How we've learned to communicate and cooperate effectively with multinational teams.

In this era of globalization, our markets, production lines, and competitors are not limited to Taiwan, but in addition to directly setting up factories or offices abroad, there exists cooperation with local teams within different countries. The communication and interaction between teams have become the key to whether a goal can be successfully achieved and can even boost the company's growth.

We learned the following lessons from working with multinational teams:

#1. About: Time zone management

If the members of the team are not within the same time zone, the first situation they have to face is time zone management. The team leader must be mindful of the time zones involved when formulating the time point of project assessment meetings. They must agree with local team members to use their own time zone or a more convenient time zone for another team member as a reference, and synchronize to ensure that tasks and meetings can be performed and completed on schedule. At the same time, you need to fully consider the reduction in work efficiency caused by team members’ working outside of working hours and include it in labor costs.

For example, when the team members come from both Taiwan and the United States, some members of the team meeting will inevitably need to participate in meetings before going to work in the morning, before going to bed at night, or even at midnight. In this case, it is unrealistic to expect them to show the same work efficiency, learning ability and reaction speed as during normal working hours. Therefore, in the formulation of meeting content and time, it is necessary to avoid long meetings, in which team members are unable to concentrate; avoid time-consuming, boring content, and situations where there is a lack of interaction between personnel, including certain training content.

Similarly, as the organizer, you will be responsible for the effectiveness of your meeting. If you need to raise important and urgent issues that will have a significant impact on the project, especially those that require team members to reach a consensus after a full discussion, insufficient discussion and communication could pose a risk. During the discussion, people may forget some important considerations and after the discussion, they may not fully understand or remember the final decision and specific objective of the team. Before a meeting, the discussion topics should be sent to the team members in advance, providing enough time and allowing team members to prepare fully. After the meeting, the major meeting resolutions and tasks should be listed in detail and sent to the participants for confirmation or archiving, etc. Such measures as these are necessary. If needed, you can also consider having a short post-meeting follow-up meeting with the team members in different time zones to discuss them further.

#2. About: Language management

English is the official language of the business world, but this does not completely relieve some of the misunderstandings that arise because of cultural differences.

• The accent

Some non-native speakers are sometimes difficult for participants to understand over the phone, so much so, they might as well be speaking in their own native language. Conversely, even in English-speaking countries, other English speakers from countries like Australia and the U.K., can sometimes face unexpected misunderstandings. So this also requires consideration.

First of all, as a team leader, it is very important to ensure your English pronunciation is standard, you have semantic and logical clarity, and fluent expression.

Then, for some situations where listening comprehension is difficult at the beginning, you may need to repeatedly clarify for understanding and familiarize yourself with the speaker’s pronunciation clues or cues. Before or after this, you should hold a separate meeting with him to confirm that he is on the same page as everyone else. Also, you need to make sure the other team members really understand what is being said.

If you are not sure about something, repeat it and ask for confirmation. As a team leader, you need more patience and tolerance in these situations. Avoid team members who do not cooperate due to negative emotions or feedback, but encourage those who may be reluctant to fully express their ideas even though they are ashamed of their speaking skills.

• The vocabulary

English at work cannot be as casual and ambiguous as it is in life. So try to be as specific as possible, especially when you need to give team members tasks. If you can’t explain something clearly, you may need to use accurate descriptions.

For professional situations in business environments, use professional terms specifically. Different industry fields also have their own professional terminology, which is essential for the team’s accurate understanding and these should be used skillfully.

For professional vocabulary words that don’t have a unified standard expression worldwide, the team should reach consensus and standardize.

• The logical thinking and language expression customs

The Chinese, for example, like to speak out all their concerns and then come to a conclusion afterward. This could be very difficult for some Westerners to understand. Some Asians usually do not give any negative opinions during a meeting, and sometimes say "yes" just to show that they understand. In addition, people from certain cultures, for example some Asians, may be very quiet in team meetings, and they may need repeated encouragement to speak, whereas some from other cultures are likely to give no constructive comments, but give passionate speeches which may just be them expressing their view without a clear yes or no answer. 

You need to consider how to get real ideas and opinions of all team members in real time, integrate them, discuss them, and reach an agreement. You can set up the basic principles of speaking with team members at the beginning, such as avoiding blame, making constructive suggestions, and listening to each other. Prepare the PPT for the meeting and reduce the time spent on information exchange; before the meeting, simply communicating with the team members to clarify the third party's real thoughts, etc. are all strategies that can be adopted. If conditions permit, you can also arrange for more face-to-face opportunities or use video conferencing.

#3. About: The formulation of a management model

The key factor in cooperation within the team is effective communication between people. Mutual trust and understanding, as well as the establishment of effective cooperation models, directly affect the effectiveness of team management and its own work efficiency.

Generally, at the beginning of the team formation, a kick-off meeting needs to be arranged to give the team members the opportunity to get to know each other, establish basic trust, discuss the cooperation mode, confirm the working method.

International teams generally operate by means of regular reports, periodic meetings, and daily email or mail communication. Under the direction of the team leader, the work plan and assessment method and time point will be worked out, and then the assessment will be discussed regularly according to the plan and implementation. For periodic risk assessment and responsibility sharing, it is best to set the method from the beginning. It is also very important to give positive feedback promptly when the staged results are achieved. For bad behavior, it is also very important to stop it immediately.

#4. About: Conflict management

If there is cooperation, there will be conflict. If team members are very clear about their goals and the expectations of the entire team, conflicts will be more about the way in which they work. At this time, adherence to the basic principles of mutual respect and avoidance of blame set at the beginning can play a key role. Within the project, conflicts should only be limited to the content of the work and not personal, which is also very important. When there is a problem with the project or when there is a conflict between the team members,the first time they should inform the team leader, that is, you. And you should try your best to help the team members reach a consensus.

It is also undeniable that after close cooperation for a period of time, some team members may develop feelings for other colleagues. But personal relationships will need to be effectively controlled in their private time, rather than during working hours. This not only protects the interests of the company, but also helps prevent the troubles caused by the changes in the team's dynamics.

Of course, this is a very simple situation. How to strengthen the trust and acceptance of people in the Western world to Asian culture and how to reduce the gaps and even conflicts caused by different levels of ideology and perception, is also what I hope to discuss further.

The solutions to some of the above problems are not necessarily the only, or the best, and in some cases you may come up with a more effective solution on your own.

Have you had a similar experience in the workplace? You are welcome to leave a message and share your ideas with me.