I worked for small and large companies in Korea for 13 years and have been
doing business in Silicon Valley for 12 years. Along the way, I
learned lots of interesting and surprising cultural differences between the two
In this video.
I'd like to share with you three of them and cover the rest in the next videos.
Please take a look at this picture.
Which one do you think this monkey must be grouped with, Panda or Banana?
Let me give you two seconds.
Whenever I ask this question to my students, almost
all Americans say Monkey and Panda,
almost all Asians say Monkey and Banana. Interesting,
isn't it?
Because Americans focus on each individual characteristics, analyze to
understand the core essence of each objects.
So they chose Monkey and Panda because they are mammals
Americans believe I am center of everything.
So I is always capital in English and their first name
comes first, not family name. They are very, very independent in nature.
And this is called Individualism.
Whereas, Asians group objects based on the relationship,
how they relate to one another.
So they chose Monkey and Banana, because Monkey likes eating Bananas.
Asians want to see the context to understand you better,
which organization you belong to, which family you are come from, etc.
So their family name comes first, not first name.
They are interdependent and use WE more frequently than I.
And this is called Collectivism. These fundamental differences
will explain most of the stories I'd like to share with you from now.
Difference One, 9 to 5 or Flexible, Work-from-
Home.
I went to work by 8:30 in the morning and came home late almost every day in
Korea because I had things to do,
And I went out for dinner with my colleagues and team members,
And sometimes I had to wait for my boss to go home.
So I used to get home after like 9 or 10PM, usually,
and my kids were sleeping. And, one day I was kinda drunk and,
and woke them up.
And they asked, Who are you?
I said, Your daddy, and they cried.
Not because they were so happy to see me,
but because they were scared by a stranger. Can you believe that?
But, fortunately, Korea is changing now.
Many companies are adopting 9 to 5
very strictly and considering Work and Life Balance more seriously than before
after pandemic,
many people predict more and more employees will work from home and that will
require from each employee very strong self-discipline,
time management, creativity, communication skills,
and more.
I think that could be a big challenge for Korean companies because they're not
used to it.
And they're not trained that way either. From preschool to high school,
students follow the schedule, set by their parents.
Moving from school to after school programs,
back to back, until late night. When they go to college,
that's the time for them to start choosing classes on their own.
On the other hand, American students come home by 3:00 PM.
Even for high school students, they choose themselves classes,
regular classes, AP classes, extra activities, summer interns,
summer volunteers, prioritize things to do, and make their decisions.
They're very well trained that way since young.
So they're pretty good at managing themselves at work.
Besides, they have already had flexible work hours and
work-from-home practices.
I had a meeting with a manager in IBM, and after the meeting,
she said, I'll go to gym and go home.
It was only 2:00 PM.
So I asked her, Really? don't you need to get an approval from your boss?
And she said, No, Why? I'm done for today.
It sounded like, Why are you asking that stupid question?
And one of my friends in Google said, I can work anytime, anywhere.
As long as I meet my performance objectives,
it doesn't matter if I come to the office or just work at home.
Difference Two, Mentoring or Coaching.
When I entered company in Korea, there were six members in my team,
general manager, deputy general manager, two managers,
assistant manager, and myself.. The assistant manager was my mentor.
He joined the team about three years before me.
I had to learn everything from him. If I bring a problem to him,
he gave me a direct answer what to do.
The team leader was the mentor for the managers.
And one of the managers was the mentor for the assistant manager, and the assistant
manager was mentor for me. In Asian culture,
that's very typical way of learning things, Top Down,
because, according to the doctrines of Confucius,
Asians learned they must respect experience,
age and seniority.
So they must serve seniors in town,
teachers in school, and bosses at work just like their own parents
and obey them without questions. Whereas, in Silicon Valley,
when an employee bring a problem to his manager,
the manager asks him questions, makes him think, and helps him
solve the problem himself. This is called Coaching style.
Becoming a good coach is number one behavior for best Google managers,
Google founders, and former CEO, Eric Schmidt, also had coaches.
And it is common CEOs and executives in Silicon Valley have
outside of coaches. Americans are very good at exchanging
ideas, different perspectives,
asking provoking questions and getting good ideas from there.
Scholars say that's originated from Greek philosopher,
Aristotle and the City-States of Greece.
So I can easily see many discussions,
debates and presentations in American school system.
People describe this time as unstable, uncertain,
ambiguous, complex, disruptive, and so on.
Yesterday's knowledge and success equation may not work for tomorrow.
So, in this rapidly changing world,
I think, Coaching is better than Mentoring in developing employees.
Difference Three, Long Service or Frequent Move.
I worked for one company for 12 years in Korea.
It's easy to find a person who worked for one company for more than 20 years.
Fortunately,
my bosses liked me, recognized my abilities, and treated me very
well. They became my big brothers and sometimes we had family
dinners outside. I really enjoyed my company life.
It was very strong motivation for me to work hard and stayed in one place for
more than a decade.
Even though sometimes I got phone calls from headhunters who were offering me much
better salaries and benefits packages. In Asia,
a company is an organism where the social relations become an integrated part
of what holds things together.
Individuals sometimes sacrifice personal interests for the group goal.
In contrast, in Silicon Valley,
people move from A to B after one or two years,
sometimes longer, move to C easily.
I have seen many American friends move to much smaller companies and even
startups from giant companies like Apple, Google,
Facebook, etc. For Americans,
a company is
just a modular place where they use it for personal goals.
And members enter relationships for individual interests.
So, it's like a professional sports team, tied by a contract.
Please leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you.
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See you next week.