Cross Cultural Communication Training

Cross Cultural Communication Training - Intro

I really do not have the background or experience in any sort of healthcare workplace, so I am going to complete this competency based on what I have seen in the corporate banking world and what I have learned while working on the other competencies in this course.  Some of my experience is also rooted in 24 years of military service.  I have found that some of the skills/knowledge I gained there are useful in the civilian world, but some are not.  In fact, some needed to be unlearned in order to re-learn leadership and communication styles more appropriate to cubicles than ships and combat zones.

My organization, a very large international bank, suffers from poor communication across different cultures.  Large organizations with top-down management sometimes also get saddled with very top-down communications that are often directed at different, diverse groups, but are provided in a single senior/subordinate manner. I will create this training with my co-workers as an audience, not necessarily just Enterprise Information Technology, where I work, but the bank and all its employees.

The topic of this training is very broadly “Cross-cultural communication.”  The reason that formal training like this is so appropriate to my workplace is the many cultures that all work together to serve the financial needs of

clients that are even more diverse than our own teams.  An anecdotal reason I know that the topic is important to the executives and senior leaders in my organization is that we repeat annual training on several areas of diversity and inclusion.  Unfortunately, I have not noticed the training varies much year to year, so this is my attempt at creating something a little different. I understand that it takes an organization time to develop broad skills in cultural competency, and formal training is just one element of the continuous cycle of feedback and improvement.

The world continues to get smaller. Not in a physical sense, but in terms of the global economy and the interconnected nature of business. You work for a company with offices and banks in over 25 countries which means there are Team members from many cultures and backgrounds, as well as the customers we server.

One of the primary tenets of our Vision and Values is "Diversity and social inclusion" which means that we "ensure everyone feels respected with equal access to resources, services, and opportunities to succeed." 2

Cultural competency is important not only because it is good for business, but it is also good for our team members.  Watch below as Michelle Lee explains how diversity leadership drives employee engagement.

It takes consistent individual practice and the support of a culturally competent organization to continue to develop and maintain individual cultural competence. 1

Learning Objectives

1. Define Culture and its effect on communication
2. Better communicate with a cross-cultural audience
3. Have additional tools to improve communication in cross-cultural relationships.

Each of the above objectives will be covered in a separate post, so to see the entire series, use the label "comp1" to see just these training posts.

In the next post, you will be learning what the term culture means when applied to workplace communication.  In the third post of this series, you will learn some key points to remember when communicating with a cross-cultural audience.  In the last post, we will discuss some tools or skills that not only help improve your communication, but will also lead to better cross-cultural relationships.

But first, here is an example of the wrong way!

Things to consider:

What might he have done prior to this trip to prevent what happened?

Why do you think she reacted the way she did?

Write down a few thoughts, we'll attempt to answer these questions in the next post.

Next

Cross Cultural Communication Training - Part III

Better communication with cross-cultural audiences

So, to review the last post, we were discussing how to improve our own awareness.  In business like in life, you can't just fly through on auto-pilot.  Being aware is a skill that will lead to understanding when you are in a situation in which you need to learn about a culture to have effective communication.

Watch this short clip from Little Pilot and try to pick out the actual things to be aware of as you learn.

Many people in the banking industry are aware of what is meant by a dashboard.  In terms of business it isn't as simple as a dashboard in your automobile that tells you a few things about the engine, how fast you are going and how many miles you've driven.  In business, its a starting point, an overview of things you should know and be aware of.  It is a tool to help you dig deeper.

What are three aspects of a culture that the video suggests you be aware of in order to understand a culture that you are doing business with?

1. Deal Oriented vs Relationship oriented
2. Direct communication vs Indirect communication
3. Egalitarian or hierarchical leadership

Consider how these things might influence your communication style.  In the next post we will discuss how these and other skills can contribute to not only improving your cross-cultural awareness, but also your relationships with customers and co-workers from different cultures.

Next

Cross Cultural Communication Training - Part IV

Improving cross-cultural relationships

The best way to show you how different cultures can clash and cause personal conflicts that can have lasting effects on business relationships is to start with an example of it going very badly.

Watch this video of a short business meeting between two people that are not only from different cultures, but have managed to cultivate some negative attitudes about the other's culture.

While this is a somewhat humorous presentation of the stress different cultural values can put on a relationship, you can see that although these two people probably have a great deal in common, their approach to business is very different because of their culture.

Both characters, in their thoughts to themselves asked "Why?" questions about the other's approach to business.  Very simply put, the answer is their culture.  Had either taken the time to understand one another's values about "getting down to business" or punctuality, this encounter could have been a lot less tense.

So what can be done to learn about a culture, especially one that you will be interacting with during a typical business day?  Watch this video below and consider what the speaker suggests, and even what she did to learn about the Chinese culture.

For the final post in this series, we will summarize what was presented in the previous posts, but before that, jot down a few of the tools Valerie Hoeks provides in the video you just watched.  We'll discuss them in the wrap-up.

Next

Cross Cultural Communication Training - Part II

Review

Welcome back!  So after watching that video of the two stick figures, you should be able to see the importance of cultural competency and how forms of communication can mean very different things in different cultures.

What do you think the stick figure man could have done prior to the business trip?  For one thing, attending some cultural training specific to the country might have helped avoid this situation.  It demonstrates pretty well that while some things are considered harmless in one culture, other cultures may react to it quite differently.

Why do you think the female stick figure reacted the way she did?  Its possible that in her culture there is not as much separation between business life and personal life; or his behavior crossed a very distinct line in her culture.  The only way to know is to be prepared!

What is culture?

Define Culture and its effect on communication

So what is culture? That really depends on who you ask.  Here are a few definitions. 3

• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
• Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.
• Culture is communication, communication is culture.
• Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.
• A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

So what is the common thread? Beliefs and behaviors are both mentioned often.  And the highlighted item in the third bullet perfectly describes the purpose of this training. Verbal, written, nob-verbal communication elements help us to define and understand a culture.

Watch the movie below to understand what culture is and how it can interfere with communication and what you can do to avoid some of the issues you might experience.

Does this clip help you understand what was going on in the stick figure scenario from the first post?  Consider that the male stick figure's culture has a more distinct line between business and personal communication, where the female's culture takes a more holistic approach.  It's easy to see how different cultures could perceive the same behavior differently than intended, leading to conflict.

The first tool, as with almost any new thing you learn or try to get better at is awareness.  Think about this question: How can you train yourself to be more aware of the different cultures you work with?  How does one become more aware of being aware?  Formal and informal training like this is a start, but in the next post we will discuss ways to improve communication with a cross-cultural audience.

Cross Cultural Communication Training - Part V

Summary and wrap-up

In these five posts you have learned how to define culture and how it can effect our communication.  You also learned that awareness is key and the first step in improving your communication with a cross-cultural audience.  And in the previous post, you hopefully wrote down a few tools that will aid in understanding different cultures.

Here are some of the skills or actions suggested.  How closely does your list match?

Learn the language, or at least enough to start and end conversations in the native language of your associate or customer.  English is spoken by a majority of international business people, but this doesn't mean that using their own language isn't important to people from cultures different from your own.  In fact, showing that you took the time to learn a few phrases prior to your engagement shows them that you ARE aware and can help build strong business relationships.

Visit the country, prior to travelling there on business.  Having some experience with the customs and behaviors of a culture without the added pressure of a business environment will give you background and the chance to

learn about the culture by experiencing it directly.  If you can't travel physically, you can always use the internet for a virtual tour.

As you learn about a culture, being aware of a single trait is only a start.  An example from the last video is the fact that the Chinese value relationships, family and respect for elders.  That is the trait, but part of the awareness and learning is knowing why.  Knowing that these values stem from a deep regard of Confucius' teachings is taking the extra step from being aware to being culturally competent.

Indicators of success

Having an awareness of the impact a particular communication style or word choice might have on cross-cultural relationships is the first step making changes where necessary.  This type of training will never have definitive right or wrong answers, so simply passing a test would only indicate that the student was a good test taker.

 For me to know if this training was successful or not, it would have to come from the people that viewed it.  It would be my hope that this format is in no way threatening and is more entertaining that most materials on the subject.  The result of having viewed this presentation should be that a person would have another reason in the back of their mind to be aware, and get into a habit of continuously trying to learn by using the skills offered here. 

References

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1.	Health MSf. The providers guide to quality and culture. Culturally competent organizations. Available at: http://erc.msh.org/mainpage.cfm?file=9.1.htm&module=provider&language=English. Accessed December 12, 2016.
2.	Wells Fargo Corporate Human Resources. Corporate Social Responsibility. Wells Fargo - About Us. January 01, 2017. Available at: https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/corporate-responsibility/. Accessed December 18, 2016.
3.	Choudhury I. Faculty Web Site. Texas A&M University. Available at: https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html. Accessed December 02, 2016.

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