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Seeming Unwise While Being Wise: The Case of Language Expertise

Why do we assume someone is not as smart or capable, when they have an accent?

At LCW we know that accents can be challenging to work with, and clients often report this as one of their greatest challenges in global work. But this new research from the University of Chicago points to something even deeper —that we often decide someone is not smart or competent, based solely on the fact that they might speak an accent we find challenging.

So what? The business cost of such a bias can be huge. Imagine you are a manager who intentionally avoids people who have accents when making selection for her team, thinking it’s not worth the trouble to include them. While we understand the inclination, this decision also means that the team may likely miss out on some amazing brainpower packaged with those accents—brainpower that might just bring the innovation and breakthroughs that the team needs to reach and even exceed its goals.

Or, imagine an executive overseas who surrounds himself with an advisory team who speaks English that is easy for him to understand. Though convenient for him at the time, this executive is also eliminating from his talent pool those accented geniuses who may offer the greatest insight or intelligence. The University of Chicago research shows it’s human nature for us to sometimes assume that someone with an accent is less intelligent, so the in a globalized world, we need to work to overcome this bias or else deal with the consequences of missed opportunities.

Everyone speaks even their native language with an accent that someone, somewhere is likely to find hard to understand. So what do we do about it?

The skill-set requires getting comfortable working with accents, managing the psychological distance and bias that accents introduce—by focusing on relationship-building and listening past the accent. Check out our virtual toolbox of solutions here, including some tips for “Listening Past the Accent”.

 

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Which is true: ‘I missed my plane’, or ‘the plane left without me?’

People waiting in an airport

'I missed my plane', or 'the plane left without me?'

Research from Stanford shows the answer may lie in your native language, revealing insight into critical cultural differences resulting from native language influences. And these differences can have extraordinary impacts on the productivity and effectiveness on cross-cultural teams.

For example, cultures prioritizing ‘individualism’ and ‘internal control’ would tend to frame the scenario as ‘I missed the plane’, while cultures prioritizing ‘collectivism’ and ‘external control’ would frame the scenario as ‘the plane left without me.’  And the reason these cultures see the same events differently lie, at least in part, in the influence that language has on one’s worldview.

For example, the Stanford research details the influence that speaking Japanese or Spanish or English has on one’s perception and understanding of peoples’ roles in events and accidents, and finds that speaking Japanese or Spanish or English as your native language (as cited in the research) will manifest in a different sense of ‘who is to blame’ for the missed plane.

Navigating such differences across cultures is critical to the effectiveness of cross-cultural teams. Did she miss the deadline, or did something happen outside of her control that caused the deadline to be missed?  One’s perspective tends to be different, depending on whether someone is sitting in Peru or London… or in Mumbai or Chicago.

Resolving these differences is an important focus at LCW, and at the heart of modules in both our “Navigating Cultures” and “Working with…” solutions. For example, LCW’s Describe-Interpret-Navigate (D-I-N) model helps you interpret an event or problem from multiple perspectives, and understand where you personally have learned to ‘interpret’ a scenario as you do, compared to how a colleague has learned to interpret the very same thing.  So one interpretation would be: “I’m not responsible for the plane leaving me” (or the deadline being missed); the alternate interpretation: “I missed the flight.” (I missed the deadline).

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3 Huge Misconceptions About Culture

Here are 3 things we’re sure you’ve heard people say with conviction – whether in the break room at work or at dinner parties with your friends. We’re pleased to provide you with some thought-provoking responses…

1. CULTURE IS BASED ON NATIONALITY.

Culture is a set of values and behaviors that are learned and shared by a group of people who have common experiences and influences.  National culture fits this definition.  However, although national culture influences each of us greatly, it’s only ONE of the many cultures that impact us.  We’re also members of numerous other cultures!  When you think about the people that you share values and behaviors with, and with whom you also have common experiences and influences, you start seeing cultures based on education (what and where you studied), work experience (where you’ve worked, for how long), particular life experiences (e.g., growing up with a single parent, traveling around the world, managing a chronic illness, being married or single, being a parent or not), socio-economic experience (middle class vs. low income upbringing vs. never having to worry about money), or geographic location (what area of the country you grew up, city vs. suburban vs. rural).  Our culture or worldview is also influenced by our gender identity (and all the experiences that come from belonging to a particular gender), our age (i.e., the era when we grew up), our religious faith (or lack thereof), our ethnic background, and our sexual orientation.  Your organization has culture.  New employees in your organization have a culture (compare to the culture of those who have worked at your organization for 20 years).  The Greek Orthodox have a culture.  People who grew up navigating life from a wheelchair have a culture.  If we share similar values and beliefs with a group of people, that is culture.

2. SOME CULTURES ARE JUST MORE EVOLVED THAN OTHERS.

Cultures exist because a group has found a way to make their lives better.  No culture is inherently worse or better than any other.  Rather, some cultures may have values and behaviors that don’t support success when their environment changes.  Consider, for example, the difficulties faced by the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians in the early 90’s when they became the first republics to declare independence from the Soviet Union.  How do people whose culture was defined by 50 years of experience with closed borders and a centrally planned economy suddenly operate under a system where they are members of a democracy, with open borders, and a market-based economy?  Or, for example, American culture and its faith in independence and taking responsibility for your own choices.  This is very useful when the economic situation allows for ongoing individual success.  What happens, however, when things change, and suddenly the historical belief that “moving back in with your family” is a sign of failure is at odds with the reality of people losing their homes and their jobs, and having no one to turn to?  In addition, most cultures are benevolent and have positive intentions behind any values they instill. (The vast majority of people don’t want to intentionally create conflict or fail!).  It’s our inability to see things wholeheartedly from their perspective that may cause us to judge another culture as cruel, stupid, antiquated, or naïve.

3. GLOBALIZATION IS CAUSING AN INEVITABLE HOMOGENIZATION OF CULTURES.

The environment we all live in may be changing (slowly or quickly) impacted by such things as the internet, or YouTube, or Hollywood, or Bollywood, or 15 hour flights that connect Asia to Europe, or pandemics like the flu, or outsourcing, or migration – but the bottom line is that we all still interact with these commonalities based on our cultures.  In the long run, we may begin to share certain values and behaviors, but the French will always have French history and French pride, and the Bolivians will always have Bolivian history and Bolivian pride.  Until such time as we all speak the same language, go to the same schools, share the same history, and have uniform laws, policies, and holidays, we will continue to be unique.

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DIN Game Debrief: “The Sales Strategy Meeting”

Here is the debrief from the October 4th DIN Game. Any comments or other observations are welcome.

Describe
Julie’s Words and Actions  

Was asked by company HQ to increase Indian subsidiary’s sales by 20% in one year

* Scheduled a meeting with Divyesh

* Arrived at the meeting at precisely the prearranged start time

* Participated (listened and spoke) in the meeting

* Asks Divyesh to “get down to business” and to present his unit’s sales strategy

* Tells Divyesh she appreciates his briefing

* Asks Divyesh for specific action steps and timelines to achieve sales targets

Divyesh‘s Words and Actions 

Prepared for the meeting

* Participated (listened and spoke) in the meeting

* Arrives to meeting 20 minutes after the prearranged start time, and tells Julie that he had to take his son to school

* Asks Julie questions about her stay in India

* Provides Julie with information about his unit’s

history and sales strategy

* Offers to put together a detailed action plan for

Julie within a few days

 

Interpret

From Julie’s Perspective 

 

From Julie’s Perspective

* I’m very much looking forward to Divyesh’s ideas on how to achieve a 20% sales increase in his unit. The Bangalore office is key in India, and falling short there will almost certainly affect my career path.

* I have so much to do, and I don’t have that much time to meet with Divyesh. I’m frustrated that he’s so late, and he didn’t even apologize!

* He’s already late, and now he wants to engage in small talk? He seems like a nice enough guy, but let’s get on with the important and pressing issues first, then later if we have time, we can get to know each other. HQ only cares about results.

* Why is he giving me all of this irrelevant background? Sure, it’s interesting, but today’s meeting is about how to meet our sales targets. I hope he has a detailed plan, which will increase my confidence in him. A plan is also something tangible I can present to HQ.

* He doesn’t have any specifics! This meeting has essentially been a waste of time. I’m a little disappointed in Divyesh. Can I trust him and his team to deliver the results that HQ demands?

 

Cultural archetypes at play: task-orientation,

low context/direct communication, equality

and individualism (expectation of self-initiative),

sequential, universal

From Divyesh’s Perspective 

*I am very well prepared for this meeting. I have all the information Julie will need to make an informed decision about my unit’s sales strategy.

* I’m glad I had time this morning to take my son to school. I know I’ll be a little late to the meeting, but Julie will understand the special situation I was in. We can also just stretch out the meeting a little longer if need be.

* I want to make sure Julie feels at home and comfortable with her new surroundings, because she is my boss AND because she is not from here – I want to be a good host. I hope she’s successfully adjusting to life in India. Let me ask her some questions.

* I wonder what kind of person Julie is, what she likes to do, where she chose to live in Bangalore. I should ask her some questions to see how I should act (and how I should expect her to act towards me) when we interact.

* Why was Julie so abrupt when asking if we could “get down to business”? She must want to hear more about our local office, so I’ll give her as much background and as much detail as possible. It’s the least I can do, since it’s her first time here.

* Why would I have specific action steps? She never asked me for this before, plus it’s her job as Sales Director to come up with the specifics. It would be presumptuous of me to think otherwise! Of course I can’t tell her this. Now I feel upset for having disappointed her and embarrassed for appearing as if I wasn’t doing my job.

 

Cultural archetypes at play: hierarchy, conscious, indirect/high context and face-saving, communication, synchronic, situational

Navigate 

Approaches that take both perspectives into consideration

*Cognizant of the Indian strong sense of hierarchy, Julie could have been more explicit when communicating her expectations for this meeting in advance. She could have done this by providing Divyesh with a detailed agenda and/or a list of data she’d like to see during the meeting, sending him a detailed email, or simply clearly telling him beforehand.

* Divyesh could have asked Julie to provide him with specific expectations for the meeting, i.e., what exactly she would like him to present and communicate.

* Knowing and respecting the Indian synchronic cultural archetype, Julie could have communicated to Divyesh (in advance) of the importance of being at the meeting at the prescribed time, and the consequences of not being there on time. She could have asked Divyesh to let her know in advance if he thought he would be late or had to cancel, and they could have come up with contingency plans (a different time or day or meeting arrangement, etc.).

* Knowing and respecting the American sequential cultural archetype, Divyesh could have called Julie as soon as he knew that he would not make the prescribed meeting time.

* Knowing the importance of relationships in India, Julie could have budgeted enough meeting time to allow for non-business related discussion, particularly since this was the first time she was meeting Divyesh. She could have also mitigated the situation entirely by scheduling a separate “get to know each other” time.

* Cognizant of the American task-focused and sequential cultural archetypes, Divyesh could have scheduled a separate event (lunch, coffee, invitation to his house for dinner, etc.) either before or after the meeting as a non-business related “get to know each other” event.

* Divyesh could also have asked Julie in advance if he could schedule an orientation meeting, to help her get to know the office, during which he could have provided her with company’s local background details, which he believes are so critical for her success.

 


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Critical Incident: “The Sales Strategy Meeting”

Once again, it’s time for LCW’s “DIN Game,” our live, interactive debrief of an intercultural incident on Twitter.  The next edition will take place October 4th at 5 PM CST, and we’ll be using the hashtag #DINGame.  For a complete description of how the game works, check out our previous blog entry: http://navigatingcultures.com/blog/?p=779.  The intercultural incident we’ll be debriefing is posted below; we hope you’ll join us!  We’ll be posting the results following the October 4th debrief.

An American, Julie Barton, is the newly appointed Sales Director for the Indian subsidiary of a U.S. based management consulting firm. Julie has been asked by HQ to increase the subsidiary’s sales by 20% by this time next year. Julie flies to India to meet the team in person, and for a meeting with Divyesh Kapoor, the Bangalore Sales Team Leader, to discuss strategy for achieving this goal for his team. Julie is looking forward to meeting him.

She’s a little annoyed when he arrives 20 minutes late, and says in a friendly manner that he had to take his son to school on the way to the office. Divyesh then starts chit-chatting – asking about her trip, what has she done since she arrived in India, her opinion about Indian food and the neighborhood, etc. Already frustrated about falling behind, she asks politely but firmly if Divyesh could get down to business. Divyesh looks genuinely surprised at this.

When Julie asks him to present his unit’s sales strategy, he launches into a lengthy discourse about the history of the Indian subsidiary, strategies of past Sales teams, and revenue estimates based on past trends he’s observed in the various service lines. Julie impatiently wonders when Divyesh is going to get to the business plan for the upcoming year. She tells him that although she appreciate his briefing, she’d really like to get to the action steps and time frames to achieve the upcoming year’s sales targets. Divyesh appears somewhat flustered, and immediately offers to put together a detailed report within a few days.

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Intercultural Incident: A New Team Member

This is the Intercultural Incident that we will be debriefing live on Twitter on September 6th, using the hashtag #DINGame (see previous post for details).  We hope to see you’ll join us!

Carol Friedrich is a project manager for a human resource consulting firm. The firm has been growing its business internationally and just last month signed a contract with a new client that has offices across Southeast Asia. The first project has a very short time line and will be an important demonstration of how committed the firm is to serving their clients. Carol is excited and a little nervous to be leading this effort. When she met with the firm’s partners they indicated that success with this first wave of work could accelerate her and the new team’s career trajectory.

Carol’s boss is Phil Trajor, one of the original partners of the firm. Last week, Carol had a conversation at the end of a meeting that has troubled her all weekend. Phil asked her whom she wanted on the team for the new project. Previously, Phil had indicated she had carte blanc to pick the best people. He emphasized how important the project was to the emerging relationship with the new client, and also to the Asian markets the firm is trying to penetrate. In fact, he said, “Choose the best. Let’s really wow them.”

In response to Phil’s question last week, Carol had enthusiastically listed the four leads she wanted and how their previous work had demonstrated the excellence the project required. When Carol mentioned David Finkelstein’s name Phil interrupted her. “I don’t think he’s quite right for this project—you know?” Puzzled, Carol asked, “What do you mean?” Phil smiled cryptically and thought, “I guess I’ll have to be really direct.” He leaned in and said in a softer voice, “Well, he is gay. I’m not sure our new, Muslim, Southeast Asian clients want an “out” leader of the firm’s GLBT affinity group in their midst.” Phil was interrupted and pulled away before they could continue.

On the way out of the office the same day, Phil ran into David. He said, “Hello” and thanked him for facilitating a tense meeting the week before. As he walked to the car he wondered why Carol did not get “it” and had forced him to be so direct. It felt uncomfortable. As Jim walked past David, David wondered if Carol had told Jim how excited he was about the possibility of working on the Southeast Asian project.

Following the conversation with Phil, Carol was stunned. David was the first person on her wish list. Carol is pretty sure the team really needs David, and two years ago he saved a very similar project that had fallen behind. Like many at the firm, David has been involved in a year long cross-cultural skill building initiative. Many credited the training with giving the firm a significant advantage in getting the new Southeast Asian client. She is very disappointed and a bit confused about Phil’s comment.

Although she hasn’t looked at the exact wording of the policy, the firm has a very clear policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation. Is this discrimination? Equal opportunity is not something Carol takes lightly—the firm’s commitment to equality had opened up a space for her to move forward professionally. She really wants to play by the rules, but what does that mean in this case? Should she have a conversation with Phil? What should she say? Should Phil and Carol talk to David about Phil’s concerns? What would David say?

©2005  Scott Sawyer and Dianne Hofner Saphiere. All rights reserved.

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Are Americans “Simple” in the Eyes of China?

China’s Vice-Premier, Wang Quishan made a rare appearance for a Chinese government official on the Charlie Rose show on Monday, along with US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. It was an hour-long segment, and Mr. Wang made his comments in Mandarin, but of course the US media picked up on one translation of one of his comments, translated as “…the American people, they’re a very simple people.” In US English, “simple” can imply “stupid”, which is why the sensationalist US media probably picked up on it, though there hasn’t been much indication that many Americans have interpreted it as such.

Some CNN Beijing producers were quick to point out that in addition to “simple” 单纯 can be translated as “innocent”, “straightforward”, or “not complicated,” in a good way. While others said that the tone can range from “neutral to patronizing”. The above-linked article from CNN goes on to say that Mr. Wang’s comments are most likely in reference to American “parochialism”… though this interpretation strikes me as a little funny… while there are plenty of cultural and geographic reasons why relatively few Americans (30%) have a passport, your likelihood of traveling abroad if you’re Chinese varies greatly depending on where you live, and is not as high as the United States, ranging from 1% to 20%.

What do Mr. Wang’s comments tell us about Chinese culture, and US culture? If we take CNN Beijing at face-value, and accept that 单纯 refers to “innocent”, “straightforward” “and not-complicated”, to me, these are indicators of 3 main areas of cultural difference between China and the United States:

• “Innocent” – The US has a much shorter history than China, and some of our ideals (Egalitarianism, etc.) can be perceived as a bit utopian, or even naïve by the Chinese. China has a very high Long-Term Orientation score on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, which is a reflection of both their long history, and their perception of that history. E.g.: “It is not easy to really know China because China is an ancient civilization…” – Wang Quishan

• “Straight-Forward” – Chinese people usually place a high value on keeping up appearances, not so much from a “keeping up with the Jones’s” angle, but rather emphasize maintaining “face” and honor in all situations. The Chinese tendency towards Indirect Communication is one of the better examples of this; if you just blurt out whatever you’re “really” thinking (like an American), you might lose face, or worse, you might cause someone else to lose face, and damage the relationships that are the very basis of China’s social fabric (Guanxi).

• “Not Complicated” – Americans tend to be Universalists; that is, they idealize applying the same set of rules and standards to all scenarios. Context isn’t supposed to matter much. This is in direct opposition the Chinese tendency towards Particularism – that is, words, actions, and behaviors must be tailored according to context. The “Golden Rule” is a good example, where Americans (often) expect that others will want to be treated the way that they themselves want to be treated. He may have meant that Americans tend to see the world in “black and white” terms, without the nuance that is more comon among the more high-context Chinese.

If you know specifically what Chinese and Americans value, the ways in which Americans and Chinese (and their governments and corporations) interact becomes a much more of a predictable process than a mystery. You can see here how developing an interculturally competent mindset becomes paramount for working, and doing business across cultures.

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Are Female Cultural Patterns “Obstacles to be Overcome”?

If women could just overcome the obstacle that is their culture, you would see a lot more of them in corporate top jobs.  At least that’s what author Shaunti Feldhahn would have us believe.

The February 6th New York Times column, “Cracking a Male Code of Office Behavior” came to my attention because my partner left it on the kitchen table for me in the morning, with a huge yellow circle around the words, “…working with men is essentially like working with a foreign culture.”  Knowing that I live and breathe culture at my job, she thought I would find the read interesting.  She was right.

Ms. Feldhahn lures us in by asking if the reader is a “talented professional woman who feels a bit stuck or frustrated at work.”  She muses, “maybe you simply don’t understand your male co-workers and bosses – or they don’t understand you.”  She had me – especially since she mentions that her insights on male office culture is based on direct research – speaking to “unsuspecting” men in airplanes, subways, and coffee shops.  She goes on to say that although it’s important for both sexes to understand each other, men hold more executive jobs, which means they typically control who gets promoted.  Therefore, it falls on women to learn and influence how men perceive them, so they (women) can adapt to male behavior and avoid the “traps” that prevent them from breaching the glass ceiling. 

Here’s where my intercultural sense began protesting. 

Now, I am not naïve – I have almost 17 years of experience in corporate America, and I do understand that men largely control the reins.  So as women it’s probably good to learn something about how men think in order to jockey for position.  But something about this one-way cultural adaptation (aka assimilation) left a bad taste in my mouth.

Ms. Feldhahn continues by recommending adaptation around 3 major areas, in order to get ahead and be successful in the office:

  1. Shut off feelings and emotion at work.  If you don’t, you come across as unprofessional, irrational, and incompetent to men. Examples of bringing emotion to work include getting defensive, taking criticism “personally”, “pushing too hard” for one’s ideas, or having a personality difference with a colleague.  She suggests that one way women can manage her male bosses’ perceptions is by “[forcing] a calm demeanor when she is starting to feel defensive” – stating that it’s science, not just she, that supports this strategy.
  2. Be sensitive to male colleagues’ insecurities.  The author cites an example where a female colleague may unwittingly bruise a male superior’s ego by asking him, in front of their colleagues, why he made a specific business decision.  This type of question, when asked in public, may cause him to hold a grudge and avoid (rather than promote) the woman in the future. 
  3. But don’t act like a man.  Doing so will distract and displease your male bosses, according to Ms. Feldhahn’s subjects.  In fact, she mentions that “the advice to be authentic, not artificial, had been nearly universal in my research.”

As seemingly contradictory as the above may appear, I found it exciting that the author compared working with men to working with a foreign culture – especially since culture is almost always complex and often contains contradictory elements. Also, we at LCW identify gender as one of the major elements that define our cultural self. 

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A practical tool for people managers: The D-I-N Model


Are you a people- or project manager?  If so, have you ever tried to mediate a conflict between team members – where you suspect that at least part of the issue might be cultural – but you’re not quite sure what approach to take?

Culture plays a role in workplace conflicts more often than you’d think.  Here we define culture as a set of behaviors and values that are learned and shared by a group of people.  And when we say group we don’t just mean geographic populations – we’re not just talking about nationality or ethnicity.  Your team could have members who see the world differently in part because they are men, women, Catholic, atheist, Baby Boomers, married, single, grew up in Texas, grew up in Singapore, or have years of experience in a totally different industry.  So the chances of you managing a team in which all members share the exact same culture is nearly impossible! 

So, back to mediating conflict. As a manager, it’s challenging enough to resolve disagreements without the added layer of cross-cultural misunderstanding.  So, what is a practical tool for navigating conflict with intercultural competence*?   We recommend the DIN (Describe-Interpret-Navigate) model. 

First, it’s easy to remember because it’s just three letters.  And second, each letter represents a linear step in a process:

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What, Me!? Ethnocentric? What Americans and Indians (and some Japanese) say about working together

Getting called out on our ‘stuff’ is good. We may not LIKE it, but it’s important for growth, for self-awareness…and for intercultural competence, too, by the way.

Recently we’ve been doing research to uncover what Asia-based offices find both difficult and positive when it comes to working with the American headquarters staff of one our newer clients. The dataset is in many ways what we’ve come to expect in the ten years of doing this work—a mix of statements ranging from how Americans are ‘straightforward’, ‘planning oriented’, and ‘open’, to the occasionally more pointed and revealing such as ‘heavy-handed’ and ‘controlling’.

One Indian-based manager went so far as to comment on how his team sees the Americans’ non-collaborative approach: “There is a predominant feeling that ‘We (the Americans) will tell you what to do’”.  When we share this feedback with his U.S. counterparts, and we will, some will protest that his characterization is unfair or inaccurate, while others will squirm with the knowledge of having been called out on what they know is an uncomfortable truth—they do tend to tell their Indian counterparts what to do, and now that they think about it, they will realize it may not be the best approach.

This of course is why we do this research—not to cause protests or make people squirm—but to help uncover and bring to light the things that we do to undermine our own best intentions in cross-cultural collaborations. These undermining behaviors are most often rooted in subconscious beliefs that ‘our way is the best way’—even though we would rarely say such a thing out loud.

Look at this comment from the dataset that came from a Japanese team member, who drew an analogy between the World Series® and his organization’s use of the term ‘global’:

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