How to do business in NZ

I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker last week about my perceived differences between the working culture of the United States and that of New Zealand.

When I first began working, I had a definite preference for working with British expats (they're heaps of them here) because (like Americans) they say what they mean. In general, Kiwis are less explicit in their interpersonal interactions, so you never really know what they want or need.

Part of this comes from (I believe) NZ being a small country with a small population. It is not wise to make enemies or piss anyone off as you will have to work with them again. Harmony is valued and confrontation is not.

An example of this is that one of Perin's development goals is to be less confrontational when playing devil's advocate during meetings with clients. What is seen as a normal business practice in the States makes clients uncomfortable here.

Spending my life as a loud American and doing business with other loud Americans has left me with the expectation of being able to hear everyone speak in meetings and during presentations. Rather frequently during meetings, I will be sitting near a Kiwi speaker but won't be able to hear them. My natural inclination is to ask them to speak up, but then my hearings not that bad and I know no one else that's sitting farther away than me can hear them either. So I sit back and observe. What's going on here? Why isn't anyone else asking the speaker to talk louder?

I believe that there is a definite Asian influence for saving face. No one wants the speaker to lose face by asking them to speak up. Everything is subtle. No one tells anyone else what to do explicitly. They suggest and imply. Quietly.

And there is no feedback. If you're doing well, you won't hear about it. And if you're doing poorly, you won't hear about it. However, if you are doing poorly, people will talk about you behind your back.

The whole conversation came up again at the end of last week when I sent an email to the executives of my company praising the hard-work and selfless dedication of one of my co-workers on a big project we just finished. The co-worker wrote back saying thank you, it was a "very, very American email," and that the Kiwi executives won't know how to handle it.

Now five days later, I have still received no word from on-high about my electronic praise (although I will admit that I've been out of town on training). At the absolute minimum, I hope to get together with the bosses soon and [quietly] talk smack about some of our crappier employees behind their backs.

Fruity tea-baggers

As the summer approaches, Perin and I are trying to eat a little healthier and that means starting every day off with some fruit instead of some butter. Apparently, kiwi fruits are in-season all year round and priced accordingly. Most other fruit has to be imported and is more expensive (with the exception of bananas: they're always cheap).

Today is also day one of Perin and I giving up drinking Coca-Cola. We're trying to drink tea in the morning instead. Long association with the British empire has imparted a love of tea to this nation. Though not bad, it just isn't the same. We'll see who can hold out the longest.

Along with the affection for tea, there is a general - though not pervasive - loathing of Coke here. We have both receive numerous lectures on detriments of cola to the body, mind, and soul of the individual and to cola's contributions to the downfall of society. Mostly it's the artificial colors and flavors that do it. The one saving grace of Coke here, is that it is sweetened with pure cane sugar and not high fructose corn syrup.

NZ Wife Beaters

In the United States, white sleeveless undershirts are sometimes known as "wife-beaters." Spend some time with Google if you have no idea what I'm talking about. However, in New Zealand, wife beaters are black. And they're called singlets. Why? Because of a movie _Once Were Warriors_ (which is a really good movie - go watch it). Here's a clip from the film featuring the black singlet and the vicious beating of a wife:




Also, I have learned about POMs. This is the not-very-derogatory-anymore term for British people. It stands for "prisoner of (his/her) majesty" or "prisoner of mother England" in regards to the criminals sent to Australia when Oz was a penal colony. Wikipedia states a different etymology, but you know those POMs are a crafty bunch and wouldn't have any qualms about changing the entry.

Regardless, the point of bringing up POMs is that Stella Artois is known as "wife beater" back in the British Isles. Instead of the uppity image Stella has in the States, it is seen as a the drink of choice for spousal abuse across the Atlantic. I find this fascinating study in international branding.

Sales Training

In the different professional roles I've had over the years, I've had the opportunity to work with many sales people. Having worked with quite a few of them now, I've learned a little about how one achieves success in the world of sales and try to share that knowledge with new sales people when we work together.

Interestingly, none of the sales people at my company here in New Zealand have seen the greatest sales speech ever captured on celluloid. So I shared with them the following video clip:

Now when I say, "Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only." they laugh instead of looking at me strangely.

P&P Update

It's been over a month since we last updated the blog! So after typing up an email, I decided to replicate it here on the blog for everyone to read.

Things are going pretty well here. I got a job doing computer nerd stuff which is pretty good most days. I was doing a 3-month contract and it was kind of boring, and then I got a full-time offer. The day after I signed, they gave me nine things to do and I had to stay up til 2am for many nights getting it all done. Bastards! But now it's normal work busy-ness.

Perin's work is going pretty well. She's got an army of underlings to delegate the crappiest work to which is great. She's got two main clients right now so everyone is jockeying for her to help them more. Shows she's valuable even if management regularly changes her meeting calendar (or diary as it is called here).

We're both playing a lot of soccer. I play on a couple indoor teams and Perin plays on one indoor and one outdoor team (but the outdoor season just ended). This summer (I know the southern hemisphere seasons thing is weird) we're both going to try to play 5-a-side outdoor soccer in addition to the indoor soccer. Not to brag too much, but I'm one of the best players in NZ. Even though I do score a lot of goals, everyone wants me on their team as an "Enforcer," which makes me laugh. I play pretty physically (not dirty) but I'm friends with all the referees now (one even has a man-crush on me) so I get "favorable" calls more often than not.

Perin took some sewing classes, but is sitting this term out. She starts again next month. I'm taking an improv comedy class which is pretty fun. I have my first performance this Saturday, which is exciting. Perin is going to miss part of it because she has a one-time baking class she signed up for before we knew about the performance.

Going to work, soccer, the classes, and gym keeps us pretty busy (we also signed up for a boxing fitness class). We're working on our Kiwi accents. Perin makes fun of me because I can only do a "provincial" accent which means I sound like a farmer. But I think it's the same as when other people try an American accent - they can only do a southern accent.