Situation 2

When working across different cultures it's critical that you understand the rules and cultural expectations of others.

If you don't, you can make mistakes. These mistakes can be harmless, or, they can also be very serious.

Working with people from different cultures has become more and more frequent for many of us and, as a result, more important.

Understanding 'culture' is essential because, otherwise, it's easy for people to underestimate the impact cultural differences can have. Underestimating culture is the point at which things can start to go wrong. 

Although it may be easy to learn facts and do’s and don’ts about different cultures, this is not necessarily being culturally aware.

Cultural awareness helps us reduce the chances of making bad decisions and increases the chance of us making more insightful, considered decisions.

An important learning point is that being culturally aware is not about compromising your own culture or sacrificing your values or identity for ‘another’s’.

It is simply about helping us understand how we can best adapt our approaches, thoughts and decisions to ensure we create positive outcomes in cross-cultural interactions.

It is about respecting others’ cultures as well as our own.

Situation 3 How to work across culture

My name is Mariya and I’m a HR specialist in an international company. And today, I’m here to provide all newcomers of our company with some tips called «How to work across culture». So, here you are and remember – working in an international team is very challenging, but rather exciting.

Tip 1: Study the variety of cultures. Become aware of cross-cultural etiquette standards.

It is very important to be aware of all existing cultures not only because it can broaden your horizons, but the more you know about other cultures, the easier it is to understand how your team members think, behave and communicate. It is also a comparison of the alien and your culture and it will help you to explore and understand your own one.

Tip 2: Take individuals into account

Remember that everyone has different expectations and characteristics, cultures aside.If you want to facilitate building rapport with your international collegues, should not attribute stereotypical characteristics of a country to each of its representatives. It is so because the behavior, the manner of communication and even the way of doing things depend not only on the cultural element, but also on background and personality type.

Tip 3: Take your time for everything

It is not only about doing your homework before starting a meeting, it is also about the speed of communication, decision-making process and processing the information. If you want get on with your international colleagues, appreciate the need for more time for them and you. They will appreciate it too.

Tip 5: Practice your communication skills

That's the most relevant rule, if you want to achieve good results, because it's in the doing that we actually get better at cross-cultural communication. Practice makes perfect.