Working in Multicultural Teams – The 5 Golden Rules
by Rashid Mohiuddin, MBA, PMP
In today’s work environment, multicultural teams are ubiquitous – in fact to some people, workplaces have become more like Olympics villages. This sounds fun- isn’t it? Yes, it’s fun if we were just having party at Olympics village. But at work, we have projects, we have meetings and we have deliverables. And all of this can get challenging at times with multicultural teams, especially if your team is dispersed geographically as well.
Unless you are indeed the Harry Potter, it’s impossible to claim that you know all the cultures, languages and able to work in different time-zones. On the other hand, multicultural teams are here to stay and this trend will continue to grow in future. In fact, it could be the singles most important factor that will distinguish really successful project managers and leaders from the ordinary ones. So what can we do to prepare ourselves for this reality? Of course, it’ll be good to explore the world and learn different cultures as a member of Justin Bieber’s entourage! But for those like me, being knowledgeable and adaptable is the way forward. And I have few ideas, the 5 Golden Rules as I call them, which can help us being more effective in multicultural work environments.
Okay, so let’s move to the first one, my favourite!
Don’t just Act it, Believe it!
Let’s admit that most of us likely grew up in an environment where we heard plenty of jokes and odd stories about the other cultures, people, languages and foods. There is nothing wrong with that, except that some of us really start believing in that funny stuff and develop a baseless sense of superiority over others. And it’s no surprise that such warped beliefs becomes a serious liability when are put in multicultural teams and causes damaging actions and consequences for us.
Some people may overcome this weakness by “managing” the situation and “acting” tolerant with others. It may work for some time, but there is a huge risk that under stressful situations the proverbial last straw may break camel’s back and the real person pops out.
My advice is very basic – let’s be aware of our beliefs, and constantly challenge and correct any form of discriminatory thoughts that intrude our minds. This awareness, restraint and the purging process has to persist always, not just for a specific situation or a meeting. We should try to reach a point where we can appreciate others being different from us, however equally worthy and capable. This doesn’t mean at all that we have to give up our own customs and cultures – and by the way, we can still enjoy those jokes too!
Be Curious
Remember what you did when you went out on your first date? Ok, there is no need to go too far! What I mean here is that probably it’s the time when we are most curious. We want to know more about our partner and we make some efforts to know each other’s likes and dislikes. Then why don’t we show some curiosity about our teammates and make some effort to know them better? And if you have difficulty equating the two situations, let me tell you that finding a good job can be tougher than finding a date at times. Not to mention that having such understanding can prevent those embarrassing situations where one spends an hour sharing steaks recipes with a vegetarian teammate or explaining the process of changing baby diapers with a happy single.
My advice is to be curious, know our teammates and make conscious efforts to invest in building the most valuable asset-The Relationships. Indeed, any higher achiever in business will tell you that their true power and possession lie in their relationships. For our day-to-day communication needs, we are fortunate to have abundance of communication tools and choices at hand, like phone, email, video-conferencing, social media, collaboration sites etc. Use them wisely - and use them smartly to meet the individual and diverse needs of your team members.
Listen… To the Whole Body!
One common occurrence in multicultural teams is that the members speak a language other than their mother tongue, which obviously impedes their ability to communicate effectively. To make things more challenging, we, as listeners, have the tendency to focus too much on what we want to hear, instead of listening to what others are trying to tell us. This will cause us not only to misunderstand the verbal message, but we may also lose the subtle but vital visual and vocal cues. According to the famous research by Dr. Mehrabian’s, communication is 55% visual, 38% vocal and merely 7% verbal. That may surprise some of us, but it’s a fact that our ability to decipher visual and vocals signals was developed far earlier than our language skills and carries profound impression in our communication.
My advice is to listen attentively - and listen to the whole body, not just the verbal message of the speaker. By paying attention to the simple signals, like eye contact, voice tone and the hand gestures, we can understand a lot better if the person is agreeable, confused or concerned about the situation. And if we notice that body language contradicts verbal message, it is good to ask questions and obtain more information to understand the actual message. This simple idea can help a lot to reduce common misunderstandings among team members and improve the team coherence and performance.
Find the Hook
There is no doubt that strengths of individual members in multicultural teams can complement each other better than homogeneous teams, and such diversity can produce richer ideas and results. However, it also carries a risk that differences may spin out of control and cause grievances and conflicts among the team members. Such issues need to be actively monitored and addressed because it could seriously damage long-term relationships and also put the team performance and results in jeopardy.
If things start to get chaotic in such way, my advice is to find a common point of reference - a “Hook” to tie things together. This hook could be the company policy, a local business practice or a set of rules defined by the team itself. I prefer the last one, as it allows the team to self-define the rules at inception and then self-enforce those throughout its life-cycle.
A word of caution though, these rules must not be seen as ploy by one group to dominate over another. If it’s really hard to achieve team consensus, at least try to find some universally accepted standards.
Finally, it is important that the team stays flexible and this “hook” should be seen as a solution of last resort.
Mind the Mother Tongue
This is such a simple and easy idea that you may find it silly to be mentioned here, but yet it is most ignored and abused in multicultural teams. Well we all know that in a multicultural team definitely some of the members, if not most, cannot understand our mother tongue. This is awfully obvious, isn’t it? Yes, but it’s equally common and ironic that most well-rounded professionals will ignore this fact and continue lengthy conversations in their mother tongue, while their poor fellows gape helplessly to make some meaning out of it. Yes, these are moments when we seriously miss the “subtitle” option in real-life situations!
Being such a basic concept and something essential to a working multicultural team, my advice is also simple- to keep reminding ourselves and others using English or another language that is common to all the team members. And always keep it simple and free of any local slangs or jargon.
These are the 5 rules, quick and simple that I hope will help us to perform better in multicultural teams. This by no means is an exhaustive guide, but we have identified few common pitfalls and looked at some simple ideas on how to avoid those pitfalls and be more prepared and effective. If any of these 5 rules seem daunting or absurd to you, just ignore that and pick whatever you find useful and then start applying it right away. Continue to grow yourself and be the star in your multicultural team!
About the author
Rashid Mohiuddin, MBA, PMP, is an IT leader with a strong passion for delivering greater business value by employing project management standards, quality-driven processes, right technologies and collaborative teams. Currently, he is also serving as the Board member of Project Management Institute- Singapore Chapter. His detailed profile can be found at http://tinyurl.com/rashidm-linkedin.