Do you have a cross-cultural advisor in your network?
Start meeting with this person regularly.
We had a great discussion recently with the community of Certified Global Dexterity practitioners that I belong to. The conversation started from brainstorming on solutions to challenges of work in the remote and hybrid work environment and ended up with me thinking:
Here are some of my thoughts why:
The old way of working is not coming back.
Despite conversations around the most productive way of working moving forward, people-focused organizations recognize that the choice of where and how to work is in the hands of the employees, and they will provide more flexibility to their workforce.
While etiquette of behavior in a remote and hybrid world of work has been slowly shaping, unfortunately very few considerations have been made to include cultural differences.
Let me give you an example.
We all talk about the importance and benefits of being present on the camera for both employees and managers. This boosts engagement, improves communication, increases the productivity of the meeting, and makes you visible to the leadership team. Great! Little is said, though, that for someone from a low self-disclosure culture, being on camera takes more effort than from someone who has the cultural background of a high level of self-disclosure.
Add to this scenario the “trust card.” Why is this person constantly blurring the background? Why have I never seen their working environment? Why is this employee off-camera 3 out of 4 times?
According to the Zoom Video Engagement survey, seven in 10 professionals feel that video increases trust between them and their clients. Two in three people think having video on allows them to create deeper, more trusting connections with colleagues.
This places the person from a low self-disclosure culture at a disadvantage, having to work twice as hard to earn trust.
Diversity and Inclusion
While we have educated our people leaders well on personality types, there is unfortunately little knowledge transferred on the intersection of personal and cultural differences.
That shy person on your team might appear not to be an introvert at all. Surprise surprise. This might be someone from a culture with a low level of directness, enthusiasm, or self-promotion. Quietness does not mean there is nothing to say. It means – I am listening and will share my thoughts only if I am invited to do so. I am raised in a culture to believe that we have two ears to listen and only one mouth to speak.
But guess what? A real example of the hybrid meeting often looks like this:
- There is a group of team members meeting in person in the boardroom, a place where the lively discussion happens and decisions are being made
- Someone, guaranteed, will be on the road with a lousy internet connection, interrupting and taking at least 10 minutes of the meeting for: Can you hear me? Is it better now? Let me stop. How about now?
- There is another group of the remote attendees who get noticeably less time and opportunities to contribute to the discussion.
Let’s assume that our culturally different friend risked being a part of remote attendees.
In most cases, this person will sit politely muted and wait for cues from the team to speak. If there are no clear rules of order established, and the meeting lead will not provide such an opportunity, contribution to discussion from someone who might have the best idea will never happen.
Moreover, the person might be perceived as disengaged afterward.
Next time, if career growth matters to this employee, they will often push themselves to forget about so-called “flexibility” and will be sitting in that boardroom, miles away from the place where their most productive work could be done because it’s easier to read cues in person.
Diversity is a fact. Inclusion is a feeling.
Ask your team one by one what they feel about working in a remote and hybrid environment, and let’s finally move from discussing how vital diversity and inclusion are to do something that will make a difference for your culturally diverse people.
Start by creating meetings agendas where every person is given the opportunity to prepare and contribute.
The Burnout Epidemic
Burnout has been a problem for a long time. In 2019, the World Health Organization identified burnout as an occupational phenomenon. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we all hit the wall.
New research shows more than a third of all Canadians report burnout.
People and future-oriented organizations look for ways to create a working environment where their employees will thrive, not burn out. But, according to the same study, few working Canadians feel they are receiving enough support from their employer, with only a third of respondents indicating their company is committed to a low-stress environment.
Why so?
Let’s reflect on this quote from Jennifer Moss, the author of The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It.
“Just being able to talk about mental health at work is a better work perk than helping you to meditate when you’re really mentally unwell.”
What does this statement say to you? People need a better, psychologically safe workplaces to be themselves and not spend their energy fitting into cultural expectations.
Ask yourself: Who raises conversations about burnout at your team? Usually, these are the people who are ok with self-disclosure. What about ones who never complain? Well, they are probably ok – right? No, they are not! A person who comes from a culture with a low level of assertiveness and self-disclosure and a high level of formality will not share with you about burnout. Nevertheless, they might experience it to the same degree.
Want to do something about burnout? Start from learning more about different cultural perceptions of burnout phenomenon by your diverse team.
Also buy all your people good microphones. Mark Bowden recently recorded a great video showing how bad quality microphones affect your brain. Imagine what is happening in the person’s brain for whom English is a second language?
These are only the three most acute reasons to think of raising your and your team’s cultural intelligence. Building collaborative and high-performing teams, an advantage in the global talent pool, better conflict resolution & communication skills, and more effective feedback capability are the other areas worth your discovery.
Understanding multiple cultures have always been on the agenda of global companies. We all operate globally now. Let’s agree on that.
Let’s also accept that we are not doing the best job of understanding the behavior of people who are not like us. Our reptilian brain creates tons of challenges in our efforts, and now we have this totally new expectation for building relations digitally and remotely. How can we do that more effectively?
By keeping your mind open. By listening, hearing, and learning.
By becoming culturally intelligent and sharing knowledge with each other.
Reach out if you are interested in continuing the conversation on this topic and helping your team to raise cultural intelligence.
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