cross-cultural training – Success Across Cultures

As the working world goes remote, our work dynamics – and those with whom we work – have changed.

One of these changes is that our teams have become more international.

Last week, we talked about what makes for a successful global virtual team.

While you can build a contextually diverse team to maximize creativity or a team that is low in personal diversity for projects that need a quick turnaround, any team you build will need cross-cultural training.

Why?

Because training = competency.

Cross-cultural teams need intercultural skills to thrive.

Such teams face unique obstacles – like differences in work styles and time management.

There are also varied collaboration styles across cultures.

Some team members may not know how to join in and participate, as their own culture may have different hierarchical workplace structures (matrix vs. flat, for instance) or different communication styles (passive vs. dominant, etc.).

This is why cross-cultural training for global virtual teams is paramount to their success.

The Stats

According to culturewizard, formal cross-cultural training was delivered to less than a quarter of working professionals on virtual teams in 2020.

This may be why other stats show that:

“only 15 percent of corporate leaders reported having been successful in leading teams across cultures and countries.” (Culture Wizard, 2018)

How do you run a successful global virtual team if none of them have the tools to work across cultures?

As my book, I am the Monkey!, explores, the deeply ingrained biases we have toward our culture’s own values and norms are something that must be overcome when living and working in other cultures.

It is natural to assume that your methods are “right” while others’ are “wrong.”

Cross-cultural training is essential to acknowledging and overcoming these biases and differences in order to work together more cohesively.

The Training

While cross-cultural training may be broad or more specific to the project goals at hand, either should cover the following:

The development of deeper intercultural insights
The ability to channel teammates’ differing cultural perspectives
The ability to adapt one’s work style to gel better with the group dynamic
The development of constructive intercultural communication skills

Cross-cultural training may delve into other project-specific intercultural dynamics, but generally, any training on the subject should cover these bases.

They are pivotal to a working team.

Whether you’re an expat in a foreign country or working with expats in your own, integration requires action.

Successfully managing or working across cultures necessitates planning; not just business planning, but planning for how to react to those all-too-painful monkey moments.

When relocating abroad, your company will likely provide some type of pre-departure cross-cultural skills training. Such guidance can help significantly in adjusting to a new culture. However, cross-cultural training is not guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed to be effective.

Instead, most successful managers take cross-cultural integration into their own hands, navigating the steps of Awareness, Accepting, Adapting, Adopting, and Taking Action, with the last step being the most hands-on.

Taking action involves two action-packed tasks: Learning and Sharing.

We’ll discuss both briefly in this post and cover them in more detail over the next several weeks.

Learning

When you look at all the intricate details of a culture, you might grow overwhelmed with just how much there is to learn. The task seems nearly impossible and seeing it as such can be a setback to integration.

Instead, break down learning into the following three steps so that it seems a little less daunting:

Learn Language – Communication is essential to integration, so language learning should be high on your to-do list.
Learn Religion – Learning about religion will help you better understand the values and norms of a culture.
Learn History – The same goes for learning a country’s history. Some knowledge of your host country’s past will help place some of the local’s traditions and habits in historical context.

Sharing

You shouldn’t try and integrate on your own; in fact, doing so is counterintuitive. The whole point of integrating into a foreign culture is to make connections. That’s where sharing comes in!

Seeking Friends – Making friends with the locals will not only take some of the stress off your initial culture shock, but it will also aid in cross-cultural understanding.
Sharing Food – Sharing in each other’s food culture is a great way to ease into deeper-rooted cultural differences.
Looking for your Zookeeper – Every monkey needs a zookeeper. The best zookeeper is one who may know enough about your culture to help you integrate into their own. They will be your veritable tour guide in this foreign land, as it is their home.

Tune in over the next several weeks, as we’ll discuss learning and sharing in more detail and offer advice on how best to approach each.