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How International Teams Communicate

What are the most challenging aspects of working with your international colleagues?


  • Total voters
    4

dwatson

New member
What cultural communication challenges do your teams face when they work together?

Your feedback would be appreciated.
 
What cultural communication challenges do your teams face when they work together?

Your feedback would be appreciated.
Over the past two years, one of the things that I've come to appreciate is the ability to sketch out some ideas on a whiteboard with peers in a conference room. Speed/fluidity of information sharing has been more challenging when this dynamic has now moved towards generating powerpoint presentations and holding VC sessions. Collaboration tools exist, but IMO not as beneficial since my drawing skills with a mouse are nowhere near as fast as with a marker (even if the resulting image is more legible).

Extending that to international teams, more content needs to be prepared in advance to allow for this information exchange, as all parties are remote, and potential language barriers may crop up. I have found recently I need to review my material for shorthand notations and acronyms and adjust these for an audience that is non-US/English centered. Simple notation of I$/D$ in a diagram or spreadsheet gets confused with audiences that don't equate "$" (USD currency) --> "Cash" (US colloquialism) --> "Cache" (homonym). But I appreciate immensely when my coworkers let me know that they don't understand, otherwise I wouldn't know what or how to change.
 
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In my opinion the pandemic has helped international team communication. But for me it has always been a leadership issue. Meetings must be managed for peak productivity. Here is a recent article on meeting effectiveness which I agree with 100%:

 
Over the past two years, one of the things that I've come to appreciate is the ability to sketch out some ideas on a whiteboard with peers in a conference room. Speed/fluidity of information sharing has been more challenging when this dynamic has now moved towards generating powerpoint presentations and holding VC sessions. Collaboration tools exist, but IMO not as beneficial since my drawing skills with a mouse are nowhere near as fast as with a marker (even if the resulting image is more legible).

Extending that to international teams, more content needs to be prepared in advance to allow for this information exchange, as all parties are remote, and potential language barriers may crop up. I have found recently I need to review my material for shorthand notations and acronyms and adjust these for an audience that is non-US/English centered. Simple notation of I$/D$ in a diagram or spreadsheet gets confused with audiences that don't equate "$" (USD currency) --> "Cash" (US colloquialism) --> "Cache" (homonym). But I appreciate immensely when my coworkers let me know that they don't understand, otherwise I wouldn't know what or how to change.
Mgoldsmith 1979, your response was extremely helpful. Thank you!
 
In my opinion the pandemic has helped international team communication. But for me it has always been a leadership issue. Meetings must be managed for peak productivity. Here is a recent article on meeting effectiveness which I agree with 100%:

Daniel, effective communication always begins with leadership, doesn't it? Thanks for your response.
 
In my opinion the pandemic has helped international team communication. But for me it has always been a leadership issue. Meetings must be managed for peak productivity. Here is a recent article on meeting effectiveness which I agree with 100%:

I will check out this article. Tks, Daniel. Three is always the magic number in communication.
 
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