical individualism” (H Conn).

If workplaces like churches mirror their resident culture, what happens when you relocate them? Maybe peas in a martini.

 

Export Yourself: Be Superficial in the Other Culture

Don’t Export Yourself: Don’t Be Superficial in the Other Culture, or anywhere.

I have made it my business to advise businesspeople what to do, beyond the cultural surfaces of bowing or shaking hands, as they embed themselves in communities where the gospel needs a hearing.

(These are well-intention people much like me, perhaps too much like me.)

We export ourselves. We may do that by expecting Other-culture workplaces, marketing, managing, etc. to function in ways that make sense in our Home culture. We may do that by expecting Others to hear the gospel in our terms.

In Other cultures I have misrepresented what I wanted to represent because I defaulted to the grids and filters of my comforts, my Home culture and my flesh. (Heck, I do this with friends and family, so why not There?) And too, I have seen realities and understood only partially because of my self-reliance.

It was not all for naught, but I repent of my presumptions.

Jesus says not to “work for the food that spoils but for the food that endures.” The work we do and a day’s labor that we share with Others are more than moments, more than products that spoil – they are signs that needs to be understood by us and Others.

They signify life.

The world needs me and you to see clearly, to be skilled and wise beyond our defaults, and to rightly interpret the divine wisdom that undergirds the visible.

This is the mission.

The Son of Man is the food that endures.

 

IT’S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT CULTURE

It’s not always about culture.

(1) “Culture skill” is a “soft skill,” so people say. It’s not part of the business portfolio, or at least not a very important part. I get this argument, but of course I think it’s a mistake to think like this.

(2) People also say Christianity seems not to be culture-specific, so a disciple-making program that accompanies BAM should focus on key theological beliefs, not the cultural stuff. I get this argument too, and again I argue that it’s a mistake to think that God hasn’t shaped the gospel (faith and practice) to address and fit with various cultures.

BUT IT’S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT CULTURE:

The other day I was talking to Kahlil and he was telling me about people he hates. I can relate to that. He’s from the Middle East and I’m from Baltimore (the East Coast). We don’t hate the same people, but we hate people for some of the same reasons. Nothing cultural there.

And stupid. Stupid in one culture is pretty much the same as it is in the next.

The same thing goes for hammers, being hungry, having to work, and loving your mother.

In fact the list of culturally unbiased items, needs, tasks, obligations, and relationships seems endless: sports, politics, bosses, spouses, children, fools, connivers, and wise persons, taxes, the daily grind, and seeking a little bit of comfort. These things are universal.

The Bible is full of the universality of life:
◊ “The poor you always have with you.”
◊ “There is nothing new under the sun.”
◊ “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
◊ “All have sinned and fallen short.”
◊ “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

There is no cultural bias in those words. God gives them to us all.

There is more:
> God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.
> Love your neighbor.
> Never be wise in your own sight.
> Through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
> The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you.

Business-as-Mission in the Other culture is NOT always about culture.
There is something wonderfully, universally “not about cultural” about it.

16 Problems with BAM in Other Cultures

1. We are about to destroy the Earth with (what we think is) “Western Capitalism sent from God.”

2. A false integration of business and spirituality because the integration is American-style.

3. Self-exportation: Terrence is an ace marketer for a major US Flooring Company and he plans to help people replicate himself overseas. Huzzah.

4. THE message is an add-on: We have a spiritual message disconnected from a business message.

5. Concurrently: a) complex Other-culture regulations and grinding hours of labor; b) efficiency experts.

6. Listening and hearing – you. Listening and hearing – them.

7. Leveraging American know-how among Non-American people in Non-American places.

8. Loveless leveraging.

9. Leading with fast and efficient “loud-speak” in nuanced, ceremonial realms without clocks.

10. Mi transparency, su transparency: The expectation of full-disclosure partnerships.

11. Mi workplace, su ажлын байран дахь: Thinking that the American workplace and the Mongolian workplace (and work process) are the same, or nearly, sorta (just dairy cows vs yaks).

12. Prayerlessness in our larger community.

13. “Hey (high-five) Bramachaudra Soongling, I’m Bob”: The assumption of informal equality.

14. “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. (source: Bible, verbatim)

15. “I get it,” said the newly arrived foreigner: You don’t.

16. SUCCESS is pre-defined by the BAM initiator.

************************************* The above eat at my brain, nag at my hope, shiver me timbers, and make me think there is at least one field of study in the BAM community that begs rigorous attention.

The Integrated Tamale Fruit Company in Ghana

The following paragraphs are from this month’s Harvard Business Review. As we consider BAM, we might learn from this pattern of business.

How might something similar might be done on a smaller scale? 

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Consider the Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC), a nucleus-and-outgrower organization in Ghana’s poor northern region that exports organic mangoes directly to the European market. ITFC has its own 400-acre, professionally run commercial farm, but it also works with more than 1,200 smallholder farmers in the surrounding area (the “outgrowers”). In exchange for an interest-free, in-kind loan and extensive training, the smallholders agree to grow mangoes on an acre or two of their land using organic techniques and to sell them through ITFC’s marketing channels. The proceeds are used to repay the loans. By nurturing this cluster of farmers, the company can operate at greater scale without the tedious and uncertain process of assembling acreage in an area with communal and chieftaincy-organized land use.

ITFC’s efforts, which have led to transformational income growth for local farmers, have attracted the attention of development agencies such as the African Development Bank and the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation, as well as the Ghanaian government. These organizations have stepped in to bolster and expand the cluster scheme and to finance improvements in rural roads.

 

source: https://hbr.org/2016/12/mapping-frontier-economies?referral=00202&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist_date&utm_source=newsletter_weekly_hotlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hotlist_date&spMailingID=15997688&spUserID=Mjg3NjIwMDQwMDA1S0&spJobID=904641162&spReportId=OTA0NjQxMTYyS0

BAM: Body-and-Soul Marketing?

What do you think about putting Jesus on a billboard?

Not my idea of helpful evangelism, but . . . The other day we were riding down the highway with my neighbors and their 8-year-old. He noticed a huge billboard and read it aloud to the rest of us in his best reading voice: “Jesus is alive.” Then he added with some profundity: “. . . His soul.”

Cody’s analytical addition is the crux of a Christianity mistaken. I quickly added, “His body too!” My wife elaborated, “Yes, all of Him is alive!” It is a grave distortion to say that Jesus is alive only “in soul.”

What happens if BAM goes with a so-called Christianity, a “gospel” devoid of the bodily living Jesus? What if we advocate for work and material transactions that yield earthly sustenance and yet preach a spirituality that exists apart from that? Let’s get this straight: We are in the world just as Jesus was in the world, body-and-soul. And we are making disciples in the world God made, one world physical and spiritual.

We are not just talking creed and theology here in the world while we tinker about to help Other culture people gain comforts and sustainable wealth. The power in our spiritual marketing is not in clever words. The tinker has power.

Yet – Nor is our power in the introduction of innovative thinking into primitive societies. The business ideas, plans, and transactions are by-products not power. Paul’s point is clear: “We have power in earthen vessels.” Jesus came in an earthen vessel. We too are face-to-face in Other cultures in the same flesh as His, in His Spirit, doing business in body-and-soul.

BAM is far more than a transfer of creative Western capitalism.
BAM is an earthly task that is intrinsically spiritual and intimate,
if we are in Christ.
BAM is a spiritual task that is intrinsically earthly, fleshly, gritty, and human,
if we are in Christ.

PRE-REQUISITE: In basic discussions about crossing cultures, we always say that we must understand ourselves in our own culture if we are to understand an Other culture. The platform for understanding Other culture is us understanding ourselves as culture-bound.

The same is true of the gospel. We want to understand how the good news can touch Others in their (perceptibly very different) Other culture. The starting point is knowing ourselves, body-and-soul, on the turf of our own Home culture. Jesus is alive here . . . and there.

Get a Grip on Yourself and the American Dream

The profound piece that follows exhorts American followers of Jesus not to yield first place to our Home culture. The writer’s point is equally valid in any Other culture. Thanks Bob, we desperately need to hear this.

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from Bob DeMoss on Election Day 2016– Whether or not you will be pleased with tonight’s election results, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, this letter is meant for you.

My purpose is to remind you, that, as a citizen of these United States, we are also, and primarily, citizens of God’s Kingdom. This awareness can enable you to be of greater value to both realms.

The esteemed church Father, Aurelius Augustine, lived in a time similar to our own. The mighty Roman Empire was declining and coming to an end as he wrote, in the early 5th century, his renowned City of God. His thesis was that there are two very different cities co-mingled here on earth, the City of Man and the City of God. Both cities compete for our ultimate allegiance.

The City of Man, in all its forms, has one thing in common: It is motivated by self-will and self-aggrandizement with the goal of exalting mankind. The City of Man takes on multiple manifestations. The ones we remember are those with the most expansive powers, such as the Roman Empire in Augustine’s day.

In contrast, the City of God, although existing side by side with the City of Man, has been initiated and energized by God. Unlike the City of Man, its citizens desire to live by His commands, and to love and serve others. In so doing, they bring glory to God.

America was founded by people, most of whom were God-fearing and were guided in their work by a profound respect for the Judeo-Christian tradition. God has uniquely prospered our land because of this. Indeed, this “Shining City on a Hill” has become so attractive that some believers have been seduced by its freedom and wealth to the point of overlooking their primary allegiance to the Kingdom of God. They have been co-opted by the appeal of the American Dream.

Notwithstanding its past or present greatness, America is still inherently a part of the City of Man and in need of God’s transforming grace.

As Augustine learned from Scripture, one cannot be committed to the values of both the City of Man and The City of God. As believers, who enjoy the freedom of America, it is incumbent on us to retain our Christian distinctiveness, while “rendering unto Caesar his due and to God His due”. In being good citizens of the City of God, we will thereby be salt and light to help enrich and preserve America. If we divert our primary love and energy towards securing the American Dream instead of God’s Kingdom, we will be withholding this preserving and enriching leaven which our country needs. It will also lead to personal disillusionment.

By late tonight, or early tomorrow, many believers will be disappointed because their candidate did not win. But to be inordinately disappointed, is not warranted. Surely one cannot believe that the election results will lead to a mortal blow against the Kingdom of God! If the disappointment many feel, enables them to more clearly see the distinction between the two cities, and energize them to more wholeheartedly “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt 6:33), this election may yet result in good news.

We believers must have our fundamental loyalty directed by Scripture and rooted in God’s Kingdom and values, not in the American Dream. We are cautioned about this as John writes, “Do not love the world or the things of this world, for all that is in this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world.” Then, although being in this world, we will not be of it…..a world “which, together with its lusts, is passing away” (I John 2:16, 17).

It is ironic, but the ongoing cultural, moral, and fiscal decline of our great country, can actually be a huge wake up call for the citizens of both Cities. For the followers of Jesus Christ, such a decline can be used by God to awaken them to a renewed awareness of their primary citizenship in His Kingdom. This should result in their being more productive citizens of the City of God…which in turn will enable them to more effectively be salt and light in this world.

And for the citizens of the City of Man, their ongoing restlessness to achieve the ever elusive satisfaction of the American Dream, can awaken them to God’s invitation to become citizens of a far greater city, the City of God, “a city, which has foundations, whose builder and Maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

 

 

16 Questions on EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT and TASK COMPLETION in the Other Culture

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT and TASK COMPLETION in the Other Culture

When it comes to EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT and TASK COMPLETION,
is your Other-Culture business successful?

To develop a winning workforce that produces,
here are 16 questions that businesses and managers can consider!

Wait – I only see 8 questions?
Double duty: Be sure to turn them around
and provide your Home Culture’s answers to these questions.

Cultural-difference factors that may impact EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

1. Who is recognized as being responsible?
2. How does the Other culture handle conflict?
3. What is considered motivation in the Other culture?
4. How is task completion viewed in the Other culture?
   

Cultural-difference factors that may affect TASK COMPLETION

1. What resources are available in the Other culture?
2. Are the rewards associated with task completion appropriate, as judged by the Other culture?
3. What notions of time does the Other culture have?
4. In the Other culture, how do relationship-building and task-oriented work typically interact?

NOTE: The framework for the above is derived from DuPraw and Axner’s Working on Common Cross-cultural Challenges at http://www.pbs.org/ampu/crosscult.html

 

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