Archive for June, 2008

Handle with care: While diversity is a challenge, it can also prove to be a multicultural team’s biggest asset.

Some years ago, I had a Canadian colleague, Camillus. One day while coming to work Camillus asked his autoricksaw driver if there was a church nearby. The auto driver told him that he knew of a famous church on the way to the office. Camillus said “good” and kept quiet. The auto driver drove him to the church and waited for Camillus to get out. Camillus was upset that the auto driver had wasted his time and instead of taking him to the office had taken him to t he church.

In the incident, Camillus wanted some information for future use. The culture he comes from dictates that when a person asks a question, you give him or her a response, which completes that unit of communication. The auto driver, being an Indian, made assumptions, was being helpful and especially when asked about a place of worship assumed that Camillus wanted to go to the church before going to work and took him there. Neither was wrong or right; they were both being themselves, but neither got what they wanted. A very typical instance of cultural misunderstanding.

The last few years have seen the Indian corporate environment exposed to several cultures from around the world. It is not unusual to find teams, in a company, where there are people from Europe, East Asia and India, all working on the same project. Each one of them brings in their own cultural nuances, work styles and belief systems. This diversity in the workplace has created for the CEO and the company at large issues of cultural misunderstanding, consequential interpersonal relationship issues and its impact on the bottomline. In fact, recent studies show that in the beginning of an offshore project, productivity can drop up to 20 per cent due to cultural differences.

As head trainer at Global Adjustments, I was once asked to work with a group of team leaders who worked with people from different cultures. During the initial meeting with the CEO of the company, he told us that his leaders were intelligent and hard working; but he found that a lot of time and effort was wasted on sorting out misunderstandings and this, in turn, led to delays. And he shared the following incident with us:

Dave, a group leader, asked if the group would be able to do the testing of some equipment and give him a detailed report by the end of the week. He was told that it would be done. But when the deadline arrived the report was not complete. Dave asked for the reason for this delay and he was informed that the father of one of the group members was admitted to the ICU of a hospital and so two of them were busy helping out. Though Dave empathised, he could not understand what it had to do with the report not being completed. The Indians could not understand how Dave could be so careless about another person’s problems.

When we go to train or coach such teams, we start with creating awareness of the issue and what it means to each stakeholder and it is this facilitation for which people use Global Adjustments’ expertise. Bringing about cohesiveness in a multi-cultural team is a process. It starts with;

Accepting: Each member of the group needs to understand and accept the unique skills that each one of them brings to the table. For example, Dave coming from the West is trained to think sequentially and is goal-driven. This quality helps achieve projects on time. The Indian on the other hand is collective and instinctively supports another. This is an important trait for a strong team. It leads to better understanding.

Adapting: When Dave understands the importance of mutual support for an Indian, he will be willing to respect the other team members and will be able to understand the situation better. It will require a shift in Dave’s approach towards his Indian colleagues. The Indians, while appreciating Dave’s shift would also make a shift and help Dave meet his deadlines. This adapting to cultures creates an environment of mutual trust in the group.

Integrating: Once Dave and his colleagues accept and adapt to each others needs, the team is in a better position to integrate. This integration starts from attitudes, approaches and skill sets. If a similar situation should arise again, the team would know how to handle the situation without it adversely affecting work.

The tools required to go through this process in an organisation are:

Awareness creation: This starts from the top. When the team leaders and the senior management acknowledge the unique differences of the individuals working with them, there is a trickle down effect and the others mirror this approach. Differences start to be appreciated.

Learning to be non-judgemental: Cultures are deep-rooted. Words and behaviour that is visible are only a small part of a person’s culture. Why an individual behaves or talks in a certain way is part of his cultural and personal value system. Giving respect for who he/she is without judgement creates mutual trust.

Effective communication: Is when the listener receives the information the way the speaker intended it to be received. Effective communication includes active listening. When these two come together, it is not only the information that is conveyed, it also conveys respect and acknowledges the person.

A multi-cultural team can be a powerhouse of creativity and innovation or a place of discord and unpleasantness. While diversity is a challenge, it can also be a big asset, if only we harness it right!

In the global workplace.. For people to interact productively with each other, questions need to be asked, doubts need to be clarified

Asking questions, it is often said, is not India’s forte. We are not known to be a questioning culture and our education system has unfortunately not encouraged questions being asked in the classroom. As a result of the syllabus diktat that prevails across educational institutions in the country, the need to ‘cover’ the curriculum has been given more importance than the need to ‘discover’ and no questions are asked.

Traditionally, it is believed that asking questions is being impertinent and disrespectful of authority. In a culture where the teacher or the parent is equated with God, questions that might have risen have eclipsed into acceptance. “Because my teacher said so,” is a common enough refrain heard from our children in India. Another reason why questioning has been discouraged is because it helps ‘save face’.

The question of saving face

Saving face is the glue that cements our culture; it enables the group to stay together through thick and thin. In a society where hierarchy matters, questioning can disturb the status quo and lead to confrontation. The need to appear to agree, at least in public, is vital. Eastern cultures, and India is one, are known to prize harmony over confrontation, relationships over tasks. Asking questions can jeopardise all this.

Questions that never get asked will never get answered. Many have carried into the workplace the burden of unasked questions. Our workplaces today are global environments where different cultures often interact. For people to productively interact with each other, questions need to be asked, doubts need to be clarified.

In Western cultures, questioning is the basis of all inquiry and learning. Descartes’ “I think therefore I am,” puts the individual, his affirmations and interrogations at the centre of the universe. In Indian culture, the individual belongs first to a family and a community. They generally take precedence over any individual preference.

Pitfalls of intercultural communication

Simply put, questioning and non-questioning cultures are required to work together in today’s increasingly globalised world. Asking questions is even more crucial in an intercultural environment where one cannot rely on familiar verbal and non-verbal signs. Consider this telephone conversation:

John: “I would like to review the150 slides by Wednesday afternoon please. Would you be able to send it to me by 2.00pm?”

Sangita: “Yes, I shall try.” (She knows it will be difficult but does not ask for more time and manpower) She does not say: “I will need another two days, could you give me more time to complete this? Is it all right if team B were to handle the first 50 slides? Is this the kind of presentation that you expect from me?”

John expects her to be upfront and voice her difficulties, if any. Since he has not had any questions from Sangita, he assumes that the work will be completed on time and is annoyed when it isn’t.

Avoid assumptions, clarify

For clear communication, clarify your doubts by asking questions and do not proceed on assumptions. To admit that you do not know, but that you wish to know, is not demeaning in any way. The ‘what will people say or think’, which often pre-empts any questions from being asked, can be a serious handicap when working in a global team.

We also tend to believe that asking questions is a sign of weakness. Shekhar has received a project report from Joanne in the US.

He notices some discrepancies, but doesn’t air his doubts. Months later he has to rework the report and admits that he was not very clear on what he was supposed to do. An exasperated Joanne retorts: “Why did you not ask?”

Asking questions implies that you are engaged with the process and in control. It implies that you are listening. The “Is this what you want me to do” or the “How do I proceed with this” or the “Could you specify which aspect needs to be looked at,” kind of questions set the compass for right understanding and right execution. A communication fallout can cost the industry dearly and asking timely questions can prevent this from happening.

In Global Adjustments’ training programmes we have seen just how difficult it is to get participants to ask questions. Questions don’t come easily to us or if they do, they don’t get voiced. This is rather unfortunate for a culture which as early as the second millennium BC had, in the Rig Veda, asked profound questions about the creation of the universe.