what vs. how

[shustrik]

"(Organizational) leadership today involves more than making the right decisions about WHAT should be done. In addition, executives must know HOW to orchestrate the human infrastructure to ensure there is enough support from the key people involved in a change effort to actually achieve the true purpose

Comments

[girit]

You do remember, that a camel is an example of a horse built by a committee?
:)

I like that one, never heard of that before

>Many immigrants from the former Soviet Union don't appreciate the importance of HOW in the western society. This impairs their career success. Also, this is why they tend to go into professions in which WHAT is more important than HOW.

That might be true, but if I understand correctly what you'd allocate to 'whats ' and 'hows' - it is typical (as far as we can generalize) not only to soviet union immigrants but to immigrants in general (and yes, many of them come from former non democratic societies, but not all). This is not just my observation.

It might be also to do with the fact that "HOW" is not just how, but AMERICAN HOW, which is harder to get adjusted to , if you are coming from the different culture.

And to the point of the previous post... some of that how is so empty of any content that it is too painful to bare. To me what (or leaning towards what) sounds exactly like opportunity (space that has been exited by many people and left empty).. but tnan most of people in my company think I am crazy.

[shustrik]

>That might be true, but if I understand correctly what you'd allocate to 'whats' and 'hows' - it is typical (as far as we can generalize) not only to soviet union immigrants but to immigrants in general (and yes, many of them come from former non democratic societies, but not all). This is not just my observation.
The importance of the "how" seems to be an anglo-saxon thing. In this respect,the UK and Australia are pretty similar to the US and in some cases are even "worse" (based on my personal experience). Most other immigrants we are talking about are, in their majority, Indians and Chinese. And of course, they are much more into "what" than into "how". Although the top of the Indian immigration adjusted to the "how" much better (hence: their leading positions in many US companies and consultancies) - probably thanks to their UK-based education.
>but then most of people in my company think I am crazy.
That's exactly the point. It's hard for all of us to adjust to it. We don't like it. And people do think we are crazy - and it's not helping us in our careers.
Probably, a healthy combination of "what" and "how" is desirable.