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Do you observe the Lunar New Year? If so, let us extend to you a belated welcome to the Year of the Tiger!
Even if you don’t take part in this celebration, you’ll be aware of it if you work with clients or team members throughout Asia. The Lunar New Year festivities make up a long and important festival, leading businesses in Asia to significantly reduce their operations, or even shut them down entirely, for as long as a month. And if you didn’t bear this cultural fact in mind weeks or months ago, you could find yourself in a bit of scheduling trouble with your cross-cultural team when the Lunar New Year comes around.
To an extent, business is a universal language… but only to an extent. Your team members in Mumbai, Shanghai, or Rio de Janeiro are united by the mission of your business, and bound by any established company guidelines. You’re all working together to satisfy your clients, strengthen your brand, and turn a profit. However, for all the advantages of collaborating with international co-workers in a digital space, it’s easy to forget that outside of working hours, those co-workers may exist in cultures with very different, and very particular rules.
Don’t be nervous about these differences – for the most effective collaboration, respect them and embrace them! Work to maintain an open dialogue and cultural exchange with the team as a whole – your multinational team members will appreciate your efforts to accommodate them, and will be more willing to do the same for you. You’ll create a working environment that welcomes and suits the whole team, and as an added bonus, everyone’s cultural horizons will be broadened.
Where do you start? The Internet abounds with information and fact sheets about foreign business practices in every market. But don’t be afraid to ask questions of your global team. Provided you ask respectfully, they should be pleased to give you answers. As to what questions you should ask, think of a few basic question words:
WHO will you be working with? Compared to business environments in other countries, American business culture has a certain openness and casualness in its style of communication. Executives, project managers, marketing teams, accountants, administrative assistants, and everyone else on the team may socialize together. Don’t expect your international team members to be accustomed to this; some business cultures place great stock in formal modes of communication and address, and in professional hierarchy. If your team members belong to such a culture, establish early on who your stateside team members will be communicating with, and how they should be addressed. If you’re forming a relationship with an existing foreign business, it’s vital for your team to know who holds what position, and how they fit into the larger organization.
WHEN are they available? See the above example of the Lunar New Year. In 2015, this fell on February 19th, meaning that for Chinese workers, the month or so around this date would have been a bad time to schedule a big business review meeting. And elsewhere in the world? Take France in August, for instance – the country doesn’t close for the month, but with all the vacation days being used, it certainly slows down. If you’re working with a team in Germany, expect a Christmas vacation that begins around December 6th and lasts through the beginning of January. Familiarize yourself with pending cultural availability gaps, and schedule around them. And acquainting yourself with your cross-cultural team’s workweek and working hours should be a no-brainer.
HOW do they work? This is a general point that expands on the previous two. The American style of working is looser, more casual than some business cultures, but that’s not the only adjustment foreign team members might be reluctant/unwilling to make without a compromise. When it comes to work/life balance, American business culture tends to favor work, with a greater expectation that workers will be open to staying late at the office or surrendering personal time. American workers also tend to work through non-serious illnesses, rather than taking a day or two off to rest through a touch of the flu. Outside the US, this way of working isn’t likely to fly. To refer back to France, the French are known for maintaining a healthy balance between their jobs and every other facet of their lives. When your French team members reach the end of the working day, any attempt by the American team to cut into their personal time will go over very badly.
WHAT do you need to prepare? This one’s important, and short. How do you organize your meetings? Does your team like to throw ideas back and forth, and sort things out through discussion? This may work wonderfully with international colleagues, but don’t presume that it will. When it’s time for a meeting, make sure that everyone comes prepared. It will take a few meetings, along with careful observation and some research, before the team finds a comfortable rhythm. Will your collaborators need to talk around the subject of a meeting, sidling up to it over a period of small talk? Or will they approach issues head-on, with incisive questions, adhering to a set agenda? Prepare for rigor, and keep a tight grip on those early meetings. You can always loosen your grip later on.
One last point – as a language service provider, this seems obvious to us, but it always bears repeating… be open to their language. We’re not saying your local team needs to be conversant in every language your international co-workers speak. Barring ample time for professional development, and some quite generous funding (intensive language courses aren’t cheap), that’s not a reasonable expectation. But anyone can learn to say “good morning” in German, or “how are you?” in Tagalog, right? Efforts at communicating in your team’s native language can untie many knots, and make them feel good about collaborating with you.
By the way, you do have e-learning materials for your team, don’ t you? And you have had these training materials translated, haven’t you? Train them in their own language, for best results and high satisfaction all around. We’re ready to help you train across cultural barriers – contact us today!
