Taking a look at the impact of your backgrounds...

Thanks to a bunch of folks off-line and a couple on-line, I am back! It has been a really busy couple months since I returned from the holiday break. I graduated from my MBA, which was fun, and started to do more social business consulting. All very exciting, although time consuming! Tons of half-written blogs and half-thought through ideas are stored in my e-mail box and written on sheets of paper. Here is one that is simple, and has opened my eyes a bit to where people come from, their backgrounds and how teams work.

It was an insight from one of my professors that started me thinking. He asked us about the training of the politicians of various countries.

- In the UK/US/Canada the previous training is generally law, with some lifetime civil servants
- In the Middle east the politicians generally come from previous military experience
- In China the majority of previous training is engineering
You then think about the way those three different examples govern their countries; in the commonwealth it is usually through legislation, in the middle east there are clear rules and hierarchy, and in China there are five year plans. I probably did not get all of them exactly right, and I am not trying to stereotype, just to call out that it has an impact.

If you think of your own team composition, what have they studied, what are their interests? Putting together a diverse team has real advantages to solving problems and working together as a team. What is your ideal set-up and what have you learned about working with people from different backgrounds?

A recent quote I found...that also draws attention to the same idea.
"The leaders in China are engineers. The leaders in the US are lawyers. Draw your own conclusions. Paul Saffo"