I feel very honored to have had the same German business partner for 30 years. I have learned many intercultural lessons from her. One which was particularly surprising to me was the consequence of my enthusiasm for trying new things. Today when new software comes onto the market it very often is available in multi languages at the very same time. When we first started the business, that was not the case with Microsoft and products like the Office suite. A single language version would be released first in English-speaking countries. Then after a period of time for the translation work to be completed, other versions would appear with interfaces in other languages.
By mutual agreement both my partner and I have always used the English version of Office. My enthusiasm for new things such as latest versions of software knew almost no bounds. As a result, I would go to great lengths to acquire the English language version whenever a new upgrade came out. Then often on the weekend I would load the new version onto both of our computers.
On Monday morning my partner would start her computer and go to the Office suite where she would be quite shocked that things did not look the way they used to. The ensuing conversation with then usually begin with me expressing my pride and having acquired the new software so quickly. But by the end of the conversation she would be expressing how new software was often buggy and unreliable and I was informed that if I didn’t cease doing this to her computer, she would use passwords to lock me out.
This little anecdote goes way beyond whether one is an early adopter of new software or prefers to wait for the proverbial service packs. It showed me that I had a typically American view point about new things – – expecting them to almost always be better. Like many Germans she has a healthy skepticism that causes her to wait and see whether new equals better. New things generally go through more rigorous tests in Germany than they do in the US and Germans are less forgiving when products are brought onto the market that have not met standards.
Whether new means improved is in the mind of the beholder.
Herb