IP meets ICP

ICP, inter-cultural protocol.

Don’t kiss a Japanese man on the cheeks, especially if you have a mustache.

Back in college, I got a lot of hugs from fellow students. Enough to last me through corporate years, where they don’t do hugs

(at MCI, we do Tequila shots instead).

But Fortune 500 taught me one important thing: don’t consort.

One level up, and one level down. Don’t try to back channel.

Corporate culture got both IP and ICP protocol.

With Web 2.0, people have a democratized tool in their hands.

And it is upending a lot of traditional practices.

All of the sudden, the algorithm takes over, recommending you “perhaps you might want to connect with so and so”.

So and so might be too far up the food chain, or there used to be departmental animosity.

The machine has no way of knowing this.

Then comes a larger issue: privacy in the Western sense, and no privacy at all in traditional Muslim and Asian societies.

The former allows for morning shows bare-it-all Jerry and Maury, while the later, social ostracism (out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the village?)

Due to the Recession, new industries have gained traction, such as E-lancing, where free lancers can be recruited short-term.

These e-lancers, 21st-century tempt girl make-overs, will stay just long enough to pick up on organizational nuance,

but not deep enough to make a dent.

They are all ears.

The new water coolers.

HR has framed these ICP issues under diversity and sensitivity training i.e. are we allowing these Muslim brothers prayer break?

The French a smoking break, and the Asian, longer chopstick lunch?

These are not stereotypes. They are just as real as ” Guess who is coming to dinner” days.

BTW, I read somewhere that Bill Cosby is back. I wonder when they will bring back Archie Bunker.

If history comes in cycle, we will soon see “the Gong show” , but this time, in 3-D. Much uglier and more convention-defying.

Please, make it difficult to download that show.

This is a test where IP met ICP, sense and sensibility, grace and grotesque. Ironically, just when we thought we were different, we found ourselves on the same side

against the Others , as in Lost, which incidentally, has its last episode this weekend. Live together, die alone.