Discussion: View Thread

Im not sure if this fits exactly what you are looking for but it is a great Ted talk on identity and the challenges that "multi-local" people face when trying to answering the question "where are you from"

https://www.ted.com/talks/taiye_selasi_don_t_ask_where_i_m_from_ask_where_i_m_a_local/transcript?language=en#t-604680

N Kweku Nduom

+1-646-621-5647

On Oct 4, 2015, at 1:19 PM, Viji Venkatraman <vijivenkatraman@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

Dear all

I am looking for suggestions for the First Session of a Cross-Cultural Management course for the MBAs. I play videos (for eg. East or West, Lost in translation, TED videos like "What's So Different About Cultures Anyway", "Riding the waves of culture", Derek Sivers etc), Global BINGO..

I want to do something different this time - would be grateful for any suggestions. I'll collate the responses and send it to the group. 

Thanks a lot. 

Warm regards

Viji

V.Vijayalakshmi, PhD

Assistant Professor (OB)

Department of Management Studies

Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Chennai, INDIA

On Oct 6, 2015, at 8:14 AM, Brock <brock.stout@EAGLES.USM.EDU> wrote:

What is the student composition of your class? I now teach a class with 14 difference nationalities, so that effect does some of the heavy lifting for experiential learning. Teaching a monoculture class about intercultural competency requires more aggressive simulations.

Brock Stout

On 5 October 2015 at 20:55, Kweku Nduom <nanakweku@gmail.com> wrote:

Im not sure if this fits exactly what you are looking for but it is a great Ted talk on identity and the challenges that "multi-local" people face when trying to answering the question "where are you from"

https://www.ted.com/talks/taiye_selasi_don_t_ask_where_i_m_from_ask_where_i_m_a_local/transcript?language=en#t-604680

N Kweku Nduom

+1-646-621-5647

On Oct 4, 2015, at 1:19 PM, Viji Venkatraman <vijivenkatraman@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

Dear all

I am looking for suggestions for the First Session of a Cross-Cultural Management course for the MBAs. I play videos (for eg. East or West, Lost in translation, TED videos like "What's So Different About Cultures Anyway", "Riding the waves of culture", Derek Sivers etc), Global BINGO..

I want to do something different this time - would be grateful for any suggestions. I'll collate the responses and send it to the group. 

Thanks a lot. 

Warm regards

Viji

V.Vijayalakshmi, PhD

Assistant Professor (OB)

Department of Management Studies

Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Chennai, INDIA

--

--------------------

Thank you,

Brock Stout

Building the entrepreneurial and intercultural human capital of Asia

On Oct 4, 2015, at 1:19 PM, Viji Venkatraman <vijivenkatraman@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

Dear all

I am looking for suggestions for the First Session of a Cross-Cultural Management course for the MBAs. I play videos (for eg. East or West, Lost in translation, TED videos like "What's So Different About Cultures Anyway", "Riding the waves of culture", Derek Sivers etc), Global BINGO..

I want to do something different this time - would be grateful for any suggestions. I'll collate the responses and send it to the group. 

Thanks a lot. 

Warm regards

Viji

V.Vijayalakshmi, PhD

Assistant Professor (OB)

Department of Management Studies

Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Chennai, INDIA

Dear all

On Oct 4, 2015, at 12:19 PM, Viji Venkatraman <vijivenkatraman@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

Dear all

I am looking for suggestions for the First Session of a Cross-Cultural Management course for the MBAs. I play videos (for eg. East or West, Lost in translation, TED videos like "What's So Different About Cultures Anyway", "Riding the waves of culture", Derek Sivers etc), Global BINGO..

I want to do something different this time - would be grateful for any suggestions. I'll collate the responses and send it to the group. 

Thanks a lot. 

Warm regards

Viji

V.Vijayalakshmi, PhD

Assistant Professor (OB)

Department of Management Studies

Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Chennai, INDIA

I seed the exercise by telling everyone who the General Manager and HQ Consultant are (I randomly pick two people who've been given the "Oak" culture role), and two other people who are clerical or secretarial (I randomly pick two people who have been given the Aspen culture). Then I make sure that, when I hand out the Zin Obelisk exercise cards, the GM and HQ consultant each get at least one card with completely superfluous information that is unnecessary for solving the Zin problem. I also make sure that the two Aspen culture people each get at least one Zin card that is essential for solving the problem. (Happy to send the role descriptions as well).

One thing that is essential is emphasizing that they must act according to their role descriptions, but that they cannot share that info with anyone. 

Processing the exercise involves giving them the solution to the Zin problem, of course, but then processing how the discussion and problem solving occurred. If you successfully highlight any conflicts or frustrations that you can tie back to the roles (the GM pushing the group to consider info on his or her cards, when that info was irrelevant, or the clerk not speaking up with critical information, for example), you can use that when discussing how culture can play out in cross-cultural management.

Hope this helps.

I seed the exercise by telling everyone who the General Manager and HQ Consultant are (I randomly pick two people who've been given the "Oak" culture role), and two other people who are clerical or secretarial (I randomly pick two people who have been given the Aspen culture). Then I make sure that, when I hand out the Zin Obelisk exercise cards, the GM and HQ consultant each get at least one card with completely superfluous information that is unnecessary for solving the Zin problem. I also make sure that the two Aspen culture people each get at least one Zin card that is essential for solving the problem. (Happy to send the role descriptions as well).

One thing that is essential is emphasizing that they must act according to their role descriptions, but that they cannot share that info with anyone. 

Processing the exercise involves giving them the solution to the Zin problem, of course, but then processing how the discussion and problem solving occurred. If you successfully highlight any conflicts or frustrations that you can tie back to the roles (the GM pushing the group to consider info on his or her cards, when that info was irrelevant, or the clerk not speaking up with critical information, for example), you can use that when discussing how culture can play out in cross-cultural management.

Hope this helps.

On Oct 15, 2015, at 1:44 PM, Carolyn Mueller <cmueller@STETSON.EDU> wrote:

Folks,

A quick google search provided the Zen Obelisk exercise:

 

http://nationalqualitycenter.org/files/17186/15%20The%20Zin%20Obelisk%20Game.pdf

 

Looks interesting!

Carolyn Mueller

 

From: International Management Discussion List [mailto:IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Martin Gannon
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2015 2:12 PM
To: IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: First class - CCM

 

Hi Marcelline,

 

I am not familiar with the Zin Obelisk exercise and would appreciate the reference for it and how to obtain the writeup for it.  Thanks in advance.

 

Martin Gannon

 

From: International Management Discussion List [mailto:IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Marcelline Babicz
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2015 11:50 AM
To: IMD-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: First class - CCM

 

I teach an international HR course at Georgetown, I use the good old Zin Obelisk exercise (happy to send it to you if you don't have it), but I add a twist: They are a cross-functional team at a subsidiary that's geographically distant location from the parent company. Everyone gets one of two role descriptions that they cannot share with anyone else. The role descriptions are created based on Hofstede's model, with one role (which I've named "Oak") being from a low Power Distance/Individualist culture (the parent company's culture) and the other (which I've named Aspen) being a High Power Distance/Collectivist culture (the subsidiary's culture). 

 

I seed the exercise by telling everyone who the General Manager and HQ Consultant are (I randomly pick two people who've been given the "Oak" culture role), and two other people who are clerical or secretarial (I randomly pick two people who have been given the Aspen culture). Then I make sure that, when I hand out the Zin Obelisk exercise cards, the GM and HQ consultant each get at least one card with completely superfluous information that is unnecessary for solving the Zin problem. I also make sure that the two Aspen culture people each get at least one Zin card that is essential for solving the problem. (Happy to send the role descriptions as well).

 

One thing that is essential is emphasizing that they must act according to their role descriptions, but that they cannot share that info with anyone. 

 

Processing the exercise involves giving them the solution to the Zin problem, of course, but then processing how the discussion and problem solving occurred. If you successfully highlight any conflicts or frustrations that you can tie back to the roles (the GM pushing the group to consider info on his or her cards, when that info was irrelevant, or the clerk not speaking up with critical information, for example), you can use that when discussing how culture can play out in cross-cultural management.

 

Hope this helps.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marcelline Babicz

President

 

NewView International, LLC

9708 Montauk Ave.

Bethesda, MD 20817

Email: mbabicz@newviewintl.com

Phone: 847-724-7570

Mobile: 847-477-9935

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

On Oct 4, 2015, at 12:19 PM, Viji Venkatraman <vijivenkatraman@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

 

Dear all

 

I am looking for suggestions for the First Session of a Cross-Cultural Management course for the MBAs. I play videos (for eg. East or West, Lost in translation, TED videos like "What's So Different About Cultures Anyway", "Riding the waves of culture", Derek Sivers etc), Global BINGO..

 

I want to do something different this time - would be grateful for any suggestions. I'll collate the responses and send it to the group. 

Thanks a lot. 

 

Warm regards

Viji

 

V.Vijayalakshmi, PhD

Assistant Professor (OB)

Department of Management Studies

Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Chennai, INDIA