#power distance

[hayleylovesjessica]

My partner's a high school English teacher, and she had her 11th-grade AP English Composition kids read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers as their summer assignment. Because I've always had a kind of love affair with airplanes and aviation (in another life, a bitch might have been a pilot), she suggested that I read chapter 7 of Outliers, which is all about how cultural difference, especially in regard to "power distance," can lead to catastrophic consequences, e.g., plane crashes. So, I read it earlier today. It was definitely fascinating -- and very, very sad. It's interesting that the fix was basically ensuring greater English language proficiency and enforcing English language usage among pilots from high-power distance countries.

[windowtoindia-mc-blog]

Inequity from birth

People in India has been accepting the inequalities for centuries, and everyone can see that people is divided into different groups; this is the caste system that has roots on the religion and is based in the division according to the labor and power of people, they know perfectly how it works and people expect to be divided in this unequally way.

Professor Geert Hofstede, defined this acceptance for the inequalities as “Power Distance”

In India is evident that there is a hierarchy, and the biggest problem with this system was that under its rigidity, the lower castes were prevented from aspiring to climb higher, and, therefore, economic progress was restricted.

If you belongs to a family on the top of the hierarchy you will have different rights and you will be able to enjoy of all the benefits, you will have access to an education, thus in future you will be occupy a good position in the best companies, and why not be the owner of your company, and the people in the lower level will almost worshiping you.

From the other hand the people that belong to the lower level of the hierarchy have lost the desire to improve themselves, to be better, because there is definitely no chance. The only way is accept and be used to the way of live that were given from birth to them.

[accadence]

Stop Being Micromanaged

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[blindspotsocial]

How do we spark creativity and innovation in order to generate innovative solutions to today's problems and create opportunities for tomorrow? How did the industrial revolution generate so many innovative ideas? How does Silicon Valley generate so many innovative ideas? Where do great ideas come from?

There are many interesting names given to the creative process that brings people together to generate innovative ideas and solutions. The bright guys at Creative Innovation have coined a rather tricky name for it - positive human collisions. That may sound a little awkward but it gets the message across.

Innovations and breakthroughs happen when people with different mindsets, different skill sets, different viewpoints, different approaches and from different backgrounds put their minds together around a problem to, well, create a positive collision that sparks creativity and innovation. Sounds good, as long as all the friction and energy created are indeed positive and constructive.

The big question then, will creativity and innovation flourish in a culture where diversity of thinking, mindsets, ideas and viewpoints are discouraged? What will happen if you positively challenge or disagree with your boss? Take a look at where Malaysia is on the Power Distance Index ranking. Can you openly and positively challenge the views, opinions and approaches of people higher up in the hierarchy? Can you have 'positive collisions' with your colleagues and peers? Are you at liberty to have different views, different opinions, different approaches and different mindsets from the shepherd and the herd?

Bottom line is, if we really want creativity and innovation, it's not just about the big spending, big brouhaha, big carnival and big ceremony. It's about changing the way we do things in this country, and the way the leaders of this country unleash the potential of the country's human capital. Change or be changed.