You're collaborating with a diverse global gaming team. How can you bridge the gap in communication styles?

First of all, understanding that were all the same, but different. Then communicating with respect in 1 language and a lot of patience. Diversity brings a lot of creativity to the table as different languages are also different cultures.

With over 8 billion people on Earth, each person brings a unique story and background, shaped by diverse religions, ethnicities, and experiences. Embracing this diversity of perspectives is not only valuable but essential for growth. It presents an opportunity to learn and evolve, gaining new skills and insights. Mutual respect is key, especially in global teams where effective communication across cultures fosters greater success and innovation.

Be careful with stereotypes and judgments both yours and of your teammates. Never let them overtake the thinking process. But still invest enough time be aware of all cultural differences. Netflix has done a great research on how people from different countries work and behave and difference are huge. There are also tons of Wikipedia’s pages about differences between European countries, Asian countries, Americas, Africa and etc. Use this as an opportunity to learn more about your colleagues and do a proper team building and bonding exercise. Try multiple warmups and icebreakers on your meetings to talk about different local foods, traditions, holidays and etc.

Establishing clear communication protocols helps manage differences in time zones, cultural norms, and language barriers. Define preferred channels for different types of communication, such as email for formal updates and chat platforms for quick questions. Setting standards includes creating guidelines for response times, meeting schedules, and documentation practices. Encourage the use of inclusive language and provide tools for translation if needed. This helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures that all team members, regardless of their background, feel heard and valued. Clear standards facilitate smoother collaboration, support productivity, and contribute to the successful completion of projects.

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored our ability to communicate globally with ease. Advanced software tools enable seamless connections worldwide through messaging and video conferencing, which are ideal for effective collaboration. However, respecting different time zones is crucial to honoring others' privacy when they are offline. Planning ahead ensures these interactions do not disrupt your daily schedule.

Documentation is key to working across timezones and cultures. The written word is too often relegated to chats and emails that are private and after a certain amount of time become unsearchable. Use tools like Notion or Loop to manage databases and meeting notes. Use Confluence and SharePoint to manage deliverables and team docs. Use the Comment sections on Jira, Trello, and other work flow management tools to keep everyone involved up to date. These are simple changes in behavior that make gigantic impacts on the day to day experience of everyone on the team; especially your stakeholders who just want a status update!

Respecting time zones can be difficult, especially when individuals have Teams / Slack or similar communication tools on their phones - ensure you are clear with your teams that you respect their core hours, and while the times where you respond to messages or emails may be suitable for you, it should absolutely be important to your recipients to respond at a time that is suitable to them, meaning ideally in their work hours. If you can, schedule messages so that they arrive at a time that would be in their respective time zones. This may not always be possible - especially when you have teams from multiple timezones in the same chat or email thread - but making the effort will ensure you are doing your best to being respectful.