Bridging Cultural Divides

Finally found a moment to stretch and relax at my designated window seat-15G. It was so good to know I would be back with my family in a couple of hours. Although we kept in touch daily, there is nothing like a good hug, home cooked food and a good night's sleep without emergencies.
The pilot began his welcome message: "We are pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight." A sudden burst of laughter along the rows reinforced my previously enjoyable experience with this airline.
Three months seems like a long time, I thought to myself as I closed my eyes and remembered my first project management meeting at the shipyard. Although conversion of a cargo ship into a day-cruise casino vessel had inherent complexities, being surrounded by a team of competent professionals whom I trusted based on long acquaintances had added a dimension of comfort to the equation.
My main concern had stemmed from the shipyard's lack of reputation for good quality workmanship. Shipyard personnel and management were comprised of employees from different countries with different opinions and experiences related to meeting quality standards.
A Chinese Fable
I foresaw areas of potential conflicts and decided to dedicate the beginning of the first team meeting to these concerns. After welcoming my team, I began with a short story an old Korean friend had told me: In China, old people grow a chin beard. Legend suggests respect should be paid to older people based on the length of their beard: The longer the beard, the higher the respect.
I paused for a moment and scanned the faces of my colleagues. The early morning coffee apparently hadn't kicked in yet, and talking about history rather than ships did not help either. I continued: In a village up in the mountains lived an old man. He always felt isolated from the community, and when he reached the age of 70 and was unable to grow a beard longer than down to his chest, he felt his exclusion from the community was due to his short beard.
Interestingly enough, I noticed a sudden change in the attention level of my audience as I progressed with the plot.
One night, the old man was crying. He prayed to have a beard that would stretch all the way to the floor. Despite not being a religious man, he was able to strike a sensitive nerve with heaven. And a voice from heaven asked the old man, "Are you sure this is what will make you happy?" "Yes!" responded the surprised yet determined old man. Suddenly, both of his legs were amputated, and his beard indeed touched the floor.
The unexpected ending of the story sent laughter across the room, which finally wakened the remaining team members. Now that the attention level had reached its optimum, it was time to deliver the punch line: The moral here is that you should always ensure your instructions are fully understood in the context of the desired goals and underlying reasons, especially when dealing with people with a different cultural orientation and background.
I took off my reading glasses and directed my comments to my team: "You would be surprised how cultural background gets in the way of engineering."
An Environment for Excellence
My train of thought was derailed when the cabin crew, in the true spirit of our pilot and as part of their safety routine, announced with great humor that "although there may be 50 ways to leave your lover, there are only four ways to get out of this airplane."
By this time, laughing had became part of the routine, and everyone felt like a large group of spring break college students on their way to Cancun. The skyline of Miami Beach, FL, was on the horizon when the pilot completed the enjoyable experience by announcing, "Thank you for flying with us. We appreciate your business. We hope you enjoyed giving us your business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride." An organizational culture can't be cultivated through a set of procedures. It is only through shared vision and top management commitment that a quality culture and environment for excellence can be understood and allowed to flourish.
Sharing the same values across the organization is vital for achieving the end results. As we finally made our way through the gate, I was wondering what it took to cultivate this Southwest Airlines' culture and whether the shipyard would ever be able to reach this high level of excellence across the organization.