Who is the fairest of them all……Part III…. Know your overseas people.

The most important thing is to understand the people and the environment of the country to which you are off-shoring your work; their culture and attitude, their thinking patterns and behavioral norms.

An average Indian is supposed to be a shy person who would not speak out and talk about his difficulties till he reaches the brink of the cliff. This, I believe, is not an appreciable quality in terms of western standards but the Indians perhaps cannot bring a sea change in their deep rooted attitudes over-night. Needless to say, that, such character trait of Indians is in no way indicative of the fact that they are inefficient.

I have seen and experienced situation where a bunch of newly appointed Indian lawyers in an LPO did not speak a single word despite not being able to follow the training that was being imparted by a British Attorney in India. They were all fresh pass-outs from law colleges and for each of them it was their first job. On the conclusion of the fortnight long training and after the departure of the British Attorney, these trainees Indian lawyers flooded their respective team leaders with queries which they ought to have raised in the training session. Fortunately the team leaders were efficient enough to deal with all queries of the trainee lawyers.

The above matter was discussed with the British law firm before they came down to India the next time to train the next batch of lawyers for the same project. This amiable gentleman who was a senior Attorney representing the British law firm suggested that at least one team leader be present on each of the training sessions. He instructed the team leads to spend at least half an hour everyday with the group of trainee lawyers and ask them to raise query about all that they could not understand during the training for the day. All such queries raised by the trainees with the team leads were to be to be conveyed by the team leads to the British Attorney who was imparting the training. This would allow him to take care of all such queries at the start of the training session on the next day. Thanks to this foreign lawyer who understood the cultural issue and cooperated whole-heartedly. Thereafter, the training session was a cake-walk for all concerned.