It's intriguing that when interviewed by the New York Times, PwC's Bob Moritz (a.k.a. BoMo a.k.a. Adrienne's man crush) chose to highlight the fact that he learned all about diversity when he spent time in Japan and got his ass kicked.
Unless you're having a particularly slow day, you can pretty much skip this interview in its entirety as long as you get this critical part. Quoteth El BoMo:
The last piece was, how do you bond with people personally enough so that they trust you, but in a way that you can work with them professionally? I had taken martial arts in the U.S., and my colleagues in Japan wanted to take me to a class. I watched for three or four weeks, and finally I agreed to join the class. I really got kicked around. I remember going to the master afterward and saying, “You definitely took some things to a higher level when I was there.” He said, “Well, we wanted to welcome you.” It hit me again — I’m the foreigner. I’m on the outside. What was good, though, was that the people I was working with saw me taking a chance, and they opened themselves up a bit more, and that allowed for that trust to be built.
You almost feel bad for the guy but then you imagine him getting beat up in martial arts class by a bunch of his Japanese colleagues and sympathy turns to laughter.
Bob Moritz, on How to Learn About Diversity [NYT]
