Unity Amid Diversity
Every week when I go to the church –The Calvary Baptist Church, I can not help not to amaze of how can so many diverse races and ethnic groups of people sitting together in the same hall. We have the American white, black and brown. We also have the Asian yellow and various shades of tan.
In Asia, it is quite common a phenomenon to see people group with small cultural pockets scattered all over the places. But in a room sitting about 200 people with all sorts of background is astonished. We have, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Burmese, Philipinos, Indian, Singaporean, Nepalese, Karen, Thai, and yes, the Americans, Canadians, Australians, and Europeans.
Although this is a wonder, but it is by no means a secret. There is a common link behind who threads and unites all together. The miracle is God.
This reverent harmonious situation can actually be applied to many of our daily life aspects. One of them is the way International Corporations are conducting their business.
In a typical Japanese firm like Toyota, we will normally see the workers stand in the factory lawn doing some morning wakening up exercise before all are allowed in to the working plant. At around 10 A. M. in the morning or 3 P. M. in the afternoon, employees will go through a round of few minutes on the job exercise by standing and do body twists to relax the muscles.
The European would prefer to do it with an indigenous touch of high lighting local custom. Thus we see what we had never seen before of the Thai traditional WAI (a gesture of putting up your hands facing each other to pay respect) to the customers when they check out at the cashiers in all crossed border super stores. These include Tesco-Lotus (British), Carrefour (French), and Big-C (British),
The Americans are very careful of not to do anything against their own national legal requirements. Hence, we see international giants with emphasizes in Anti-trust, Due-diligence, Insider-trading, Social-responsibility, Bribery, Business-ethic, and what have you when operating overseas.
The Thais like to export as can be seen in the exports figure which is always hovering at around 60 % of GDP for decades. When a Thai company goes abroad, it will take along with Thai classical dances, hand made souvenirs, Thai food and the like.
I have nothing against all these. I think they are very good in a sense. I am only pin pointing out that we might miss the core target of actual promoting the unity and get out the best performances from employees if we do not apply the common link behind all the diversities and apply it.
I know there is a common link in every variety. Pizza may not be the same as spaghetti, burger, or French onion soup, but cheese would be the common link to thread them all. So, instead of promoting pizza, what the Multi nationals companies should do is to promote cheese within the firm.
Take for Colgate Palmolive, it is fine to have all the features like Global time, Global weather, Global holiday, News about other companies, Rate most popular external news articles, Employee polls, Fact and/or Quote of the day, Personalized thank you e-card, Search people by job or title in her home page. But more should be devoted to the company’s common link as the main feature in the page. That is a good start, but what is the common link that will thread all her diversified groups of employees scatted all around the globe. Would Global time, Global weather and Global holiday sufficed?
I think, Colgate has one common link in among all employees which is the tooth paste and Colgate should seize it to bond all groups of people. Simply put, Colgate should have her people concentrate more on toothpaste than other global matters.
This principle can also be applied to situations like family where sex, age, education, and other personal backgrounds are so different. Find the common link in your family and magnify it to its’ fullest advantages. I am sure divorce rate will fall and generation gap tension will reduce.
When I go to The Calvary Baptist Church again on Sunday, I will remember to pray for you all to be able to grasp the God created amazing link in your particular situation. I will also pray that you will be able to apply it to your advantages once you have discovered it.
May God bless you all.