Psychological safety is not just a new fashionable term for “feeling good” at work

Posted on 11. November 202211. December 2023 by Tania Pellegrini

Psychological safety is not just a new fashionable term for “feeling good” at work. Creating psychological safety in your team is really the bottom line for any leader or team member wishing to create a high performing team.

Along with motivational drive and cognitive diversity, it is one of the 3 invisible forces that help a team strive. It creates bonding, enjoyment and accomplishment.

For pyschological saftey to flourish, team members need to feel that they are learning from one another

Psychological safety flourishes when individuals learn from one another.

For psychological safety to flourish, team members need to feel that they are learning from one another and can ask for help from each other. If individuals have a crazy idea that they wish to splurt out, they need to feel that they will not be laughed at. In addition, it is the knowledge and gut feeling that they can speak up and be the best version of themselves because they feel valued.

You can feel when a team has psychological safety. You walk into a meeting room and there is murmuring, laughter and ideas bouncing off the walls.

How do we create psychological safety in teams where each individual has a different mindset and different perspective of the world?

We need to learn what the cultural values of our individual team members are and learn how to motivate them accordingly. It’s about understanding who needs more support, who prefers to work independently, who is comfortable speaking up, who is afraid they might make you angry when they speak up, who loves and needs the limelight and show shies away from it.

Ensure psychological safety at every step of team formation

Step 1 – Forming

When the team is at its initial stages, start your meetings discussing individual values, not team objectives. Each team member should have a chance to describe their preferred communication techniques and values before judgments are formed. Judgements will be formed quickly, they are hard to avoid. Once they are formed they are hard to break. Therefore, ideally use this technique early on.

Step 2 – Storming

When the team is storming, let the storm play out. You will feel that something has changed in the team. They might be a bit quieter. Their foreheads may look sterner. They might even start sounding aggressive with one another. Storming is a natural part of team formation. During this phase individuals learn what their role is and what the individual strengths are of others.

If the storm continues, go back to step 1. Figure out which values are not given the space to flourish. This is a sign that individuals cannot really be themselves.

Step 3- Norming

During the norming phase psychological safety begins to take form. Individuals learn to appreciate the differences and strengths of the others. They will start to offer help to one another and exchange ideas. This might just be tentative initially, however eventually it will become the norm.

Step 4 – Performing

This is where the magic happens. During the performing phase, psychological safety is at its height. Individuals walk into the office smiling, singing, and ready for a day of bouncing ideas off each other. They acknowledge the occasional unsuccessful plan or an idea that truly is impossible to accomplish. However, psychological safety is also the sweet satisfaction of projects and ideas that play out and prosper exactly as foreseen and discussed.

Individuals respect one another for their strengths and for their diversity comprehending that it is real cognitive diversity that makes a team prosper.

A thriving team discusses culture to reach high performance

Posted on 27. April 202226. June 2022 by Tania Pellegrini

Thriving teams discuss culture… twice.

A few years ago, I was working in Brazil, leading a small team of Brazilian women. After a few months of working together on our project, I had the bitter surprise that one of my team members was spiralling…downward. She was losing motivation, losing trust in me and believed that I did not trust her. At that stage, I was concerned that our team was not only going to fail in reaching its set objectives, but that I personally was ruining what could have been an exciting and rewarding experience for this young woman.

In order for a team to thrive it needs to discuss culture… twice.

The first discussion needs to revolve around the personal cultural influences of each individual.

The second discussion should be an exploration of what kind of culture the team wishes to create.

A team’s various cultural influences create cognitive diversity

With the team in Brazil, I had made the mistake of starting off our project talking about the team’s objectives rather than talking about our cultural influences. A team’s various cultural influences create cognitive diversity. Teams that have high cognitive diversity are usually the most high-performing because they are able to view perspectives from very different angles and they have different means of processing information.

I should have been more inquisitive about the team’s cultural influences. By understanding my teammates’ values, I would learn what was important to them and in particular, what motivated them.

When we talk about cultural influences we are looking at all experiences in our life that have shaped the way we perceive the world. These influences affect our behaviour and the way we do business.

Thriving teams discuss culture to eliminate assumptions

When we talk about cultural influences we are not just discussing the values of the country we were brought up in. Our cultural influences have a far wider reach. Amongst other things, our cultural influences are related to:

where we were brought up in the world
education, (formal and informal)
profession
our religion
different abilities
our gender and our age, to name a few

cultural influences that influence our values and therefore the way we behave in the work environment

As each team member discusses their personal values and what influences them the most, it allows their colleagues to become aware of why that particular person behaves the way they do. This in turn helps eliminate forms of judgment and prejudice that can exist in a team.

“My manager is pretentious.”

Let’s look at the anecdote at the beginning of this article. For the sake of anonymity, I shall call my colleague Isabela. What had been happening when I finally noticed that Isabela was losing motivation and that she felt I did not respect her?

For weeks preceding this moment, Isabela had been giving me some important feedback on how to best reach my objectives when dealing with Brazilian stakeholders. I had not understood her feedback and therefore didn’t react to it. I had not understood her because I had not adapted my listening skills to her communication style. Isabela had been giving me feedback in a way that I was not accustomed to. When she noticed that I was not making any changes to my behaviour, she likely started to think the following:

“My manager is not interested in what I say to her. She probably thinks I am not experienced enough. She’s a bit pretentious and thinks she is the only one with any experience. I’m not going to give her any more suggestions, she doesn’t care anyway.”

Trust is the glue that helps a team reach high-performance

By then, Isabela was likely thinking that I didn’t trust her. Trust and therefore psychological safety is an important attribute of thriving teams. Individuals feel they can open up and discuss important matters without being laughed at or ignored, when there is trust. Trust gives them the feeling that it’s “safe” to be themselves. This is what leads to inclusion and to a positive team culture.

If I had taken the time to discuss Isabela’s values before starting off on our project, I would have discovered that she was very relationship-oriented and that she needed time and trust to open up and give feedback to her work colleagues.

Thriving team discuss culture twice

Step two of creating a thriving team is for the team to discuss culture… again. At this point though, the team needs to discuss what kind of culture the individuals would like to work in. When we talk about “team culture”, we are asking team members to acknowledge what behaviour is reinforced and rewarded by the team members. It therefore also indicates what behaviour is not acceptable.

It is the individuals of the team that should create the culture they wish be a part of. These team members know what motivates them to spend the extra hours dwelling over a problem. They also know (at this stage) how to deal with disagreement, and how to contradict one another in a way that will not offend other team members. They also know how to give one another constructive feedback.

Further topics of the team culture discussion can include items such as:

problem solving: for example what do you do when 2 out of 5 team members are not comfortable with brainstorming?
how does the team debate a topic when 3 out of 5 colleagues usually avoid conflict
how should the team make decisions when some of the members are not comfortable voicing their opinion

The discussion is the most important part of creating a positive high-performing team culture

The information shared and exchanged during such a discussion is the beginning of creating a safe environment. This discussion avoids making assumptions about your team members. Incorrect assumptions can lead to negative judgments that are often wrong.

If you feel your team might be lacking in communication or starting to mistrust one another, consider running through the above two activities to help create a thriving team culture.

Realign your global remote teams to create a powerful team culture

Posted on 21. January 202129. November 2021 by Tania Pellegrini

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 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

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.

Five Tips to Persuading Culturally Diverse Audiences

Posted on 23. September 20201. December 2021 by Tania Pellegrini

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;

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.

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.

High Performing Global Teams Thrive on Trust

Posted on 21. April 20203. December 2021 by Tania Pellegrini

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Three steps to building trust remotely

High performing global teams thrive on trust.

If trust is the glue that connects and creates a High Performing Team, and if trust is created through spontaneous “coffee-corner chit-chat” or sharing a beer or coke after work, it’s no wonder we often struggle to feel connected to our team members when working remotely.

Consequently, our virtual communication techniques should replicate what we do (often without much effort) in a conventional team. If you’d like to lead a high performing global team, try these three small gestures below to create the bond which builds trust. In addition, it should in turn build team spirit and accountability, which finally helps increases team performance.

1. Replicate the office-corner virtually

Invite a colleague for a morning coffee just to say, “Hi”. The invitation is literally for 5 minutes. It doesn’t involve talking about work, it is purely to say, “How are things?” Don’t forget to switch on the camera.

This might seem unnatural initially, but just think about what happens naturally at the coffee corner in the office. While preparing your preferred drink you see colleagues from other departments and business units and you have that quick, 3-minute chat about the weekend, about your kids, about movies or perhaps about a new running route you’ve just discovered.

Create a bond

What is so important about these quick exchanges? These short dialogues show who you are as a person other than just as a business colleague and they create a bond. Consequently, by opening up like this, we show, and see in return, a human side to the person that we find difficult to imagine through email exchanges. Most importantly, we discover what we have in common and these commonalities are what help us build a relationship, build trust and therefore accountability. It is trust and accountability between individuals that help high performing global teams thrive.

2. Virtual after-work drinks

Before Coronavirus this seemed like a far-fetched thought. However, this seems to have changed since we have been locked up for weeks and craving conversation. As a result, it seems more natural and it’s been great to see how many people have picked up on it.

Invite your colleagues for a drink after work. You grab a beer, they grab a coke, an ice -tea, a prosecco, maybe a cappuccino depending on what time zone you are all in. Whatever the refreshment, it’s time for relaxing and talking about whatever comes to your mind and exchanging on a more personal note. This is not the 3-minute chat from above. Allow some time to give people the opportunity to open up.

If you’re not a natural talker, or you have introverts on the team who might struggle to open up, think of easy subjects to talk about that. For example, travel ideas, food, national celebrations and traditions in your colleagues’ countries that you might be curious about.

3. Include ice-breakers into your weekly virtual ops meetings

In a conventional face-to-face meeting, usually one or two people arrive a few minutes earlier than the crowd and a short discussion starts. As each person slips into the meeting room the discussion opens up with more people adding what they have to say and each new added sentence gives us insight into the person sitting in front of us.

Often, these spontaneous discussions lead to creative ideas. This is a an element that is often missing in team conference calls. Namely, when we join conference calls where one person is sitting in Kuala Lumpur, one in Sydney and a third in Stockholm, we don’t take the time to break the ice this way. We log-into the meeting one minute before it starts, the host welcomes everyone and the meeting begins.

Here are some ice-breaker ideas

If you’re running a virtual team meeting find some 3-4 minute icebreakers you can use. Make them short and fun. They can be as personal or impersonal as you feel is appropriate for the team. For example, ask each team member to send a photo of themselves when they were 5 years old. The others have to guess who it is.

Likewise, ask everyone to upload their favourite film /book/football player/pair of shoes and you need to guess which object belongs to which team member. Remember, high performing global teams thrive on trust and trust means letting the other person see how competent you are, how reliable you are, or what you have in common.

Switch on the camera to build trust

Always remember to switch on your camera in these sessions and find a way to convince the others to do so too. It is extraordinary how a smile can help interpret emotions that are usually very dfficult to read over the phone or through email. The visual aid helps us read between the lines when communicating with people who don’t normally say exactly what they think.

These easy to apply communication techniques help us create a connection with our colleagues, which allows us to bond and thereby create trust. Without trust and without accountability team spirit crumbles and when it does, your goals slowly become unattainable.

If you’re interested in our “Global Remote Teams” Course please see here.

Inclusion: It’s as simple as “listening” & learning cultural patterns

Posted on 2. March 202025. November 2021 by Tania Pellegrini

A few years ago, the company I was working for sent me off to Brazil to lead a small team of 4 Brazilian women, all with different work and life experiences. The manager, who was about 35 years old, was the most experienced and the least experienced was an assistant who was about 24. I was excited to be heading there and to learn a whole new set of cultural patterns.

After a few months with the team, I thought it was time to analyse how things were moving forward and if I had considered all the cultural inclusion skills I had learnt. Had I built trust with my team? Had they built trust with one another? Was our communication clear? I asked myself all these questions, and more, and I was fairly content with my answers and gave myself a pat on the back. Boy was I wrong! About a week later, I realised how badly I had been reading Brazilian cultural patterns when one of my team members, (let’s call her Lia), told me how incompetent I was at dealing with Brazilians. Let me tell you what happened.

The meeting in Sao Paulo

Lia and I headed to Sao Paulo for an important meeting. I had 90 minutes to convince a university professor to allow about 100 of his students to do a paid internship with our company. Seems simple right? Well, I thought it was going to be simple. I’d had several similar meetings before, in different countries, and until then I had been successful with my request. I knew the subject matter very well, and I thought I knew what the outcome was going to be. Consequently, I entered the meeting on “Autopilot”. Mistake #1. I didn’t pick up on little signals and body language (the cultural patterns) that the professor was sharing throughout the discussion to show his disinterest. Therefore, I wasn’t flexible enough to change my mode of communication or my persuasion techniques.

“I entered the meeting on Autopilot: Mistake n. 01”

At the end of the 90 minutes, Lia and I walked out of the meeting, our heads down, unsuccessful. The professor was not going to allow his students to join our project. Lia and I stepped into the taxi that took us back to the airport. I was speechless and in shock at how badly the meeting had just gone.

After a few minutes, I turned to Lia and asked, “What just happened in there?” She looked at me and suddenly burst into tears. She was crying and yelling through her sobs, “Tania, you haven’t been listening to me!!!” I’ve been telling you for months that you cannot do things here your way, you have to do it the Brazilian way!” “What? What do you mean you’ve been telling me for months?” “Well, to start with, about one month ago in our team meeting, I said A, B and C. Three weeks ago, I said, X,Y and Z and last week I repeated A, B and C, but you just ignore what I say!”

I hadn’t heard because I didn’t know how to listen

Ooooooh…What a disaster. Lia had been giving me feedback about how to read the cultural patterns to be more efficient with my Brazilian counterparts, but I hadn’t “heard” her feedback. I hadn’t heard it because I didn’t know how to adapt my listening techniques to her communication methods. For Lia, hierarchy was important and I was her Manager. Therefore, she found it difficult to speak to me directly, she didn’t want to seem disrespectful, which means her feedback was very indirect, so indirect that I didn’t understand it. It just went straight over my head.

Lia believed that I didn’t trust her because I didn’t modify my communication according to her suggestions. In her eyes, I was not interested in her opinion or in her ideas. This was all mistaken of course, but that was her perspective. What’s more, I realised that I was probably about to lose the respect and trust from the rest of my team unless I made some changes quickly.

“I had only been listening with my ears”

I hadn’t understood Lia because I had only been listening with my ears and because I was convinced that my method of getting things done was the right one. Lia was putting far more than just words into the message she was delivering. In fact, the words she used were of little significance. Most of the significance came from her body language and the subtle hints she was giving me while smiling.

Did I think that because she smiled while giving me the hints that they were not so important or not serious? For me a smile typically means agreement. Did I not go out to lunch with her often enough and share in personal chatter enough? Maybe that would have created a level of trust with her that could have helped her open up to me differently, or in a way that I would have understood. If I had done more personal sharing, maybe I would have learnt more about her communication techniques and learnt what was feedback and what wasn’t.

Each one of us has a different mindset and therefore a different way of communicating

When we work in culturally diverse teams, each one of us has a very different mindset and a different way of seeing the world and therefore of behaving and communicating. What is a pattern of showing respect in one culture can seem a pattern of disrespect in another.

If we want to be inclusive and bring out the best of each one of our colleagues, irrespective of their background, we need to learn their cultural patterns and the perspective of each one of our teammates is. We cannot assume that just because our company’s corporate culture says, “This is the way we do things around here,” that each individual is going to be comfortable following that path. Inclusion means taking the time, making time, to get to know who you’re working with even though you think that lunch time chit chat or coffee machine chit chat takes you away from reaching your deadlines.

TING

Take a look at the Chinese character below, Ting, (which means to listen). We can learn a lot about listening from our Chinese colleagues. “Ting”, is made up of 4 smaller characters, each one a component of what we should use to listen; our ears, our eyes, undivided attention and an open heart.

How to create engagement in your global team using inclusive feedback

Posted on 25. February 20201. December 2021 by Tania Pellegrini

How often are you asked by your colleagues, “Could you take a look at my presentation and tell me what you think?” This seems like a harmless task. So you take a look and say, “It looks good, maybe just change the blue border around the graph to green.”

Hmmm. What do you think has just been understood by Lila, the colleague who asked for your opinion? Inclusion is not about treating everybody equally, it is about treating each and every individual according to what gives them a feeling of belonging.

a) She thinks she´s done a great job and will just change the blue border to green, or

b) She thinks you hate the whole presentation and she will be up all night to rewrite it all.

Feedback is hard enough when we are dealing with people who have a similar mindset to ours. We´re usually a little uncomfortable telling somebody that the work they have done is not quite what was expected. When we give feedback to people who were brought up in a similar environment to ours, we are usually aware of the best way to do it. We pick up on small patterns of behaviour that are are part of the culture we grow up in. As we grow up, we see, listen and copy how people act and react to what we say and how we say it; be it at school from friends and teachers and then when we join the work-force our colleagues and managers use patterns that we recognise and we copy knowing it works.

However, it is all too easy to make unknown errors working in culturally diverse teams and assuming that just because we work for the same company and are aware of the corporate culture, that we are comfortable using the same communication techniques.

If you´ve been brought up in north-western Europe where one of the most important values is often honesty and equality, then feedback can be to the point and direct. You know that the person you´re talking to will likely appreciate your honesty and not take any offence in what you say. Therefore, with our above sample, Lila will literally only go and change the blue line to a green line and then feel her presentation is complete.

However, if Lila happened to grow up in, let´s say, Far East Asia or Latin America, where generally society values relationship-building and saving Face more that telling the “absolute truth”, then she might have understood that her presentation was indeed not good at all and needed to be redone, completely. In these societies generally feedback is given in a far more indirect manner, using techniques such as not mentioning what was not done well. So the fact that the person above only mentioned the colour of the line around the graph and nothing else, could be interpreted to mean that everything that was not mentioned was not to be re-worked.

Let´s look at the above example again and see how the feedback can be treated if Lila really is from a culture where trust is created through relationship-building and face-saving is important. Ideally you create an environment where a discussion can take place rather than just give your opinion:

Firstly, always give feedback one-on-one, never in public

2. Rather than give your opinion, ask the other person what they think about the work they have just done; “So Lila, how do you feel the presentation looks?

3. If Lila says she likes it, (and yet you think there are still some adjustments to be made) then perhaps ask, “If you had to give it a score from 1-10, what score would you give it?” Lila replies, “I´d give it an 8”. “So,” you reply, “how can we bring it from 8 to 9?” and that is where the feedback discussion begins.

Being culturally savvy means learning to read communication patterns that are different to the ones you were brought up with and knowing when to change your communication techniques (verbal and non-verbal) according to the cultural background of the team member you are facing. If you work in a multicultural team, that could mean either changing your communication with every person on the team or deciding with the team openly and up front which communication techniques will be used to express such thoughts. That would be “creating the team culture” a method of behaviour and communication that everyone on the team is happy with.

3 actions that create an inclusive culture

Posted on 15. May 201925. November 2021 by Tania Pellegrini

Being aware of our biases is the first of three actions that help us create an inclusive culture.

A few weeks ago I was staying in a hotel in central Amsterdam. I had just gone out for breakfast and strolled back into the hotel to go up to my room. I stepped into the elevator and a young woman followed me in. The trip up to my 5th-floor-room took around 10 seconds. Within less than 5 seconds, I had summed up the young woman. I started to panic thinking, oh no, she’s a drug addict, she’s going to steal my purse, I won’t make it to my business appointment this afternoon and I won’t be able to fly home tomorrow without my passport !!!!

Our unconscious bias is intuitive and leads us to false judgments

All of that in 5 seconds. Of course she did nothing of the sort. She was a 26-year-old (I think) Italian tourist who had just been out partying all night and forgot to take her key-card out with her. So why did I, in less than 10 seconds, judge her so harshly?

That was my unconscious bias talking. I was piecing together information that was missing and I pieced it together wrongly. I had 5 pieces of information.

She had droopy-looking eyes at 7.30am
She was very skinny
She had a bad complexion
She hadn’t pressed a floor button when she entered the elevator with me
She said in a strong-accented, broken English, while bringing two fingers up to her mouth, “I need cigarette.”

Assumption is the mother of all disaster...

I pieced together the very little information I had and all of a sudden, I thought I had a starving drug addict who needed a quick fix and was following me to my room to steal all my money.

I only realised my mistake when we finally reached the fifth floor and I insisted she exit the elevator before me. I almost pushed her out and she resisted, shaking her head. Finally she found the energy to lift 4 fingers and say in Italian, “Quattro”. So, I pressed the fourth-floor button and she then stepped out. I started laughing at myself, terribly embarrassed for making all of those assumptions about her in 5 seconds and vowed not to do it again.

Our conscious mind is slow and takes a lot of effort

Our conscious mind is slow and effortful, our unconscious mind is fast and intuitive.

It is our unconscious mind that makes assumptions very quickly when we see someone for the first time. Our mind sets judgments according to our past experiences. However we have so many past experiences that our mind needs to filter a lot and we cannot remember everything. We just remember bits and pieces and make our judgments accordingly. Therefor we usually fill in the gaps according to what makes sense to us. If I had an affinity towards this Italian tourist, I could have made her into an ‘Amy Winehouse-style-rockstar’ and would probably have asked her for an autograph. But I couldn’t “see” any affinities, (until she spoke Italian), so I invented the worst.

Three actions that create an inclusive culture

We make these false negative judgments often with our diverse colleagues at work. Here are three actions that can help us create an inclusive culture in the office:

be aware of our biases to avoid making assumptions
discover where our diversities can be complementary rather than a threat and
use small conscious actions to ensure everybody on the team feels valued

What is Diversity?

Diversity is everything that creates differences between us that can generate a different mindset. Age for example; Millennials have a different way of looking at productivity compared to baby-boomers. They believe more flexibility means being able to be more productive. Diversity can refer to our ethnicity, our national culture, our sexual orientation, gender, different physical abilities, the region we were brought up in, our socio-economic background, our education… the list goes on.

Have you ever interviewed a young engineering student and then directly afterwards interviewed a communication student? They seem to be planets apart in the way they describe their attributes and skills and how they demonstrate motivation for the job. So what would be an inclusive action here? Modify your listening skills to take in more than just the words those students are using otherwise you might miss out on hiring the best person for the job.

Diverse teams can take a little longer to become high performing than homogenous teams[1]

Once diverse teams get past the initial stages of prejudging, stereotyping and making assumptions, they can be more effective. We cannot assume though, that just because we hire the eight most creative diverse team members for our next project, that we are going to create an inclusive culture. Diversity without inclusion can lead to underperforming teams[2].

How can we create an inclusive culture?

Avoid exclusion. Not all differences are visible. The invisible differences are generally the ones that generate filling in the gaps with prejudgments. We then start labelling our colleagues as ‘unreliable, lazy, hasn't been with the company long enough, too long in the company, wants to be noticed, shy…’ . If I see that you have different skin colour to mine or if I hear that you have a different accent, I will put two and two together, ask you questions about yourself and eventually will know where our differences lie. This will help me understand how I may have to modify my communication with you or think twice about interpreting what you say. Maybe I will consider the best way to give you feedback in order to not offend you.

Invisible differences mean more questions and likely more effort

However, when the diversity is not so obvious, we don’t realise that we need to modify our behaviour because we don’t ask our colleagues the same questions that could enlighten us to their differences.

Imagine you have a team member who doesn’t hear very well. You don't see the tiny hearing aid she wears, so it is difficult for you to be aware of this disability. If you don’t know about her disability, you won’t make any changes to the way you communicate with her. She may end up feeling a little excluded from the team because she isn’t able to leap in and exchange ideas as freely at meetings, feeling she may not have understood all the details. You also note that she doesn’t offer many suggestions at meetings and you write her off as not very interested in the project and you end up hardly ever asking her for input. In the end, she will likely feel excluded and lose motivation.

Ask yourself which actions you can modify to create an inclusive culture

However, if you know she has a hearing disability, you start to consider how you can include her more in the team meetings. ‘Should I look at her when I speak so she can read my lips? Should I use Skype with camera rather than just the phone when we speak to help her get the message? Should I ensure the whole team knows about this so that when we have team meetings everybody is more careful?’ That is Inclusion. Making every team member feel valued.

Creating an inclusive culture means avoid making assumptions

Inclusion means to avoid making assumptions that we are all the same. We are all different and we need to be treated differently. We think differently, behave differently, react differently and therefore we need to communicate differently with each of the people on our team. Inclusion is about modifying small actions to make everyone on the team feel valued and feel as though they belong. This allows everyone to feel they can be themselves.

A person who feels they belong, will be more motivated to participate in reaching objectives of the team. They will feel that they have everything to gain in being creative and the team spirit will soar, meaning more retention and better collaboration[1]. Inclusive teams make better business decisions up to 87% of the time and take decisions two times faster with half of the meetings.[2]

Small conscious actions can create inclusiveness

What kind of small actions create inclusiveness? They are simpler than you think. Open up, be curious about your colleagues and think before you speak. Say good morning to everyone when you enter the office. Occasionally go and have a coffee with someone you normally wouldn’t share a coffee with. Ensure you give the opportunity to introverts to speak up in meetings. Be aware of your biases when interviewing job candidates or when considering who to promote.

As a test, write a list of the people you promoted last year. How similar were they? Were they all men, all women, all white, all engineers, same age, same nationality, same education background, same outgoing personality? If so, why?

Break bad habits...

Even when we have good intentions, our assumptions get in the way, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you occasionally say the wrong thing. Put the error into your bag of 'things to be aware of'. I was at a networking conference in Zurich a couple of years ago where I met an Australian woman who had just moved to Switzerland. She was wearing a wedding ring and carried a beautiful black, patent-leather Prada handbag over her wrist. While chatting to her I asked, “Did you move to Zurich with your husband?” “Actually”, she replied, ‘I moved here with my wife.”

Oops. There I was telling her I train D&I and I am the first to make assumptions. I made a mental note to myself to avoid using the word husband and wife in the future and just use, ‘spouse’ or ‘partner’. In English these words are genderless. But we forget our good intentions. Six months later I was talking to a young British man who had just moved to Central America. I saw he was wearing a wedding ring and I was curious how he and his family were integrating, so I asked, “Did you move here with your wife?” “Actually,” he replied, “I came over with my husband.’’ Grrrr….

[1] Diversity Matters, McKinsey, 2015 Inclusive Leadership: The View From Six Countries, Catalyst, 2014, Driving Retention and Performance Through Employee Engagement, Corporate Leadership Council, 2008 ;

[2] Diversity + Inclusion = Better Decision Making at Work, Erik Larson, Forbes Magazine, September 2017