It's true that we may think we can communicate successfully with everyone, but it's not always that way in the multicultural world.

Work

We work hard. We are focused on many threads. Furthermore, we are responsible and involved in many situations. We write, we listen, we talk. We communicate with colleagues from other countries and cultures to achieve goals. Mostly, our communication goes smoothly without any misinterpretations. But occasionally, we feel stuck with our questions or answers from colleagues from other cultures. And then, a part of us analyses the techniques of effective communication. Another part feels disrespected because they get too much direct information or answers don't come. And finally, some parts simply get frustrated not getting straight answers like no, or I don't know.  These situations happen because each culture always has nuances and deeper levels of understanding.

Knowledge builds cultural awareness

I often heard from managers and developers that getting extra knowledge about cultures wastes time. Their approach sounds like that: communicate clearly what you need, be direct as much as possible, it will avoid misunderstanding. Some of those managers and developers who actually had experience collaborating with other cultures shared their tips: Indian developers ask to rephrase what you said because they always say yes, and German managers don't trust anybody, just other Germans. Once you have received a very polite email from an English manager, think twice. They may be on the edge because you have missed deadlines. Only the last tip is a proper one. Modal verbs sound polite, but the expectations behind them are clear and usually imported and often urgent.

Understanding cultures offers insight into cultural norms, values, and communication styles, helping us avoid misunderstandings and foster a more inclusive and respectful work environment.

Where to start your journey into multicultural diversity?

Your journey should definitely start with reading the book The Culture Map by Erin Mayer. First, you will discover that effective communication doesn't exist without knowledge about other cultures. Second, there are eight areas you should consider once you collaborate with other cultures: 

• Communicating: low-context vs high-context (it means: what I say is what I mean it is vs. read between my words)
• Evaluating: direct negative feedback vs. indirect negative feedback (how we see the way we work and share negative feedback with paying respect to others),
• Persuading: principles-first vs. applications-first, 
• Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical (how we lead our teams), 
• Deciding: consensual vs. top-down (how we make decisions),
• Trusting: task-based approach vs. relationship-based approach (what helps us in building trust),
• Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoids confrontation,
• Scheduling: linear-time vs. flexible time (how we see time): If you work with a cross-cultural organization or are part of an international project and your responsibility is to improve multicultural collaboration, you should also use the Country Mapping Tool available on the Erin Mayer page. The best way to map differences between cultures is to see them on the map.

Knowledge brings effectiveness  

For the last six years, I have been involved in cross-cultural projects, collaborating with British, German, Indian, American, and Polish managers. Furthermore, I have been involved in multicultural teams with developers from the UK, the US, India, Ukraine, and Poland. Even if each of these cultures tries to be simply polite to others, there are always challenging situations based on cultural differences. 

Let's return to the Country Mapping Tool and map Indian, the US and Polish culture. You will see that only Polish and the US cultures meet each other in one aspect: the way we make decisions, and that's that. There are no other points of contact between these three cultures. I would say our cultures differ beautifully, but in the post-pandemic world, there are no thousands of kilometres from one culture to another. I open my laptop, and I'm exactly in the centre of a cross-cultural world. Some time ago, I took part in a meeting with a team: the developers were Spanish, the Product Owner was Swiss, and the Scrum Master was a Turk. Amazing.

Polish culture is frequently perceived as direct and task-focused. Poles build trust based on the quality of their work. The "Polish focus on tasks" has a great impact on the way we communicate with others. I guess, if you look at your chat with Polish colleagues, you will probably see that just below “Hi” you asked, or you were asked about specific tasks and are done or not. The Indian way of communication doesn't work in that way. Just below “Hi” you will be asked about how you're doing today and then conversation will focus on tasks. Why does it happen? Because Indian people build trust in relationships and tasks, we have two different approaches to building trust. Therefore, the lack of "a relationship element" at the beginning of Polish — Indian conversation can occasionally be interpreted as rudeness by Indian culture.

Indian culture tends to emphasize harmony and politeness, leading to situations where 'yes' might not always mean agreement but rather a desire to avoid conflict or “yes, yes” is confirmation that you are being listened to. Some time ago, when I talked to Polish people working with Indian developers, I got a piece of advice from them: when you hear from an Indian colleague, “yes, yes”  — ask him/her to repeat what you said because they probably didn't understand you.  That piece of advice is far from the truth. Even more, asking an Indian colleague, especially in front of others, to reap what you just said is a massive disrespect to him/her.

Cultural sensitivity 

Knowledge about cultures offers insight into different cultural norms, values, and communication styles, helping us avoid misunderstandings and foster a more inclusive and respectful work environment.