You say tomato, I say tomato

By Annie Waite, Global Editor of the Internal Comms Hub, Melcrum

Having been a legal, all-Visa-ed up US resident for exactly 3 weeks now, I've been surprised by how minor the culture shock has been in the transition between Melcrum's UK office in London and our US office in sunny Chicago.

Perhaps it's because both the two cities are cosmopolitan and liberal (not to mention swarming with Irish-theme pubs and having fairly rubbish transport systems), but when I went to meet representatives from and members of the British-American Business Council last night, and from conversations with all the people I've had here so far, Chicago could just as easily be London, in many respects.

But if you've had somewhat different experiences with international relations and want to break down any cultural barriers affecting your company, try these tips for improved communication:

1. Understand different culture types and the interaction between them
Map out these factors and look for intersections between different groups. Target your communication efforts here, as these are the pressure points where culture clashes are likely to occur.

2. Plan communication centrally and deploy locally
When communicating across cultures, strategy should have a clear and common purpose, but not be tied to a single geographic location.

3. Invoke personal power
Strategy and process will take you so far, but if there’s ever been an area that requires communicators’ human discretion and energy, this is it.

4. Look at the big picture
Look beyond the template of a desired culture — it might not fit. Corporate culture isn’t the only influence in the organization, so work out what other forces are at work and how they interact.

5. Build an effective communication platform
Build a platform that draws on the skills and talents of all employees. This will help to build an effective, positive culture. People really are an asset!

6. Encourage a knowledge-sharing culture
Exchange of information is essential if the organization is to learn and move forward in a global, multi-cultural environment.

7. Leverage diversity
This approach facilitates cultural understanding and is a valuable differentiator in the global economy.

8. Adapt your website
List all subsidiary/overseas offices, with contact details and links to any local site (which should have at least some material in the native language). All sites should actively encourage feedback and provide facilities for this.

9. Do the universality test
Check all communication for items that don’t translate. Acronyms (for example, contact head office ASAP) don’t travel well and neither will many graphics, symbols or analogies based on so-called “familiar” concepts.

10. Encourage innovation and excellence
A positive culture is an effective one, so make sure incentives are in place for continuous improvement. Ensure there are mechanisms for capturing the sparks generated by cross-cultural communication.

(For more top tips like these, visit the Internal Comms Hub).

Comments

[Sona Hathi]

Good tips there Annie. If anyone in London is reading this and wants to learn more, the London Area Communicators group on The Communicators Network are meeting up on 23rd October to talk about cross cultural communication.

For more info see the link below...

http://www.communicatorsnetwork.com/?page_id=4&cat_id=63&thread_id=10&post_type=4&group_id=63

I'll be there!

Annie, how's your accent doing, I find that people tend to either fiercely hang on to their British accents or easily slip into an American twang??

[Annie Waite]

I guess my Melcrum colleagues here in the US would be the ones to figure that out, but so far I've been mistaken for being American and Australian, rather than English, so I guess my accent is a mish-mash!

I quite like the American 'lingo', so I might be veering that way, although I was told off the other day by my Dad for saying "I'm good" in response to "How are you?" because it isn't grammatically correct!!

[Audra Rothermel]

So far, I think Annie sounds the same as she always has, but I will update everyone if things change.

[Sona Hathi]

Oh no! I say "I'm good" in response to "How are you?" all the time! But I can't see why that's gramatically incorrect? Isn't it more of a cultural difference? Wouldn't any adjective be acceptable in response to "How are you?". I'm getting all linguistically analytical... Would you kindly ask your dad for me please Annie, this is the kind of stuff I lose sleep over.

[Annie Waite]

Wouldn't "I'm good" be a response to "What kind of person are you?"?! Can of worms...