PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.
subterranean homesick product manager #
every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to
tl;dr
Different cultures communicate with varying directness; context heavily influences interpretation and meaning
Leadership, trust, and decision-making styles differ widely across cultural backgrounds and must be adapted to the team
Bridging cultural divides requires empathy, flexibility, and awareness of one’s own cultural lens
hello
The central idea for my in-progress book is that there are three main groups of factors that all affect how well we work together:
what’s going on with us (our state of mind and sometimes body);
what’s going on with the other person; and
the contextual external factors that modify how each of us are perceived by the other.
We can come into conflict with others when our and their respective personal states are out of whack and we have insufficient capacity to bridge the gap. And on top of that, contextual factors will modify how we perceive each other. The (dys)functional norms of the workplace can make an otherwise innocuous interaction seem like a full-blown attack. You may have a sense of this contextual effect if you’ve ever interpreted a neutrally worded email very defensively when you or your department is already under pressure.
Erin Meyer’s book The Culture Map provides a careful and clear description of contextual factors we may not even be aware of: how cultures in different countries typically act, and how we can unwittingly come into conflict with each other because we’re not aware of these differing cultural norms.
Take for example the approach to decision-making. Meyer posed her seminar participants the question:
“In order for you to feel a meeting was a great success, which of the following should happen?
A. In a good meeting, a decision is made.
B. In a good meeting, various viewpoints are discussed and debated.
C. In a good meeting, a formal stamp is put on a decision that has been made before the meeting.”
She found that Americans would tend to answer A, French participants would answer B and those from countries such as China and Japan would tend to answer C.
While of course each individual has their own personal preferences, there is an underlying tendency for certain cultures to favour certain modes of working because it reflects their history and values. We each may not be aware we’re even doing it — it’s just how things were where we grew up.
The other interesting factor Meyer observes is that these differing cultural attributes are not absolutes, they’re relative to each other. Stereotypes ascribe absolutes. We Brits are renowned for our dual loves of discussing the weather and of queuing. Yet should we succeed in our petition to have queuing included in the next Olympics, we may find countries such as Sweden or Germany taking gold before us.
Meyer walks us through eight dimensions of these relative cultural differences: how we communicate, provide feedback, persuade, lead, decide, trust, disagree and perceive time and scheduling. She illustrates each with concise examples of the cultural difference in play and suggests ways to handle challenging multicultural situations more adeptly.
An approach that may well be familiar is to define explicitly up front the ‘rules’ by which a decision will be taken; another is for mixed teams to establish their own team charter, which is their personalised agreement for how they’re going to work together harmoniously and respectfully.
To return to my earlier point, Meyer doesn’t seek to pigeon-hole individuals by the culture(s) that shaped their upbringing. People can and do diverge from the norm. Introverts still exist in cultures known to be emotionally expressive and confrontational, likewise you can still find extroverts in comparatively buttoned-up cultures.
Nevertheless, understanding not just how other cultures tend to act and react in certain situations, but also why, can help us to understand why certain conflicts occur at work and better equip us to bridge the cultural divide. If you’re a product person working with teams based in different countries, I commend Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map to you.
Speak to you soon,
Jock
I’ve included some Amazon affiliate links this week meaning if you buy something I would receive a small commission.
what to think about this week
The Culture Map
Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It’s no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out.
[Erin Meyer]
Bestselling author Erin Meyer explains culture gaps and how to overcome them at work #
Erin Meyer, New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Map and No Rules Rules, and Professor of Management Practice at INSEAD, gave the audience a captivating tour of the cultural dimensions that distinguish international colleagues from one another. Using her Culture Map methodology and insights from upcoming research, she highlighted the differences that can get in the way of collaboration and connection, and looked forward to exciting applications of Language AI in helping to understand them, and use them more positively.
[VIDEO] Decoding cultural differences
[Erin Meyer / DeepL]
recent posts
Cloud computing for non-technical product managers
To understand how cloud computing works, we’re going to start with the basic building blocks and work our way up.
And why is it a cloud anyway? (All is revealed)
[I Manage Products]
Navigating your product management career
Ross Webb and I have been chatting about product management career progression.
We cover topics including:
» Thinking of visibility as a strategic competency, not self-promotion
» Controlling your narrative through regular updates
» Building cross-organisational relationships deliberately
» Mapping your stakeholders’ preferred communication styles
A roundtable chat on moving into product leadership
[I Manage Products]
New technology alone is not the answer
New technology is not going to suddenly make all the challenges facing an organisation disappear overnight. Why? Because more often than not, those challenges are social not technological. Technology alone rarely solves ‘people problems’.
AI is neither a panacea nor a magic bullet just as digital wasn’t for UK gov
[I Manage Products]
can we help you?
Product People is a product management services company. We can help you through consultancy, training and coaching. Just contact us if you need our help!
Helping people build better products, more successfully, since 2012.
PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from a quiet table in the corner of a coffee shop.