Managing Cultural Diversity - The Wendii Curve

Cultural Diversity is more than a one way problem

 Great Podcast.

For the last 8 years I manages a technical team with members from the US, Sweden, Germany and India. I am US based, but the company is European.

Cultural diversity issues are far more than managing your interactions with members, but also interactions between culturally different members.

Even though you may have the right methods of managing individuals, for the team to achieve the company goals you need to make sure that cultural differences do not block team progress.

I don't want to tell you what the Swedes though of the Germans or what the Germans thought of the Swedes or what they both thought of the Indians.

Besides the 'cultural difference' there is normally an underlying belief that 'they' are out to take our jobs and 'we' do it better than anyone else.

It is important to undersand cultural differences to ensure clear communications. The simple example is that  'I agree' means something very different to all of the people. In each meeting or interaction after someone said they agreed it needed a follow-up clarification to ensure that the actions as a result of the agreement was going to yield the expected results.

Great topic. For a manager this is a real minefield that can cause you to miss making your objectives becasue of time lost to cultural misunderstandings.

Over clarify and over communicate until your directs and teams have a common understanding.

- Bill

Found myself replacing the word "culture" with "generation"

Great cast!  I especially found the "Wrap-Up" very powerful.  "You're not managing an aggregate, you're managing individuals...."

While listening I found myself replacing the word "culture" with "generation" (e.g., Generation X, Generation Y, etc).  Can

Mark and Mike - can this guidance about cultural differences also apply to the somewhat recent trend of understanding/managing generational differences?

Steve

 Steve, Absolutely! No

 Steve,

Absolutely! No difference ... we're still managing individuals.  Once we get that through our heads, it's easy.  ;-)

Mike

The Wendii Curve

Dear Mark, Mike and Wendii – this cast indeed presents a very basic but thoughtful and powerful idea in a completely different light.

In hind side it is true to say that many other very smart folks, have a different idea about it, just  180 degrees different!   

BILL wrote: “Besides the 'cultural difference' there is normally an underlying belief that 'they' are out to take our jobs and 'we' do it better than anyone else”.

Interesting that growing up in the Eastern Europe  I ( and many people around me) used to see our nation as “Smart” and other nations, let say Germans “ As Not That Smart”. Later I moved to Germany and after many years living here I ( and many people around me) see Germans as “Smart” and other nations as “Not That Smart”. My guess is that Americans, Canadians, Brazilians etc deeply in side see themselves the same way!?

Additionally its worth to mention that all people in terms of genes are similar to each other to 99,9%. So in terms of genes this is an issue of 0,1%.

Do you dear reader also have had a similar point of few or experience? Thank You for sharing that!

Yours sincerely,

Yura 

Great cast from one of those "others"

As a "female chemical engineer" who reports to a "French manager", I loved this cast, as I do most of your casts. 

Thanks for keeping the focus on individual relationships and away from generalizations.

I love when diversity is shoved down my throat...

Thank you for yet ANOTHER great cast!  Next month, I get to participate in my company's diversity journey by attending a Leading Diversity class to "talk about how to identify and practice skills for creating and leading inclusion. "   I was skeptical. I am even more skeptical after hearing your podcast.  Being from a very diverse area, I have felt uncomfortable with these "Let's talk about difference" meetings.   I now know that I have already realized the each person is different and to learn about and manage that person based on their identity - not a preconceived notion.    

Culture shapes the individual

I think this is a great subject to bring up.  So many managers have issues dealing with cultures and even more with dealing with individuals.  

I have a team of 5 people in India.  We have weekly communications and talk during the week via IM and email.  Like many folks I have worked with people in India and Indians in the United States.  You cannot generalize their culture and use that to apply a management method.  Everyone is different.  However, you cannot ignore the culture that creates that individual.  It does change individual and group behavior. Both my manager and myself have had to adjust our approaches as we work with different individuals and teams over the past few years.   The more I learn about their culture the better insight I have into the individual.   I setup culture exchange meetings with the team where for 1 hour we just ask questions about each other's culture.  It has been very well received and the management team in India wants other groups to pursue these meetings.  

Bottom line - Manage the individual, the group and learn about the culture.  Be prepared to constantly make adjustments. 

Wendii curve is bang on

I work in a European Union organisation, with some 25 different nationalities represented in 600 colleagues. My own team of directs has Austrian, Belgian, British, Czech, French, German, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Slovak, Swedish and US nationals.

Having studies and worked internationally for 20 years, I absolutely support what Mark, Mike and of course Wendii are saying. Managing to stereotypes is not just dumb but in some cases is dangerous.

Work to the individual each time. No question.

Diversity

I have found the comments on this topic very interesting and inspiring. I was just chosen to be part of a diversity committe.I need your imput on how to do a powerpoint presentation on diversity, since we do have a diversified group of people in my organisation.Globaly ,diversification is becoming a big topic in organisations, knowing how to interact with each person and knowing what is accepted in one's culture will make it easier to understand each other.

Diversity

I have found the comments on this topic very interesting and inspiring. I was just chosen to be part of a diversity committe.I need your imput on how to do a powerpoint presentation on diversity, since we do have a diversified group of people in my organisation.Globaly ,diversification is becoming a big topic in organisations, knowing how to interact with each person and knowing what is accepted in one's culture will make it easier to understand each other.

Diversity

I have found the comments on this topic very interesting and inspiring. I was just chosen to be part of a diversity committe.I need your imput on how to do a powerpoint presentation on diversity, since we do have a diversified group of people in my organisation.Globaly ,diversification is becoming a big topic in organisations, knowing how to interact with each person and knowing what is accepted in one's culture will make it easier to understand each other.