It was midnight in Shanghai and I was in my hotel room, on a conference call: on one side of the line there was one of my team members calling from NYC (where it was noon). On the other side, there was our C&B specialist sitting in our Head Office in Barcelona (where it was 5pm). We discussed about the salaries of our salespeople in Paris. In such moments you realize that, nowadays, the world is not as big as it used to be 20 years ago. Or, better said, distances are no longer a barrier. Probably many of you reading this post and based in CET area have had this morning a videoconference with your suppliers in Delhi or maybe you are waiting to 4:30pm to call your subsidiary in Mexico, right?
International environments have been part of my life since I started my professional activity. I’ve been honoured to live the phenomenon which has been lately called “Internationalization”. Throughout the last two decades, companies (some industries more actively than others) rushed into the expansion over foreign markets. The selection of studies, theories and conferences about internationalization is wide and, certainly, there are several experts on that subject.
However, I must confess that, working in a team made of 20 different nationalities whose routine is to create and implement hr projects in 50 countries around the world, I never thought about the concept “Internationalization”. I didn’t even think I was contributing to this phenomenon. Actually, I am convinced that Internationalization should not be considered a phenomenon. It is just pure human interaction.
I’ve always wondered why people, when in “business mode”, try to stubbornly adapt to a presumed professional manner which, instead of bringing two people closer, creates a wall between them. Think about that: when we are in “vacation mode” or in “after work mode” it is much easier for us to build a connection with someone whose reality is different from ours. And the reason why is very simple: in that kind of scenario, we use as link some core values which are usually ignored when we are in business mode. Those core values are genuinely human, globally shared by all nationalities and cultures, beyond religions or ages. During the last fifteen years, those human core values have been my most precious working tool kit and they have enabled me to create fruitful, solid business relations which brought very successful results.
My humble experience showed me the most powerful, resonant and shared human core value is positivism. Everybody likes to work with a smiling colleague, with someone who has positive expectations towards the other. Laughing and enjoying are clearly human verbs. Positivism does not mean living in another world far away from reality. We are all very aware that, when executing a project, we will certainly find obstacles on the way. But we all like that your colleague says: “we will make it!” with a positive attitude. And, together, we find the solution. It is precisely that positive feeling, so human, what brings added value, brings teams together and brings successful results (remember that the sign “+” means positivism and it is also the symbol of addition).
We will all find that speech perfectly good and logical but, unfortunately, there are still some organizations where logical positive thinking is considered a disruption. For them, a smiling person is not a “professional”. In the name of that presumed “professionalism”, people working in such organizations leave in standby their human sides and, instead, they try to desperately find which is the right strategy they need to use to close the business they have tomorrow with some Russian clients. And, what a paradox, after a long day of tense negotiations (as prescribed by the “professional” script), those people will bring their Russian clients to have dinner. And there, in a relaxed atmosphere, they will close that business. What a waste of time and energy! Why not creating an atmosphere that makes human communication easier from the beginning, when we are in a “professional” scenario?
My piece of advice then is to set our “business mode” free from such uncomfortable attire: let’s use human core values as the new business code! Instead of Internationalization, use Humanization as strategy in your global operations! Your company’s KPIs will be very thankful. And so will be your budgets for business dinners.
