Seven Ways to Better Communicate in Today's Diverse Workplace - Seven Tips
for Communicating In Today's Diverse Workplace
Your employees
may come from nations all around the world. The challenge: Ensure that their
contributions aren't buried under language and cultural differences. Here are
seven tips for improving communication.
David
Cane is a manager at a U.S.-based scientific publishing house. Recently, when
he needed to hire three new programmers, he ended up filling the slots with
people who were born and educated in China.
The
new programmers had the right skill sets, but Cane was concerned about how they
would fit in at the company. So he set about devising ways to ensure that cultural
differences—and the communications problems that can follow from them—didn't
get in the way.
One
of the first steps he took was to use reflective listening around business
objectives and goals.
"I
have implemented a policy where any projects that I assign should be
reverse-specified by the assignee, meaning that they will write specifications
for the assignment and we will review these together before the actual project
is embarked upon," he explains. "In this way, everyone is clear what
the requirements are and what the results should be."
This
is but one example of steps managers are taking today to get the best out of a
diverse group of employees. Immigrants have always been an important part of
the U.S. workforce, and their contribution is growing. They bring with them a
wealth of knowledge and expertise that is invaluable to businesses.
The
challenge is to ensure that communication problems don't keep these sources of
business benefit from being tapped effectively. Here are seven steps managers can
take to meet that challenge.
1. Learn how the
source culture best receives communications. Deborah
Valentine, of the Management Communication Department at Emory University's
Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, advises managers to analyze their audience
to find the best way to communicate a message.
"Different
cultures like to receive information—and trust information they receive from
different sources—in different ways," she says.
People
from some cultures don't trust information that comes directly from a manager,
for example, preferring that the word comes instead from a leader of the
employee group, a headman, or shop foreman.
Some
workers don't feel comfortable being singled out for praise in front of the
entire employee group—a typical way to dish out praise in the U.S. For these
workers, quiet praise in a private office is much preferred.
2. Train
international employees early and often. Many of the pitfalls of
misunderstanding and cultural confusion can be prevented with early and ongoing
training.
"It's
very important that incoming employees be taught in orientation sessions and in
ongoing training what the company's expectations are, that they be acculturated
to the way that company does things," Valentine says.
Henry
Miller, an executive search consultant with the Philadelphia office of Heidrick
& Struggles International, points out that many misconceptions about
conduct in the workplace can be avoided by ensuring that rules are defined and
observed even during the interview process.
"It
is also important to state with no ambiguity the policies and procedures
adhered to in the U.S.," he says. "Addressing this area prior to
coming on board will avoid pain on both sides later. Accepting some cultural
nuances is important, but be careful not to adversely affect your existing
culture by 'customizing' what is acceptable or appropriate behavior by
individuals."
3. Train the
non-foreign-born, too. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has training
programs to ensure that its employees not only understand the mission of the company,
but also the significance of diversity, both within the workplace and among
clients.
"We
train people to get into the shoes and the mindset of the person opposite
them," says James Lowry, vice president and director of diversity at BCG.
"The biggest mistake people make is to look at issues only through their
eyes. There are major and minor cultural differences, and we cannot be
effective in our area of business if we don't understand them and embrace
them."
Managers
also need to be taught that there is an acculturation process and should
understand how that may affect employees. "Managers must be aware that
immigrants go through stages of culture shock," Valentine says. "A
manager who is not aware that a person is going through these stages is not as
well prepared as he or she needs to be."
As
someone who has gone through the acculturation process himself, having moved
from Australia to the U.S. several years ago, Cane agrees.
"Employers
need to understand that culture shock is real, and while there is little one
can do, just evidence of understanding will help," he says. "It is
not easy being placed in a foreign culture and being removed from the support
network that you're used to. Anything that an employer can do, such as being
very flexible with time off and being willing to provide 'local' information
and contacts, will help build a good relationship with the employee as well as
minimizing the stress that the employee is subjected to."
4. Assign mentors
and take care of the spouses. Managers need to
understand the important role they play in helping a new employee become an
important contributor, no matter what her country of origin.
But the issue is especially important
for foreign workers with different cultural expectations.
"As consultants in leadership
issues," Miller says, "the best advice we could provide is to take
two approaches. Firstly, assign a mentor in the business operation, preferably
a well-respected person from the department who can assist in helping ease
integration. Secondly, if a spouse or family is involved in the move, become
involved in making them feel comfortable with the change."
Recent figures suggest that a failed
expatriation can cost a company as much as $1 million and that 44 percent of
expatriations fail because the spouse has been unable to adjust.
Effective mentoring can be critical.
Valentine says, "Using peer groups, with one experienced employee
mentoring a new employee from a different cultural background, will enable a
person from a background unused to going to a manager to turn to the peer
counselor to help mediate a situation."
Lowry has helped implement mentoring
programs throughout BCG. "We try to mentor people of all backgrounds on
the way we conduct studies and the way we look at and analyze issues," he
says. "In addition, every professional has someone who guides them in the
culture and in their professional skill development, and we have an evaluation
process that parallels that. Our younger professionals are assigned a sponsor
manager, who mentors and coaches that person in a way that will make them
effective."
Coca-Cola is another company that has
put a formal, one-on-one mentoring program in place.
"We wanted to create the best and
most desirable working environment for our employees," says Dwight
Williams, media relations manager at Coca-Cola. "This program can help
promote employee satisfaction and development by forming one-on-one
relationships that facilitate networking, coaching, counseling, and career and
life lessons. It's a win-win for our employees and our organization."
5. Practice
open-door communication—carefully. Keep in mind that employees unused to
U.S. business practices may be reluctant to go to the head of their department
for advice or guidance.
"The
idea of the open door is so foreign to about three-fourths of the cultures of
the world that it doesn't even translate," Valentine says. "And the
downside is that sometimes the manager, by encouraging an employee from a
different culture to talk directly to them, is seen as weak."
The
option here may be to use an intermediary.
"Many
times if you are dealing with a group and you're trying to get feedback, one
idea is to use an elected representative who is empowered to report problems
and suggestions to the department head," Valentine suggests.
Keep
in mind that the best way to bridge the communication gap is to set a good
example, says Miller. "Do not wait for them to come through the open door,
go to them. Ask them about their concerns and questions. Nothing is more
credible than setting the example. An open door goes both ways."
6. In
company-wide communications, avoid jargon and slang. Employees from
outside the U.S. may have difficulty understanding company communication that
uses U.S. jargon and slang, as well as any number of culture-specific idioms.
"U.S.
business is driven by sport and war metaphors because the rules of business
tended, for years, to mirror the rules of engagement," comments Valentine,
who, with Sherron B. Kenton, coauthored the book CrossTalk: Communicating in a
Multicultural Workplace. "Using metaphors may be problematic with people
from other cultures, even English-speaking employees, since they don't
necessarily use the same metaphors."
Others
with experience in the field agree.
"Slang
and colloquialism are definite challenges in all areas of communication,"
Miller says. "I had a U.S. client who had been waiting for a signed
acceptance letter from a candidate in the U.K. The U.S. client had expected to
receive the fax the previous day and had left instructions and numbers via
voice mail for the candidate. The candidate called me and said everything was
fine, but he had a disturbing message from the U.S. client talking about
needing a 'John Hancock' in order to formalize the relocation package. The
confused candidate did not know any John Hancock and asked how John fit into
the process.
"In
the end, we obtained a signature and all was well."
Cane
says, "When communicating with my Chinese staff, I am very careful to keep
my spoken and written language very simple, avoiding jargon and colloquialisms
at all costs. I learnt very early on that using such language was met by polite
smiles and a look that said, 'I have no idea what you mean.'"
7. Play by the
rules and stick to business. Finally, the best way to create an
environment that people of all cultures and ethnicities can participate in is
to ensure that the company's mission and goals are communicated clearly and
that the workplace is driven by business requirements rather than personal
preferences, says R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., a writer of many books on
diversity, including Building a House for Diversity, and president and founder
of The American Institute for Managing Diversity in Atlanta.
"It
is important that managers and the people within the mixture make decisions
that are not based on personal preferences, traditions, or conveniences, but
rather on what is the mission and vision, and what are the requirements
necessary for achieving that mission and vision," he says.
"Consistency
of message from the top of the organization is important to avoid conflicting
agendas," Miller points out. "At the local leadership level, a
manager must determine the best way to communicate, which means knowing the
team, seeing through the integration, and understanding their concerns
personally and professionally."
Building
a productive workplace with employees from many backgrounds can enrich a
company on many different levels—but it's not a process one can take for
granted. "Ethnic and cultural diversity can…enrich our lives if we are
open to the possibilities of reaching out and learning new ways of
communicating," the authors of CrossTalk write.
The
bottom line? Diversity makes good business sense in today's globalized world.
Says
BCG's Lowry, "We have to understand different markets and we have to have
people of diverse backgrounds to understand those markets. So you're better
off, from a strictly business perspective, to get a mix in your workforce.
Reprinted
with permission from "Seven Ways to Better Communicate in Today's Diverse
Workplace," Harvard Management Communication Letter, November 2002.
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