Learning India

Neil Miller March 29, 2016 Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, Transportation

What To Do If You Are In A Car Accident in India

Editor’s note: Dear Mom and Dad, the kids are ok. Everything I learned here happened a long time ago, so no need to worry.

This is one of those articles you don’t read until it’s too late.

Driving in India is dangerous. More road fatalities occurred in India in 2013 than in Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, the US, Russia, and Pakistan combined. (Those countries ranked numbers 3-8 respectively. China was #1.)

However, based on the rules of driving in India, you might actually be surprised at how few accidents you get in. I drove in India for several years before I had my first official accident. Here is what you need to know. [Read more…]

Neil Miller March 11, 2016 Filed Under: #PowerPlays, Team Management

10 Ways to Create an Ego-Friendly Workplace

My friend is the CEO of a major division of a huge Indian conglomerate. He oversees operations in multiple countries and manages a workforce in India and the US. He has a brilliant business mind and brought this division up from substantial losses to profit in a difficult industry.

Yet when I chat with him, the thing that’s always on his mind is dealing with his Chairman and all the other conglomerate leaders. From the outside it looks like a giant mess. One CEO doesn’t like the other one because of something that happened ten years ago. The Chairman’s son is being groomed for a top position, but no one wants to be pushed out. So on and so on.

Ego works around the world, but he seems to pop up in India a lot. He’s a tough person to work with because it seems like he takes all of your emotional energy, and with one bad move, he’ll run you out of town.

Ego doesn’t work just in the C-suite. She’s there among middle managers and freshers and everywhere in between. You can never escape from working with her.

There are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to working with Ego. One is to ignore him, pretend that he doesn’t exist, and beat the hell out of anyone you might think is working with him. The other is to worship him and spend all of your time appeasing him. If you’ve been in India long enough, you’ve likely seen the failure of both of these approaches. [Read more…]

Neil Miller February 10, 2016 Filed Under: #PowerPlays, Team Management

How to Develop Leaders in India

In the previous article, we discussed a different way to think about leadership development in India – specifically that a good leader can be very connected without being dependent. Here are some specific strategies you can use to practice this kind of leadership development.

1. Publicly Anoint Leaders

Make a public show of putting a developing leader in a new position. This lets him know you have confidence in him and makes sure everyone else knows it too. [Read more…]

Neil Miller February 1, 2016 Filed Under: On the Job, Parent Leadership, Team Management

What Kind of Leader Are You Developing?

If you are a foreign worker in India, one of your primary responsibilities is likely leadership development. It could be identifying leaders at the top level who can carry on countrywide operations, or it might be building up team and division level leaders capable of handling issues without much foreign involvement.

Indians are more than willing and able to take on these roles, and more often than not they succeed without any problems. However, it is also very common to see foreigners struggling to identify and develop quality leaders from within their organizations. Two-year assignments for foreigners balloon into four or five years because the ‘leadership pipeline’ seems to produce nothing more than a drip.

If you find yourself struggling with leadership development in India, it might be a case of misplaced cultural assumptions. [Read more…]

Neil Miller January 13, 2016 Filed Under: Daily Living

Is India Safe?

“Are you safe in India?”

If you come to India often, you probably get this question a lot.

My impulse answer is usually, “Yes, things are unbelievably safe here.” I can send my wife and kids on a train, knowing the other passengers (complete strangers up to that moment) will take good care of them. My wife can go out on her own in the evening without much worry. In Mumbai, Reader’s Digest recently left 12 wallets with about Rs. 3,000 each on the streets to see how many would be returned. Our Mumbaikars returned 9 of them (2^nd most in the word).

Yet, there are still authentic reports of petty crime, rape, corruption, and mob violence that are at least enough to make relatives worry. (This article discusses crimes done by a human intending to harm you. If you are looking for staying healthy in India, see the link.)

Many factors affect your safety in India. Men have very few concerns, whereas women need to be more cautious. The region of India you live in can make a big difference. For example, I would not be as comfortable with my wife going out on her own in Delhi as opposed to Chennai. Travelling with children actually endears you more and makes you less likely to be the target of a serious crime. [Read more…]

Neil Miller December 30, 2015 Filed Under: Be Prepared

The Overwhelmingly Complete Guide to Packing for India

The questions start to sit in as you stare at your full closet and your empty suitcase. Will I find my razors in India? Do they have Vegemite? Should I bring cotton balls?

Emotions drift from one side of the pendulum to the other. I’ll just buy everything when I get there vs. I will take every paperclip I own.

When you start packing for India, begin with four rules that will help you make your decisions on your packing list.

Rule #1: If a very stressed-out version of yourself might possibly go on a rampage if this item is lost, stolen, or broken – don’t bring it.

Things have a way of breaking, rusting, corroding, and falling apart here. The last thing you need on a bad day is to have your maid accidentally knock over your Stradivarius and watch it splinter on your tile floors. [Read more…]

Neil Miller December 18, 2015 Filed Under: Be Prepared, Cultural Adaptation

How to Not Look Like a Tourist in India

A tourist is defined as someone who is travelling or visiting a place for pleasure. Yet, those who claim to be ‘world travelers’ avoid this label like Salman Khan avoids driving.

The reason, of course, is that this image comes to mind when we hear ‘tourist’:

And no one wants to stick out like this.

But in order to avoid that, people also stick out like this: [Read more…]

Neil Miller November 24, 2015 Filed Under: #GreyIsWhite, Podcast, Team Management

Episode 13: Craig Storti

As you can tell if you listen to this podcast, I was really excited to get to have a personal conversation with Craig Storti. It was only after reading his book, Speaking of India, that I was first able to pinpoint some of the unique challenges that face anyone working with India.

Craig, who started out as a US Peace Corps volunteer, is extremely down-to-earth, and shares a lot of the wisdom he has gained over his many years.

Here are some highlights:

Why being an expat doesn’t qualify you for cultural understanding
What’s in the new edition of Speaking of India?
Virtual working tips
How different India is today vs. the Y2K years
Why the best advice is still to pick up the phone
The current state of intercultural training
What Craig still struggles with about India

We reference a few articles in this conversation that you can find here:

You can find Craig’s website here, and all of his books on Amazon here.

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