Full transcript
0:00I have spent the last 16 years studying
0:04how cultural differences are changing
0:06global organizations but I have not
0:09always been working in a cross-cultural
0:11space I was raised in a very
0:13monocultural place I was raised in
0:15Minnesota in the Midwest of the US and
0:18was only later as an adult that I
0:20started living in other countries and
0:22kind of learning about these things but
0:24I had a situation early in my career
0:26that got this all started for me where I
0:30was on a trip to Japan with a Japanese
0:33colleague and I gave a short
0:35presentation to a group of Japanese
0:37participants and at the end of the
0:40presentation I asked them if they had
0:42any questions when I looked at the group
0:44that no one raised their hands so I went
0:46to sit down my Japanese colleague then
0:49said to me Aaron I think actually there
0:51were some questions do you mind if I try
0:54and I said okay fine so he then stood up
0:57and again he said any any questions and
1:00again no one raised their hand but this
1:03time he looked very carefully at the
1:06group oh do you have a question and the
1:12woman said well thank you I do and she
1:15asked a fascinating question and then he
1:17did it again oh do you have something
1:21you'd like to say yes thank you I do so
1:24afterwards I said to him you know how do
1:25you how did you know that these people
1:28had questions and he said to me well it
1:31had to do with how bright their eyes
1:33were and I thought wow you know they
1:37don't teach us that in Minnesota so then
1:40I said well how do you know how bright
1:42their eyes are and he said well you know
1:45in Japan we don't make as much direct
1:47eye contact as you do in the West so
1:50when you ask people if they have any
1:52questions most people are not looking at
1:54you directly but a few people in the
1:57audience are looking directly at you and
1:59their eyes are bright and that indicates
2:02that they would be comfortable with you
2:04calling on them so the next day I gave
2:06another presentation and again I asked
2:08if there were any questions and again no
2:10one raised their hand but this time I
2:13okay I'll just try so I did as he'd
2:16instructed and I looked carefully at the
2:18group and I saw just as he said but only
2:20a couple of people in the room were
2:22looking directly at me and if I really
2:25thought about it well yes okay their
2:27eyes were bright so you know I gestured
2:30to one of them and he kind of went like
2:32that and then I said would you like to
2:34say something and he said yes thank you
2:35so um this was a very important
2:38experience for me because well there's a
2:42an expression in Japanese Japanese which
2:45is kooky yo man die they shortened it to
2:48KY and it means someone who is unable to
2:51read the atmosphere or someone who is
2:54unable to read the air we need to pick
2:57up the communication that's in the air
2:59and here we could see that he clearly
3:01could read the air and I was clearly KY
3:05but I also saw that with a little bit of
3:08assistance and direction that I also
3:10could become better at picking up those
3:13signals that were in the air so then as
3:16I was thinking about this I became very
3:19interested in trying to figure out if
3:21there was a method that we could use to
3:24help people to better read the
3:27atmosphere when they were working with
3:29cultures that they didn't know
3:31intimately and we then started to
3:33develop this this framework that came
3:36from lots and lots of research where we
3:39divided culture up into different types
3:41of behaviors and we started looking at
3:44you know how is Trust built in different
3:46parts of the world and how do we make
3:47decisions differently in different parts
3:49of the world and we saw that we were
3:51able to come up with patterns for how
3:53countries or cultures fell differently
3:56on those scales and though it was very
3:58interesting was that we could also then
4:00start to map cultures up to one another
4:03so for example here you could we map I
4:06map Brazil next to France for you
4:08Brazilian culture to French culture and
4:10you can see on some scales the cultures
4:13are very similar and on other scales
4:15they're very different
4:16I also mapped out here for example
4:18Germany German culture two Singaporean
4:21culture and you can look again at where
4:23the similarities and where the
4:24difference is
4:25on those two scales now as we were going
4:28through this we also I also started to
4:30see that there were a few key lessons
4:32for people who were trying to use this
4:35type of mapping and the first was that
4:37when you looked at these scales people
4:42humans seem to have a tendency to want
4:45to look at them like there was a center
4:47of the world with a right hand side in a
4:50left hand side yet in our multicultural
4:52economy that doesn't make any sense
4:55I saw instead that we had to think
4:57relatively about the scale so I was
4:59amused with the first presentation where
5:02Denis gave this example of what the
5:05French are like and I actually did some
5:08work a while ago where I was working
5:10with a global team and at one point I
5:12asked the British on the team what it
5:14was like to work with the French on
5:16their team and the British said a little
5:18bit like what you heard from me they
5:19said well you know the French they're
5:21very disorganized and they're always
5:22late and they're always changing the
5:24topic in the middle of the meeting so
5:26it's very difficult to follow them but
5:28then when I interview the Indians who
5:31were on the same team and I asked the
5:33Indians what it was like to work with
5:35the French they'd say well you know
5:36Aaron the the French they're so rigid
5:39they're so in adaptable they're so
5:41focused on the structure and
5:43organization and punctuality that
5:46they're not able to adapt as things
5:48change around them and I saw that you
5:50know yes we could see that type of
5:52difference that was reflected on one of
5:55the scales a scheduling scale which
5:57looks at time rate agent and I will just
5:58say that I gave the same example in
6:00Germany a little while ago and one of
6:02the Germans in the room said well you
6:04know Aaron this is a really funny
6:05example for us because we work with the
6:07British all the time and we are always
6:10complaining that the British are exactly
6:12the same way that you've just described
6:15that the British complain about the
6:16friction right so when you look at the
6:19scales the absolute positions of the
6:22scales don't mean anything and trying to
6:24even describe what a culture is like is
6:26not really useful in this type of global
6:29organization that you're working and
6:31instead we need to start being able to
6:33tease out these differences and how
6:35different cultures see one another
6:37so that was the first
6:39the second point was that what it means
6:42to be an effective leader has changed so
6:46completely as we've gone through this
6:49globalization process because of these
6:51cultural differences and that usually
6:53what it means to be an effective leader
6:55in one culture in one society is deeply
7:00linked to how children learn to think
7:05about Authority in their schooling
7:08systems for example so I mean just to
7:12give you an example I think a few people
7:13are from Sweden in this room
7:15well Sweden is one of the most
7:16egalitarian societies in the world and
7:19if you go into a Swedish classroom or
7:20you start looking at the way that
7:22Swedish children are learn you'll see
7:24that there's this strong emphasis on the
7:26fact that the adult is like a
7:29facilitator the teacher can be
7:32challenged and contradicted and is just
7:35there to facilitate learning and then if
7:37you wanted to look for example at let's
7:39say Mexico you might find that the way
7:42that children are raised has a much
7:44stronger emphasis on the fact that the
7:46child should defer to or respect the
7:50authority figure and the teacher for
7:52example in the classroom isn't giving
7:54the knowledge to the children who don't
7:56confront the teacher back and then this
7:59has all sorts of links for you in a
8:01global leadership role I worked with a
8:03Swedish company seco tools and they
8:06bought a big organization in Monterrey
8:09Mexico and now I had all of these
8:11Mexicans who were managing Swedish
8:14people and one of them said to me well
8:16Erin you cannot believe what it's like
8:19to manage and Sweden because they do not
8:21care at all that I'm the boss you know I
8:25go into these meetings I'm trying to
8:27roll out my strategy I'm trying to get
8:29everybody aligned and they're
8:30challenging me they're contradicting me
8:32they're taking their ideas off in other
8:34directions now sometimes I want to just
8:36get down on my knees and I want to plead
8:39with them you know please don't forget
8:41that I'm in charge here so this is
8:45really complicated in today's world
8:47because it means that it's no longer an
8:49tough to know how to lead the Swedish
8:52way or the Mexican way or the French way
8:55or the Chinese way we have to know how
8:57to do all of those things and what would
8:59I see with the most effective global
9:01leaders is that they may have one foot
9:03that's very deeply rooted in their own
9:06culture but then with their own other
9:09foot they're really working on learning
9:11how to motivate their teams in different
9:13types of ways I call this authentic
9:16flexibility and this of course for those
9:19of you who have done this if you've
9:21moved to another country for example and
9:23you're doing this all day long you might
9:25find this is exhausting it takes a lot
9:28of energy and once you're stressed out
9:30you're snapping back to your normal
9:32tendency but we also see that this is
9:34like a muscle so the more that you work
9:36on it the easier it gets
9:38till finally you can get to a point that
9:40you move back and forth easily from one
9:43type of style to another that's the
9:45future of leadership in this global
9:47economy the third point that we
9:49recognized as we were going through this
9:51mapping process was that a lot of people
9:54were saying okay fine today is a world
9:57is all interconnected we're working over
10:00Skype we're working over telephone so
10:03aren't cultural differences impacting us
10:06less but in fact cultural differences
10:09were impacting us in so many more ways
10:12than they were before yet we're totally
10:15unaware of them so to give an example of
10:18this I worked a while ago well let me
10:20just get you thinking about this so in
10:22Germany at the end of a phone call it's
10:27very comfortable and appropriate to get
10:31off of the phone and put in to writing
10:33what's been decided right and you would
10:35then send the recap to the person that
10:37you've been working with I was doing
10:39some work a while ago and with a Saudi
10:41Arabian team and one of his Saudi
10:44Arabian participants said well you know
10:46Erin in my culture if we have a
10:49discussion on the telephone and we make
10:51some decisions verbally that would be
10:53enough for me especially if we have a
10:56little bit of a relationship and then if
10:58you get off of the phone and you put
11:00everything that we've
11:01sided into writing and you send that to
11:03me that's a clear sign to me that you
11:06don't trust me