Culturelink - Thriving multicultural team

Talent Development: How to Navigate Challenging Situations

Are you a talent development professional wondering which skill to focus on for 2024 for your teams?

In today’s interconnected global landscape, cultural intelligence (CQ) has emerged as a critical skill set for professionals to effectively navigate diverse environments. It enables individuals to foster understanding, create collaboration, adjust misalignments and help create a thriving team.

We’re not born culturally-intelligent, but the good news is that we can develop it. In fact we can continue developing it with each challenging situation we face. Let’s look at the four steps that can help you and your team overcome challenging situations that hinder achieving goals through miscommunication and misalignment.

Meet Sarah, a software engineer working on a multicultural team. She finds herself in a challenging situation with her colleague, Kayla, from a different cultural background. Despite their shared goals, communication barriers and misunderstandings have hindered their collaboration. Sarah has been working on an important document that needs to be sent to a client ASAP. Sarah sends an email to Kayla asking for her feedback before sending it to the client.

Kayla does not give Sarah the feedback. Sarah is stuck. She knows that Kayla is an expert on the subject matter and would really like to have her input before sending the document to the client. What has gone wrong?

Let’s work through Sarah’s situation using CQ.

When you find yourself in a challenging situation, ask yourself the following:

  1. How motivated am I to adapt?
  2. What do I know about the other person’s cultural influences?
  3. How do I usually behave and what is my code switching strategy?
  4. What is one action I can change?

Step 1: Drive – Motivation

How motivated is Sarah to adapt? She needs to change something to influence Kayla and convince her of the importance and urgency of this document. In this situation Sarah is very motivated because not only does she have a financial bonus at the end of the project, but she generally feels she will learn and develop her skills by applying new communication techniques. She knows she will improve collaboration and team spirit so that next time it won’t be so difficult to get the feedback.

Your motivation might change according to each situation you find yourself in. Some projects will motivate you to adapt and code switch and others won’t.

Step 2: Knowledge – Understanding the Other Person:

What does Sarah know about Kayla’s cultural background that can influence the way she communicates and behaves?

Sarah comes up with 3 points that influence Kayla’s behaviour.

  • 1. Firstly, Sarah knows that Kayla works in a very relationship-oriented culture. In such an environment, it is usually vital to build a trusting relationship before giving feedback.  For Kayla, giving a 5-line bullet point email just with feedback could come across as harsh. Kayla does not wish for Sarah to misunderstand these comments as criticism. This might ruin the relationship between the two for any future collaboration. Therefore, she prefers not to comment at all.

2. Secondly, Sarah also knows that Kayla likes to understand why she is being asked to work on something, rather than just do it because someone has asked her.

3. Finally, Sarah knows that Kayla is group-oriented. Kayla’s message was full of the word “I”. I need your feedback, I am writing this because … etc.”

Step 3: Strategy – Adapting and Bridging Differences:

Armed with this knowledge, Sarah devises a strategy to improve her interactions with Kayla.

She reflects on how Kayla might perceives her because of the way she writes her mails. She realizes that she might come across as rude, bossy and even arrogant.

Sarah identifies areas where she can adapt, an important one will be on how she will write her messages. She is going to spend some time building the relationship, being more group-oriented and use the “why” technique.

Step 4: Action – Implementing the Strategy

Sarah implements her strategy by putting her thoughts into actions.  She decides to use TEAMS and the webcam instead of email to communicate, she explains why the document is so important  and finally she decides to use the term we and incorporate collective words such as “our goal”, “what can we do together as a team to improve this document” and generally asks Kayla to work on the document together.

As a talent development professional, it is hard to know which skills to focus on for your team. When looking to create high-performance, and navigating the complexities of cross-cultural interactions, developing cultural intelligence is paramount. By following the four steps – Drive, Knowledge, Strategy, and Action – individuals like Sarah can effectively bridge cultural divides, foster inclusivity, and unlock the full potential of diverse teams. Embracing cultural intelligence not only enhances professional relationships but also cultivates a more enriched and impactful work environment where psychological safety thrives.

Culturelink - embrace cultural intelligence for thriving teams

Want a collaborative Team? Embrace Cultural Intelligence

A few years ago, I dedicated about four months to preparing a team workshop for a client. It was mostly enjoyable, but there was one colleague, let’s refer to him as “Alex,” who made my hair stand on end.

Every email I received from Alex felt like a slap across the face. I couldn’t help but interpret his emails as brash, arrogant, and even misogynistic. Those mails which were at most seven words long, triggered a cascade of negative emotions in me. Here is a sample of three typical mails he would write.

– “What are your thoughts to the attached?”

– “FYI.”

– “Take a look at the below.”

No greeting, no salutation, no context to why he was sending the message.

It’s not just expats who need to embrace Cultural Intelligence

There seems to be a misconception that cultural intelligence is only relevant for expats or colleagues who don’t share the same mother tongue. In reality, cultural intelligence is the corner stone for fostering team spirit, collaboration, and achieving excellence within any multicultural team.

Cultural intelligence empowers us to understand our own communication style and its potential impact on others. It helps us analyse how culture influences our colleagues’ communication styles. Most importantly, it equips us with the ability to adapt our communication or “code-switch,” enhancing effectiveness in collaboration.

Practical example of embracing cultural intelligence

When I received messages from Alex, I didn’t stop to think about his cultural background. I was just reacting according to my intuition, my biases. Our biases are created by our normality. My normality in the email field, is to always greet with at least a “Hi” or “Good Morning,“ if it’s the first mail exchange of the day with that person. If it’s the first email of the week, I’ll likely even ask about the person’s weekend.   I then usually also give some context to what is on my mind. Admittedly, maybe I give too much context… but that is my normality.

I felt offended by Alex’s mails because they didn’t fit into my normality. When you start thinking negatively about your colleagues and losing motivation to work with them, you need to stake a step back and ask yourself: “What do I know about this person’s cultural background? What is impacting their communication style, for example, are they individualists, are they transactional, are they linear thinkers rather than big picture thinkers?”

Cultural Intelligence teaches us to adapt or code-switch

If we embrace cultural intelligence we learn to adapt our communication to be more effective. If I was offended by his short, straight to the point messages, who knows what he thought about my long-winded, time-consuming messages. He probably thought I was wasting his time and therefore also losing respect for me, not to mention what it did to his motivation.

Once we understand why our colleagues are communicating in a certain way, it helps us eliminate the biases and therefore the negative judgment. This in turn helps us not feel offended by the situation.

So, in this scenario, one of us had to adapt. In a high-performing team, ideally both colleagues adapt. How far you decide to adapt is up to you. I certainly could not eliminate my morning greeting. However, after the “Hi Alex”, I decided I could also go straight to the point.

Cultural Intelligence creates an environment conducive to collaboration

Lack of consideration for cultural differences can lead to misinterpretations and hinder collaboration. We cultivate cultural intelligence to understand others and to foster an environment where diverse communication styles are appreciated and leveraged for team success.

The positive outcome of our journey with Alex speaks volumes about the transformative power of cultural intelligence. By acknowledging and adapting to each other’s communication preferences, we eliminate biases and create an environment conducive to collaboration.

In our globalised workplace, where teams are diverse in every sense, cultural intelligence isn’t just a skill; it’s a necessity for fostering understanding, promoting collaboration, and achieving excellence collectively. Embrace it, and watch your team thrive.

Culturelink - thriving teams need psychological safety

Thriving Teams? “It’s not about comfort and happiness.”

In a recent podcast by The Economist1, Amy Edmondson, author of “The Fearless Organisation” stated that there is a misconception that psychological safety equates to happiness and comfort in a team.

Psychological safety is not the absence of stress and it’s not job security, it is the absence of interpersonal fear.

Amy Edmondson

What is Psychological Safety?

Psychological safety is the belief that individuals feel safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It gives team members the space to speak up and state their opinion or to make errors. Consequently, they can admit to having made the error without having to hide what was really done.

Consequently, psychological safety is prevalent in teams where individuals have mutual respect and trust. Generally, most of us want to be liked and want to be seen as competent at fulfilling our tasks. However, if there is fear of being laughed at when we state our thoughts, we prefer to keep quiet.

If psychological safety is absent in a team culture, usually there is negative prejudging amongst colleagues. This influences individuals to not be authentic and to have to hide their true thoughts and ideas.

Innovation Creates Growth

A psychologically safe environment encourages team members to share new ideas without fear of judgment, leading to increased innovation. Generally, when team members feel safe, they are more likely to take risks. They then learn from failures, and use setbacks as opportunities for growth.

In effect, it creates team spirit and collaboration. Basically, individuals listen to one another and support one another by asking for help and giving help where necessary.

In turn, it creates a team culture that allows for growth and high performance.

Open Communication

Trust, collaboration and innovation open the room for constructive feedback which fosters open communication. This in turn helps team members learn and grow collaboratively.

Google conducted a study called Project Aristotle to identify the key factors that make a successful team. As a result, the study found that the most important factor in predicting a team’s effectiveness was the presence of psychological safety.

The Leader’s Role

Team leaders play a crucial role in building this safe environment. Chiefly, it is the leaders who need to consciously give each individual the time and space in each meeting to express themselves and to ensure that feedback is given when learning is necessary.

Think about how you react when bad news is expressed. Do you get angry, show your frustrations or raise your voice to the person sharing the bad news?

Consider instead, to reward the person who admits to having made a mistake. Explain to them how they can learn from it and share their learnings with the others on the team.

Building Trust in Culturally Diverse Teams

Multicultural teams can often find it more challenging to build psychological safety. Culture influences the way we build trust and give feedback. Similarly, it also impacts whether it is acceptable to give one’s personal opinion in a public setting.

Leaders of multicultural teams need to first be aware of what cultural values might be impacting each individual on the team before they can consider the best approach to encouraging psychological safety.

For example, imagine you are leading a team where one individual has been brought up to always show that they are confident and need to be in the spotlight. On the same team, you have an individual who has grown up to learn that showing you are better than your colleagues is a loss of face. How would you encourage the latter person to speak up?

To conclude

We have seen briefly that psychological safety is not about comfort and happiness, it is a key factor in creating a team culture where individuals are encouraged to express their opinions, take risks and make mistakes all without the fear of being mocked, laughed at, or retributed.

Remember that a team culture reflects what is encouraged, reinforced and rewarded within the group.

What can you do to help build psychological safety in your team?

  1. The Economist Podcast, Boss Class 4, Inside The Yellow Line ↩︎
Culturelink - Use Cultural Intelligence to enhance team morale

How to elevate team morale and collaboration with Cultural Intelligence

You can elevate team morale and foster effective communication through cultural intelligence.

Individuals in culturally diverse teams can often have very diverse communication preferences. These might range from direct and assertive to more indirect and diplomatic approaches. Despite some teammates preferring give feedback on the spot, irrespective of who is present, others prefer to do it in a roundabout way, perhaps over a cup of coffee in the team break area. The former can offend team members who are not accustomed to it and the latter can confuse those who see communication more as black and white without any grey areas.

Cultural Intelligence can help elevate team morale and foster effective communication

Effective communication fosters a collaborative environment and creates harmony by allowing team members to express themselves in their preferred manner rather than in the manner that the majority of the team feel is acceptable.

In culturally diverse teams, sometimes team members lack awareness of teammates’ values, assuming that everyone communicates the same way, that feedback should be given exactly the same and that all emails should be written according to one format.

However, we all have different problem-solving skills and the way we speak and write is highly connected to how we think, see the world, create relationships and problem solve.

If we overlook these diverse communication styles and assume that all team members communicate the same way, we can fall into misalignment and miss our objectives. Let’s look at a brief case study.

Case Study: The Project Deadline Dilemma

Background: In a dynamic marketing agency, a team of creative professionals was tasked with delivering a high-stakes project with a tight deadline. The team comprised individuals with diverse roles, including designers, writers, and project managers.

The Misalignment: The project manager, Alex, was known for their direct and succinct communication style. They believed in concise updates and straightforward instructions to keep the project on track. On the other hand, Sarah, the lead designer, had a more collaborative and big picture approach. She preferred detailed discussions to ensure a thorough understanding of the creative aspects of the project.

As the project progressed, communication challenges started to emerge. Alex assumed that brief updates, including emails made up of bullet points,  were sufficient for everyone. Sarah, on the other hand, felt left out of crucial decision-making processes. She struggled to join all the dots without the big picture elements she needed to problem-solve. Moreover, the lack of detailed communication, for her, led to misunderstandings about the creative direction, and deadlines began to slip.

Alex not only did not elevate team morale, they created exclusion, lack of collaboration and undermined team spirit.

Consequences of not using cultural intelligence

1. Missed Milestones: Due to the misalignment in communication styles, the team missed several project milestones, impacting the overall timeline.

2. Frustration and Tension: Team members, especially Sarah, became frustrated due to the perceived lack of involvement in decision-making. This tension started affecting team dynamics.

3. Quality Compromises: The final deliverables did not meet the expected quality standards because of the miscommunication on creative elements.

Resolution: Recognising the misalignment, the team decided to hold a workshop that was not related to work objectives but rather to discuss their cultural values which in turn impacted their communication.

Cultural Intelligence helps us understand the differing values of our teammates, highlighting what communication techniques they prefer. This in turn leads to improved collaboration, on time delivery and elevates team morale.

Culturelink- culturally diverse team discussing strategy

“Culturally-diverse teams: How to nurture them to psychological safety”


What are the key indicators of a thriving team? What does it feel like to lead and be a team member of a flourishing team? These questions go beyond meeting targets and deadlines; they delve into the heart of a team’s success.

In the dynamic landscape of today’s workplaces, where cultural intelligence, diversity, and psychological safety play pivotal roles, understanding the pulse of your team is more crucial than ever.

In this article we explore three indicators that signify not just a productive team but a truly thriving one. An environment where cultural intelligence is cultivated, diversity is celebrated, and psychological safety is the cornerstone of success. An environment therefore where a leader and their team members together, create a culture where each member feels they can be themselves and are accepted for who they are.

With each indicator we will give you a strategy to help create that success indicator in your team.


A thriving team is the backbone of any successful organisation. It’s not just about meeting deadlines; it’s about creating a collaborative and positive environment that fosters creativity, productivity, and employee satisfaction. Let’s look at three key indicators.

Key Indicator 1: Effective Communication

Strategy 1: Style-Shifting for more effective communication in culturally diverse teams

“A culture of silence is a dangerous culture.” Effective communication is the cornerstone of a thriving team, and the ability to style-shift plays a pivotal role. Style-shifting involves adapting communication styles to resonate with diverse team members.

In a multicultural team, varying communication preferences and cultural nuances can influence understanding. Leaders must be adept at recognising these differences and adjusting their communication approach accordingly.

Consider a scenario where a manager, Sarah, oversees a team with members from various cultural backgrounds. One team member, Ahmed, values direct communication, while another, Mei, appreciates a more indirect and nuanced approach.

Recognising these differences, Sarah employs style-shifting techniques in her communication. In team meetings, she ensures clear and concise directives for Ahmed, while providing additional context and allowing space for discussion with Mei.

By adapting her communication style to each team member’s preferences, Sarah not only fosters understanding but also creates an inclusive environment where diverse voices are heard.

Key indicator 2: High Level Engagement

Strategy 2: Style-shift to motivate culturally diverse teams

Motivating a culturally diverse team requires a nuanced understanding of individual and collective motivations. Different cultures may place distinct values on teamwork, individual contributions, or recognition. Leaders need to identify and leverage these cultural dynamics by style-shifting to create an environment that resonates with every team member.

High-level engagement goes beyond task assignments; it involves understanding personal and cultural motivators. It acknowledges diverse perspectives, and fosters an inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels heard and valued.

In this culturally diverse team, Sarah delves deeper into understanding individual motivations. She learns that Ahmed finds motivation in personal recognition for his achievements, whereas Mei values contributions that benefit the team as a whole.

Sarah, recognising these differences, tailors her motivational approach. She publicly acknowledges Ahmed’s accomplishments, highlighting his individual contributions. Whereas with Mei, she focuses on the collective achievements of the team. By acknowledging and catering to diverse motivations, Sarah ensures that each member feels valued and motivated in their unique way.

Key Indictor 3: Resilience

Strategy 3: Style-shift to inspire you team in the face of uncertainty

Resilience is a critical trait for any team, and inspiring resilience in a diverse group requires strategic leadership. Cultural diversity often brings varied perspectives on adversity and coping mechanisms. Leaders can inspire resilience by acknowledging and respecting diverse approaches to challenges.

An example would be to encourage open dialogue about overcoming setbacks. Perhaps share stories of triumph over adversity, and promote a culture where failure is seen as an opportunity for growth. By fostering resilience in a diverse group, leaders empower their teams to adapt, learn, and thrive in the face of uncertainty.

In a challenging project, the team faces unexpected setbacks. Sarah takes this opportunity to style shift and inspire resilience within the culturally diverse group. She organises a team discussion where members, draw from their varied cultural backgrounds and share stories of overcoming adversity.

Ahmed for example, discusses how his cultural upbringing taught him the importance of perseverance, while Mei shares insights from her culture’s approach to collaborative problem-solving.

Through this exchange, the team gains a deeper understanding of each other and learns to appreciate diverse perspectives on resilience. This dialogue fosters a culture of resilience, where the team collectively faces challenges with a newfound strength drawn from their cultural diversity.

Effective communication, high-level engagement and resilience

In summary, effective communication, high-level engagement, and resilience are vital components of a thriving team. Style-shifting enables leaders to communicate with clarity and understanding. Recognising individual motivations within a cultural framework helps build engagement.

Finally, inspiring resilience in a diverse group requires embracing and learning from the varied perspectives on overcoming challenges. Using this approach enhances team dynamics and promotes a workplace culture that celebrates diversity and harnesses its strengths.

Change blame to accountability in culture diverse teams by creating psychological safety

How to change blame to accountability on your team

A few years ago I was working on a team with four other women. I thought we all got along beautifully; we laughed and joked constantly and seemed to have a thriving team culture.

However, often when something didn’t go well, my teammates tended to blame others rather than accept accountability for not achieving set tasks. At times they also blamed me. “Sorry,” they’d say, “we couldn’t finish this document on time because John from Finance didn’t send us the information.” Or, “This presentation isn’t ready because you haven’t yet given us approval for the photos we would like to use.”

Blame is a common factor when psychological safety is missing

Blame rather than accountability, is a common factor when psychological safety is missing from the team. Psychological safety is one the most important factors in creating thriving teams. In her book, the “Fearless Organization”, Amy Edmondson, explains that when there is psychological safety, there is a shared belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk, including accepting accountability.

We fear laughter and ridicule, therefore we blame others for our unaccomplished tasks.

Trust and respect generate psychological safety

For a team to feel that there is psychological safety, individuals need to trust and respect one another. Trust and respect allow for productive disagreements or giving feedback without feeling ashamed or disrespected.

In culture-diverse teams, building this level of trust and respect can be challenging. We see the world according to our different cultural influences. These cultural factors could be related to our gender, where we were brought up, our education or our profession. This in turn influences what we feel is the correct way to build trust with our colleagues. The same goes for how we feel about disagreeing with colleagues, how much information we wish to share with others, give feedback and even what motivates us to spend a few extra hours in the office or not.

We build trust through understanding the underlying values of our colleagues

To create psychological safety in a culture-diverse team, we need to be able to see and understand the perspective of our teammates. Do they believe in maintaining a very harmonious environment without any conflict? Do they therefore need time to get to know a person well before giving feedback? Or on the contrary, are they comfortable in a meeting saying exactly what is on their mind, irrespective of how long they’ve known the other person?

Even if we finally do not agree with their perspective we need to at least try to comprehend it. By demonstrating to our colleagues that we are open to seeing the world through their eyes, we start to create a level of trust and respect that is the first step to creating a psychologically safe environment.

How to change blame to accountability

Once we have trust and respect on the team, our colleagues will be more inclined to open up and be accountable for their tasks.

Does your team have psychological safety?

If you’re wondering whether there is pychological safety on your team, ask yourself these two simple questions:

  1. If you make a mistake on this team, is it held against you?
  2. Is it difficult to ask other members on the team for help?

If you answered yes to both questions, you’re probably on a team where individuals feel trusted and respected. If you answered no, think about why not.

What can a silent smile really mean? Cultural Intelligence.

Why strive for Cultural Intelligence in today’s global world?

A colleague of mine was in Thailand a few years back on a business trip. On her last day, her final meeting ran a little longer than planned. She was panicking slightly that she would miss her flight home and as she finally slipped into the back seat of the taxi, she asked the driver, “How long until we reach the airport?” The driver timidly answered with his polite Thai smile, “Sorry Ma’am, do you need to wash your hands?”

I remember laughing very heartily when I first heard this story.

Cultural Intelligence is the skill of interpreting cultural patterns and then adapting our communication to be more effective.

How can such a simple sentence be interpreted so differently to what was really intended? My colleague was really nervous that she was going to miss her return flight to the Netherlands, but the Thai taxi driver thought she needed to use a restroom. In some countries the word “toilet” can seem vulgar and therefore it isn't used. Even restroom was obviously not a word this taxi driver was confident using. So he kindly asked her if she needed to wash her hands, when in fact my colleague just wanted to know how long it would take to reach the airport.

Leading in business with Cultural Intelligence

So what does this have to do with cultural intelligence? If cultural intelligence (CQ) is the skill of interpreting cultural patterns and learning to adapt our communication skills accordingly, then this is a perfect example.

If we were brought up in a society that expects good communication to be clear and transparent, in a business meeting when we ask a simple question such as, “Will the delivery arrive on Thursday?” we expect a simple answer. "Yes it will"or "No I don’t think it will because… "  But that “yes/no” answer is a pattern used by societies where it is considered acceptable behaviour to speak directly and actually it is also acceptable to use negative terms without creating discomfort or creating loss of face.

However, if we are dealing with somebody brought up in a culture where a direct, "no" can be considered rude or aggressive  that “no” might never come and we are expected to learn a different pattern of communication.   Imagine being in Qatar, Japan or Brazil. If you ask that such a “yes / no” question questions to a business associate whom you don't know well, it is likely that you will often receive  an answer that could appear  (in your ears) to mean "yes". You would need to spend quite some time interpreting what that, "yes" really means. So the first cultural intelligence skill here is to recognise the communication pattern and the second skill is adapting our communication to find out what the real meaning of the sentence could be.

4 steps to developing CQ

Cultural Intelligence allows us to learn the communication and behavioural patterns of certain societies and then apply different communication techniques accordingly.

There are 4 steps to developing Cultural Intelligence

Step 1: Drive

How driven (or motivated) are you to modify and adapt your communication to reach your goals? This is a question that only you can answer.  How important is it to you that that delivery arrive on Thursday and what are you willing to do to find out the true answer?

Step 2: Knowledge

What do I know about the other culture? What do you know about that person’s cultural upbringing that can help you determine what their communication pattern means?

Let's go back to that simple question, "Will the delivery arrive on Thursday?" Is the person you are speaking to from a face-saving, indirect speaking culture where the word, “no” is not often spoken? Or have they spent most of their careers working in multicultural environments and ,“I’m trying my hardest” actually could mean that the delivery might arrive?

The pattern is just that; a pattern. It is not obvious (and certainly not a pattern) if only used once. The pattern becomes more obvious when several people of the same group use the same pattern. It can take several trials and discussions before you realise what the communication pattern is.

Step 3: Strategy

Once you have understood the communication pattern you are only half way there. You still have not worked out if the delivery is arriving on Thursday. This is where cultural self-awareness comes in. Ask yourself: "How do I usually communicate in such a situation? What do I need to do to figure out if the delivery is running late, lost somewhere, if the cargo truck has had an accident or if they are expecting me to pay off the customs officials to get the cargo into the country?"

In step three you create your strategy. This could sometimes be as simple as just asking an open question, for example, "What are the chances that the delivery arrive on time or what are the challenges that we are facing right now?" Or it could be a longer strategy. Do you need to leave the "group" meeting and invite your associate to drink a cup of tea maybe a beer in a trust-binding one-on-one discussion to be told what is really going on with the delivery?

Step 4: Put it into action

Whatever your strategy ends up being, step 4 is where you put it into action.  This is where we sometimes have to come out of our comfort zone to learn what we are really capable of.  If you are uncomfortable in this kind of "trust" creating one-on-one meeting, plan it out carefully.

Step 4 needs to be tried, analysed and tried again until it works and until you start to feel more comfortable. After each new action, ask yourself three questions:

  1. How dit feel?
  2. How did the other person react?
  3. Would I do it again the same way or should I change something?

Only at this point do we really start to develop cultural intelligence.

businessman using cultural intelligence to reach full impact in global calls

How to reach full impact in your global calls

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

The first step to reaching full impact in your global calls in this age of less travel and more home-office, is to use cultural intelligence. Our business world seems to shrink day by day. When you look at your agenda in the morning it likely says:

  • 07:30 am meeting with Japan
  • 11:00 am with Switzerland
  • 6:00 pm with the USA

We have conversations and discuss business strategies, on a daily basis, with people all over the globe. Yet, do we modify the way we describe our thoughts and strategies depending on whether we are speaking to a North American rather than a Korean? Have we learnt how to create a strong business relationship with a Finn, a Qatari and a Brazilian?

Today, more than ever before, our daily activities require us to be ever so alert about very different mindsets. If you want to reach full impact in your global calls, you need to switch off autopilot and consciously prepare your meetings in advance, according to the mindset of the people you are expecting to deal with. One way to do that is to use Cultura Intelligence.

What is Cultural Intelligence?

Cultural Intelligence is the skill of being able to interpret unspoken codes of culture and then switch our communication styles accordingly, so that we become more effective with the person with whom we’re dealing and therefore reach our goals

There are two parts to that statement above. Firstly, we need to learn to read the “unspoken codes”. That might entail understanding when a “yes” means a “no”; how to know whether the question being asked is used to display interest or displeasure, or perhaps knowing when a smile or a laugh is hiding loss of face or embarrassment.

The second part of the statement refers to modifying our communication. Without that adaptation, we often struggle in really reaching the impact we were hoping for. If you are successful in reading the unspoken code but persist on using the same communication and behaviour you started with, it becomes much harder to reach your goals.

Let’s look at an example of how to use cultural intelligence.

Asia-Pacific Conference call

Julie works for a multinational organisation in Western Europe where each colleague is responsible for a different world region. She has recently started a new role as Head of Asia Pacific. Once a month, Julie has a conference call with the managers and teams in her region, Australia, Vietnam, Japan, etc. It’s her responsibility during each call to learn what the best practices are from each team.

Julie prepares her meetings meticulously, practising the exact questions she will ask the group and then how she will distribute the information afterwards. What Julie hasn’t prepared, is how to understand the unspoken codes that the various cultural norms might influence.

Julie comes out of her first few meetings feeling as though she has not achieved what she wanted. Her goal is to supply her manager with the best practices from the region. The Australian team supplied her one and she may have received one or two other results. However, she is missing quite a few, namely, the Japanese best practices, and Japan is an important market for her.

Julie wonders to herself, why is it that she can rarely get the information she needs from the Japanese market?

Cultural intelligence can help you decipher the unspoken codes

Why is Julie not effective in communicating her request to the Japanese team? Let’s look at how Julie can use Cultural Intelligence (CQ) to figure our what she needs to do.

Step 1 of CQ is Drive. Is Julie driven? Yes, she is. She is motivated to modify her communication and behaviour to reach her goals.

Step 2 of CQ is Knowledge. This is a very important aspect. What does Julie know about the Japanese culture? Well, Julie has learnt through reading up on Japan, that Japanese people are usually collectivist, or group-oriented. This could mean that a colleague is not willing to show or share their personal opinion. They would usually rather express the opinion of the team. Therefore in Julie’s case, the Japanese team likely need to have a team meeting after each call to discuss what they have heard in the meeting and then be able to give their opinion on the subject as a team at a later date.

Lack of knowledge about cultural norms and values can lead us to false negative judgments

It is usually easier to read the unspoken codes if we have acquired an understanding of the different cultural values of the people we are dealing with. Without that knowledge we are often prone to rely on our biases and start judging our counterparts negatively. In this case, Julie might erringly think that the Japanese team members are not speaking up because they are not experienced enough or don’t understand her or that they are just plain shy.

Step 3 of CQ is Strategy. Once Julie feels she knows why the team is not speaking up, she then needs to create a strategy that will allow the Japanese team to display all their knowledge and talk about their best practices. There may be several different ways of doing this and each individual should determine what would work best for them.

Step 4 of CQ is Putting the strategy into Action. Once the strategy has been decided, put the thoughts into action and see what happens. The action can be verbal or non-verbal. It could be a different manner of asking questions or a distinct approach to writing emails. It might be as simple as transforming the method of building trust with the team.

I don’t have enough hours in the day to go through all of that

Well, yes, it can seem a little long-winded, but what happens if you don’t take the time to think through your strategy? Are you prepared to risk missing your desired goals and not reaching full impact in your global conference calls?

Cultural intelligence creates a powerful and inclusive team culture

Realign your global remote teams to create a powerful team culture

Are you ready for the next step? The start of a new year brings new-found energy with it. Now is an ideal moment to realign remote global teams to create a powerful and inclusive team culture. Bring your team communication to the next level in 2021  by building on what the team recently experienced. Although studies show that working from home can be beneficial for both the employee and the company, there are several challenges. "The main challenges that arise are communication, knowledge sharing, socialisation, performance evaluation and security."

Let's not get intimidated by the word "Culture". In our case, it means, "the way things are done around here". It is a set of accepted ways of behaving, communicating and getting things done that everybody on the team is comfortable with. When the team creates its own culture, each individual feels valued, included, engaged and is therefore more productive.

A strong team culture generates motivation, team-spirit, good communication and knowledge sharing. This in turn builds trust and helps the team deliver its goals. A thriving team culture is one that allows each team member to speak up and give their point of view on what their preferred communication style is.

The powerful team culture communication meeting

Bring the team together (officially) to discuss their team culture.  Individuals have had the festive season to ponder over and informally discuss what they enjoyed and what they didn't enjoy about working from home. Use this as a catalyst.

Let's start with communication. An easy way to start the discussion right now it to ask about how productive or not the last six to eight months have been for each individual. Firstly, ask them to consider at what stage, and using which medium, they felt the communication flowed best? When you have good communication flow, creative ideas spill out.

Were they most productive over the phone, during a team zoom session, in one-on-ones, when the kids were in bed, or over a virtual coffee chat? Which communication means make them apprehensive and therefore less productive? Was it long-winded emails or short-handed WhatsApp messages? Individuals will talk plainly about what is best for them, as a result, you leverage on each individual's ideal situation. If you know that "John" is most creative spurting out quick WhatsApps then use it to help him shine and also share the best ideas.

remote team coffee break

remote team coffee breakSocialisation and trust create a strong team culture

When we socialise with our teammates, we learn more about them as people and not just as business colleagues.  This creates trust, which in turn helps us and them to open up and share our ideas more freely.  Socialisation is one of the areas that remote teams suffer the most in general and especially during lockdown moments. Socialising does not come naturally when individuals are sitting in front of their laptop feeling cut off from the world. Socialisation has to be consciously worked at on remote teams.

You could consider spending a few minutes at the beginning of team meetings running an ice breaker. Think about creating informal situations for colleagues to chat and meet even if it needs to be virtual. Virtual "aperos" work wonders. Socialisation and therefore trust create team spirit and allow each individual to feel valued.

Knowledge sharing and the dreaded 9pm conference call

If your multicultural team members sit in offices around the globe, it's vital to bring up the topic of time zones. Joining two-hour conference calls, three times a week at 9pm, after a long day of work is not sustainable and it is not very motivational.  On top of that, if  the participants are passive listeners rather than colleagues who need to actively speak, it becomes even worse.

the dreaded 9pm conference call

the dreaded 9pm conference call

Therefore an important topic to discuss is always related to what time of the day these calls should be made. Ask the team at what time of the day they feel they are most productive. If the weekly facilitator is comfortable skipping dinner with the kids for a meeting, that doesn't mean everybody is. Too often, the accepted time zone for such meetings is where headquarters are based. For a motivation boost, consider rotating the meeting facilitator each week. This can be particularly engaging for the facilitator, and what's more, it allows individuals who are not very forthcoming to show a different side of themselves.

A team is made up of individuals 

It's vital in such a "team culture creation session", to ensure everybody gets a chance to speak up. If you have a culturally diverse team, with members who perhaps come from hierarchical or collectivist cultures, you may have colleagues who are unwilling to speak up in such a public gathering. There are a number of ways to help them speak up. Tell them in advance what will be expected of them in such a meeting.  Let them know that they will be expected to participate vocally. That will give them a chance to prepare something and not feel put on the spot when it occurs. Rotating the facilitator gives every team member a chance to speak up. As a result,  it will also give the team a very different perspective each time on what is considered important and who prioritises what.

Keep the powerful team culture alive -  write a team charter

Whatever the team decides as the best way to proceed, write it somewhere so you can look back at it occasionally. Choose four or five topics that are the most consequential during the discussion. These should be topics in which the team finds consensus.  Use these topics to write the team charter. Most importantly, keep the discussion alive as time passes and as pressure increases. It's easy to stick to "good intentions" when we are not under pressure. However, when tension increases, we tend to fall back on what is the "normal" way of behaving for us. What is normal for one individual, may not be what was discussed as the best way for the team to move forward.

Remember, if culture is, "the way things are done around here," then it needs to be accepted by the whole team to allow each individual to feel included, valued and engaged.

 

Persuading culturally diverse audiences

Five Tips to Persuading Culturally Diverse Audiences

I used to work in a conventional office where from my desk I had vision of the much-loved coffee-corner. One afternoon, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a colleague sitting over his “latte” with a frown on his forehead. It was time for a break, so I walked over and asked how his day was coming along. He scrunched up his face in disappointment.“I’ve just presented to a new Chinese organisation that wanted to hear about our upcoming event. I don’t feel I persuaded them how exciting and worthwhile this new project is”. He continued his distressed explanation;

“I’ve spent hours on the PowerPoint slides. My bullet points were clear and I spoke slowly. I didn’t use any slang and yet they questioned every single point, over and over, to extremes. I thought I wouldn’t get past the second slide in the full hour I had.”

Hmmm, difficult one….

I didn’t have the knowledge then that I do now on the topic of persuading culturally diverse audiences.  Although it may be too late for his project, I’d like to share some kind of remedy for this dilemma that many of us face when working in a global environment. How should we modify our presentations and persuasion techniques according to the cultural background of our audience?

Our cultural mindset influences how we filter what is said

Our cultural mindset influences how we think, problem-solve and how we find solutions to our challenges. As a result, it impacts what kind of information we need to motivate us and help us make decisions. It’s not just about how we understand language or how competent we are with the language being presented to us. Culture influences how we see the world and how the words we hear are filtered into thoughts. Those thoughts in turn are put together to create a picture or an idea. Let’s take a brief look at two studies done on the topic.

1. Two professors, Nisbett and Miyamoto showed an underwater ocean scene to two groups of students, American students at the university of Michigan and Japanese students at the University of Kyoto. The students looked at the pictures twice for 20 seconds each. Afterwards they were asked what they recalled from the scenes. The Americans tended to remember elements in the foreground; big, bright, fish. The Japanese students remembered the background scenes; shells, stones and marine plants.

2. Another study that monitored eye movement during scene-encoding, demonstrated that Americans generally focus on focal objects sooner and longer than East Asians whose attention is oriented away from focal objects and toward backgrounds.

 

In short and in general the studies show that Americans are more analytical in the way they see the world and therefore problem-solve, whilst East Asians, or Japanese specifically in the first study, are more holistic.

How to adapt your presentation for persuading culturally diverse audiences

Firstly, avoid using the same set of slides for different groups.  If you have the time, rearrange your slides between presentations. It’s almost a necessity for persuading culturally diverse groups. The subject you present remains the same but the way you present it differs. For example, multinational companies who wish to standardise their global processes according to regions or countries, should be able to do so. However,  the way they convince a Korean, a Ghanaian or a Finn of why the process is standardised should differ. Each group will need a different set of inputs to convince them of the necessity of standardising.

Presenting to Holistic audiences

To persuade an audience that is more holistic, avoid going straight to the point with your opening slide. Ensure you give the big picture before talking about details. Holistic listeners usually look at objects as a whole. They find it difficult to remove an object from its surroundings or only focus on one small area. If you remove the context the object loses its significance.

Let's look at an example; if you’re talking about a product launch, it’s best if you relate it to a previous product, a previous launch, history of the products etc. Look at past examples and discuss past experiences. Discuss how the subject you’re presenting today is connected to a different one on the other side of the globe. Anything that could be related to your topic can be of interest to a holistic audience before zooming into your topic. Remember you are trying to motivate them to continue listening.

Presenting to analytical audiences

On the other hand, if  you are presenting to an analytical audience, consider using bullet points and diving straight into the topic at hand to ensure your listeners do not start to yawn with boredom. You do not need to give the big picture to motivate the group or to help them follow your thread.

Thirdly, when persuading culturally diverse audiences, consider whether the group needs to hear, “how” to move forward or “why” to move forward. It is likely that they would like to hear both. However,  the order you start with will either capture their interest or have them pick up their phones and start messaging. Generally, US American cultures tend to be more "how" oriented. French listeners usually prefer to know "why" they are doing something in order to be motivated.

When the presentation language is not the mother tongue of the listeners

Although the next point is not connected to holistic/analytical differences, it may be helpful when trying to persuade culturally diverse groups.

If the audience's mother tongue is not the one being used for the presentation, consider sending your presentation to them  ahead of time.  This allows the listeners to read through it beforehand. As a result, they become familiar with the vocabulary and can prepare any questions they may have.

If you don’t give your audience this opportunity you may find that an audience from a very hierarchical, face-saving culture may not react or ask questions, leaving you wondering whether they have understood at all.

Lastly, if presenting to a collective audience for which face-saving and hierarchy may be important values, make sure you insert several coffee breaks in the presentation. This allows the group to gather away from the speaker’s view to discuss issues and prepare their questions for the next session.

And remember… any group not brought up where you were brought up likely does not have the same sense of humour as you do. Humour travels very poorly across borders. Therefore, avoid starting a presentation with humour unless you are 100% sure it will be understood the way it was meant to be understood.

avoid using humour when persuading culturally diverse audiences