When Code Meets Culture—How the same technology engages diverse places & people

When Code Meets Culture—How the same technology engages diverse places & people

Keynote Speech at the 10th International Conference of Certified Management Consultants

Discussions about the application of new technologies in management, leadership and consulting usually focus either on the contribution of remote work, automation, machine learning or artificial intelligence to higher levels of efficiency, or on the radical changes that these advanced tools cause in the world of work. They seldom include how fundamental human values, behaviours and traditions enter the world of technology as people migrate there to interact, communicate and collaborate.

And yet, people change futuristic technologies as much as tech changes people’s lives. Participants of virtual meetings, teams and projects must prepare in minutes for collaboration across geographical and cultural distances that took weeks to reach even a century ago. Firms expect managers on business trips and expat assignments to travel thousands of miles, then plug in their computers and seamlessly start working at a place with dramatically different work habits, languages, climates, social, lifestyle and culinary traditions. Databases, decision making software for robots, self-driving vehicles and AI-powered avatars coded in one continent are expected to connect gracefully with users across the globe.

In ‘When Code Meets Culture—How the same technology engages diverse places & people’, intercultural leadership consultant & CMC (Beijing, 2008) Gabor Holch illustrates how the future of human collaboration empowered by advanced technology makes intercultural agility more, not less important. How people in organisational functions previously sheltered from global exposure must suddenly learn to virtually communicate across continents. Why simulation and training gamification programmes succeed with flying colours in one country and fall flat in another. Why self-driving cars with software written in Europe make different decisions than their Asian counterparts.

Most importantly, Gabor presents best practices and practical suggestions for how us, humans, can better adapt ourselves, our teams, clients and business partners for an inevitable future where tools and vehicles may be mind-blowingly smart, fast and efficient, but will still help people reach familiar professional and personal destinations.

Registration details to be announced. Follow https://www.cmc-global.org/