Effectively, I have been in Melbourne for almost 4 months now. I swear, some of the things I have learned since I have been here are different, but cute and amusing. Like you pronounce zebra "zeb-bra". But the one critically important thing that no guidebook really covered was the Australian mentality. What Dave and I have come to discover here is that Australians are by and large extremely self-depreciating.
Here is a conversation from a client meeting this morning:
Client: Our products are crappy. Our website is abysmal.
Agency: Oh no your products look quite cool, especially with that new packaging.
It seems to be a recurring conversation pattern. One Aussie will say something depreciating, and another Aussie will try to make the first Aussie feel better. Now, I am not saying Americans don't do this - I have just never experienced so much of this type of conversation pattern in the business world.
I mean, we are all fair dinkums - what gives.
I found this nugget of information on the web earlier:
Australians are very down to earth and always mindful of not giving the impression that they think they are better than anyone else. They value authenticity, sincerity, and loathe pretentiousness. Australians prefer people who are modest, humble, self- deprecating and with a sense of humour. They do not draw attention to their academic or other achievements and tend to distrust people who do. They often downplay their own success, which may make them appear not to be achievement-oriented.
Australians are very down to earth and always mindful of not giving the impression that they think they are better than anyone else. They value authenticity, sincerity, and loathe pretentiousness. Australians prefer people who are modest, humble, self- deprecating and with a sense of humour. They do not draw attention to their academic or other achievements and tend to distrust people who do. They often downplay their own success, which may make them appear not to be achievement-oriented.
As Dave pointed out last night, we can't expect to change a nation to our way of thinking, we have to change our way of thinking. Can I tell you how hard this is? I spent my childhood being told that I could always do better, that I was great, but keep going. I spent my adult career never admitting in open situations that you were not knowledgeable, good enough, etc. You always answer confidentially and then go look up the answer. You never point out your short-comings. Someone once told me, "People believe what you tell them. If you say you are smart, they believe you. If you say your stupid, they believe that."
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