I recently got back from a vacation in Japan. Two weeks in a place I’ve never been to before and what an amazing experience that was. (Except for a bad case of jet lag. :))
Virtually everything in Japan is different than what I’m used to and that meant I had to look at the world from a fresh perspective.
For starters, the design aesthetic is simple, sparse and inviting with lots of wood. People are generally polite and don’t yell at you if you make a mistake – important in a city like Tokyo that has the same population as all of Canada. And the country is well organized and runs like clockwork.
So I thought I’d share a few lessons from my travels that we can apply to our work lives:
Learn the house rules. We generally have a set way of getting things done. But different cultures, like different clients have their own ways of doing things. A smart agency will learn the house rules and adapt. For instance, in Tokyo there are crowds of people at all times of the day or night yet they move smoothly from place to place. One reason is they walk on the left side or stand left on escalators. Occasionally a tourist will erroneously swim against the wave, but once you understand that, it’s easier to get around.
Give more than you get. Use your judgement and share your knowledge without being asked. But don’t be a know-it-all. A couple of times when we were trying to figure out how much money to put into the token dispenser and which buttons to press (before we realized there was an English option), a couple asked if they could help and showed us a few tricks. It wasn’t long before we were able to do the same.
Try something that scares the crap out of you. In my case it was eating. You see, I’m deathly allergic to nuts and sesame, two things you find in many Japanese foods. So there were tense moments every time I was about to have a meal. Yes, I had a note in Japanese saying what I could and couldn’t consume and yes, I was extremely careful. But my adrenalin was rushing as I learned to enjoy each new taste. Calculated risks can really pay off if you’re smart about it.
Effective communication means thinking beyond words. My son, who’d spent the past year teaching English in Thailand, was really good using hand gestures to make himself understood. As long as the will is there from both parties watch and listen, you can find a common language and understanding. You often see two people speaking English can only hear the sound of their own voices. You need more than that to make your ideas understood.
What have you learned from your travels that helped you perform better at your job? Hope you can share your experiences.
