What's school got to do with it?

How do the patterns we learned in the classroom as kids keep showing up in our adult lives at work---in our meetings, team projects, and relationships with managers and colleagues?

Several years ago I participated in a very fun and enlightening workshop at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication (SIIC) titled "Facilitating Intercultural Discovery." Early in five-day program, our instructors* asked three Japanese participants to prepare and act out a short skit for the rest of the class. We watched in silence as two of the women sat up straight in their chairs, hands folded on the desks, while the third woman stood in front of them speaking rapidly in Japanese. The two women in the chairs nodded occasionally in the direction of the standing women, and spoke quietly in response to questions from her.

The rest of us couldn't understand what they were saying, but it seemed obvious that the standing woman was in charge of the situation, while the two women in the chairs were subordinate and maybe even a bit frightened. They were clearly not inclined to contradict her or to speak without being spoken to first.

We were asked to identify what the situation was that they were acting out and most of us guessed correctly---that it was a classroom and that the standing woman was the teacher, while the two women sitting at desks were the students. For most of us, there was enough similarity between this scene and some distant memory from our early school days that we could recognize it as a teacher-student interaction. Our instructors used this skit as a way to help us discover some key Japanese values, and we talked about how these values show up in various aspects of Japanese life and work, and how they are similar to or different from our own cultural values.

What I didn't really grasp at the time, but have come to appreciate much more in subsequent years, is how closely the patterns established by those early interactions in the classroom are echoed in the in the workplace, with "boss" replacing "teacher, "subordinate" replacing "student," and "colleague" replacing "classmate." The titles may change, but the expectations remain pretty much the same.

For example, while I have some early memories of strict teachers and rote memorization in my early Catholic School experiences in the U.S., I also have memories of group projects and lively class discussions, of being expected to raise my hand to ask a question, and of writing papers in which I was expected to present not only what I learned from a particular book or article, but also to articulate my own opinion about it --- what I think and why? 

Later, as an adult in a U.S. workplace, without even realizing it I was already somewhat prepared to tackle projects in teams and to offer my ideas and opinions when someone asked for them. I was expected to experiment, to use 'trial and error,' and to learn on the job. My education had conditioned me to do those things pretty well.

I didn't really understand why my colleagues from different countries found some of these things challenging, while at the same time they showed incredible patience for other things like conducting extensive research or following detailed instructions from our boss. 

That skit and classroom discussion at SIIC opened my eyes to a whole new line of questioning, and new insights about the strong connections between the conditioning we  get in the classroom as kids, and the expectations and skills we bring with us into the workplace as adults.

Now, when I'm working with teams in multinational organizations, I often use the topic of education to open up conversations about cultural values and expectations about effective work styles and relationships. We explore how our early conditioning in the classroom has influenced things like our:

• Expectations about the role of a manager  (e.g. "hands-off" guide, wise teacher, or "father" figure)
• Approaches to problem-solving
• Willingness to offer (and accept) ideas and personal opinions
• Preferences for different methods of taking in and absorbing new information

...and much, much more.

One of my favorite resources to share about this topic is Dr. Cornelius Grove's article about  How People From Different Cultures Expect to Learn. Dr. Grove has done extensive research comparing Instructional Styles across cultures, and this article outlines five of the complex distinctions he's been able to draw between extremely "knowledge-focused" and "learner-focused" classrooms and meeting rooms.

He describes the formal, "face"- conscious atmosphere of the knowledge focused classroom (typical in Japan and many other countries), where the instructor delivers solid content to the learners, tells them what and how to learn, and views intense study as the path to mastery. In contrast, the extreme learner-focused classroom (typical in the U.S. and some other countries) is described as informal and friendly, where learners are encouraged to be largely self-reliant while the instructor facilitates their involvement, and where problem-solving is viewed as the path to mastery.

It's no wonder that people educated in classrooms at one extreme or the other come to the workplace with different expectations and apparently "natural" abilities. Asking questions or starting a discussion about what people remember from their school days can be a great way to uncover and explore some of these important differences and talk about how they're still influencing us at work today. 

 

 *the brilliant SIIC teaching team of Jack Condon and Nagesh Rao

 

 

Comments

[Ann Marie]

Willa + Freddi---glad you liked it! Thanks.

[Ann Marie]

Tobi---thanks for the note. Please feel free to repost a link to this article on your blog. I've heard about your blog and Art Every Day challenge from Christine M. Very inspiring! Thanks.

[Freddi]

I know this will be a great help to me as I start teaching Intercultural Communication this semester- Thanks Ann Marie!

[TKPiatek]

This is a great article - I want to post a link to it on my blog, Inspiring Ideas. (I have attended SIIC three times, each time has been an inspiring learning experience)

[Willa Hallowell]

Ann Marie, as you know, I am a very close follower of "Dr. Grove's" resarch (he has been my business partner for 22 yaers!). I deeply appreciate his perspective and am glad that you used it as a way of encouraging people to consider the influence of instructional styles on work behavior and attitudes.
Willa Hallowell, partner (the other one), Grovewell LLC, February 8, 2011