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.
