words – Page 11 – understand-culture

Anstupsen

anstupsen – to nudge, to prod.

In a January 2015 article in DIE ZEIT Tina Hildebrandt writes critically and with irony about the Merkel government engaging experts in order to study what makes the German people happy, and how to move them in that direction. Anstupsen is what the experts call their method.

The experts are developing kleine Entscheidungshilfen – little decision making aids – to prod German citizens in that direction. That is precisely the problem, Hildebrandt writes: “An administration should persuade, not nudge.”

The article demonstrates how quickly Germans get angry when one tries to push them in a certain direction even if only with the help of “little decision making aids.” The slightest suspicion that any action aims to get a decision is immediately counterproductive.

The Germans sense any form of nudge or prod as drängen – as pressure, as pushing. Germans want to be persuaded. And when they make a decision they reject any kind of outside influence.

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms, such as “cruel kindness”. For Americans, “a decision making process” is in many ways an oxymoron.

Processes can offer structure, consistency, overview, monitoring. At best they can support the creation of decision options. In the end, decisions are people-driven. Drawing on personal and professional experience, intuition and judgement, a person or a group of persons makes the decision.

Americans are skeptical of decision making processes, especially when they attempt to substitute them for people. Processes have neither experience, nor intuition nor judgement.

Disaggregate

Disaggregate: to separate into component parts; to break up or apart. Americans not only aggregate, they also disaggregate.

A manager has a spontaneous idea, calls a meeting with more than a handful of experts to discuss it, then just as quickly disbands it noting that she and they should continue thinking about it. A corporate-internal project, generously funded at first, but which does not produce the initial results expected, has the “plugged pulled” on it quickly.

When low earnings over three straight quarters has investors grumbling, executive management reacts quickly with corrective action: close plants, layoff workers, hire a consulting firm to recommend a cost-cutting program.

At least until the end of the Second World War, the United States maintained a modest standing army, forcing it during war to ‘ramp up’ as rapidly as possible, only to then after the war demobilize just as rapidly.

Aggregate. Disaggregate. Quickly. It’s how Americans utilize resources.

Holistic

Especially important to Germans is explaining connections, relationships and interdependencies. This signals that the presenter has understood the subject matter in its entirety. A holistic understanding, in turn, is based on a clear, methodical, systematic approach.

In contrast, a particularistic approach – breaking down complexity into its component parts and focusing on the most important – gives the Germans the impression that the whole has not been sufficiently understood.

Germans are taught at a young age to look for connections, relationships and interdependencies. Teaching methods and materials in primary schools stress analysis and discussion of the bigger picture. An approach based on particulars and examples is used with only younger pupils.

The focus on the system – on relationships and interdependencies – is further developed at the university level. Both at the beginning and the end of any presentation, whether written or oral, the subject and the analysis results are placed in their overall context, including analysis from related fields of study.

Intuition

Intuition. Latin intuitio: immediate understanding, recognition, seeing; to understand a situation, problem, dilemma immediately and without discussion or reflection. “Dein Verlangen nach Intuition blockiert den natürlichen Fluss der Wahrnehmung.” Your desire to be intuitive blocks the natural flow of perception. (Irina Rauthmann, German writer)

“Intuition, sprunghafte Einsicht, deren Schritte nachzuholen sind.” Intuition, sudden and erratic understanding whose steps need to be retaken. (Dr. phil. Manfred Hinrich, German philosopher, professor, journalist, author of childrens books)

“Intuition ist der natürliche Gegenpol zur Konzentration – nutzen sollte man beides, jedes zu seiner Zeit.” Intuition is the natural opposite of concentration. Both should be used, but at the right time. (Rüdiger Keßler, German philosopher)

“Intuition ist Intelligenz mit überhöhter Geschwindigkeit.” Intuition is high speed intelligence. Unknown.

The importance of focus

In his TedEd talk Richard St. John quotes successfull people in order to stress the importance of focus:

James Cameron, producer of Titatnic and Avatar, two of the highest-grossing films of all time: „You’ve got to be super focused like a laser to get anthying worthwhile done. When I did Avatar I was focused for four years.“

Larry Page, co-founder of Google: „You should focus on one important goal and you need to be single-minded about it.“

Jaymie Matthews, astrophysicist and mission scientist, „Focus is the key word for our success. We pulled this off on a tight budget and short time line because we did one thing exceptionally well.“

Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza: „A fanatical focus on doing one thing well.“

Bill Gates: „If you want to be a great software company, you have to be only a software company. You can’t dabble in other things.“

Impatience

According to a survey conducted in 2015, even though almost 80% of Americans consider themselves patient, a vast majority of them behave in ways that display incredible impatience. For example, 96% of Americans will consume food/drink that they know is hot enough to burn them rather than wait for it to cool. Additionally, 71% frequently exceed the speed limit and more than 50% won’t wait on hold for more than one minute.

Aggregate

The more resources – material, budget, time, personnel – an organization has at its disposal, the more likely it will draw on them in order to solve a problem, take advantage of an opportunity, accomplish a task. Especially if the organization needs to move quickly. And conversely, the less likely it will develop approaches which conserve those resources. Americans are not known for doing more with less. Not yet.

Aggregate: formed by the collection of units or particles into a body, mass, or amount; clustered in a dense mass; composed of mineral crystals of one or more kinds or of mineral rock fragments; taking all units as a whole. From Middle English aggregat, from Latin aggregare to add to, from ad- + greg-, grex flock.

Americans aggregate. When the U.S. goes to war it aggregates overwhelming force. The current debate is how to move away from this tradition. American websites aggregate content. When start-up companies “go public” – initial public offering – financial institutions aggregate investors.

English Composition

Americans learn as early as in grammar school to break down complexity. They are taught in English Composition to formulate short, simple and clear sentences ordered in a logical sequence. Good composition avoids sentences with complex grammatical twists and turns. Simplicity and clarity are the goals.

Complexity: The state of quality of being intricate or complicated; a factor involved in a complicated process of situation.

Grammatical twists and turns: Convoluted structures in the English language that often obscure meaning for the reader:

“Although the blue whale has been protected for over thirty years and its numbers are increasing, especially in the North Pacific, where whale hunting has been banned, it is still at risk of extinction as its habitat is being polluted by waste from oil tankers and its main food, the plankton, is being killed off by harmful rays from the sun, which can penetrate the earth’s atmosphere because there is a huge whole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.”

Ernest Hemingway, considered to be one of America’s greatest writers, shied away from convolution in grammar and style. He never used big words or complicated sentences, yet he succeeded in painting vivid images. Overly sophisticated does not necessarily equate to good writing.

“philosophical“

philosophical: of, relating to, or based on philosophy; having a calm attitude toward a difficult or unpleasant situation; characterized by the attitude of a philosopher; calm or unflinching in the face of trouble, defeat, or loss.

„They got into a philosophical debate about what it means for something to be natural.“ And „He’s trying to be philosophical about their decision since he knows he can’t change it.“ First known use 14th century.

Synonyms: abstract, logical, metaphysical, profound, rational, thoughtful. Also: calm, composed, deep, learned, resigned, stoic, serene, temperate. (MerriamWebster)

Being philosophical in the American context if often considered to be detached, abstract, impractical, unpragmatic, even arrogant.