You really need to build your own levels of cultural fluency

I really believe this statement is true if any person is to be able to work really effectively across the barriers of culture, language, geography and time.

The basic problem is that people are not born with an innate understanding of how business works in areas of the globe they don’t know and maybe have never visited – this knowledge and awareness needs to be developed.

The process of changing your mindset and developing better levels of global fluency and therefore the ability to work seamlessly across cultures is a three step process:

• Awareness building:

  You have to intellectually buy-in to the fact that international cultural differences can have a very significant impact on the efficiencies of any global organisation – and therefore its profitability. You also have to accept that you have a role to play in this process. Sounds like an easy step but it isn’t. If things go wrong when you are working cross-border it’s always partly your fault.

• Knowledge development:

  Unfortunately it isn’t enough to be aware that cultural differences exist – you then need to acquire the specific knowledge to interface effectively in lots of different markets. Awareness will get you to accept the need to be adaptive and not make assumptions but the adaptations needed when dealing in India or Brazil will be very different. This knowledge can be acquired over long periods of time and through making countless errors or the process can be speeded up through research and good quality training interventions.

• Embedding insight into corporate processes:

  Once you have awareness and knowledge, you need to embed the lessons learned into the warp and the weft of the way in which you do things on a daily basis. If you work in a global environment, every time you make a decision the impacts of that decision land differently in different places. How can you control the potential negatives of the impact of unforeseen cultural consequences and reactions? It’s not easy but it can be done if you have a deep understanding and the requisite level of knowledge.

In my experience – and I’ve worked with business people all over the world on these issues – few people really take the time to understand the impact of cultural differences. People only tend to think about these things when something goes wrong and that’s usually too late.

If you would like to discuss how Global Business Culture can help you develop greater levels of cultural awareness and fluency personally or within your organisation, please contact me on keith@globalbusinessculture.com