I’ve always believed that passions make people bond beyond cultural and ideological barriers.
The story I tell in our book about my encounter with a Kazakh immigration officer only a few years after the end of the Cold War is an example.
Last weekend, I found another one.
I was reading an article in The New York Times about the anniversary of Isaac Stern’s trip to China.
The famous violinist toured the country in 1979 giving concerts. People travelled miles by train to see him perform. This happened at a crucial time. China was emerging from a long period of isolation from the rest of the world.
Stern is credited not only with spreading the love for classical music but also with enabling cultural exchanges between the West and a country everybody had learned to fear.
You have to watch the video about Stern teaching young Ho Hongying to play the violin. It contains one of the best lessons in cross-cultural communications I have ever come across.
Without knowing a word of Mandarin, Stern manages to tap into Hongying’s passion for music and, instantly, her performance improves.
What would be the equivalent of this in corporate communication?
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I remember being stuck at immigration some years back when on tour with the LSO in Korea. A rather burly guard demanded I open my violin case and show him what was inside. I needed no second prompting, took my fiddle out and gave him his own mini-recital. There was only one tune to fit the bill at that particular moment.
‘Show me the way to go home!’
I don’t think he quite understood the significance.
When am I going to get my own mini-recital?
Let me check my diary!!