Don't Be a Cultural Knucklehead
Posted By Rob Millard - 1 Comments -
Seth Godin points the way to an excellent posting on Pamela Slim's blog Escape from Cubicle Nation, titled How not to be a cultural knucklehead in a global business world. ESSENTIAL reading for those who operate internationally.
Some gems:
Be aware of the level of interpersonal formality in the society in which you are working. German professionals do not appreciate being introduced as "my mate Klaus" yet Australians find use of titles or even surnames pompous. In more formal cultures, use salutations rather than first names ("Dear Dr Schmidt" or "Dear Tanaka-san" (in Japan) rather than "Hey Klaus" or "Hi Jim") in emails.
When using analogies and metaphors, make sure that they are appropriate to the audience. Don't talk about baseball or American football (e.g. "curved ball" or "touch down" or "motherhood and apple pie") outside of North America. Be especially careful to avoid stuff that is appropriate in your culture but offensive in others. For instance, reference to alcohol in Muslim societies.
Speak (slightly) more slowly and clearly when talking to an audience for whom English is a second language. Hint: words come out more clearly when the speaker is smiling, than when she/he is deadpan.
If you indicate your home time zone on emails (an excellent idea that I have just adopted after reading Pamela's posting) use Greenwich Mean Time as the base and not (if you are based in North America) the US time zones. For an international audience, I am at GMT -5 here in Freeport, not Eastern time.
It really is essential to be extremely well informed about this stuff, to minimize the risk of inserting one's foot into one's mouth when dealing with a culture other than one's own.
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Great link and I love your German and Australian examples. I think we Americans tend to think Europeans are just like us, but, as my firm's German attorney is always reminding me, I have to wear my suit when meeting with German clients. And, just about every one of our Australian clients has called me "mate" since day one.