This course was one of the highlights of the week. The purpose of the day was to break down the many cultures and people of the group toward one common denominator. Obviously we are all there for similar goals however each of us had a different perspective due to the varied backgrounds. The session was taken by a French Professor who specialised in intercultural companies. He helped bring together the variety of cultures in Airbus for example. It's a fascinating element of business and something that can be a real problem for companies if not handled properly. The day started with a card game. The goal was to learn the game and play the game with the catch being we couldn't talk. In each of our groups, we began playing and it didn't take long before everyone understood the rules and could play together. Where it got interesting was when the top two scorers and the bottom loser was to move tables for a new round. It was upon playing the new round that the problems started. The issue was that the game had changed. A hand that would normally have won me a point didn't. It took quite some time before we realised the rules had changed. There were non-verbal fights and even someone from another group was so annoyed that she gave her team the bird and stormed off! I took a different approach and didn't fight things. This meant I lost a few hands but started to watch and juggle what I thought was a good hand until I could play to win. Each person had their own approach. We rotated again but this time people expected a rule change so each group learnt to first establish the home rules before playing the game. It was absolutely fascinating and when we took time to reflect on how this would effect our coming year it was a really powerful lesson. We spent the rest of the day doing exercises that showed each of our different backgrounds and learning more about the pitfalls of not understanding different cultures in the work place. We have the option later in the year to take an elective that focuses on this same issue in more detail.
I had sent Emma to Heidelberg while I had to go to class that day. We met up afterwards and headed out to the Bad Durkheim Wurstmarkt. It's meant to be the worlds biggest wine festival. Everything in Germany seems to be the 'World's Biggest'! In any case, it was a typical German festival with thousands of people, plenty of show rides and food. The Bad Durkheim version includes an area in the middle of the showgrounds where one can sample local wines. After introducing Emma to the German Currywurst and Pork rolls we found some lovely local wines to sample. While leaning on the bar sucking down a Grauburgunder (Pinot Grigio) we began a lovely conversation with an older couple from Heidelberg. It turned out they did much of the graphic design to the Mannheim Business School! They were absolutely lovely people and told us many stories about the area and the people. Loved it. After a couple more beers and wines we headed back to Mannheim on the hour long tram ride with a million others jammed in. Great fun!!
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ajoest/MannheimSeptember#
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