Effects of culture on work practices

I’ve noticed behaviour like this in organizations over the last several years, especially in India (or with those from India working elsewhere)…

Some people don’t respond to a Microsoft Outlook meeting request, especially if there is a conflict or even if they just don’t plan to attend the meeting — Fear of looking bad, or still worse, they don’t want the person who sent the request to feel bad that they aren’t attending his/her meeting!!

(Am sure there are several more examples…will keep adding to this)

How is ‘Design Thinking’ different?

“How is design thinking different from process re-engineering or business consulting?”
BusinessWeek’s Bruce Nussbaum responds in this video (damn thing refused to embed in WordPress!).

I think this answer does help in understanding the differences for the-already-informed, those who at least have bare minimum understanding or awareness about ‘design thinking’ (or similar topics), but it is unlikely to address questions of those who are completely new to it.

In my work, as I talk to several clients in the Indian industry, I see a huge need for simplifying and demystifying these terminologies and communicating them in a much simpler, yet emphatic manner.

These are some of the typical questions I’ve been asked quite often:

• “So, you do market research?”
• “My sales team (especially in FMCG companies) are already out there in the field and are meeting customers on a day-to-day basis and observing them. How is this different from that?”
• “What do you guys finally give us (deliverables)?”
• “How can you study just 10-20 people and make conclusions about users across the entire country?”
• “Can you make this process more objective?”
• “Users don’t know what they want. There’s no point asking them.” (This one is a classic)!

Having said that, (thankfully) there are those clients who’re much more aware, open and even very excited about “alternative” ways of approaching the same old business problems. In fact, when I tell them I don’t do focus groups, some of them actually look relieved!