Philip Merry

          I remember my first extended stay in another culture – that awful feeling of being an outsider, of seeming to be the only one who didn’t understand. It was in a small rural community in Sri Lanka. Most people had some English vocabulary, and so there was some potential for conversing, but the biggest difficulty was that there were a whole array of subtle cues and communication patterns - ways of connecting with the other person that I was not at all part of and which disturbed me not just at the intellectual level but at a deeper emotional level. I felt in fact “illiterate” and felt rather stupid and lost.

We have all been is situations like this where we felt illiterate, where there was a code of communication that everybody understood but us. We felt shut out, we felt somewhat at a loss not being able to see what was so obvious to everyone else. Language is obviously a factor which keeps us outside of a particular group, and that can be cured by learning the language; but it is the subtle signs of cultural illiteracy which are the most frustrating to deal with. Whilst this is uncomfortable at the social level at the business level it can have a deep impact on efficiency and a corresponding effect on profitability. We may be at a business meeting or at a cocktail party, travelling with a potential partner, making a presentation and we feel on the “outside”. We hear words that we know but we still cannot understand what is really being communicated between the others, or we cannot make ourselves understood.

I have lived in Asia for 14 years and worked as a consultant and trainer in 33 countries helping organisations understand the impact of culture on their business. During this time I have developed a model for enhancing cultural literacy, but before examining the model lets take a look at some of the issues driving the need to understand culture in today’s business world in Asia and indeed throughout the world.

It is my experience that many organisations doing business in Asia do not pay attention to the soft issues – people and culture. There is still a tendency to put cultural issues second after the business issues - manufacturing, finance, sales, etc. It is fast becoming recognised that the so called “soft” skills are everything to do with profit – in terms of whether or not you get the deal, or whether you are operating with maximum efficiency. We often shy away from talking about money – but it is the impact of lack of cultural understanding on the bottom line that is driving a lot of the interest in cultural understanding. It is, of course, important to establish a supportive inclusive environment where all talents can be respected and valued – but nothing talks louder that the link to money and profit. Cultural understanding makes good business sense, and my phone rings more and more these days from people who recognise this, and who want make sure that their staff have the right skills. I always try to make this message loud and clear – If you are not taking account of cultural issues – you are losing money.

What is not in dispute in today’s world is that our understanding of events around the world – in cultures far away from out own - is greater than it has ever been at any time in world history. This is certainly true from the general world perspective, - Internet and TV flash images to us and we can be in touch at the press of a button as never before. Want to connect with other people with similar interests? – just type in the defining word and suddenly you are connected to a global virtual community of like minds. To understand and communicate in the global marketplace one has to understand the values of those you are communicating with.

Companies realise that the way forward in the new economy is to build up networks and partnerships and develop the synergy that helps to promote both party’s interests. You cannot open any chapter without reading about a new merger, JV, take-over –call it what you will – the defining feature is the need to work efficiently and harmoniously with people who often see the world in a different way from you. This has been amply expounded in the excellent recent study of JV and Partnerships, Alliance Competence, 2000, Wiley and Sons Inc.

Many companies’ values and policies reflect the values of the head office national culture, and these are often in conflict with the national cultural values of the various countries in which the company operates. Much of my work comes from the need for head office to adapt their corporate policies to local values.

It is along time since I can remember working with a team which was mono- cultural.  There are an increasing number of people who are working for a majority of their time in cultures other than their own. When you are constantly operating with other cultures –selling, designing, marketing, putting together financial packages – if you are not culturally literate the consequence soon makes itself known.

What did we do before electronic communication? There are none of us who do not feel the benefit of being able to communicate so quickly – it does not seem so long since we were marvelling at the fact that it took only 10 seconds to fax across the world and now we communicate instantaneously! But what I have noticed is that there are an increasing number of cross cultural conflicts as a result of email. Issues that previously would have been dealt with sensitively in face to face situations are being dealt with a lot more directly electronically because it is easier to zap of a critical, angry reply. The ease of electronic has hi- lighted the need for more effective interpersonal and cross cultural skills, and the need to distinguish between when to and when not to communicate by email. In a recent session for the senior management team running a factory the head of manufacturing and head of marketing has a serious personality and cultural clash. As I listened to the argument about the exchange of angry emails I asked them how close their buildings were to each other. I was shocked to discover that their offices were next door to each other! When there is anger and upset it is always better to deal with the cultural issues face to face.

If you look at the management section of any bookshop in Asia 95% of the texts you see will come from the west – and most of them from the US. Whilst there are many great management theorists writing in the west let is not be blind to the fact that most of them are writing from a value perspective that cannot be applied indiscriminately in other cultures. A way to assess any new text is to look for the author’s willingness to acknowledge their own cultural roots and values in their writings. The way people are motivated, view leadership, solve problems, handle conflict, brainstorm, lead teams, or strategize looks different according to the cultural lens through which you look. If these are some of the issues indicating the importance of cultural literacy what is the model to help develop the skills?

Essentially cultural literacy is the ability to read and respond to the signs of the other in an appropriate way. Too often discussion about culture gets left out of management discussions because it is seen as a vague and nebulous area which is all about personal opinions and preferences rather than objective fact. There can be some truth in this view because management models can never explain away the mystery of being human, and we are often too quick to put people into boxes. Yet we still need to have a language to talk about this complex issue, and over many years of consulting and training in the multi- cultural arena I have developed a relatively simple model to aid understanding when working with this issue - maybe its because I have worked with a lot of engineers and they love models. My model draws heavily on the wisdom, advice and input of others, and hi-lights the need for four skills to develop cultural literacy:-

Finally when detecting cultural problems we need to have a clear understanding of the stages of development of multi-cultural relationships.

Cultural differences are experienced at this stage, and either or both sides may be upset with their first impressions of the behaviour and perceived attitude of the other. These opinions are however kept hidden from the other culture with both sides complaining about the illogical, disrespectful, rude, behaviour of the other side in private to their peers. Open sharing of difficulties with each other is avoided.

A crisis stimulates open discussion of the hidden cultural issues. Both sides insist that their view is the correct one, and a stalemate can often result with people blaming each other for the problems.

At this stage there is a healthy recognition that there are different views and values, and a willingness by both sides to work together. Both sides emerge from the infighting and try to establish rules, guidelines and improvement plans in order to work more effectively together. There is an acceptance of the different perceptions that each have about the issues, conflicts are worked out in a positive way and there is more co- operation. An outside facilitator or an enlightened manager/leader is often needed to help with this stage.

Respect for the views of the other is high and there is a willingness to understand the other’s point of view, and develop inclusive solutions. At this stage the team feels comfortable with each other; - there is a tolerance for each other’s strengths and weaknesses and an accepted way of doing things which has been tried and tested. The strengths of the different cultures are being used to the full and there is a feeling that they can really begin to achieve results.

In order to detect cultural problems it is important that there is a level of sharing of those problems, but it is often difficult for people to share issues, for a variety of reasons. What is crucial when detecting the issues is to recognise that people often push issues under the carpet, and they only come out when there is a crisis - which may be very damaging in many ways. So what is important is to help detect and deal with the problems before they do become too damaging. The Finns have a good phrase for helping understand the stages. Have you ever been eating at an outside restaurant and suddenly you feel something brushing against your leg. At first you look at the attractive person sitting next to you and think its your lucky night, but then you look down and it’s a cat. The Finns talk about “putting the cat on the table”. Leaders and facilitators need to be able to learn how to help “put the cat on the table”. I am often asked to work with groups who are stuck at level one – two camps have formed and they have underlying resentment towards each other which is not being expressed. Helping the groups to find ways of addressing the issues is vital.