"Empty your mind, be amorphous, moldable, like water. If you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup, if you put water in a bottle it becomes the bottle, if you put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crush. Be like water, my friend," said Bruce Lee.
And it is precisely this oriental philosophy that many companies worldwide are currently relying on when hiring their human resources. They are looking for people who are malleable, capable of adapting to different situations, but also strong as water under pressure.
But how do we learn to be like water? In my particular case, I didn't need self-help books, online courses or a Zen retreat weekend. What worked for me was being part of multicultural teams.
This way I was able to acquire skills that helped me perform better in my job and that, later on, I discovered are very sought after soft skills in the market. A few months ago, while researching on the topic, I came across a LinkedIn article about the skills you need to get the job of your dreams and it listed some of the skills I gained. Here's what I learned:
Tolerance: interacting with different nationalities on a daily basis teaches you about cultures and customs different from your own. A few years ago I worked in a school with a young girl from Malaysia, who avoided physical contact altogether; whether it was a kiss on the cheek, a hug or a handshake. In an environment where kisses on the cheek and hugs were the official greeting, she did not fit in.
The children offered constant tokens of affection, so her rejection was initially shocking, but then we students and teachers learned to say "halo" and "hello," which means "hello" in Malay and English, the two languages spoken in her city. We gradually assimilated her greetings and she ours, and so we were able to use the differences to foster tolerance and take something positive away from it. Nowadays I am not so quick to judge and respect those things that I may not share or understand.
Ability to communicate: understanding ourselves with people who think similar to us is simple, the challenge is to do it with those who have very different ways of thinking from ours. The key is to speak in a way that others understand, and I am not just talking the same language, but to understand the mental state of people in order to adapt our messages.
This has been very useful in my career, I developed the ability to communicate with more people, which allows me to deal with a variety of clients and markets in my work. I currently offer my consulting services in Central America, India and the Dominican Republic; so I interact with people with different ways of thinking and saying things.
Adaptation: After graduating, my first job was in a company in the capital of my country and the main offices are located in the United States. So I was interacting with locals and Americans on a daily basis. I knew my way around my own culture, but how to fit into theirs? I had to first observe and learn the way they work. It took some getting used to, but I managed to adapt. Developing that skill made me flexible, awakened my desire to learn and gave me the ability to observe details.
Creativity: creative people are characterized because they consider alternatives other than the way things are traditionally done. For example, Nordic cultures have linear thinking and are used to doing things in the order 1,2,3,4; while circular cultures break this order, depending on what works best for them. So, if a process doesn't work, isn't it better to have several ways of thinking and verify which alternative works best? You realize that there are thousands of ways of doing things and they all have their Grade of validity. That diversity is valuable because individuals complement each other and because, above all, there is synergy.
Being part of multicultural environments allowed me to learn things that no textbook has been able to teach me; I grew as a person, broke paradigms, left the comfort zone and now I am a more complete professional, able to adapt to different environments.
It also allows you to see things through other people's eyes and is a way of getting to know the world in one place. I realized that all cultures have something to teach us and that it is precisely in the differences where the real value and learning lies.
And you, are you willing to be like water and become a better professional?
