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The Benefits of Cross-Cultural Teams

In the workplace, people may often misunderstand each other due to cultural difference. In the fourth of our business series we look at how one organization teaches other companies the importance of understanding cultural differences.

Lionel Laroche has been teaching people how to understand one another for years.

But what makes his training different is culture. That's because Laroche teaches "cross cultural training." He helps employees understand and appreciate their differences, so they can get the job done.

"An important aspect of cross-cultural training is trying to break down barriers and trying to have everybody understand how the others think and work, how they communicate so that everyone is on a level playing field," says Laroche of Multicultural Business Solutions.

Breaking down barriers is important here in Canada because most workplaces are a rainbow of cultures. As Laroche points out, each culture has its own dictionary on what is appropriate behaviour and what is not. The concept of what it means to be a good team player varies from culture to culture. For example in the Chinese community, they are encouraged to concentrate on the specific responsibilities of their individual jobs.

"Being a good team player by Chinese standards goes directly against being a good team player by Canadian standards," Laroche says. He believes organizations have to be aware of this, so they can effectively manage their employees.

And that's exactly what Brian Faulkner, of Colt Engineering decided to do. Faulkner's firm has employees from all over the world, so he enrolled his management team in cross-cultural training.

Faulkner made the decision after he realized he might not be getting the most out of his employees, because of the different cultural rules in each home country. He explains, "If you're in a meeting with your supervisor there, maybe your cultural context says you don't say anything if you're supervisor is present. You don't want to seem to contradict them or challenge them."

Naren Sachdev is project services manager at Colt Engineering. He says cross cultural training has helped him manage his team better. "Things that may be very acceptable in one culture but may prove to be a bit of a taboo in other cultures. (And that) kind of awareness is brought to the front and helps to run a more smooth operation."

In fact, Faulker says the cross-cultural sensitivity training sessions worked so well that they are now talking about having all their staff in North America go through the program. He says that by creating awareness and understanding our differences, firms will be able to get the most out of their rainbow of employees. And he says, reducing misunderstandings between employees increases productivity.

"They will have completely different ideas and bring forward solutions which others would never have thought of in a million years."

For more information, pick up the March 29th issue of Canadian Business or visit the Minority Report section on OMNITV.ca.