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The importance of intercultural competency for people who may never work outside their home country is the theme of “Going Global, Stateside,” an article by Tanya Mohn in the New York Times.
The excerpt below describes RW3 CultureWizard and the experience one of it’s clients, Thomson Reuters, had with its CultureWizard site.
Andrew P. Walker, vice president of global mobility for Thomson Reuters, said online training was easier, quicker and cheaper than in-person training. Thomson Reuters uses CultureWizard, a Web-based tool created by the company RW3, for its employees in 93 countries for what he said was ‘a fraction of the cost’ of formal training.
Mr. Walker said he also used it himself. ‘Without the course, I think I would have made a lot of mistakes,’ said Mr. Walker, who moved back to the United States in July after five years in London. He said his low-key, light-hearted manner was fine on business trips, but when he was working there full time, ‘I wouldn’t be able to get away with it forever.’ He said the program helped speed the transition.
Michael S. Schell, chief executive of RW3, recounted how a mining and exploration company in Britain contacted his firm because the mining company was unsuccessful in winning business from an American company. ‘During the training, we pointed out that the proposal turned off the Americans,’ Mr. Schell said, because it began with 10 pages detailing all the risks of the venture and how much failure would cost.
Americans tend to view failure as a learning experience that inspires creativity, Mr. Schell said, so the American company considered the proposal negative and unenthusiastic. The British tend to be risk-averse culturally, he said, and perceived the Americans as unrealistic. When the British company redid the proposal with a positive spin, they got the deal the next day, he said.
‘Differences got overlooked because we speak English,’ Mr. Schell said. ‘They look like us, wear the same jeans and use the same cellphones.’
The assumption is that we’re all the same, but we’re not all the same.
The cover story of this month’s American Executive, titled “Global Mindset,” features Charlene Solomon, Michael Schell and their book Managing Across Cultures. The growing need for executives and their organizations to effectively do business in a very global market is highlighted by the crucial role culture plays worldwide. “The most serious errors made by Americans when dealing with other cultures include ignoring other cultures’ need for relationship building and assuming other cultures share our love for risk-taking, say Schell and Solomon…One reason Americans tend to underestimate the need for relationships, said Solomon, is that time is so important to us. ‘We don’t realize that building relationships and taking time to talk to people are really important. We tend to think these things are gratuitous.’”
A strong sense of relationship and rapport prevails in many cultures outside North America and Western Europe. In East and South Asia and the Middle East, business is built on trusting, personal relationships that extend beyond the workplace.
According to Solomon, this relationship building takes “a few minutes to chat about something on a conference call, taking a little bit of a personal interest in the person on the other end of the phone, and being polite in an opening note in an e-mail.” Cognizance of the cultural need for this kind of behavior is not difficult, and practice makes perfect. “We practice it internally,” she said. “Opening an e-mail with a hello, if appropriate saying you hope they had a good weekend, closing it with your name, just being polite. Also, we take some time before meetings start and see that time of relationship building as part of the business process.”
Owning this knowledge of other cultures empowers you as a global professional, and builds on your global mindset, a must-have for the 21st century.
Click here to jump to the full article online.
Sean
Read about Charlene Solomon and Michael Schell’s book, Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset, in Re:locate Magazine, a website for HR and Relocation professionals.
Paul
