I'm lucky. So lucky. I am at an amazing school with extraordinary people. I don't know how Darden concocts their magic formula; but it works. Throw 321 perfect strangers into 5 classrooms in August and the next May they emerge close friends and colleagues with bucketloads of respect and compassion for one another.
Does everybody feel this way? Maybe not. But I'm happy to and it's a naivete I'm willing to own up to should I be proven "wrong".
Case in point: today.
I ran into Sijia in Starbucks and we talked about the morning's Ethics discussion on Google in China. The timing was great because I had been part of a great conversation with Jonny's teammate Brian Buchholz (Google bean-counter) a few days prior about this very thing. Google employees are very passionate about the company's mantra of "Do no evil" and I can imagine the internal backlash should the company go against the general wishes of its employees. I've seen so few companies that have employees as invested and intellectually active with regards to their employers. Inspiring stuff. Put that in your Free Cash Flow model, punks.
But back to my classmate Sijia. She is from Shanghai and shared a lot of insight about the Chinese perspective on Google and on the American culture. The lens the American media and a lot of Americans put on their interpretation of foreign cultures is disturbing to a lot of us and is a constant reminder to me to think about fear and how I think that fear is at the root of a lot of our actions that compromise stakeholders. We fear that which we do not understand. We refuse to gain understanding for various reasons. We don't have time. We can't figure out how to gain understanding. We have had bad experiences with situation X before. We were told to fear it by other people we trust.
But does that absolve us, as business leaders, from confronting it and gaining understanding? I can't believe how much insight I've gained from the diversity of my classmates this year. Cultures which were completely foreign (pun...) to me are now much less mysterious. I think that it's helped me to overcome fears about the way they think of me; the way I think of them; the way we can talk to one another; the way we can't. Taking people out of the box and seeing them for what they are: human. Like me. Such a journey to arrive at this peace! And such a challenge to stay ahead of my fears.
I think we are afraid of China in this country. But if you could stand and talk to Sijia you would wonder what you were afraid of. She's just a person. Like you and me.
A Poem for the West
When we were the Sick Man of Asia, We were called The Yellow Peril.
When we are billed to be the next Superpower, we are called The Threat.
When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open markets.
When we embrace Free Trade, You blame us for taking away your jobs.
When we were falling apart, You marched in your troops and wanted your fair share.
When we tried to put the broken pieces back together again, Free Tibet
you screamed, It Was an Invasion!
When we tried Communism, you hated us for being Communist.
When we embrace Capitalism, you hate us for being Capitalist.
When we have a billion people, you said we were destroying the planet.
When we tried limiting our numbers, you said we abused human rights.
When we were poor, you thought we were dogs.
When we loan you cash, you blame us for your national debts.
When we build our industries, you call us Polluters.When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming.
When we buy oil, you call it exploitation and genocide.
When you go to war for oil, you call it liberation.
When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you demanded rules of law.
When we uphold law and order against violence, you call it violating human rights.
When we were silent, you said you wanted us to have free speech.
When we are silent no more, you say we are brainwashed xenophobics.
Why do you hate us so much, we asked. No, you answered, we don't hate you.
We don't hate you either, But, do you understand us? Of course we do, you said, We have AFP, CNN and BBC's...
What do you really want from us? Think hard first, then answer...
Because you only get so many chances.
Enough is Enough,
Enough Hypocrisy for This One World.
We want One World, One Dream, and Peace on Earth.
This Big Blue Earth is Big Enough for all of Us.
************************************
Duo-Liang Lin, Ph. D.Professor Emeritus of Physics
State University of New York at Buffalo
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3 comments:
As someone who has first hand knowledge of manufacturing in China, (I work for a hydraulic cylinder supplier), I'm in agreement with you. I'm curious as to your view on intellectual property rights of American companies operating in China. Our biggest fear is that one day our Chinese counterparts will become our competitor, not so much as our property is taken away from the Chinese government, but that our designs will used against us.
Everything that China is now, America was. Open a history book and see how it glorifies the industrial revolution many years ago. Think oppression of people, pollution, rapid economic growth, development of middle class, etc. Americans are the most hypocritical society on earth (next to every Muslim country). As one who goes there 6+ times a year for manufacturing, I welcome any bland mid-western American to strike up the "Oprah said this about China" Or the "I saw this on 20/20" conversation. Go there. You will be surprised.
As an American that has lived 2 years in China, I have seen how "fear of the enemy" manifests itself from both the American as well as the Chinese perspective. I think you hit the nail on the head by mentioning that there would be less fear if people from different countries actually met each other. Sadly, most of the world's cities aren't as diverse as Darden's MBA class. Because of this, most people must base their opinions of the outside world on 3rd party accounts. The problem lies in the fact that most of the information coming at you is distorted in some way. Western media will twist the truth in order to sell more papers or raise their ratings. Chinese media will twist the truth (as well as censor any dissenting voices) in order to achieve stability, glorify China, and allow the Communist Party to keep power. Politicians on both sides use fear as a tool to garner support. Who are you going to trust?
When people on both sides actually meet a few people from the other side, they can begin to see, contrary to popular belief, that China is not a nebulous Communist entity out to destroy democracy, or that America is not an Imperialist devil whose main aim is to ruin China, but rather that both countries are simply a collection of individuals that are generally good people. Sadly, unless of the world's cities magically become as diverse as NYC (or Darden's MBA class) overnight, the cycle of fear is doomed to perpetuate.
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