This week we complete the LEARN acronym. Many of you have asked for strategies to more effectively work with and communicate with other cultures as you practice N behaviors of L E A R N.

 

The following strategies can help you avoid jumping to conclusions when working with people of other cultures:

• Before taking action or letting emotions get the better of you, consider several different interpretations of the behavior/situation in question.
• Don’t assume that other people think/behave the way you do. ? Accept the possibility that whatever occurred could be an anomaly caused by any number of circumstances (e.g., someone having a bad day or dealing with personal issues).
• Be aware of your personal biases (increase your self-awareness).
• Treat people as individuals and not as generalized stereotypes. Refrain from seeing things at the extremes since there are many shades of gray.
• Remain positive. Don’t always assume the worst/negative outcome.
• Avoid making comments such as, “You don’t understand” or “What’s your problem?” since they may cause the other party to respond defensively.
• When communicating with others, use descriptive and non-evaluative language.
• Be mindful of terms people use to explain themselves and the world around them, as certain terms have different meanings across cultures.

 

For more information, check the 2nd Edition of my Communicating Through a Global Lens booklet.

Yael Zofi

Virtual team managers must LEARN how to effectively communicate across cultures.  To complete the acronym, the focus of this week’s blog post is about strategy #5, the N of L E A R N.
 
Strategy #5   N o J u d g m e n t: NO JUDGMENT
 
Respecting others means suspending judgment.  Try this simple technique:
 
Instead of jumping to conclusions consider that your cultural lens may distort someone’s worldview. Consider several alternative possibilities and use this three-part evaluation approach:

1. Describe – “Nat joins the call late every Monday.”
2. Interpret – “Nat doesn’t care about the job.”
3. Evaluate – “I’ll give Nat the less desirable projects.”

 
Now think about the three-step evaluation approach with one additional step:

1. Describe – “Nat joins the call late every Monday.”

 
Before you make an assumptions, consider several reasons for his behavior.  For example:

• He has familial obligations every Monday morning.
• His start-of-week meeting with his boss always runs late because his boss wants to discuss a report that never arrives on time, thereby putting him behind schedule.
• He oversleeps after the weekend.
• He doesn’t care about the job.

 

Once you’ve formulated several hypotheses for Nat’s behavior, you are ready to make your interpretation:

 

2.  Interpret – “Nat’s tardiness could be due to a factor which may be out of his control.”

 

3.  Evaluate – “I will talk to Nat about his tardiness and learn more about why it’s happening.”

 

This ‘consider several options’ step is the one that many people skip, leading them to erroneous, and often biased, conclusions.
 

Managing Virtual Teams

Monday, April 22, 2013 | 3:15pm-4:15pm,

Times Square, New York City

An increasingly digital workplace has more leaders managing teams spread around the world. This evolution in management structure requires new skills to produce the best performance from the members of your team. Our own AIM CEO and virtual team expert, Yael Zofi,  will help the audience identify the strategies needed to build and coach virtual teams that work collaboratively and communicate effectively during a keynote address in Times Square on Monday, April 22nd.

Yael is a featured speaker at the upcoming ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) Global Education Conference. Her keynote address will address professionals that  range from global travel executives as members from the airline and hotel industries.

During her session on Managing Virtual Teams, Yael will provide highlights about the virtual team trends we can expect in the next 3-5 years. She will explore the four human connection elements necessary for effective collaboration and close with the 8 characteristics of high performing virtual teams.

Following this presentation, Yael will be available for book signing and  Q&A.

Join us if you can. For more information see schedule snapshot or contact info@aim-strategies.com.

Trudy Ann Channer
OD Consultant

To LEARN how to effectively communicate across cultures and enable the R of L E A R N., we must first practice using Active Communication
 
 
Five Steps to Manage Differences

Look at these situations, some of which you may have experienced firsthand. The proposed solutions are taken from various client sessions where we brainstormed how best to respond to the issues stated below.
 

Yael Zofi

 

We continue this week with the LEARN Cross Cultural Concept with strategy #3, the A of L E A R N = Avoid Ambiguity.

 

Awareness of culturally derived differences in behavior and communication is step one in decreasing ambiguity.  If you score low on this category from the Cultural Strategy Checklist on pages 64-65 of Communicating Through a Global Lens, How to Broaden Your Perspective in a Cross Cultural World, 2nd Ed, know that the ability to avoid ambiguity is directly tied to active listening skills. Avoiding or tolerating ambiguity doesn’t necessarily mean that you deliberately avoid these types of situations. It is the ability to react to new, different and potentially unpredictable situations with little visible distress. The goal is to avoid the uneasiness that could lead to frustration, which hinders your ability to communicate. Having prior knowledge about team members’ cultures can also help reduce ambiguity. The greater your knowledge about another culture the less ambiguous it becomes, and when someone behaves accordingly you won’t be surprised and uncertain.

 

These suggestions can help build a virtual environment that avoids ambiguity.

• Create a safe, friendly environment that encourages participation.
• Share information about team members’ cultural backgrounds.
• Be careful with humor. It can be easily misunderstood, or even considered offensive, in many cultures. In most cases, it is best to just avoid making jokes.
• Recognize your own assumptions and pre-judgments, which may be clouded by cultural backgrounds, past experiences and subconscious bias.
• Encourage participation in conference calls so that questions are brought up.
• Build in feedback loops to ensure clarity.  May include: asking questions; paraphrasing what someone says; asking someone to repeat a statement.

 

Next week’s post will focus on the fourth letter of our L E A R N cross cultural communications acronym:  R= Respecting Differences.

 

Enjoy!

 

Yael Zofi

 

by Trudy Channer
 
These days you cannot toss a stone without hitting a company that has multiple offices, a remote staff and/or an offshore support team. We are living and working in a time when we have to consider the global implications of decisions made about projects and resources.  But perhaps most importantly, we have to consider the implications for our workforce. Now is the time to focus our attention on the implication these decisions have on people within the organizations.
 
How do HR, OD and leadership evolve as organizations determine their near shore/offshore and inshore strategies? This event will cover different perspectives and strategies for working in or consulting to global companies. Included are techniques to successfully work together across cultures, miles, and time zones.
____________________________________________________________________
 
The above Organizational Development Network (ODN) session description drew 75+ participants to this week’s panel discussion with three dynamic speakers who discussed the trends, impact and cultural implications of working globally.  Among the panelists (Kerri Arman-Stenmann, Rena DeLevie, and our very own Yael Zofi). These seasoned experts discussed global and virtual teams, sharing their extensive backgrounds that range from creative directorship of well known retail brands, to a human capital consulting firm with a Who’s Who client list, and global head of talent acquisition for various Fortune 500 companies. Moderator Elaine Mason (Board Member of ODNNY and also VP of Organizational Effectiveness at American Express) engaged everyone in an enlightening conversation that drew practitioners, students, consultants and new members.
 
To begin, the panelists discussed ways they have worked around the world, which included living in several countries. It was noted that at the core, people – no matter what cultural background, language, country they come from – are more similar than they are different. This segued into a lively discussion from the follow-up question posed: “Do you think organizations sufficiently factor in the broader personal issues that may impact international roles? What can OD/HR professionals do to address those factors?” The consistent theme across all responses was that whether virtual or not, at their core, all humans need to feel a sense of connection and engagement. OD/HR needs to go a step further and set a structure so that managers, executives (e.g., expatriate groups, clubs) and their families can make the necessary adjustments in/out of cultures.
 
Another striking question posed to the panelists was, “What are key organizational and leader attributes that need to exist to enable virtual teams?” This question generated several interesting answers about the need for compassion, equity and connection as the key essential leadership dimensions. To be truly successful in the virtual environment, the global leader must encompass these traits to move forward. In addition, s/he needs to properly set up virtual teams to communicate, collaborate and get results.
 
Overall, the Global Workforces panel was very insightful. Many participants indicated that they already work in some global or virtual team capacity. The panelists offered real examples, provided tips and answered challenging questions that raised further discussion. Throughout the night the main idea that stuck was the concept of CONNECTION. This is related to part of Yael’s definition of a virtual team: “. . .whether across the street or across the world. . .“   Whatever the work scenario may be, team members need to feel that they are not by themselves, but are connected to the bigger picture.

 

Has Marissa Mayer lost her mind? That’s the question on everyone’s mind this week, ever since the new CEO of Yahoo announced that telecommuting will no longer be allowed for employees come June.

Telecommuting has become such a staple in the modern workplace–one of those things where we wonder how we ever lived without telecommuting and how could we ever go back?

 

Ms. Mayer must know something the rest of us do not–and that’s probably my biggest problem with this announcement and the hyped up media around it. There must be another factor (or factors) here. Because while telecommuting is a fantastic option for a lot of people, there are few jobs that wouldn’t benefit from more face-to-face interaction. And, there are some jobs that are almost impossible to do well working remotely.

 

Consider Ms. Mayer’s position: She was brought on board with the once-glorious Yahoo to right this sinking ship. They need new, fresh ideas–and they need them implemented fast across departments. When a company is implementing fast, drastic changes, they need people interacting face-to-face in real time.

 

While telecommuting is a great option that can reduce commutes, let companies search for talent worldwide, and give flexibility to folks who have to take care of family members, some studies suggest that the productivity gains some companies get from telecommuting are offset by the costs of telecommuting technology.

 

Looking at the big picture–at what Ms. Mayer wants to accomplish with Yahoo and at the bottom line for the company–choosing to put an end to telecommuting may actually make a lot of sense for Yahoo.

 

While 17% of US employees work from home 2+ days/wk, Yahoo’s new policy on remote work isn’t completely unusual s.forr.com/gtmm

— Forrester Research (@forrester) February 26, 2013

 
Perhaps this change will be a temporary one. Perhaps once Yahoo is making more money again and is where she and the stakeholders want it to be, they’ll be able to reintroduce telecommuting for some or all of the employees.

 

But in the meantime, since we’re not sitting where Ms. Mayer is, it’s hard to judge if this policy is a harsh but necessary step in Yahoo’s rebirth or if this change is a backwards attempt to regain some sort of control that will unnecessarily upset employees at every level.

 

What employees lose in flexibility (and possibly productivity), Yahoo may gain in more creativity, camaraderie, and overall company stability.

 

Either way, I’m sure the decision was not an easy one for Ms. Mayer. It’s a decision I’ve helped many companies and executives have to make–not only whether to allow virtual teams and remote work but also how to set up those teams to allow for maximum productivity. How do you set yourself up for communication and relationships that are so good you’d swear you can’t tell the difference whether you’re in the office together or half a world apart?

 

Done the right way, the payoff for virtual teams can be astounding.

 

And done improperly or with the wrong people, virtual teams can be a disaster.

 

Time will tell if Ms. Mayer’s decision will help Yahoo skirt disaster–or will bring it on faster.

 

Virtual team managers must L E A R N how to effectively communicate across cultures. The following are guidelines to build interpersonal relationships, help maximize interactions and foster a collaborative environment. By utilizing the following five strategies, you will develop your cross cultural virtual communication and become a more effective virtual team player in these settings.
 
5 Strategies for Engaging in Effective Cross-Cultural Communications:
 
L ISTEN
E FFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE
A VOID AMBIGUITY
R ESPECT DIFFERENCES
N O JUDGMENT
 
Strategy #1: LISTEN
 

Active listening is the single most useful way to overcome barriers to effective communication. We listen for meaning by checking back with the speaker to ensure that we have accurately heard and understood what was said. Communicating across cultures adds another layer to the ‘noise’ that is present, which makes it critical to add that extra step of checking back. Active listening is the key to avoiding misinterpretations. For example, people from different cultures may use the same word in different ways, as we’ve seen, and so repeating what you think you heard and asking if that’s what was intended confirms your understanding of its meaning.
 
Learn to get beyond the distractions that may interfere with properly hearing your speaker, such as accents, limited vocabulary and lack of understanding nuances of a language. Be attuned to his/her cultural background and communication style.
 
Beyond active listening, you can tone down your language, avoiding harsh and/or difficult words as well as adjust the speed and timing of your speech. Incorporate the following techniques into your every day communication:

• Listen without considering what you will say next. Take the time to listen rather than try to guess what’s being said. Avoid thinking ahead.
• Ask questions to ensure that you accurately understand the message being conveyed.
• Don’t assume that you understand the meaning of someone else’s statement. And, don’t assume that what you mean to convey is understood by the listener. Paraphrase back to the speaker to clarify understanding.
• Avoid multitasking when listening to virtual team members. Consider the speaker’s background when evaluating his/her message and be aware of and suspend assumptions based on your own cultural interpretations.
• Use a headset if possible, to keep your hands free so you can take notes to verify the important points of the conversation and the action items that need attention with your colleagues.

 

Next post will focus on E= Effectively Communicate of the LEARN cross cultural communications concept.
 
Yael Zofi
 

My team and I are offering a special book bundle deal and Holiday Virtual Teams Book drawing (no purchase necessary). Click here to enter and win a special autographed copy of my latest book, A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams plus receive a complimentary one-on-one coaching session. Winner will be announced on Thursday, November 29th and notified via email and AIM’s Facebook Page.

 

To enter just do 2 things:

1. “Like” our Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/aim-strategies
2. Then fill out the short entry form: http://bit.ly/virtual-teams-offer

 

We are also offering a Holiday discount on our 3-booklets bundle for only $25 (over 22% savings): http://bit.ly/cyber-monday-vt. *Sale ends Friday, November 30th.

 

 

 

What? A Hurricane, Nor’easter, snow, what’s coming next? If you’ve been following the recent news about the Nor’easter that slammed New York on the heels of Hurricane Sandy, knocking power out to tens of thousands across the region and forcing residents to stay at home, you might wonder how New Yorkers are getting any work done.  If they have electricity and are lucky not to be significantly impacted by recent events, like it or not, these folks are working virtually.

 

In recent weeks, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and online news have been inundated with posts and articles describing the struggle of home-work, such as this one in Huffington Post titled: Hurricane Sandy Victims Working From Home Are ‘Slowly Losing It’. Many articles repeatedly describe a common challenge of Virtual Disconnection - the simple need for connection with other colleagues from work that is difficult to develop while working at home. But are they really ‘losing it’ or are remote working challenges related to distraction, motivation and discipline impacting their connection?

 

Recent events have ‘thrown’ people into virtual work by circumstance, and now many claim to feel isolated. Throughout my research and work with virtual teams, isolation is often associated with feeling disconnected from teammates because of the lack of personal interaction or social connection.  What this boils down to is that ‘face time’ is critical, even occasionally.  If face time is eliminated, or drastically reduced, what can you do to bring people together to build relationships so that they feel connected?

 

1. Create a space for work

• Transitioning to remote work takes time and requires some planning. Think about your needs, set aside a dedicated work space with all the equipment you need to get work done.
• Create boundaries and close the door. Keep distractions to a minimum. Make sure to let others know that you are working. Your space should be relativelyfree from distractions such as family, pets, home telephone, TV, even an attractive view if you are new to telecommuting.
• Stay organized and keep your work area clean.

For more see last week’s post.

 

2. Build Rapport With Colleagues

• Include time for social discourse so that members can make natural connections. For example, a team in the financial services industry conducts a timed five-minute “check in” conversation at the start of calls and then individuals follow up by phoning each other between meetings.
• Assign “break buddies” who can chat with each other after the team call or during a break.

 

3.    Share During Meetings

• Encourage perspective-sharing. During team updates, ask attendees to state their perspective on an issue so that team members can better understand each another’s values and styles.
• During larger meetings and with larger teams, use the whiteboard to write attendees’  locations or display a world map so that people can see each other’s name, location, and time of day.
• Rotate the schedule for conference calls so that the discomfort of participating at inconvenient times doesn’t fall on one party or one time zone.

 

“Your greatest contribution as a virtual leader is to find that connection with people and keep it alive, because the human factor is still the most powerful element in our virtual world.”

Yael Zofi, A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams Page 85