The first dance group I saw was a group from Seoul Korea. A group of 3 very talented dancers dressed in black and performed a story about conflict, control of others, etc. All in all it was interesting. The dancers executed their piece with a high technical level and the story was interesting. The next group from Montreal (in the picture) performed a very interesting idea. It starts with a musician playing the trumpet and another wind instrument (its names escapes me). As he is playing two dancers enter the scene representing beings created by the music or rather by the musician's intention. The story continues with elements from video playback; the dancers and musician represent with their movements a video being played back back and forth and freezing. They also represent video static and other things. Initially the musician does not notice he has created these two beings with his music but slowly the beings start interacting with the musician until he notices them. After a few moments and after overcoming the initial shock the musician starts interacting with the newly created beings through dance, music, etc. For me it was a very powerful idea, executed beautifully by the dancers in a highly technical manner, including the musical talents of the musician.
And why is this important? Well, it is important to me in many levels. I have been working for a company called Myriad creating the user experience of a mobile messaging application. It just so happens that the leadership has changed how the company works and has affected my work for the worse during the last 9 months at a point where I have started looking for another job. Before december of 2012 I was part of a team of user experience designers, graphics designers and product managers in charge of the design of this messaging application. During most of 2012 we did a major redesign of the application and I feel we did a fantastic job in creating the product vision and design. However during this time the original company that I was hired by, Synchronica, was bought by Myriad. And slowly but surely we began feeling its effects around November and more strongly after December.
For multiple reasons my team mates either left the company on the own or were fired. I am the last one standing and I now report to another designer in Korea (hint hint). When the Montreal team was still intact we already had a few difficult arguments with the Korean leadership. Mostly related to cultural differences which I tried, and failed, to explain to the Korean leadership. These cultural differences have become extremely evident in the last 4 months.
In today's dance event I saw the result of these cultural differences and it hit me like a pack of bricks.
More background: In the past few years I have been interested in what is needed to be creative or rather to have a creative team and how to have innovation in a company. With the works mostly from Ken Robinson I became convinced that consistent innovation and creativity is an organic business. Creativity and innovation are part of the human nature but can only be obtained by creating the proper environment. It cannot be dictated by rules, processes or money. The same way as a farmer cannot mandate how a plant will grow, the farmer can only stride to create the optimal conditions for the plant to grow itself in the best possible way. In the same way a company can only create the optimal conditions for creativity and innovation to occur.
Last year, 2012, as part of the previous design team we were given the broad mandate to improve the design of the application with very high level guidelines. Our manager trusted us enough not to impose any of his ideas. However he participated in most of our brainstorming and design sessions acting like another designer and only reminded us from time to time the business goals of this application. So we went to town and did a major rethinking of the whole thing. Long work hours that did not feel like such at all. Very satisfying work I must say.
Then the Korean leadership and design members appear into the picture late last year with some hidden agendas too (not a problem usually). However what was immediately evident where the cultural differences between Canada and Korea (remember the dance teams today? Seoul and Montreal? synchronicity?).
Probably a couple of years ago I had read about the concept of "power distance index"(http://geert-hofstede.com/dimensions.html). And during the early arguments with the Korean leadership it became evident to me that this was a textbook cultural difference. The first topic that became an argument between the Montreal team and the Korean leadership was that he felt "we were disrespecting his position as design director" by not complying to his demands. For which it begged for a "WTF?" response from our group. Me coming from a similar cultural background (Mexico) than Korea and having experienced first hand these cultural differences I immediately spotted the problem which I began to explain to the Korean director. I followed my explanation with an email with links to these topics to no avail.
Next move from the Korean director and another executive was to send two Korean female designers to "help" in the design. Unfortunately for me when the Korean designers arrived in April I was the only person left from the previous team. During the first week I felt some problems but I assumed they were due to the language barrier so I did not think of them much. Next week these problems were "clarified" by a higher level executive by putting me under the leadership of one of these Korean designers. Initially I did not think too much about these changes. However problems started to show up constantly. The main types of problems are related to following rules, creativity and innovation. For the Korean designers in my team they perceive that best work they can do is by copying what other applications do (Kakao talk, line and whatsapp). Which I agree to a certain extent. But the most annoying problem is the constant reminder about following rules, doing what you are told and doing as everybody else. At this point it even became an issue showing at the office on time which never had been an issue before and has not been an issue with the other teams in Montreal. After the first week of April it became apparent to me that I needed to find another job.
So I have been thinking about this situation, creativity and innovation. Under the new work environment I do not think innovation is possible in a consistent manner. There environment is not conducive to creativity and innovation. There is no space for trying things out, mistakes are highly frowned upon and forget about brainstorming sessions; you only have to follow what the team leader says.
Back to cultural differences. According to Hofstede the Power Distance Index is the perceived power attributed to members of a group depending on their position in a hierarchy. If the power distance index is high then members of a group accept the power of the person above them in the hierarchy without question; this power is given by the sole hierarchical structure and no justification is needed. If the power distance index is very low then there is very little perceived power associated to the person above the hierarchy; and hierarchies are in place for convenience only. In countries with low power distance index people believe that managers should facilitate and empower subordinates. In countries with a hight power distance index people believe that managers should be benevolent dictators.
As I mentioned before, the first problem with the Korean director was that "we disrespected him". He told us that "we should respect him because he is the design director". This concept is very dissonant to a Canadian mind because in the Canadian culture (and other countries where the power distance index is low) respect is earned. Another problem is doing as you are told. In a low power index country or organization you are expected to be empowered, be bold, create new ideas on your own or in a team, challenge accepted ideas, etc. A manager can only give broad guidelines but he or she is expected to let the subordinates do their best work, and empower them to do so. In a country or organization with a hight power distance index subordinates are expected to do as they are told by their manager.
And what about the dancers? Even though both groups of dancers (Korea and Canada) where highly proficient in the technical aspects it was very evident to me that the group from Montreal were bold, experimented with new ideas, props, etc. The story became more salient than the technical aspects of their dance. You could even see it in the way they were dressed: the Korean team had matching black and purple clothes, the team from Montreal were all dressed different and according to the story they where telling. The group from Montreal was made of two dancers and one musician playing the trumpet (not a dancer), they included concepts from video, dreams and spirituality. To me the differences between the teams and similarities to my work situation were uncanny.
During the time I have lived in Canada and specially in Montreal I have noticed the importance in individuality and empowering the individual in this society. It is very common to see on the street people dressed in outrageous ways, while people respect your individuality. Different people are expected to have different ideas and this is accepted as normal. For example: In Canadian public schools students do not wear a uniform and are allowed to wear their hair in whichever way they wish. In contrast Mexican schools require the use of a uniform and are strict regarding hairstyles. In Canada I can wear bermudas to work whereas in Mexico I would be given the evil eye even if I wear bermudas on the street let alone at the workplace.
My conclusion is that it is very difficult to have creativity or innovation in a consistent way in a country with a high power distance index. I am not saying it is impossible but the only avenue to be creative in such a country is by being some type of a rebel. Whereas in a country with a low power distance index and high regard to individuality it creates an environment more conducive to creativity and innovation. To me this is a structural problem, meaning, these basic elements such as power distance index, individuality, etc determine whether a country or organization can have innovation in a consistent manner. And going back to Ken Robinson, innovation cannot be mandated it can only spring by providing the appropriate environment.
