Communication with people from different countries, with different cultures, habits, and lifestyles, is a typical situation even in a small company. This article gives some advice on maintaining good relations inside the team and keeping the internal processes going smoothly.

Acceptance

It is the first thing that every team member has to be ready to. People from different countries and cultures always have some differences, which may cause multiple issues. While some of these issues may be minor or just irritating, others may have a critical impact on the results. Team members have to be ready to accept these differences and deal with them as well as possible.

Some team members may not be ready to accept these differences and deal with related issues. Somebody has to remind them that their behavior and habits may cause problems for other colleagues who are unfamiliar with their culture. Both sides have to be ready to discuss these differences and issues and find a solution suitable for everyone. In most cases, both parties have to change their internal processes to communicate and interact on a proper level.

Traditions And Culture

Team members may initiate the acceptance process by learning the country's and region's traditions and culture of other team members. Learning history, watching documentary movies, and following discussions may help establish common interests and areas of contact.

It is also good to know why some colleagues behave and react to problems differently. Team members can find answers to some of the raised questions in history books. However, there are maybe some cultural areas not covered there. In such a case, it is good to find some cooperative person with excellent soft skills and ask him why he is doing things differently. Received answers may not be entirely logical and may surprise some team members, but this is a significant first step in building good communication inside the team.

Look For Yourself

However, the most effective way to persuade a person to change his mind and his attitude towards other team members is to send him to work on-site with them in their country or region. Seeing the internal structure and all the processes can help a lot in understating and accepting the differences between the team members.

This approach can work both ways — a team member can also invite his colleagues to work together at his location. So, other team members will see how exactly he is doing his work and making decisions.

Finally, the most crucial aspect of all these movements is experience sharing. Every person who traveled and saw the work in another county or region has to share his experience and impressions with everybody else. It will help not only this specific person change his opinion, but also show everybody else how people work on the other side. As a consequence, both parties can raise their communication level and together achieve better results.