The challenge. Cross Cultural / Global Communication. Sakura Consulting. Aligning people s energy to achieve the best

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Anne Mason
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Holmes Report: $37 billion cost of employee misunderstanding or being misinformed. I Cortex.

1 Cross Cultural / Global Communication The challenge Aligning people s energy to achieve the best Dale Carnegie: 90 percent of all management problems are caused by miscommunication. Holmes Report: $37 billion cost of employee misunderstanding or being misinformed. I Cortex.com: Bull survey shows 57% of project failure is due to breakdown in Communication Copyright 2017 Sakura-Consulting.org. All Rights Reserved

2 Cross Cultural Communication: The Challenge Introduction We use language to convey our thoughts, concepts, ideas, feelings, and situations. Words and sentences cannot really represent exactly what we think. Although in our language we do aim to get as close as possible to communicating what it is that we are thinking, when we are in a cross cultural environment we are in a much different situation. This white paper discusses the key challenges and the risks employees are facing when communicating in a global cross cultural work environment. The fundamental challenge: understanding each other Do you remember when you were playing Chinese whisper or telephone with friends? You were sitting in a circle and one friend started to whisper a message to the ear of the person next. Then, doing the best to keep the message as identical as possible to the original one, the person whispers the message to the next person and so on. All the fun was to listen to the last person to see how distorted the original message was. We were all from the same background, going to the same school, rooting for the same football team, sharing the same culture, food, language, history and protocol. Now, let s imagine you are playing this game, but this time, with adults from different countries, horizons, cultures, languages, accents, history, protocol, religion. You can easily guess that the end result would be when reaching the last person: an absolutely distorted and unrecognizable message. We can see the challenges when you are in a serious work meeting with employees from different countries, departments such as Cross Cultural / Global Communication: The Challenge 1

3 engineering, manufacturing, or sales. And to add to it, we have people from the suppliers, sales partners and outsourcers. Some will be participating to the meeting over the phone and may have low quality line; some will be via video conference on their PC or on their smartphone with the image constantly lagging. And of course the meeting is to discuss problems and issues, and agree on resolutions. Now we get the picture. We can imagine the possible confusion and misunderstanding despite the willingness of all the participants to get the message understood, to agree on the description of the problems and their resolutions. Among the multiple causes for misunderstanding each other, there will be the technical source of miscommunication with the phone and video conference where the words will not be clearly heard and understood, the accents on top of it, the different tones, interpretations of the words, the grammatical nuances that give different meaning to the sentence, the idioms that have meanings in some countries only, the protocol of interaction that makes someone speaking only in define situations. Of course there will be the different level of English among the participants. Looking back, the very simple and homogenous environment we had when playing Chinese whisper with our friends, and seeing how we already had difficulties to convey the key points of a message, then, looking at the multiple dimension from today s global environment, we understand the challenges one can face on a daily basis at the working place interacting with colleagues, partners and suppliers all over the world. Misunderstanding, confusion and suspicion can quickly deteriorate the environment people work in, with a surge of frustration on all parts of the organization. Cross Cultural / Global Communication: The Challenge 2

4 Consequences of miscommunication 90% of all management problems are caused by miscommunication. Dale Carnegie $37B cost of employee misunderstanding or being misinformed. Holmes Report 57% of project failure is due to breakdown in Communication. Bull Survey The above statements are in the context of a homogenous working environment. When put in the context of a cross cultural environment, the consequences are even worse due to the additional sources of miscommunication as explained earlier. Examples of problems with cross cultural communication: Off shore call centers: The IT Call center is operated abroad and the agents are speaking with a very strong accent. When employees are calling to get help or open a ticket they face difficulties to understand what is said by the agent. The employee has to request the agent to repeat please, because sorry I could not understand what you said. The call bounces forth and back as both parties are trying hard to understand each other. Then there is a sense of losing time, and frustration grows through what will be remembered as a Bad experience. Software development outsourcing: The development of the software of a project is outsourced in another country. After a few weeks in development it appears what has been done so far does not follow the description of the requirements. After a few calls it is clear the description has not been interpreted as expected. After lengthy meetings to clarify the situation and understand the misalignment there is an arguments on whose fault it is. Delay in development is lengthening and the project is further delayed. It appears testing does not seem to be done with same thoroughness as expected and quality is impacted. Cross Cultural / Global Communication: The Challenge 3

5 Sales forecasting: In some cultures, a commitment is a commitment. In these cultures, the sales directors will provide a conservative committed sales forecast with the certainty they will actually deliver. Through conversation them they will explain how business is tough. When they will discuss a specific deal, if they say it will come, then you know it will come. In some others cultures, a commitment is more an intention than a commitment itself. In this case, the sales directors will tend to provide an optimistic sales forecast with the assumption that everything will go well. Through conversation they will be bullish; they tell you what they think you want them to say, that business is good and they are working on very large deals. When they mention a deal is won, it does not mean they got confirmation or a purchase order from the customer. Product Quality: In some cultures quality means perfect; the experience from buying, the packaging, the user guide, using the product, and calling customer service, is flawless. It is not rare for Japanese companies importing products to set a quality check center to verify that the quality is matching Japanese expectations before delivering the product to their customers. In some cultures, quality means the product is good enough; the product can have a dent or a scratch, as long as the product works as expected, that is fine. Conference call: On a monthly marketing conference call there are representatives of all countries to discuss the launch of the new product. The English speaking countries, with no issue in communicating in English, interject comments, viewpoints, recommendation and raise requests for funding. The non-english speaking countries, having more difficulties to communicate in English, tend to try to understand while listening and will be shy to interject or to request funding. When asked about executing an activity, they respond ok which is perceived as a yes, we will do by the requester. Although the ok means I hear you let me think about it. Later the person who requested the execution of the activity discovers that non action was taken. The call is very productive for the English speaking countries and mainly informative for the non-english speaking countries. With these few examples, we can see how communication in a cross cultural environment is subject to frequent miscommunication, misunderstanding, confusion, frustration, friction and can lead to mistrust. Cross Cultural / Global Communication: The Challenge 4

Intra-cultural versus Cross Cultural Communication Any culture has its norms and protocols.

This tendency to conform occurs in a society and result from subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social

When interacting within our own culture, implicitly we follow unsaid rules that facilitate our communication and mutual

The implicit and unsaid rules that apply in a given culture do not necessarily apply to another one.

The three elements in Cross Culture Communication The channel of communication Voice, sound, gesture, accent, tone Face to

6 Intra-cultural versus Cross Cultural Communication Any culture has its norms and protocols. Norms are implicit, unsaid rules that guide interaction with others. This tendency to conform occurs in a society and result from subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure. When interacting within our own culture, implicitly we follow unsaid rules that facilitate our communication and mutual understanding. When interacting with another culture, norms and protocols have differences. The implicit and unsaid rules that apply in a given culture do not necessarily apply to another one. In many situations, the sentence and words will be perceived differently from how they would be in your own culture. The three elements in Cross Culture Communication The channel of communication Voice, sound, gesture, accent, tone Face to face, phone, video conference , messaging Amplifies Miscommunication The language Words, sentences, grammar, intonations Translation, interpretation Proficiency, pronunciation First perceived source of problem The Norms and protocol Engaging hierarchy, requesting, agreeing to do something Expressing emotions, disagreement, agreement Fundamental source of problem Cross Cultural / Global Communication: The Challenge 5

7 William Arthur Ward: The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails. What would be the first step that organizations could or should take in order to address the challenges of cross cultural communication? William Arthurs Ward s statement, above, provides a good analogy on how to approach the challenge of cross cultural communication. Recognizing that culture will not change and we do not intend to change other s culture, the first key step in the approach is to recognize that miscommunication will happen and that it is part of a cross cultural environment. Just by recognizing that reality, we remove the friction, the frustration and allow for a positive and constructive engagement. Summary A cross cultural environment induces multiple layers of hues in the communication and interaction between people due to their various cultures and horizons. These multiple layers of hues add different shades of interpretations that often lead to misunderstanding, confusion, and unwanted consequences. The consequences may affect the relationship and trust between the people and teams. This can lead to quality and productivity issues with financial impact to the company. Recognizing the challenges of cross cultural communication is the first step on the journey to bringing the employees, the most precious resources of the company, together. We cannot change the context of a cross cultural environment, however we can adapt how we communicate and work in such environment Cross Cultural / Global Communication: The Challenge 6

The following guidelines will help you get the most out of your mentoring relationship.

The following guidelines will help you get the most out of your mentoring relationship. As a mentor, you will invest your time, energy and expertise to nurture the growth of another person. You are the special person who helps others reach their potential. Your style may range from that of