Culturally Diverse Companies Make More Money
Cross-Cultural Business Communication Tips
I’ve worked professionally as a cross-cultural communication coach for over a decade. The single most often asked question I get from clients is, ‘How can I get my staff to communicate better in English?’
This is the wrong question to be asking. A much better question is, ‘How can I understand my own culture more deeply, to better appreciate how other cultures might interpret my communication and working style?’
In this article:
- Diversity programs aren’t simply an exercise in being ‘politically correct’.
- Understanding our own cultural norms is key to understanding someone else’s culture.
- Dead-simple communication tips for getting the most out of your cross-cultural business encounters.
The inclusion of diversity is good for companies and employees
Consultants, corporate value statements, company presidents, and line managers seem in perpetual pursuit of ever-increasing levels of diversity. However, actively seeking to increase diversity can sometimes come with significant growing pains. We’ve all heard that story of a man being passed over for a less qualified woman or an ethnic minority being selected ‘because it looked good for the company’. Perhaps a great many people consider diversity simply a ‘fad’ or ‘politically correct’.
Unfortunately, too often we don’t really ask ourselves why businesses are going to all the trouble of increasing women in leadership roles or adding ethnic minorities to their workforce. I think many people don’t bother to ask — ‘What benefit is there for companies to diversify their workforce?’
Actually, it turns out there are quite a few good reasons businesses are trying so hard to embrace diversity. It turns out diversity combined with a strong focus on the inclusion of diverse opinions benefits both companies as well as the employees who work for those companies.
Benefits for the corporation
- Harvard Business Review found cognitively diverse teams are able to solve problems faster than less diverse teams. It’s important to note, this study found only mixing ages, sexes, and cultural backgrounds was not enough. The best mix of group members were people who also approached problems in different ways with a wide variety of different perspectives.
- McKinsey’s research shows that “executive-level gender diversity worldwide had a 21 percent likelihood of outperforming their fourth-quartile industry peers on EBIT margin, and they also had a 27 percent likelihood of outperforming fourth-quartile peers on longer-term value.” The same report found that “companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams — not only with respect to absolute representation but also a variety or a mix of ethnicities are 33 percent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.”
Benefits for employees
- Deloitte conducted research that captured the views and experiences of 1,550 in three large Australian businesses operating in manufacturing, retail, and healthcare. This research showed employees of businesses that focussed on not only diversity but also on the inclusion of many diverse opinions, experienced increased levels of workplace engagement.
- According to a survey conducted by Glassdoor, 67% of job seekers said a diverse workforce is important when considering job offers.
“When employees think their organization is committed to, and supportive of diversity and they feel included, employees report better business performance in terms of ability to innovate, (83% uplift) responsiveness to changing customer needs (31% uplift), and team collaboration (42% uplift).” — Deloitte Australia
Clearly, research demonstrates those organizations that take the time to create a diverse, inclusive work environment are reaping financial rewards. At the same time these companies are making employees feel more valued — and from an employee point of view, isn’t rewarding, inclusive, thought-provoking teamwork what everyone is dreaming of?
Understanding our own cultural norms is key to understanding someone else
I recently held a workshop in Nagoya, Japan at the training center of a multi-national corporation. An age, sex, and work-experience diverse group of employees had been selected from across Japan to attend the event. At the end of the workshop, we conducted a role-play to practice some of the negotiation lessons that had been discussed. The results were interesting.
In the role-play, we asked attendees to imagine they were managers of a cross-cultural, internationally located team. As manager of this cross-cultural team, the workshop attendees were instructed they had been selected to coordinate the installation of expensive new factory equipment in another country. It was explained to the workshop attendees that very detailed, step-by-step installation instructions had been delivered with the new equipment.
We explained to the workshop attendees that a month after the installation had been completed, they had traveled to the overseas factory and while there, they noticed the new equipment was operating correctly but it was not installed exactly as had been explained in the instructions that had been originally sent with the equipment. When asked about the deviation from head office instructions, the local staff explained simply the equipment was 15% more efficient in its current configuration.
Workshop attendees were instructed to negotiate an agreement that local staff would not make decisions in the future without running all changes through the head office first.
Generally, workshop attendees would start the negotiation by asking the local staff if they would agree to always follow the rules and always double-check before making any changes to equipment on the factory floor.
When asked ‘why’, many of the Japanese workshop attendees looked puzzled.
From a Western perspective, a simple solution to this problem would be to explain to the local staff that all factory floor changes had to be cleared by head office due to a law, or a regulatory rule, or a company-specific rule, or whatever. As I recall, I don’t think even one workshop attendee came up with this simple solution.
Why not?
“Other ministers bring me problems, David brings me solutions” — Margaret Thatcher, 1992.
Things are slowly changing in Japan but generally speaking, Western companies tend to have significantly flatter management structures than in Japan. This key corporate culture difference can have a dramatic effect on how managers and employees interact with each other when making decisions.
Western managers prefer staff to solve problems by themselves and to take more initiative. Westerners will often question instructions, rules, and even laws if they seem to contradict common sense. If Western managers insist on rules being followed to the letter, they are often branded as ‘overbearing’ or ‘micro-managers’.
Not so in Japan. Japanese employees tend to follow rules much more closely than Westerners. In Japan, even if it’s an unwritten rule, rules are generally not bent and very rarely ever broken. Most initiatives and ideas are run up the flag pole to at least two or even three (or more) levels of management and often through multiple departments before final approval to go forward is given.
From a Western perspective, this may seem like a scandalous waste of time. From a Japanese perspective, having multiple layers of management scrutinize a project is an excellent check and balance system. It also avoids a potentially uncomfortable situation where one person ends up shouldering all the blame if something goes wrong with the project.
This basic cross-cultural business difference can create a whole host of issues between managers and staff of different cultural backgrounds. For example in the West, we reward self-starters, problem solvers, initiative, and entrepreneurial thinking.
Japanese managers expect the chain of command to be respected and new ideas are rarely introduced in large meetings. Instead, proposals are carefully discussed one-on-one in private until there is a general consensus — this avoids embarrassing anyone by being on the wrong side of a decision. Only after getting private approval from all decision-makers is the new initiative finally announced in a department-wide meeting.
As you can imagine, a Japanese employee might easily misinterpret a Westerner’s management style as lazy or uncaring, whereas a Western employee might feel smothered or hand-cuffed by a domestic Japanese management style. However, as we have learned from the research outlined above, the key is not to brand one approach to problem-solving as ‘wrong’. Rather, corporate leadership and managers should focus on giving equal weight to both approaches and try to blend what initially feels like radically different ways of problem-solving.
Remember, taking the time to blend, even radically different perspectives is key to taking full advantage of workplace diversity.
I can vouch for the inventiveness and brainstorming capability of Japanese staff when given the freedom to do so. Japanese ingenuity is not a problem if given the environment to thrive. On the other hand, is it really so bad an idea to run a proposal at least horizontally (if not vertically) through an organization to see how a procedural change in one department might affect the workflow or decision-making process in a different department? Is it really so crazy to check if the proposal is already being worked on or has already been solved by a different silo?
Communication tips for getting the most out of your cross-cultural business meetings
On a more basic level, you might be wondering what steps you can take to create a more inclusive work environment for your existing non-native English speaking staff, right away. One of the best ways you can make non-native English speakers feel more included and more valued is by focussing on making sure their ideas are heard and ensuring they have heard you.
Don’t assume non-native staff members are familiar with all Western business customs.
For just one, very simple example, your new foreign colleague might greet you with a very limp handshake, or hold your hand too long, or suddenly drop your hand unceremoniously after two brisk shakes. Your natural instinct might flash ‘STRANGE’ — but be careful not to jump to conclusions.
Everyone knows Japanese business people tend to bow when greeting each other for the first time in a business situation rather than shake hands, right? But if you were greeting a Japanese company president for the first time and you wanted to impress your customer by following Japanese customs, how far away from the company president would you stand? Would you bow first or wait for your customer to bow? How deep would you bow? Would you keep eye contact or break eye contact? Would you smile or not smile?
There are textbooks written in Japan on the subject of bowing etiquette, taught to business students at business school so they don’t make fools of themselves on-the-job. As a Westerner, why would you be expected to know anything about bowing etiquette, right? The same thing goes for the handshake and business greeting in the West. All Japanese business people know Westerners shake hands in business situations, they just don’t always get much practice to perfect their technique.
Strategies for speaking with non-native English speakers
Don’t assume non-native speakers are bilingual if they introduce themselves in near-perfect English. Naturally, non-native English speakers will almost always be stronger discussing certain topics and weaker on other topics.
Don’t be surprised if your colleague suddenly becomes very quiet or less responsive to your discussion as you move from topic to topic. Rather than assuming your colleague is bored or doesn’t have an opinion, you should interpret this behavior as a kind of feedback cue. You might be talking too fast, or using grammar that’s a little too complex, or you’re using unnecessarily complicated vocabulary. If your colleague starts getting very quiet, try rephrasing yourself in a more direct, simpler way and see how your colleague responds.
- Avoid using jargon, slang, and idioms. Business idioms are so common, we often don’t even realize we are using them. ‘Finance says we’re going to have to tighten our belt a little this quarter.’ will mean absolutely nothing to a non-native English speaker.
- Pause frequently to allow non-native speakers time to ask clarification questions. If people aren’t completely fluent in a second language, their listening comprehension usually lags a few seconds behind the conversation. When listening to a conversation in Japanese, I might recognize a word but sometimes it takes a moment for the word’s meaning to pop into my head. Pausing frequently, even for a few seconds will allow non-native speakers time to more fully comprehend your message or to ask clarification questions if necessary.
- Take the time to summarize a topic as succinctly as you can before moving on to a new discussion topic or agenda item. When we talk about our ideas out loud, they are often are expressed in a slightly scrambled or indirect way. Summarizing your thoughts by saying, ‘What I mean is …’ or ‘So, to quickly summarize before we move on to the next agenda item, …’ is a great opportunity for non-native speakers to confirm they are following the conversation correctly.
- Don’t be afraid to ask a non-native speaker if they would like you to explain something again. Non-native speakers are often worried they might make native speakers angry if they ask for clarification too often. Take that fear away by taking the initiative.
Last thoughts
Embracing diversity is never a pain-free process. However, research demonstrates that strongly supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives may be one of the easiest, fastest, and cost-effective ways to simultaneously improve corporate performance and employee engagement.
If you’ve been thinking about how to make your cross-cultural business situations smoother and your diversity programs more inclusive, start by asking yourself — ‘How can I understand my own culture more deeply, to better appreciate how other cultures might interpret my communication and working style?’
I’m Edward Iftody, Cross-Cultural Business Communication Coach and author of Surviving Work.
Learn more at businesscommunicationcoaching.com