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During the last years one of the countries I’ve been working is Indonesia. My initial thoughts about Indonesia go back to very first visit in 2016. Then I met many people, some more religious and traditional, some less but what was really not expected was the tolerance. I hadn’t ever seen before a mosque and catholic cathedral just opposite each other. This tolerance and living together comes from the last minute law change in the independence referendum where they decided not to write down Indonesia is an Islamic country.

Indonesians are easy to work with. Their attitude is professional and they want to enjoy the time they are doing different tasks. They want like to celebrate and share, discuss about topics and share knowledge of their country, traveling tips and many others. I found it more similar, more open like my experiences in Europe. This is not the case in all Asian countries, at least not from the beginning. After you get to know more, you can be freer in other countries.

Tolerance and attitude are important when we define the future. We need to be open for changes, we need to see many sides, must be able to understand behind the decisions and people. This is maybe the key why many new things are adapted very quickly in Indonesia. In my first trip to Indonesia I met a family who was selling praying mattresses through Instagram. Later I found trendy food next to traditional sate or nasi goreng food stands. Fashion for Muslim female is also often created or promoted by Indonesians. It really tells about the country and its people: tolerant and with good education, attitude.

I highly recommend visiting Indonesia also other places than Jakarta or Bali. My last visit to Indonesia went to central Java, some smaller places and Yogyakarta. A bus trip through the mountains showed me places to visit in the future. As a foreigner I found it interesting that there are maybe 170+ different dialects and languages in Indonesia, only Bahasa Indonesian is spoken by all. Using dialects when meeting others speaking same dialect is also common. Maybe this relates to background, feeling you’re the same which is important in building unity. Any country which is so diverse but can find unity among the different origins has much value to give. As long as I was still in cities it wasn’t difficult to use English. There were people asking to take photo with them like in China, I heard that it’s sometimes a photo on their wall later. Not sure it’s true or false, at least it would be funny. The story behind.

When it comes to myself, my work and living in Indonesia, I want to summarize it with these points

1.It helped to meet people and be open to discuss, share and ask

ð  It was also tolerated to discuss sensitive topics

ð  Sharing your lunch or dinner with others

ð  Nobody ever judged even if I asked about religion

2. Fast moving and open for changes

ð  There are not so many start-ups yet, but regulation is able to change like in Gojek case when young people want to establish ride-sharing app and it was against the law first

ð  If you are in a project, you will be asked to speed and change schedule

ð  Also change requests started to come immediately

3. Westerners are not outsiders

ð  Attitude is different, but still Indonesian word bule to describe white foreigner is used

ð  Usually service is same for all, no difference to foreigners

ð  It’s OK to meetup with anybody, no strict separation for young people to boys and girls (only in prayer/religion related)

4. Who would be wanted in Indonesia

ð  Tolerant people, do not judge others but understand and appreciate

ð  Educated people, you will directly compete with locals

ð  Flexible people, can’t expect stable situation or no changes.

If you like the reading and want to learn more, check out my Udemy course Manage and run projects in Indonesia or learn about Successful cross-cultural management. 

I just created a new video about cross-cultural management. You can watch it from YouTube by this link.

For me cross-cultural manage is most cases related to

1. Knowing the people

2. Setting up rules

3. Sharing the target and

4. Following routines.

Check out the video to get complete picture!

I’m often asked about my experiences in Taiwan and how I have changed or had to do changes for the previous work in Finland or Europe. As of general living in Taiwan or Europe is pretty much the same, there are certain differences in life or working culture.

For the general living main differences between Europe and Taiwan are:

1.       Europeans often cook at home, Taiwanese prefer to eat outside or they have mum at home who will be cooking

ð  This will also affect to people taking lunch boxes to work or not

ð  I found it healthier to cook by myself and continue lunch box culture also in Taiwan, most offices have microwave to warm it up

2.      It’s almost dead in Taipei after 9 pm even sometimes in weekend

ð  Usually in Europe same is in small towns, not in capital

ð  People have their life rhythm which takes them back home after nine, sometimes working long hours but it also affects to the streets

3.     European have strong feeling to belong to their country and also to be a European

ð  Taiwanese often think they are Chinese, but not mainland Chinese

ð  Most countries of Asia are already diverse on their own and the way they feel to be an Asian is different to Europe

ð  European Union affects more to daily life if your country is part of it

ð  Free moving inside Schengen area is one of the best benefits of the world.

Then we can continue to general working culture. I believe the culture and religion affects a lot how I feel about work or how much I think I need to work or do things for general well-being. Of course this has also changed during the years I’ve been in Taiwan, but my attitude and purpose, motivation is still more European.

At the office or work I have noticed these differences more general

1.      Europeans don’t expect so much guidance

ð  We don’t need supervisor to decide everything, but in Asian countries and especially in Taiwan people don’t want to take responsibility or decide

ð  As a European I often feel insulted when I’m being told to do something which I’m already working on and have a plan

ð  I expect discussion before doing, but not during the task is already assigned and will be done

2.       Company rules are different and management has more power in Taiwan

ð  Sometimes only CEO can decide in Taiwan, this is not so common in Finland where all people know the target

ð  At least all policies like traveling policy, overtime pay, etc. should be the same for all, but in Taiwan different teams may have big differences according to leader (may only happen in certain companies, not all but as I have discussed this is typical in small companies)

3.       People are not that motivated for the work itself in Taiwan

ð  Taiwanese change jobs much more often, especially young people than European

ð  Work itself is often motivation for Europeans, countries like Finland, Sweden and Germany especially have strong professional attitude and people expect their motivation is appreciated

4.       Company strategic planning is more often communicated and shared to all company employees in Finland and other European countries

ð  Actually even big companies in Taiwan are only following the current market leader

ð  Without a strategy or communicated strategy long term planning will be difficult

5.       Problem-oriented or solution-oriented

ð  Most Finnish people try to find solution, long-term and not only solve issues

ð  Asian countries problems are discussed and attitude towards problems is more open, in Europe a problem is always indicating bad planning and design, but the case is not same in Taiwan or other Asian countries.

These are just some of the differences I have found and I actually think the biggest differences are easy to confront with own attitude. You don’t usually need to change so much from your previous life, but just keep open mind in understanding and finding new ways to do things.

If you are more interested in Taiwan, you enroll to my Udemy course with discount price about Manage and run projects in Taiwan.