MODERN WORKPLACE
shared business goal rather than
a transactional exchange between
strangers.
By its very nature building effective
communication has its challenges
anyway – culture adds another layer
of complexity and interest which
is a bonus which makes workplace
interactions richer and more
interesting.
1. It begins at a personal level with
two people talking to each other
with a genuine desire to get to
know the other person better, an
area of common ground. This is
particularly important in the context
where a workmate(s) may come
from a more collective cultural
background. This is highly likely
with an international workforce as
more than 70 percent of the world’s
cultures are collective cultures.
For many of these cultures there
is likely to be a stronger emphasis
on building a relationship as a
precursor to working together than
a more immediate transactional
focus on simply a brief introduction
and achieving the task as fast as
possible.
2. A genuine conversation and
interest in the other person,
can lead to the start of building
stronger personal, collegial and
team relationships that deepen
and strengthen over time and
contribute to the company in the
pursuit of shared business goals.
An example of this is illustrated in
a highly successful global software
company within a close knit team,
four Russian software developers
teaching their South Korean
colleague teaching each other to
speak Russian and Korean during
their lunch breaks.
3. HOW things are said matters when it comes to building effective
working relationships in crosscultural teams, more often than not,
it is HOW things are said rather than
what is said that matters.
In their book, “Louder than words:
Non-verbal communication,” Alton
Barbour and Mele Koneya, identified
that identified that some 55% of
communication between people
is achieved non-verbally through
facial expressions and other body
language, 38% verbally, through
volume, pace, pitch and rhythm and
7% through the words.
The non-verbal communication
also includes silence, personal
space, touch and eye contact
which assume different levels of
importance in different cultures
and which can also be interpreted
differently. For example averting
direct eye contact in high powerdistance cultures is a sign of
respect whereas direct eye contact
can be seen as a sign of defiance or
disrespect.
1. Patience - people need to have
an awareness of loudness, pitch,
pace, tone and intonation and to
allow workmates whom English is a
second or third language more time
to process, translate, retranslate
and then respond.
2. Politeness - Universally,
conversation is a two-way taking
turns process. Not imposing a
viewpoint and allowing other people
within the team to have their say is
important.
3. Clarify for understanding - Seek
and give clarification and being
politely explicit if you have any
concerns or worries using ‘teachback’ processes to check for
understanding.
Having an awareness of, and
an appreciative insight into
the communication styles
of other cultures can help
improve understanding, reduce
misunderstanding and to forge more
effective relationships and increase
productivity in workplace teams.
Holona and Trish Lui specialise in building cross-cultural effectiveness
to support high performance in teams and organisations to achieve their
business goals. Email: [email protected]
March 2016
ModernBusiness
9