Category: Communication

The fight for attention in communication

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listening

Lately, I had again the ‘pleasure’ of sitting in front of people who were checking their various devices and answering e-mails whilst talking to me. I don’t know how you react and feel in such a situation but I can say that it leaves me:

  • Angry
  • Disappointed
  • With a sentiment of ‘emptiness’

Whereas with people you know and you usually interact with, you can easily voice your discontent in a nice and polite way, with people you don’t know, this is quite more delicate. Especially in a situation where your counterparts are in fact assessing or testing you, you don’t want to risk getting bad marks or being excluded from further processes. And still, the fact of not being attentively listened to actually has a very ‘sour aftertaste’, where you find yourself actually wondering whether what you had to tell was

  • Interesting
  • Worth being told

You might even think that maybe your performance or appearance was not as it should have been.

Let me tell you something: this is completely untrue! Every human being deserves being listened to, no matter what he or she has to tell. When setting up an appointment, even a telephone one, you ought to show respect and attention. It cannot be stressed enough how the course of interaction can be altered and positively affected if basic rules are understood and put into practice.

So, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation as described above, whatever the context and the circumstances, you might want to pause for a moment until you get the attention of your counterpart and politely ask for quality time. It will give you satisfaction and a sense of value even though you might not be able to change other people’s future behaviour.

Colours as important influencing factors in culture and communication

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coloured baloons

Did you know that colours are in fact part of our non-verbal communication and thus extremely important to how we convey messages, choose brands and feel comfortable or rather restless? The meaning of colours also differ from culture to culture and from era to era which can have a tremendous impact when designs etc. are implemented. Just to give you a small example: whereas the colour black will be associated with death, mourning, unhappiness in many European cultures, it actually means honor in others, like in Japan.

Different colours also mean different things when associated with politics. Red is typically linked with socialism and communism, white has a more pacific meaning. Just take a look at the programmes and the colours of the different political parties you know!

Colour can thus be a very influential factor for coaches and event managers when choosing a location and thinking about the concrete outcome that needs to be achieved. Colour is also extremely important in communication when designing a campaign, introducing a new brand or product. Taking the wrong colour for a target audience can have a disastrous impact. Being sensitive to colours and what they actually mean in which culture and for which target audience will help you communicate effectively and achieve your desired results. Think about yourself: how do you feel when sitting in a meeting room where the walls have been painted in red? And how do you feel when they are green? Try paying attention next time you feel uncomfortable in a certain environment and write your findings down. What did you experience?

You might want to click on the following interesting links for further reading:

Illustrating how cultural faux pas happen

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This little video really illustrates quite impressively how we function as human beings, taking only one little example (holding hands). Imagine how many other gestures, words, behaviours etc. can be misinterpreted and misunderstood in the intercultural context and what consequences this might have… you might want to remember this next time you meet with or work with somebody from a different culture. Being mindful, open and non-judging is a first step to train your brain to react differently! Enjoy!

Mindful leadership applied to virtual teams

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Lately I wrote a post on what it takes to lead multicultural teams. It now struck me that many of us don’t just lead multicultural but also “virtual” teams; this adds a lot of complexity to something that is already not so easy on its own.

Wooden mannequins pushing puzzle pieces into the right place

What actually is a virtual team some of you might ask? Following Wikipedia, a virtual team is “(…)a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology”. In clear it means that you might be sitting in one location, like me in Switzerland for example, and you actually lead and work with people all across Europe or even around the globe. It also means that you might not even see these people physically throughout the year. Additionally, it might be that you are not the direct line boss of some of these people but ‘only’ the matrix with less direct possibilities to motivate your staff as you are not the final ‘evaluator’ and ‘bonus giver’.

So, how do you then communicate and how do you walk the fine line of what is acceptable in one culture and what is not? I have to say that at first and being a coach, it was very difficult for me, not so see people as the non-verbal and paraverbal components of face-to-face discussions usually tell me the whole and hidden story and let me intuit the truth behind spoken words. Video communication through web cams or other means would have helped a lot but unfortunately this was not available. So what to do?

First of all and especially concerning team members from cultures I did not have had any work contacts before, I informed myself about the habits, the style and the usual work behaviours from colleagues who were willing to share. I also spent a lot of time speaking to my team and of course listening to them, in order to find out more about them as  persons, their lifestyles etc. Very often I also asked open questions like: “What does this mean for you”? Or “how do you interpret this particular objective or task”. Creating a trusting and open relationship where all partners and team members feel comfortable is extremely important. Of course I made mistakes, as we all do I am sure, misinterpreting things  or inadvertently creating a situation that for others could be quite uncomfortable. Learning from these mistakes, discussing and exchanging are the ingredients to successfully setting a viable basis for virtual work relationships. Interesting enough, when you listen emphatically, mindfully and with attention and when you are truly interested in what your counterpart has to say, you will quickly find that the tone of voice alone can tell you stories about the state of mind of the other person.

It actually is a skill to be able to listen and direct a conversation when there are so many things competing for your attention in the office at the same time. What is your experience with virtual teams? What works and what not? Looking forward to your thoughts!

About the Gangnam Style and Culture

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Seoul Marked on a Map

Have you ever wondered why the “Gangnam style” is so popular? Interestingly enough, the video as well as the dance got copied, translated, parodied, re-danced all over the world. Even among business people asked to try and dance for the purpose of team building or motivation it is very attracting and instantaneously creates a good atmosphere. How can a video suddenly become so popular? Or better, what does this tell us about culture?

Well, of course there are the new media and technologies. Everybody can instantly comment and see what is happening. Secondly, the music is sort of dragging you out of the chair, inviting you to move. And then of course there are the movements… not easy I must say 😉 it certainly requires some kind of a skill plus a lot of practice to be able to somehow try and copy the swinging legs and moving hips. But the funny thing is: although not many people actually know what the “Gangnam style” actually is or means, everybody, from young to old all around the globe seems to have the same fun watching and dancing to the various versions of the one song.

What it tells me with my intercultural communication hat is that once again it gives us a prominent example that “culture” as such, is a dynamic and flexible construct which sometimes self-organizes  itself. Nobody could have known that this video would make its way that fast to different corners of the world. It also shows how music (and on that matter also sport) is uniquely able to rally people from different backgrounds and upbringings and makes people forget, even for a short period of time, where they come from and what their problems are. Well, I will definitely keep up the practice and all I can say is: Well done PSY and thanks for making us laugh!

Thoughts about collective memory and “clouds” or Are our memories going global?

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taking care

Very often, when working in multicultural teams or simply being at an international conference, I have observed that people tend to form sub-groups with others from the same nationality. I always wondered where this might be coming from. Well according to scientific views on intercultural communication, the reason for this does not have to be the language alone but the fact, that because of comparable socialization and education processes, common routines or norms are given, meaning that the context of things doesn’t need to be explained. Other people in the group have more or less the same ‘cultural background’ and behaviours are easily handled without a lot of explanation.
We also do have something called the “collective memory” which is: “(…)the shared pool of information held in the memories of two or more members of a group.” Following these thoughts, it doesn’t surprise anymore that communication between members of a group where people have a similar upbringing, is usually much more ‘noisefree’ than intercultural communication.
But: have you ever thought about what will happen to the collective memory now that we have global “clouds” available where huge amounts of data from anywhere in the world are saved and shared? Are we truly going to become “global citizens” in a couple of generations or are our national/cultural roots affirm themselves? What do you think?