1.3 Culture in Real Time

Yongju, Candace, and Jim all thought they had prepared for their international assignments, and yet they were completely surprised by what they encountered upon arrival. In today's interconnected world, organizations and individuals regularly face the frustrations of distance, misunderstanding, inefficiency, and even outright failure when working in global teams. Culture is often at the root of these problems. In fact, according to Stahl et al. (2010), cultural difference is the leading cause of conflict in global work teams, causing alienation and marginalization that leads to a decrease in productivity in some cases, and even a break in business relationships with partners and legal and regulator action.1

Like the prisoner described in the introduction, each one of us is deeply immersed in our own culture, so much so that we don't even recognize it's there. When we encounter conflict with another culture, we react emotionally. We get frustrated, feel offended, or even become angry. Just like Yongju, Candace, and Jim, we feel confused. We are at a loss and don't even know how to approach the situation. Culture helps us to process a great deal of information. If we were forced to ponder each encounter without precedence, human interaction would go into slow motion. We need to see things in patterns or categories that allow us to more quickly navigate a complex social setting in real time.

Culture is solving problems collectively. We learn the patterns of problem-solving from our social environment at a very early age. We learn the "right" way to interact socially, solve problems, deal with conflict, build relationships, and so on. But then as our social circles begin to expand, we see that others do things differently. We also learn through our culture how to know if something is true, but we see that others have a different truth. We learn through our culture how to identify ourselves in collectives and communities, and we see that others identify themselves in different ways in different communities. We learn in our culture the value of time and relationships, but we also see that others place a different value on time and relationships. The same is true with the creation of social hierarchy, the impact of emotion and rationality, and other key questions that have a very strong impact on social, business, and political relationships.

The topic of cultural conflict in the workplace has been studied since the 1940s, but for some reason, the findings and information have not made it into the mainstream of business practice, especially in the United States. Cultural studies are taught in some business schools, and some large corporations use these concepts regularly.

Since the 1940s, western researchers have been working to understand the fundamental differences between the various cultures around the world and how these differences impact the workforce in multinational companies. These researchers, such as Edward T. Hall, Samuel A. Stouffer, Geert Hofstede, and Fons Trompenaars, developed effective and useful methodologies used by IBM, American Express, and other global companies to help their multicultural teams to work more effectively together. But despite the use of these principles in top international business schools and global companies, this information is still limited in its use and reach, especially in the United States. This research is valuable and important, but the complexity and academic language characteristic of research papers have made them inaccessible to the broader business community—until now. This book is not so much about the theory of cultural bridge building, rather about the practical steps we can take to build the bridge.

This book is not about the complex aspects of culture, or the subtle nuances that can lead to detailing philosophical differences. Nor is it about the protocols of when to kiss, bow, hug, or shake hands. It is for managers and leaders who want to understand themselves and the people they work with at a deeper level, and it is about how to build a bridge together.

There are three practical questions that run through this book and are at the core of our third culture model. The first turns the focus on you. Who are you? What are your cultural values? How does your culture tell you to solve common problems? You need to understand yourself and be able to communicate who you are to others. The second question is about others. Who are they? What do they value? What does their culture tell them about solving various problems? You need to be able to understand others and have common language to describe your differences. Third and finally, what can we create together? How can we build a third, intercultural culture that will allow us to work together without giving up who we are?

Let's get started.