By Usha
Menon
 |
| Click to enlarge. Original image from www.worldmapper.org |
Over the lunch break at a board training session, we were sharing snippets from our lives. And one person, very philosophically, said ‘We live only once’. To which his colleague on the board asked, ‘Do we?’ The others at the table nodded appreciatively in unison, while reflecting on this perceptive query.
An
interesting and thought-provoking query – I thought.
Many of
us have adapted to visible behaviours that could be called ‘western’. Yet, our
beliefs and thinking are strongly influenced by our Asian culture, upbringing
and religion. A worldview that is cyclical rather than linear – the concept of
rebirth being just one case in point. To a large number of Asians, life itself
is not considered as one with a finite start and end. Hence when we use
management tools developed in cultures that have a logical, linear and finite
worldview, we tend to confuse our thinking.
Hence I
would like to share three observations.
Strategic planning
Many
nonprofits spend hours on strategic planning sessions and well-crafted
feasibility studies using tools widely used in domains where reason is
paramount. However, the nonprofit decision makers implement strategies based on
their instinctive understanding of the environment, making some of the planning
a mere technical exercise.
Here is
the drawback in this exercise. The vision, values and goals are important
concepts. But a linear roadmap generally used in the common strategic planning
process and step-by-step action plan does not take into consideration the more
intuitive ways in which Asians would like to get to their goals.
Therein
lies the frustration that some donors and grantmakers, social entrepreneurs and
investors, boards and consultants face when they look at the same thing through
different angles. One – where highly logical and institutional thinking is
overlaid on social impact organisations run by people who have great faith in
their beliefs and intuition and have proved that it works as well.
Hence,
an amalgamated approach that takes into consideration the alignment with the
philosophies and thinking of the implementer will ensure a better buy-in and
hence greater success.
The sea
is not just a body of salt water, but one that is filled with many fresh-water
rivers.
Evaluation
A
recent interview with Ms Yukiko Uchida, Japan’s foremost researcher on ‘happiness’, highlighted a specific
example of how cultural contexts mould the framing of research questions to
understand the level of happiness. Ms Uchida gave an example from her
classes at Kyoto University, where she teaches about the role of culture in shaping ideas of happiness. While her Japanese students usually rate
their happiness around five or six, she said studies have found Americans and
Europeans usually rate their happiness at eight or nine.
Ms
Uchida said, ‘Japanese judgment of happiness is not just, yeah, I’m happy
now, I check 10. They also think about social comparisons and time-frame comparisons’,
she explained. Her students have told her that if they check nine or 10, they
think they can only go downhill.
‘Absolute
judgment is very difficult for Japanese people. But they can judge their
happiness compared to other people. Like, “I’m okay compared with my neighbour
or my colleague”, which shows that relationship orientation is very important
for Japanese happiness.’
Nonprofit
leaders and executives in Asia need to be aware of, and develop or adapt
materials to, this aspect of our worldview. Blindly providing input into the
various matrixes, which are not generally designed with a focus on the
relational aspects of our thinking, will provide data that is incorrect, as
cited in the example above – that Japanese students are not unhappier than
their western counterparts, just that their interpretation of happiness is
different.
Communication
‘Yatha dristi, Tatha sristi’ ~ Vedic affirm in Sanskrit, which means that whatever our view is,
accordingly the whole world appears.
At a recent seminar in
Thailand, a very dynamic speaker shared the importance of activism in
civil society development. He then talked passionately about the need ‘to get
angry’ with the status quo. And that’s when he lost the plot. The
audience, made up largely of Thai nonprofits, shifted uncomfortably in their
seats. What was lost on the speaker was that purifying oneself of anger is
essential to Buddhist practice, which the majority of his audience was. In
Buddhism there is no such thing as justifiable anger.
Being
aware of the impact of religious and cultural beliefs and philosophy is the key
to communication with any audience. More so in Asia, which is home to over 60
per cent of the global population. A large number are followers of
Buddhism and Hinduism, which are ancient religions with well-established
traditions that cut deeply into their followers’ daily life and they are proud
of it.
The
same is relevant in the cultural context of storytelling. Asian communities, be
it through Korean drama, Indian cinema, or Indonesian wayang (traditional theatre), are
raised on a solid appetite of non-linear storytelling. Stories of duty,
sacrifice, honour and fate resonate very well with the audience. As communicators
for the life-and world-changing work done through social-purpose organisations,
we have a great opportunity to revisit and learn the basics of storytelling as
we know it in Asia. I will share more thoughts on this in my future
blogs.
I would
love to hear from you, your thoughts and comments on this post. Have you had
experiences that are similar or different from what I have shared?
