How to Avoid Embarrassing Yourself on a Culturally Diverse Team
Managing or participating in virtual teams has become a way of life in today’s business world, particularly in information technology.
As a result, a number of best practices have been created, innovative technologies have been built, and processes have been designed to enhance the communication between people at distant locations.
As the world seems to continue to conceptually shrink in size, processes continue to grow in complexity; virtual teams are as likely to be comprised of people around the world as they are of people around the block. This increased physical distance, however, brings with it an added level of complexity not found in closer-situated virtual teams. These complexities include time zone differences, business issues related to multicountry legal systems, and, to the topic at hand, cultural diversity within teams.
Cultural diversity can be based on country of origin, religious background, region within a country, political affiliation, urban vs. rural upbringing, ethnicity, age, and other sdifferences that make the world an interesting place.
Cultural diversity within a team brings many great opportunities and certain challenges:
- Language-based misunderstandings
- Avoiding holidays when scheduling meetings
- Negotiation styles
- Problem-solving methods
- Body language differences
- Hand gestures
- Work ethic and work/life balance
- Level of technological capability
- Views on intellectual property
- Views on personal privacy
Understanding the idiosyncrasies of different cultures takes time and a willingness to learn. Seemingly simple things, such as handing someone your business card, are done very differently from culture to culture. In the United States a business card is given with one hand; in many Asian countries business cards are given using both hands. Both ways are right; they’re just different.
Examples of other differences include certain hand gestures. A thumbs-up or an OK sign mean very different things in different cultures. Imagine you're on a Skype call with your business counterpart in Germany, and when you give a thumbs-up sign because things are going great, the person looks insulted and ends the call.
The moral of the story is to be thankful for your team’s diversity. But you must realize that to maximize its value, you must learn to understand it.
