Companies today look for different qualities in the people they hire. They set out to bring in people with different skills, different mindsets and different nationalities, which means workplaces with a great deal of cultural diversity. They are also increasingly working in a global direction, working for and with other markets and countries, which brings new challenges. Those things often weigh in the decision about who to hire.
Last July I took on the challenge of moving to Germany to work, and of course a number of questions and second thoughts came with it. I knew I would be far from the comfort I was used to, but the wish to know and to learn faster was stronger.
I wrote this article about the cultural differences that exist, and about how, in my view, they can be a barrier to communication, and so interfere with the work, or even have an emotional effect, personally and professionally.
I am Portuguese, and we have a habit of undervaluing our own country while putting every other one on a pedestal. Which is why it is perfectly acceptable to hear things like: “Portugal? Is that in Spain?” Portugal has been through economic crises that shook the country badly, but never made the Portuguese sad. We are a cheerful, humble people, always ready to help when help is needed, always open to the opportunities other countries offer, a country with an enormous history and, unfortunately, a population ageing fast. If a foreigner in Portugal asks a young person or an old one for directions to a restaurant or a museum, they will do anything to help, even if it takes drawing, pointing or dancing. 🙂
The Portuguese are humble people who work well and who commit, sometimes too much, in my opinion, which becomes harmful, because there is always someone who takes advantage of that goodwill. We are a people devoted to family and to friends, and the place to talk and to do business is around a table.
“The best education you will ever get is travelling. Nothing teaches you more than exploring the world and accumulating experiences.”
― Mark Patterson
Ever since I started my degree I have had the chance to take part in all sorts of experiences with people from different countries. My family used to joke that I was always travelling and never at home. In a way, that was true.
For me, travelling is one of the most enriching things a person can do, because it let me learn an enormous amount about other cultures. It became one of the best ways to learn and to grow.
One of the workshops I took part in had Norwegian, Polish, German and Portuguese students in the room. At the time I often got frustrated by various things, some people committed more than others, or we would discuss something and not everyone would take the same meaning from it. Now I understand why.
We Portuguese, when we explain something, tell the whole story; we give all the context. Germans, on the other hand, answer what was asked. If questions are put indirectly, the Portuguese will understand, the Germans, most of the time, will not.
When I moved to Germany I had a preconceived picture of Germans, built out of those earlier experiences, and in some way I think I held a stereotype of Germans measured against the Portuguese. Beyond the idea that the weather was permanently grey (confirmed), and that Germany sat in the middle of Europe and was financially stable, I thought Germans were more serious people, less warm, with some difficulty in relating to others, with a “typically German” sense of humour and a high degree of assertiveness, but at the same time a little unyielding about accepting other opinions. And finally I had the idea that German society was male-dominated, with women holding less power and being undervalued more easily at work. Even so, I took it to be a society that put a great deal of effort into its work.
Why compare Germans and Portuguese? The answer is simple. First, because it is my context and my environment these days. And second, because one of them is what we call high context and the other low context.
These are the terms for comparing countries in how they communicate:
- High context is communication that is sophisticated in its contextualisation, where the message is almost always implicit. Understanding gets drawn out of the conversation, or read between the lines. These are generally the countries with more relationship-oriented cultures.
- Low context means simple, precise, clear conversation, where repetition is appreciated as a way of clarifying things, where anything is possible and time is money.
One thing that helps make sense of the split is, to some degree, the history of the countries. The ones held to be high context tend to be those with a longer history, where context and story are passed from generation to generation, while low-context countries are more individualist and more “recent”.
The way we communicate inside our own country works because we all have the same grounding, but it may not work with other countries if we cannot tell what kind of communication they have. So everything is relative, and the best way to communicate well is to understand the position of the country you are comparing yourself with, since no country holds an absolute position, only a relative one. For example:
- Portugal vs Germany = high context vs low context
- Portugal vs France = both are high context, but compared with each other Portugal is lower context than France
- Germany vs the USA = high context vs low context
The largest communication problems usually happen between two countries both considered high context (Portugal and China, say), because for all that, the cultures are very different. The Portuguese are emotional and expressive and will sometimes confront each other to get information; the Chinese avoid confrontation and are not as expressive. Which means that beyond the high and low context split, we have to work out which countries are more and less emotional, and which welcome confrontation and which avoid it.
Obviously, for communication inside a team to work, identifying those differences is not enough: everyone involved has to want to learn more about the culture, and to be flexible enough to adapt quickly to different situations.
Knowing how to work with people from other cultures is a vital skill from a business point of view these days. And beyond culture, other things shape how we communicate across cultures: personality, ways of working, motivations, a sense of time, personal organisation, methods, and so on. So the points I would say matter for communicating well inside a team, intercultural or not, are:
- Put pride aside; be flexible and honest;
- Trust, and leave room for different personalities and ways of working to benefit the team;
- Set rules for feedback, so there is always room to give and receive it constructively;
- Always share personal goals and expectations, so the whole team is on the same page about commitment and effort.
All of that will help you communicate more openly.
