The fairy tale of the multicultural team

Once there was a team of people from different parts of the world. The team lead would host the weekly update meeting. As so many things would have happened during the week, she would arrange for a long, detailed agenda that would span the entire hour. As the team members would drift in, she would await the moment everyone was ready, patiently but also agitated as the minutes ticked away. Some of the team members would be discussing their personal lives as they walked into the room, each with a piping hot beverage just released from the steaming coffee machine. Making eye contact is difficult when your team members are talking to each other and not looking at you. At some point, she would raise her voice and say “Shall we begin?” with an authoritative tone. This brought about a feeling of embarassment with some of the chatting team members, and some hilarity with the others.

One day, the team manager came home after a long day of trying to give all the urgent topics their due attention and welcoming others. She was so tired that she fell asleep on the sofa.

In her dream, her team members appeared. It was clearly a dream, because now she could find the time to talk to each of them.

“You may have guessed from my last name,” said one, “but I come from a culture where we value relations over work. After all, we are not on the earth to work but to be good human beings. Sharing in each other’s personal lives builds relations and trust and so we can work well together with each other.”

Another came by; “In our culture, philosophy is a daily part of life. I was wondering, is time important for you, or is it the results that count?”

This made the manager ponder over this dilemma, and she realised there are other perspectives to work that she hadn't noticed before.

Then a third one appeared in her imagination; "You are taking on a very important role. You are coordinating the team. The team consists of people that each have their own specialism. It's that specialism that creates the results. Where I am from, everyone occupies an equally important station. Managers are just that; specialists in their line of work. They are not put in higher regard and often use their skills to support the team, not the other way around."

This last observation baffled her. Had she been focussing so much on her own work, her own position, that everyone had to follow her like a lapdog? Surely that was not what she intended. But how would her behaviour have come across, if these people had different perspectives to life and work, status and work relations?

The next day, with these images still in her mind, she took the time to talk to each of the members. Sure enough, they came with insights about how one could approach the team and its goals in a refreshing way. Moreover, she understood why people had behaved so oddly before; it was odd only in her eyes. She began to feel a little more relaxed. The different perspectives gave her a clearer view. She decided to use this in her work.

In the next couple of weeks, she had more talks with the team members. This also helped them to understand her perspective and how the different perspectives did not have to conflict, they could add new insights to the shared tasks and hurdles. It wasn't just the work that improved, the relations improved and everyone began to feel a part of a unique team where everyone had a new added value to bring to the table.

And so, the team began to outperform other teams. First teams from the same organisation, later they also started to outperform the competition. The cornerstone of their success was the wide spectrum of insights it could use to tackle the next problem, the next objective. To celebrate this success, the team manager organised a weekly after hours get together, each time themed towards a different culture. People would learn about that new culture, learn to appreciate the team members who had been brought in that culture. With so many different cultures in the team, focussing on these differences actually brought a clearer feeling of belonging to all of the team members. Diversity had made the team tighter, and the results were there to show it.

And everyone lived happily ever after.

Of course, we don't live in fairy tales. Though this story shows us what a well functioning multi cultural team can deliver, this is not achieved through a dream. What it takes is clear insights in how to position oneself inside such a team so that the team can grow. If you would like to achieve this, feel free to get in touch about how this can be done.