4 ways to embrace cross-cultural difference on your team
TRANSCRIPT
DIFFERENCES ON YOUR TEAM
4 WAYS TO
EMBRACE CROSS CULTURAL
The world we live in isbecoming increasingly
diverse with each day, fromour schools to our
workplaces, government andon TV.
If you’re reading this whilesitting in a busy office,
chances are your colleaguescome from a variety of
different cultures.
When exposed to the samesituation, people of different
cultures might react indifferent ways. Embracingcross-cultural differencescan help to avoid or limitmisunderstandings and
miscommunication.
Here are 4 waysto embrace
cross-culturaldifferences on
your team
1. Identifycultural diversity
If you don’t know how diverse yourteam are, you won’t be able to cater
to their needs or make culturallysensitive decisions surrounding
things like team building efforts andoffice rules.
2. Ask Questions
If you don’t ask, you won’t know. One
of the best and easiest ways to find
out more about the cultural
differences of the people in your team
is to ask them questions such as:
Which festivals are you observing
this year?
How many public holidays do they
observe in your country?
How many languages do they
speak in your country?
What’s your national dish?
Who are your neighbouring
countries?
3. Allow fordifferences
People learn, lead andinteract in different
ways
Some cultures aremore vocal and bold
While others are morepassive
4. Learn fromone another
The great thing aboutdiverse teams is that
there is so muchopportunity to learn from
one another.
With diversity comesdifference of opinions,
thoughts and ideas.
A diverse team can offer avariety of viewpoints and awider range of experience,which improves decision-
making and problem-solving.
Cross Culturallearning in action
Qingdao in China, is one ofthe 14 cities the ClipperRace passes through.
720 crew members with 44 nationalitiesare being represented in this year’s race,
and each and every one of them have hadto learn to embrace and understand the
different cultures on board.
A task that can be quitechallenging at
times, especially when you’rein the middle of the ocean,tackling Mother Nature's
toughest conditions!
To tackle this challenge, Clipper Race crewand Skippers were invited to a local primary
school as part of Qingdao’s cultural exchangeprogramme. The programme included lessons
in martial arts, Chinese calligraphy andorigami.
The Clipper race used the stopoveras an opportunity to learn about aculture many of the participantsdidn’t know a great deal about.
During the visit, Clipper Race crewand Skippers also learnt about
Chinese gift giving traditions, musicand dancing, and were able to see
first-hand how people in thecommunity live and work
The Clipper Race will be headingto Seattle in the United States
next, a world very different fromAsia, and an additional
opportunity for participants tolearn about another culture.
Connect with us onLinkedIn to discover whatwe’ll be getting up to as
the Clipper Race conquersthe mighty pacific.