# Duy Loan Le 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration Keynote **Channel:** AnitaB_org **Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsEvCbjpvc4 **Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/PsEvCbjpvc4 ## Chapters - 0:09 — Introducing Zilon Lee and Talk Themes - 8:02 — Breaking Personal Limitations and Growth - 14:46 — Building Relationships Beyond Technological Tools - 23:35 — Cross-Cultural Competency and Closing Reflections ## Transcript **[0:09] Speaker A:** It's me again. Hello. So now I want you to use your imagination for a few moments. Imagine that you are 12 years old. 12 years old and you move to a new country with only the clothes on your back. **[0:26] Speaker A:** Can you imagine that? A new country with only the clothes on your back. Our keynote speaker today can imagine this. This was her life a few decades ago. But let's suppose you are this 12 year old moving to a completely strange new land. **[0:44] Speaker A:** Would you have the drive to work hard enough to first learn the language, speak spoken in your new home, and then graduate from high school as a valedictorian four years later at the tender age of 16? Can you imagine doing that? That is what our keynote did. She then went on to earn a Bachelor's degree from the University of Texas, Austin, and later a Master's degree from the University of Houston. Yes. Our keynote is one inspirational lady. Her name is Zilon Lee. She is the Worldwide Advanced Technology Ramp Manager at Texas instruments. She holds 23 patents and she has seven pending applications. Clearly, Zilon is a technical woman. **[1:40] Speaker A:** In 2002, she became the first woman to be elected to the rank of Senior Fellow at Texas Instruments, joining only four men who held this prestigious title worldwide. Today, she remains the only woman to hold this title at Texas Instruments. 80 year history everyone please give a warm welcome to Zilon Le. **[2:18] Speaker B:** Boy. Telly is right. It's hard to see anybody up here. I have a confession to make this morning. I am really excited this morning. **[2:28] Speaker B:** How many men are in the audience? Raise your hands. You know, for the men in the audience to be surrounded by women and females excited, that's normal for a woman to be surrounded by other women and feel excited, that might be abnormal, but the reason I feel excited is because all my life, in my work, in my community, and even in my family, I'm surrounded by men, right? And you get tired looking at them. You know, it gets old. **[3:07] Speaker B:** This is not about bashing the man. This is about admitting fact. **[3:13] Speaker B:** You know, when I was elected Senior Fellow in 2002, our Chairman, CEO and President Tom Anchovas introduced me to the Board of Directors, the senior management and their spouses and other fellows at the annual Fellow banquet. And Tom opened the introduction with the following statement. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we make history. We make history because we have the first female elected Senior Fellow. I was standing next to Tom at the podium, and before he could continue, I leaned over and whispered in his ears. **[3:53] Speaker B:** Mr. President, I really don't care about being the first. I just want to Be the prettiest. **[4:01] Speaker B:** Tom looked at me for a brief second, I think in disbelief, and then turned to the audience and promptly repeated what I just shared with him in private. Well, you know, TI Texas Instrument is a technology company full of engineers. And you know how engineers are, right? Those of you who are married to engineers or engineers yourself, you know that we love to be precise. So after the formal part of the banquet was over, with the permission from the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the board, the chair of the Selection Committee, the Fellow Selection Committee held an official voting session to make sure that I do deserve that title. **[4:46] Speaker B:** And you should have seen seeing the faces of those other four Senior Fellow men. It was really long. I won hands down. Now, eight years later, I remain the first and the only one. Let me make it clear that it does me no good to be the first and the last. **[5:05] Speaker B:** So when I was elected, I gave myself 15 years to work on the second senior fellow. Female. Well, it's been eight years. I got seven years left to accomplish that goal. I need help. **[5:20] Speaker B:** But one way or the other, we're going to have another female Senior Fellow at TI even if it kills me in the process. So you guys wish me luck. **[5:35] Speaker B:** Just like any other high tech company. Intel, IBM and so on. Senior Fellow is the counterpart of Senior VP on the management track, carrying that title. You assume that my job is technology based? 100%. **[5:52] Speaker B:** Well, that might be true, but I can guarantee you that 90% of my problems have nothing to do with technology. It has to do with people. As a matter of fact, I recently had lunch with my colleague, a Senior VP that is a dear friend of mine, and we both arrive at the same conclusion about a challenge we face at work. And so today the topic of the talk is about collaboration across the boundaries. But which boundary are we talking about here? **[6:26] Speaker B:** Which boundary? National, geographical, cultural, age, G. Gender, social standing, Political, historical, Religious. Which boundary? All of those boundaries I just talked about are important to collaborate and cross over. But I chose three specific angles to have a dialogue with you this morning. **[6:51] Speaker B:** First, in order to succeed in life, we must collaborate with others. But the first person we must collaborate with is ourselves. And the first boundary we must break successfully and cross over is the personal limitation that life sometimes brings us. Second, you know, we know that we live in a world where technology is pervasive, but successful collaboration still requires relationship, relationship building. And relationship building is less science and more art. **[7:32] Speaker B:** And the last point is, you know, technology has brought many of us together, has made the world a lot smaller and brought people around this planet together. But I will submit to you that 100 years from now, the world would still be very far apart when it comes to people's ways of life and their personal biases and preferences. So let's talk about these three points one by one. **[8:02] Speaker B:** I said that the first person you have to collaborate with is yourself, and the first boundary you gotta cross over is the personal boundary that you face in life. Why do I say that? **[8:15] Speaker B:** On April 22, 1975, I kissed my father for the last time, not knowing whether I will ever see him again. I left my country because we have lost it to the enemies. I left everything that I have worked for since the age of six, set foot in America, only to find out that I have become both dumb and deaf because I cannot understand and cannot speak the language. We gave up everything in exchange for a chance of freedom. The basic freedom. **[8:45] Speaker B:** The freedom to speak our mind. The freedom to kiss our family good night. The freedom to chase and catch a butterfly. The freedom to play and kick the ball so high. The freedom to make our future bright. **[9:00] Speaker B:** The freedom to turn on the light. In other words, the basic freedom that every human being deserves, but only those fortunate enough can enjoy as our right at birth, Whereas people in other countries have to fight for with their courage and often with their lives. **[9:21] Speaker B:** My story, however, is not too different than the story of millions of immigrants who set foot here throughout history. Among them are your parents, your grandparents. Their stories are fascinating. The story of immigrants who start life, overcome hardship with empty hand. Stories of immigrants who refuse anything lesser than a better future for their children and their grandchildren. **[9:49] Speaker B:** Story of immigrants who defy gravity and reach from the start to make a difference on the land that nurture them and give them a second chance. The story of immigrants who take from this land when they first arrive, only to give back many times more later, to keep the land fertile for other immigrants who will one day set foot here. These immigrants are so successful, despite the incredible hardship they have to endure and the insurmountable obstacles they have to overcome, because they have made a conscious choice. A choice that involves bridging culture so that lives can be changed, starting with their own life, extending to the life of their children and then the lives of those in the country they now call home. As a kid of 12 arriving here 35 years ago. **[10:43] Speaker B:** Please have some sympathy and don't add those two numbers up. **[10:48] Speaker B:** I have no country, so I was countryless. I have no home, so I was homeless. I have no father, so I was fatherless. I have no money. So I was penniless. **[10:58] Speaker B:** But the hardest thing was I was speechless. I couldn't speak the language. With all those less, it didn't stop me from dreaming. And I dreamed to be the best student possible. During the day, I cooked clean for an entire family of nine, mostly women and children. **[11:18] Speaker B:** I tutored and babysat my younger brother, sister and nephew. At night, I studied by translating each word from English to Vietnamese. You know, doing your homework at 12 or 13 wouldn't be so difficult if you at least understand what your teacher teaches you in class, or at least understand what the instruction is asking you to do. But with that dream and the hard work, four years later, at my high school graduation, I step up to the podium not to receive my high school diploma, but to deliver the valedictories. Victorian speech 16. **[11:53] Speaker B:** That same year, I broke the golden Asian rule. I moved away from my family to study engineering in another city. You see, three decades ago, the Asian culture is very strict. An unmarried daughter is expected to live with her parents, let alone one so young. At 16. **[12:14] Speaker B:** Three years later, I graduated magna cum laude with my BSE. Now I made a mistake. I made a mistake in my last year in college that cost me the summa cum laude spot. I fell in love. **[12:30] Speaker B:** So I understand from telly that There are almost 1,000 students in the audience at this conference. If you want to graduate at the top of your class, don't fall in love. **[12:50] Speaker B:** I started my first professional job at TI as a memory designer. Bought my first car in America, bought my mom her first house in America, bought my own first house in America, got engaged, got married, all within a period of six months. **[13:10] Speaker B:** Now that's a lot for anybody to deal with. It was a lot for a kid, 19, turning 20. I just spent the last four or five minutes sharing with you a little bit about my background. In doing so, I once again violated the Asian culture. The Asian culture is not very forgiving when it comes to people who talk about themselves. I did that deliberately because I need to share with you the lessons I've learned in life. We have to collaborate with people to succeed, but the first person we must collaborate with is ourselves. And the first personal boundary, the first boundary we must cross over is the personal limitation that life brings us or sometimes we self impose, especially minorities. We're very good at that. When I'm talking about collaborating with ourselves and breaking our own personal limitations, I'm talking about the willingness to assess our own inner potential and the courage to let it rise and shine. **[14:15] Speaker B:** I'm talking about the clarity to not let the situation that we are in clouds our vision to see beyond the present impossibility. I'm talking about the confidence and the faith in our own dream. Chase them, accomplish them, and do good with that. **[14:35] Speaker B:** And I'm talking about the wisdom as we go through life to not only believe in ourselves, but even more important, to believe in others. **[14:46] Speaker B:** The second point that I want to share with you is about technology pervasiveness in relationship building. You know, in just three decades, just three decades, the mobile technology has gone from first generation to fourth generation. Today we have almost 5 billion mobile connections and that number is expected to exceed 8 billion 10 years from now. With that trend, right? And those statistics, mobile technology is no longer a tool. **[15:20] Speaker B:** It shapes the way we work, learn, live and play. There was a study that came out earlier in the year conducted by the Pew Research center. And if I remember right, the title of the article was Millennials Portrait of Generation Next. Basically, it compares statistics of generation y, those between 18 and 29, and generation boomers, those between 46 and 64. Those are boomers. Raise your hands, all your guys and gals are brave. **[15:59] Speaker B:** 75% of Generation Y have social networking profile versus 30% of Generation Boomers, 59% of Generation Y text, I'm sorry watch the news on the Internet versus 30% of boomers. 80% of generation Y text in the last 24 hours versus 35% of boomers. 32% of generation Y watch video online versus just 9% of boomers. With that kind of statistic and with technology defining everything we do, I really worry. I worry about the younger workforce, especially those in high tech industry and the scale of importance of relationship building in their mind and their know how of how to go about doing it. **[16:57] Speaker B:** As leaders and of the companies and industry, I believe people like me, I do have a responsibility to talk about that and mentor the younger workforce. I made my first trip to Japan in 1985. That's 25 years ago. A quarter of a century ago. Japan is a very different country. **[17:21] Speaker B:** At work, there was no woman. And if you see them, do you know what they are doing? They are either cleaning the restroom or serving tea to the men. So you can imagine the shock on the faces of 30 Japanese engineers when I walk into the room and introduce myself as the senior engineer who just came over to train them. **[17:55] Speaker B:** Of course they know that someone was coming. But looking at my name, they couldn't tell it was a woman. Adding to that shock was my youthful look. Three years into the job at the age of 22. **[18:12] Speaker B:** You know, I had talked myself into believing that, that I would be okay, because I know that Japan is a country deep in tradition and rich in history. But I'm an Asian just like them after all. When I got there, I realized the magnitude of my challenge and the naivete of my thinking. I was sent there not for one month. I'm sorry, one week or two weeks. **[18:40] Speaker B:** I was sent there for four months to accomplish two objectives. First, train the product engineers or the test engineers in Japan so that they understand more about the product that was designed by the design engineers in America that was about to be released. Second, facilitate the communication between the two teams. Two countries, two continents, moving forward. Well, the gap between me and them was too huge. **[19:08] Speaker B:** There's too much difference in age, gender, custom, history, language. So I decided there was no way I could continue as planned. Instead, I said, for the next two weeks. I said to myself, for the next two weeks or ten days or however long it takes, we will discuss and talk about everything except work. We'll get to know about each other as people. **[19:30] Speaker B:** So we discussed, why does it cost so much to live in Japan? Why does it cost me $100 just to eat a few pieces of tempura? World we talk about the relationship between men and women in Japan, why there's no woman at work. We talk about the relationship between wife and husband in Japanese culture and society. We talk about why I look so young, why I left my country, how did I learn English, and the hardship that I had to overcome. But the one thing that really bothers the Japanese engineer is this. They could not believe that I left my husband behind for four months. **[20:10] Speaker B:** On that point, they are not alone. Because my own sisters, the older sister, questioned my sanity when I made that decision. As a matter of fact, when I got back after four months being in Japan, my husband shared with me. You know, you have pretty strange sisters, Elon. You know, they would show up unannounced, I would open doors and they would walk into the house, they would open the doors of all the bedrooms, look inside, and they would leave without saying anything. **[20:39] Speaker B:** You know, my sister were being good sisters looking out for me and checking on their brother in law, right? **[20:48] Speaker B:** After two weeks of talking about and fighting down and learning about each other as people, a sense of, of trust and friendship emerged. I come to respect their intelligence, their work ethics and the cultures and the norm in the society that forces them to have to work so late every night. They come to respect my no nonsense approach. The hardship That I had to endure in order to get to where I was. Then the training began, right? **[21:17] Speaker B:** I adapted to their way of speaking. I call it Jenglish, Japanese, English. I adapted to my way of being very direct and playful. The time that we spent together as people facilitated my training tremendously. And from 1985 to 1998, we worked together incredibly well across the two countries. **[21:46] Speaker B:** And then in 1998, I. We stopped engaging because I changed my job. Later in that second job, I needed some help and they did not have to do it. But they jumped through the hook to help me. And there was no way, no way I could have been as successful in that second job without their help. **[22:08] Speaker B:** You see, relationship building requires more than Facebooking, twittering, texting, emailing, phone calling. It requires face to face interaction. Even in the world of technological advancement, human relations, human relationship is still the key to successful collaboration. If I have to train and mentor the younger workforce, I would remind them that to build long lasting relationship, you got to do it the old fashioned way, face to face. Of course, once the relationship is built, you can leverage technology to keep it going. **[22:45] Speaker B:** You know, as good as I'm standing up here talking about that, I was recently reminded of that important point. After having relied on an executive at TI to negotiate a deal for me using technology through emailing, phone calling, the usual stuff didn't get anywhere. So I decided, okay, it's time to make a trip. So I traveled, met the partner, the potential partner. What could not be accomplished in two months of negotiation through technological means, I was able to do it in two hours. **[23:18] Speaker B:** After the negotiation was over, the executive VP of that company sent me a private email and he wrote Zilon. That is how strategic partnership is built and strengthened. He is so right. **[23:35] Speaker B:** The last point that I want to share with you is the fact that we know that the world has become a lot smaller, right? You can sit here and call China or text China and a person over there and it's instantaneous. We feel a lot closer together. But 100 years from now, the world would still be very far apart when it comes to peoples wave of life and their personal preferences and biases and so on. I have two sons. I love my sons so much. They are the only people on this planet that I would not hesitate for a second to cut open my chest and give them my heart if that's what is required to keep them alive. **[24:20] Speaker B:** I would not do that for my husband. **[24:25] Speaker B:** Thank God he's not here. I would not do that for my parents. And thank God they are not here either. I would do that for my children. But, you know, I find myself at times observing my son. **[24:41] Speaker B:** How they dress, how they talk, how they treat other people, how they conduct themselves, how they walk, how they behave. And I find myself liking one son more than the other at a particular moment. **[24:57] Speaker B:** The key word is like the love doesn't change. As a mother who loves her own flesh and blood, I am more than capable of feeling and displaying discrimination against my sons. I am not talking about the explicit form of discrimination against gender, ethnicity or religion. I'm talking about the subtle form, the way I just articulate, the way I just articulated. **[25:27] Speaker B:** And for those of us who experience that form of discrimination, very subtle. The best way to protect yourself against that is to execute excellence, because there is no discrimination against excellence. But when we collaborate across the boundaries with other people, other cultures, what is considered excellence in one culture does not necessarily translate into another culture. Think about that. In this country, we value freedom of speech, independence, individualism, assertiveness. **[26:09] Speaker B:** Those are the good things that help many of us, including myself, to excel and rise to the top. Top. Those are good attributes crossing over to the other culture across the Pacific Ocean. And those same good attributes can be perceived as disrespectful, non collaborative, and even outright arrogant. **[26:33] Speaker B:** You know, just about three months ago, a very demanding and authoritative executive at TI was doing some negotiation for something that TI Needs. And the person that the executive was negotiating with, that company is a powerhouse in their industry, and what they do didn't go anywhere. So TI Asked me to engage and I did. And within a week, we got what we need. Now, let me make it clear. **[27:06] Speaker B:** I did not succeed because I'm smarter or because I'm more intelligent or because I carry a more important title. I succeeded simply because I modified the way we ask for help and I modify the way we ask for help. Because I remember even when we are negotiating technology, talking technology, engaging in technology, it is still people that we are dealing with. People with custom, fear, feeling, history, certain way of working, living, thinking and collaborating. **[27:40] Speaker B:** There's a story that an executive From a Fortune 500 company in America who has traveled to China extensively and speaks the language fluently, and he was excited to make another trip because of a huge potential business opportunity, got into the room, met with the executive, the Chinese executive shook their hands and then said in fluent Chinese, I am so excited to be here, so enthusiastic about the possibility of collaborating with your company. We have the product, the knowledge and the technology to help you solve your problems. **[28:24] Speaker B:** The Chinese Executive looked surprised at first, and then his face turned cold and he said very gently, we don't have problems. We only have opportunities. The implication behind his gentle response is very simple. What makes you think you know what our problems are? **[28:50] Speaker B:** You know, the American executive was so genuine in his feeling and his excitement to collaborate, but the way we express it invoke and evoke a different reaction from our partner on the other continent. The lessons I learned from this simple example is also a person's linguistic ability and travel frequency does not translate, does not necessarily translate, translate into a person's cross cultural competency. To be cross culturally competent, you have to understand the culture, think the culture, and honor the culture. **[29:31] Speaker B:** I know that I have a total of 48 minutes. I don't intend to use all 48 minutes because I want to do some questions. But before I do that, let me recap the three points I share with you. First, I said that to succeed in life, we need to collaborate. But the first person we have to collaborate with is ourselves. **[29:48] Speaker B:** And the boundary that we have to cross over successfully is the personal limitation that we face. When we can break our own personal limitation, we'll be less likely to see to let the color of people's skin, the gender that they were born with, the religion that they practice, or the culture that they were brought up with clouds our ability to see their potential to rise and shine. We'll see people not through the lenses of impossibility, but through the lenses of possibility, because we've seen it in ourselves. When we believe in ourselves and we believe in others, it is much easier to galvanize people toward a common cause, regardless of where they come from or what company they work for. By the way, believing in others is an attribute of an effective leader in any culture that I know of. **[30:37] Speaker B:** Second, how many of you love to go shopping or movies or having tea or playing golf with people you don't like? Raise your hands. **[30:50] Speaker B:** No hand raised. The reason is very simple, because to do that, you have to feel a sense of camaraderie, friendship, right, with people you do it with. When you collaborate across the boundary with different people, that sense of camaraderie is still very much needed. And it starts with relationship building. And relationship building cannot be done via technological gadgets alone. It requires face to face human interaction. Come to think of it, come to think of it, you know, we have to spend time and nurture relationship not only for business, but at the end of one's life. And we look back, it is often the relationship with family, friends, mentors, colleagues, and so on that we wish we had spent more time on, not some product that we wish we had sold more, or some invention that we would have patented more, or some degree that we would have obtained more. **[31:51] Speaker B:** Last. **[31:54] Speaker B:** Technology has brought us a lot closer together. **[31:58] Speaker B:** And all of us in this room, we invent, create, trade, sell, buy, use technology. And because of that, it is very easy to think that our business is technology. It might be, but at the core of every business, it's really about people, people, people with certain definition of what's good, what's bad, what's excellence, what's arrogance, what's collaboration, what's disruption. In order to successfully collaborate across the boundary of people, we have to understand their lenses of life, respect their way of living, and honor their way of thinking. I like to close this talk with a small story. **[32:49] Speaker B:** I told you I have two sons and I love my sons. You know, I was born in Vietnam and I grew up in a very different culture. Throughout my entire life, I have never heard my parents say, zilon, we love you, never been hugged or kissed by my parents. And so I vowed to myself I would not do that to my children. And when I got married, I gave my husband 10 years to practice saying that before we have children. **[33:19] Speaker B:** So one night, not too long ago, my youngest son was six, he climbed into my bed at night and lay between my husband and me and started to share his story for the day. In my usual habit of kissing Hucky, you know, my children, I leaned over about to kiss my son. Before my lips could reach his rosy cheeks, he spread out his arm and you have to visualize the image of a six year old little boy laying down gently spreading out his arm and said very softly, mama, I need my personal space, please. **[34:03] Speaker B:** Six years of age. I learned then and there that people have different definitions of what they consider the size of their personal space. And that in turn defines a boundary that we should not cross if we want collaboration for life.