India: Only Connect

Last week I was on a Leaders Quest in India. In 6 days I met business CEOs, private equity investors, social enterprises, teachers and NGOs. We stayed the night in a tribal village, sleeping on the floor and joining this group of excluded and incredibly poor ‘untouchables’ for dancing and singing. We spent an evening on the roof of the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, gazing down at the sea and the metropolis and hanging out with the rich elite. (We had more fun in the village, I hasten to add.)  Some of us ‘ragpicked’, sifting garbage with the homeless in Mumbai. Others met victims of domestic violence in a shelter in Hyderabad. I held a one-week old baby in a social enterprise maternity hospital, and I talked to a 27 year old manager in one of the most successful Business Process Outsourcing companies in the world. I saw the racks of a data storage company, padding around with my shoes covered to prevent dust, and discussed with an outgoing chief executive of an 8000 strong engineering firm, how you build talent and plan for succession. It felt like we saw all sorts of shades of India, and all shades of life.

A Leaders’ Quest is designed to inspire you to see the world from new perspectives.  “Joining 15 -20 of your global peers, you will spend time with inspiring leaders from civil society, business, the arts, academia and government.”  

The Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai

I joined the owner of well-known restaurant chain, a senior banker, a leading academic, a vice president of a huge charitable foundation, a very successful brand manager and others, from the UK, USA, China and Canada. We could have focused on what divided India from ourselves - the poverty, the scale (1.2bn people, 60% in the countryside, 45% illiterate), the gender relationships (1 in 2 women suffer domestic violence), the slums. But actually we discovered what connected us to this country and all the people, rich and poor, in it.

My bedroom in the village. In the hammock is the baby.

When I was in the village, because there was a language barrier, we communicated through the international languages: sport, dance, song, smiles, and photographs.  I got caught out in cricket. Twice. We sang ‘Stand by Me’ and ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ to 300 villagers. We danced with the women in the village square. I took picture after picture of the family that owned the house I stayed in, their sons donning their best shirts for the occasion, and then everyone crowding round to admire the digital camera’s results. That night I shared a bed with 7 people: all of us sleeping on the mats on the floor of their brick hut. One of the elders in the village declared in Mahrati, 'These are not foreigners! They are human beings!' And I agreed with him. In the end, for all the difference and division, we were all connected. 

What does this mean for collaboration? It confirmed for me that these direct experiences, of human spirit-to human spirit connections, these are what prompt us to serve each other. The more those 'in power' and those 'with wealth' can walk in someone else's shoes, the more successful our governments and businesses will be.