Contemplating effective communication across cultures
Living in China and traveling around Asia for three years while interacting with people from all over the world really gave me a crash course on the importance of effective communication that transcends cultural differences. Now I get to experience this in Mexico and Latin America. They are the same, but different. Different, but the same. What I have observed is that oftentimes the result is the same: how many times has project or collab gone awry because of a feeling that goes “Why do I have to do it if they’re not gonna do it? Fuck that. I don’t have to do shit.”
After an interaction gets to that point, every individual involved in that project is on a fast track to passive aggressive comments, growing resentment, and performative politeness that will lead to subpar results or total stagnation of the project. No matter the cultural background. That’s where we are the same. We’re just different about the way we arrive at that point of disagreement. In my experience, from having been part of successful and unsuccessful collabs is that across the board, the unsuccessful ones have
piss poor communication as opposed to effective communication due to poor leadership who is unable to bravely communicate clearly, set limits, clarify roles, set deadlines
negative feedback loops set off by lack of role clarity, loss of trust when people don’t fulfill expected (or assumed) obligations, lack of transparency of who has done what and for what reason
weak accountability further reinforced by the absence of safe spaces in which to take accountability. In other words, when a person doesn’t want to admit fault out of fear that they will be socially ostracized or ridiculed.
absence of a way for team members to celebrate wins and thank each other for their efforts
In some of my best work experiences, we kept the environment positive with constant reminders of what we’ve done well and appreciating the teammate’s individual efforts while also creating a safe space to receive constructive criticism. Regardless of the culture (though what is considered enough praise might differ from place to place). When disagreements inevitably cropped up, I remember knowing that the manager would always back us up against unfair backlash when we owned up to dropping the ball at work and costing us money. (Again, what is considered back up and when its needed differs across cultures, but it’s always there).
To avoid the breakdown of social collaboration in your team projects and make sure snide remarks don’t infect your team, I recommend the following steps:
Communicate role expectations and work out the meaning of the details. Really have a good chat about it and make sure to do something fun later to really make sure the interaction was a good one.
Communicate deadlines, set limits, and give both positive and negative feedback where necessary as the project goes along. This is an ongoing process. This might be via weekly checkups or end of day notes. Set a standard to follow and expect.
Create a way that wins will be celebrated and credit will be given for people’s efforts. This will build up the morale necessary to buttress a future setback.
Do not judge your employees and teammates without having first spoken to them about an issue and given them the opportunity to rectify it in mutually beneficial way. If they fail, it’s because you’ve failed. You’re on the same side.
Then, of course, the communication becomes even more crucial in cross-cultural team collabs and it’s important to make sure standards are set before the project begins, not midway. There are power dynamics at play in cross-cultural settings. For example, should the American culture prevail when working with Chinese counterparts just because the company is an American company? Sure, but that attitude is never gonna, and never has, inspire China-based employees to do their best. In fact, I’ve seen it breed resentment right in front of my eyes. I don’t know that the company ever recovered.
And they certainly won’t be fooled into thinking anybody cares about them. Genuine empathy and understanding can’t be faked. It wasn’t until I advised an American employee to throw out some words in Chinese that his teammates opened up. Here’s the thing: the actions listed above start a positive feedback loop that generates the most important ingredient in any collaboration— trust— and that’s universal no matter where you are from and what language you speak. And I think that good managers can get that positive feedback loop for themselves and their team through tactfully expressed empathy.
“So what? Who cares? Just quit whining and do your job”
And I get that sentiment, however, we are dealing with people and us people are complex. If we want to churn out good work, making sure the relationships that surround the work are in tip top shape are paramount. Imagine the drudgery of being undervalued, now imagine your teammate or your employee feeling that way. Now multiply it by ten more people. Yeah, the project will start to suffer. To address communication needs is not whining. Addressing communication issues and rectifying them is standing on business and something that we should all do so that our passion projects, volunteer work, and business ventures succeed.