Chapter 13

Advancing in the 21st Century: “Who and How” in the “New and Now”

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

—Marie Curie¹

Mission Statement

When the ladder changes to footholds and the wall looks like a mountain…

My older sister, Rodney (she was supposed to have been a boy), has spent the past 22 years with her husband teaching at international schools, first in Thailand and as I referenced earlier, more recently in China. As an educator and savvy editor I asked her to take a look at Your Ultimate Success Plan. She thumbed through the Contents and announced there were two big “misses”: “Where are your chapters on cultural differentiation and what about social media? You know they are shaping how we effectively communicate in the new millennium.” As a result of living abroad, my sister has developed an unusually keen perspective on dealing with people from different backgrounds and cultures.

Her work requires that she stay constantly abreast of the latest trends in education, and, because she lives on the other side of the globe, her best means is through electronic and social media. While writing this book, Rod informed me that no personal success plan could be complete without considering how small the world has become and how we cannot operate in cultural silos like we did when we were growing up. “How we communicate and to whom we communicate is all different now,” she lectured her sister, the communications expert. “You live in the bucolic setting of Princeton, N.J., but even here, via the University, the international presence and its effect on the town is incredible. And with all of the new social and digital media platforms, the need for heightened sensitivities around how and what we relate to people becomes more and more significant.” She concluded with, “Homogeneity is so 20th century!” She is so right!

Whether you’re just entering the workforce, a middle manager, or highly placed executive, a keen understanding of ethnocentrism and cultural differences that define so many of us around the world as well as the relatively new channels of communication and outreach available to us, is imperative.

This really hit home during a recent client visit. My company supplies communication strategy services to many business partners. I’ve been with some of these clients for decades. When I drive to their main office sites and park my car, I feel like family. You know how it is: You’re so familiar with the surroundings you don’t even look around anymore; you just go about your business. Recently, I had to attend a series of meetings at a particularly tenured client’s offices and I had an epiphany of sorts. I arrived early and planted myself outside the conference room in an area near the elevators. With no cell or Internet service, I had the rare opportunity to just sit, look, and listen—and what I noticed surprised me. My “family” had changed. Listening to my “children” walking by me and their animated conversations, it was clear that many of them spoke English as a second language. When I queried someone from human resources later in the day, he informed me that more than 60 percent of the company’s associates were from outside the United States, and their countries of origin spanned the globe, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. When did this happen, I wondered? I had been working with the client for many years and all of a sudden I realized how heterogeneous and multinational their workforce had become.

This got me thinking. Each time I went on-site to a different client’s office, I tried to find out the same thing: Where did their current employees come from? What I discovered was fascinating. The percentage of foreign-born associates ranged from a low of 35 percent to a high of 65 percent. The rise in nationality-based employee resource groups (e.g. Latin Americans, Asians, and African-Americans) has been tremendous across all industries. In addition, I do not have one client who only does business in the United States. Not only are their partners and customers located internationally, but most of them have offices overseas (or are based in other countries). When I spoke about the trend, no one seemed surprised or phased by it. “That’s the way most business are these days” was the general response.

With that realization also came the recognition that doing business cross-culturally (both internally and externally) requires a whole new series of skill sets. Dealing with the many legal and municipal differences is challenging, but more important is the ability to maximize opportunities cross-culturally, sometimes spanning many cultures at the same time within your office group or theirs.

I was informed that from a marketing perspective, targeting specific populations was no longer done through traditional channels (television and print) but through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and so on). Not really new news, but further discussion around the ubiquitous use of these platforms did reinforce the notion that we communicate immediately with a virtually limitless audience whenever we go the digital route. While speed and audience size are an advantage, it also has the potential for permanent and wide-ranging disadvantages. Witness the private e-mails of Sony executives that ended up not being private at all! “Handle with care” needs to be the modern-day mantra, especially when business people use social media for “social” purposes. And although I’ve discussed face-to-face interactions in great detail, in business, most exchanges are done either via telecoms, video-conferences, WebEx’s, webinars, or social media platforms.

A primer on developing your personal success plan would be incomplete without a brief discussion on how, in this century, the rapid changes in the way we interact (via social media and electronic/digital channels) and with whom we interact (regularly, with people from around the world) require strategic thought. Whether dealing with your peers at a meeting, “managing up” with your boss, or dealing with external partners, no one can assume that whomever you are dealing with has a similar perspective to yours.

Live, via phone, WebEx, or social media, today’s business associates must be flexible at handling and motivating individuals who come from a wide variety of cultures. The ability to listen is a key attribute, and being able to determine the variety of voices in order to understand what people are really saying is crucial. A cultural blunder could easily undermine an important conversation, relationship, or partnership, sinking the meeting and derailing the deal.

A very good friend of mine, Carol, rose through a series of successful positions in the biotech industry and eventually ran the U.S. division of a multi-national company based in Japan. The Japanese ownership was extremely hands-on and had a distinct way of running things. I advised her that it would be extremely beneficial to develop a deep understanding of the Japanese culture, especially when it came to business dealings. Complicating things was the presence of her U.S. boss, an ambitious, smart executive who brought her in when the company was expanding to basically pick her brain. He was sharply tuned into the Japanese culture and used it to his advantage. Long story short, things got a bit dicey regarding some business practices and Carol tried to do an end-run around her boss with the Japanese who, of course, neither appreciated her perceived lack of loyalty nor really believed her story over her alpha male boss. While completely blameless regarding the questionable practices, my friend was walked out the door following a strategic meeting between her boss and his Japanese superiors. He was a master cross-cultural manipulator while my friend was merely “right.” In this case, “right didn’t lead to might,” and Carol lost big time. Had she had less contempt for her Asian bosses and a more strategic way of handling her own boss, she could have survived the situation. A hard lesson was learned.

Hierarchal relationships vary greatly between cultures, which Carol did not totally embrace. Guido Gianasso, vice president for human capital with the International Air Transport Association, “points out that Chinese, Indian and most other Asian cultures are extremely collectivistic, with relationships governed by high ‘power distance’—a sharp awareness of differences in status.”² He continues, “However, most international companies have their roots in the western European/North American cultures, which tend to be more individualistic with lower ‘power distance.’” Although as Westerners we tend to be more egalitarian in our approach, we must continually recognize that many cultures aren’t (thus our continued difficulties dealing with such countries as Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan). This is also exacerbated by what many of us exhibit as cultural arrogance and a feeling of superiority (“You’re in our country now and we always know best!”). In addition, change is difficult for most people and the shock that sets in when we must make a transition through new cultural awareness (“What do you mean we have to have dinner first before we discuss business?”).

We are famous (or infamous) for our insatiable thirst for market research. The data we yield from such initiatives has become a panacea for marketing decision-makers (“Well, the survey said this, so it must be so!”). I, therefore, find it incredible (and occasionally funny) that well-intentioned, seemingly well-informed companies make huge blunders when it comes to cross-cultural endeavors. The following are a few examples.

A contrite group of U.S. executives was chagrined when they realized that the name of a vegetable oil being marketed in Latin America, when translated from English into Spanish, was “Jackass Oil.”

A prominent U.S. auto manufacturer tried to sell its new muscle car, the Matador, with images of courage and strength. The problem was that in Puerto Rico, “Matador” is equated to being a killer, and so it was no wonder that potential buyers were deterred from using it on the notoriously difficult roads on the island.

A telephone utility in the United States launched an advertising campaign targeting the Latino market with a commercial featuring a Latino woman demanding that her husband call their friends explaining that they will be late for a dinner engagement. The ad was a flop because Latino women generally do not make such demands of their husbands, and a call about being late for dinner would not be made.

A fragrance company used the same picture (a warm-hearted scene with a dog and his master) for Western countries as well as Islamic countries. It did not do well in the Islamic world, as dogs are felt to be unclean there.

A huge consumer products company broadcast a commercial in several Asian counties, including Japan, which proved to sell well in Europe. It featured a woman in a bath with a man (presumably her husband) coming into the bathroom and caressing her. Unfortunately, in Japan, this was felt to be in very bad taste, as the Japanese feel that such an action would be considered a privacy invasion and inappropriate.

While in Saudi Arabia, an American businessman turned down the hospitality of a cup of coffee from a Saudi-Arabian colleague. This was considered incredibly rude and effectively halted all business negotiations thereafter.

My own example:

During a performance evaluation, a Japanese executive with an American company was required to give critical feedback to an employee. Traditionally, Japanese find it rude to deliver direct, to-the-point criticism, and this was causing a severe comprehension problem. I was asked to help him with his “leadership style.” I explained that he was working within his cultural norms and then explained to him that he had to adapt and work within ours, or at least move closer. The executive took many attempts before he could muster enough directness to talk about the sub-par performance to his American subordinate and be clearly understood.

What do all these anecdotes have in common? A little bit of human research and sensitivity would have gone a long way toward eliminating the negative fallout from each of these incidents. The lesson is: your way is not their way. How you interpret things may not be their way of perceiving things. When working across cultures (and genders, by the way), you can never forget this. Our trademarked Role of Receivership really applies in these instances!

The concept of “Power Distance” (PD) comes into play, especially in a multicultural business environment.

What PD measures is the particular equality/inequality between members of a society. Any nation with a high PD score not only accepts, but also maintains the inequalities that are perceived between members of the society. The caste system in India is a perfect example of what would constitute a country’s high PD score. Conversely, a lower score on the PD scale would indicate that the society is not focused on differences between its members’ wealth or power. A more egalitarian attitude is common as is upward mobility.

Guido Gianasso observed that it is common for junior members of a team “…from low-power-distance cultures…U.S. or U.K., to throw out ideas and volunteer” for assignments. By comparison, “junior Chinese… were extremely cautious…before daring to intervene” until senior team members had presented their ideas first.³ Rather than impose a particular culture on a group, in order to nurture a successful multicultural organization, it’s better to be a cross-cultural bridge spanner, usually championed by bicultural employees who have lived in several cultures and are more sensitive to cross-cultural environments. Seek them out and bring them in. Everyone needs a modern-day Sacagawea (the famous scout and interpreter for the Lewis and Clarke expedition).

Geert Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist, is well known for his pioneering research of cross-cultural groups and organizations. He devised the four dimensions of cultural theory that help us identify and deal (or not deal) with inter-cultural differences.⁴ In addition to Power Distance, they also include Individualism (the degree to which a culture reinforces the rights of individuals versus a more collectivist culture; does everyone’s opinion need to be considered or can we drive action with consensus?), Uncertainty Avoidance (the degree to which a culture tolerates change, ambiguity, and experimentation; how conservative/risk-taking can our actions be?), and Masculinity (how specific groups emphasize [or don’t emphasize] the established masculine stereotypes regarding work, achievement, power; are women and men regarded more or less as peers?). Examination of how specific cultures actualize these dimensions not only elevates cultural awareness, it can also help maximize the contributions of individual members regardless of where they come from, with your recognition and encouragement.

As I mentioned earlier, cultural differences are gender-based as well. Issues between men and women are as old as time. For example, the number of women in the workplace is beginning to exceed the number of men. In terms of compensation, power, and ownership, however, the business world (and the professions) are still male dominated. Although I have no intention of getting into a lengthy discussion on the need for parity between men and women to drive better outcomes, certainly there needs to be sensitivity around the differences between the genders and how we can get the most from people within a culture’s context toward the roles of men and women.

Every society has varying attitudes toward how men and women should/do function. Although men and women can often perform the same duties (from a technical standpoint) each gender responds differently to specific situations as they carry out their responsibilities. Our tolerance and embrace of these differences goes a long way toward maximizing someone’s performance. If you think about it, the level of reactions experienced by people exposed to a variety of cultures can be compared similarly to the levels of reactions toward gender behaviors of the opposite sex. Cross-culture awareness must include cross-gender awareness. Patricia Heim, PhD, author of the best-seller, Hardball for Women, cites the following when describing male and female workplace behavior: “For men, wielding power is natural, desirable and masculine…whereas for women, it’s important to keep power dead even.” She maintains that the different genders approach success from different ends of the spectrum. Translation: Cross-culture awareness must include cross-gender awareness!⁵

According to a seminal Catalyst Study, gender stereotyping still exists. The majority of very senior U.S. business managers still find women leaders in their organizations exhibiting “caretaker” behaviors, such as supporting others and rewarding subordinates.⁶ Conversely, they perceive male leaders to be more effective at “take-charge” behaviors, such as delegating and problem-solving. In a separate study entitled “Different Cultures, Similar Perceptions” the Catalyst think tank maintains the same stereotyping exists in major countries around the world, citing Anglo-Germanic, Latin, and Nordic cultures holding the same views.⁷ Your mission: Be aware and try to repair. Although stereotyping is time efficient (that whole snap judgment phenomenon), in the end it makes you look small and very often wrong. Climbing your success ladder starts with bending the curve!

One of the major facilitators of cross-cultural awareness, especially among countries, has been the evolution of the slavish use of social media. What was originally intended as a tool for bringing people together for social purposes has turned into a huge engine that contains more and more business content.

Rebecca Sawyer, from the University of Rhode Island’s honors program in communications, notes that, “New social media have become increasingly popular components of our everyday lives in today’s globalizing society. They provide a context where people across the world can communicate, exchange messages, share knowledge, and interact with each other regardless of the distance that separates them.”⁸

For your personal success plan (to truly be successful) it’s critical to understand that social media is becoming a major element of most business’s marketing outreach—targeting specific audiences and populations. It is no longer perceived as a “platform du jour.”

Where you could once attract and promote with a traditional website, think future—replaced and eclipsed by mastering the tools social media offers. For example, the interactive nature of Twitter allows companies to engage in robust discussions directly with a targeted customer base, which is much more powerful than traditional direct-to-consumer advertising.

Knowledge is the stepping-stone to success, so as you make your upward climb, keep these statistics in mind, courtesy of a recent edition of the Social Media Marketing Industry Report: (a) almost every business that has a marketing department uses social media as an integral element of their marketing plan; b) half of the critical demographic, people ages 20 to 29 spend at least 10 or more hours per week perusing social media sites; c) 90 percent of those businesses who use social media as part of their marketing plan experienced an increase in their marketing reach; and d) 65 percent of businesses that have used social media as part of their marketing strategy for a three-year-period have reported greater earnings for that period of time.⁹

If you want to be recognized, rewarded, and promoted, being a social media maven is a sure way to do it. In order to assume this mantle and build an effective social media marketing platform, you must understand the basic as well as subtle characteristics of your organization. For example, consider the size of the company. A bigger organization is going to have attributes and needs that will demand a totally different social media plan than a smaller one. Focus on what will work for your particular business. A bigger company will need to reach out to a larger target to get national recognition for their products and services. A smaller, local-based business can use social media to establish a customer base with a more personal approach. A product or service that is aimed at individual customers can be sold via social media as contemporary and “hip.” Basically, your company, regardless of size, can leverage its points of differentiation with a social media platform.

One of my long-term clients is a pioneer in the use of digital marketing/social media to engage with specific niche customer populations—people whom they would never have been able to reach with traditional channels. Their programs have won awards and have directly increased their market share. However, it took a while to get the initiative going because of the various internal regulatory and compliance hurdles it had to pass before going live.

A few things to be aware of:

Social media enables the spread of unreliable or false information.

Social media sites do not have controls in place to prevent intrusions (private, corporate, government, or otherwise).

Use of social media can potentially harm job prospects (most job recruiters thoroughly search the internet/social media sites) when determining qualifications for job candidates).

Social networking sites’ advertising policies often constitute an evasion of privacy (don’t you love those pop-ups?).

Social media posts cannot be completely deleted and can have unexpected/unintended consequences.

Social networking sites are vulnerable to security attacks including identity theft.

Despite the issues listed, social networking is here to stay, and right now the pros exceed the cons for most of us. And in business, if you haven’t already jumped on the Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Google/Instagram bandwagon, you will. So, a word of caution: If you want to post something personally, the criteria I use is that if it’s not fit or appropriate for your mother to read, don’t post it! In business, if you don’t have a group that oversees social media, then ask a colleague before you post. If you’re a solo practitioner, consult a marketing or PR professional. Never forget that once something is sent out digitally, no matter what “they” tell you, it’s out there forever and cannot be recalled.

In truth, regardless of the medium, it’s very difficult to recall things that we say. This chapter would not be complete without some awareness and tips around other forms of virtual communication (telecoms, Skype, webinars/WebEx, video conferences). More and more, face-to-face exchanges are being deemed too inefficient, too time-consuming, and too expensive. Meetings, conversations, and presentations are being conducted through virtual channels. Telephone conferences, video conferences, webinars, Skype, and WebExes have become central to our professional and personal communications. We prize them for their economy (much cheaper than live interactions), efficiency (unlimited participation, facility-free), and ease (advanced hardware and software are user friendly and effective). What we don’t do is measure their actual productivity. Studies have overwhelmingly demonstrated that quality retention and execution of next steps dramatically decline when comparing virtual to live communications. But virtual is here to stay, and probably increase, so attention must be paid. And there are specific strategies that will allow you to maximize output and meeting results even when conducted over the telephone, web, or cyberspace.

Whenever I plan a meeting or presentation, live or virtual, the questions I always ask myself are “What do they have to leave with that they didn’t have coming in” and “Why should they care?” When I answer that question, I am able to come up with a simple agenda. With studies demonstrating that we retain less than 10 percent of what we hear, I find it puzzling that managers are still conducting extensive telecoms or webinars with complex agendas and actually expecting participants to remember and take action on every point discussed. I know several top companies that conduct annual sales meetings over the web lasting six hours! Less expensive? Yes! Productive? I don’t think so.

Whether you’re conducting a telecom or webinar, know that after about 45 minutes, there’s a significant drop in attention, retention, and participation. I strongly suggest that no virtual meeting go on for more than an hour. An over-ambitious agenda does not make the meeting more productive; it merely creates more potential points of failure to generate pull-through.

Sometimes a longer meeting can’t be avoided, so here’s a tip. Whether it’s an hour or more, it’s imperative that every 10 minutes or so, you insert what I call an internal summary. This will allow you to “chapter” the previous chunk of the meeting and bring people who have disconnected up to speed. It also allows you to repeat key points, which drives greater retention. It goes something like this: “So we’ve covered A, B, and C, which leads us to D.” If you’re conducting the meeting over the web with slides, I suggest you insert blank or logo slides with no real content during these summaries, so the focus is on the narration without the distraction of a visual. These internal summaries will go a long way to making sure the meeting’s desired outcomes are met.

Facilitate, Facilitate, Facilitate…

When conducting a telephone conference, there are certain rules of the road that will help drive retention as well as action and desired outcomes.

1. Make sure that you announce to everyone who is on the line (and live with you), so we know who is participating.

2. Announce to everyone on the phone what the overall goal of the telecom is so people can guide their comments and contributions toward that desired outcome and avoid extraneous input.

3. Do not allow more than one conversation to take place at the same time. Sidebars are extremely disconcerting during telecoms, especially to those who have phoned in and can’t hear what’s being said.

4. Each time someone speaks, insist that they identify themselves. It’s important to know who is saying what and, over the phone, voices are easily confused.

5. Have a hard copy of the telecom attendance list. Every time a participant makes a comment, a tick should be placed next to their name. Eventually, you will have a list with some names having many tick marks and some having little or none. It’s a good bet that the ones who have a small number or no marks next to their name have either disengaged or are in disagreement with what’s being discussed. Either way, you need to facilitate their involvement. If they’re disengaged, they are not going to take action on what needs to be done, and if they disagree with what’s being discussed, they can sabotage next steps. The “good, bad, and ugly” must be articulated on the call, when you can control it, as opposed to after the call, when you can’t. So, if you see someone has not been participating, bring them in with a softball question that is easy for them to answer, but doesn’t “call them out.” A simple question will encourage risk-free participation while a blatant call-out (“Hey John, are you still on the line? Haven’t heard from you yet.) will turn off not only John, but everyone else on the call. Chances are they will pay more attention if they know they may be asked direct questions. If they have an issue with what’s being discussed, this will also allow them an easy entry into the discussion.

6. As stated earlier, every 10 to 15 minutes, articulate an internal summary that will allow you to repeat key points and bring those who have disengaged up to speed.

7. At the end of the meeting, call out the next steps and who will be responsible for them. Immediately following the call, send out an e-mail with these assigned next steps as a paper trail. Without this kind of pull-through, it’s difficult to hold participants accountable.

Whatever the venue or when conducting meetings/presentations over the phone, computer, or iPad, know that certain adjustments are necessary to ensure that participants feel valued and are engaged and understand the next steps in order to achieve desired outcomes. If you plan in advance accordingly, chances are that when you announce the next virtual meeting, your audience won’t immediately make plans to multi-task.

Though the use of digital communication and social media has its detractors and issues, we cannot turn back the clock, and its effective use has proven to be a boon to individuals, organizations, businesses, and consumers. It is critical, however, that safeguards be put into place in order to protect the companies for which we work, as well as ourselves as individuals. There once was a time when you could decide whether or not your life was an “open book.” With the advent of digital communications and social networking, that window is closing fast.

Needless to say, the cross-cultural issues discussed earlier in this chapter apply to virtual communications as well as face-to-face encounters. Technology has made the world much smaller, and I strongly feel that we are so much better off because of our increased ability to tap a wider variety of perspectives, viewpoints, and skill sets through cross-cultural collaboration. And through either myopia or our own cultural biases, if we fail to leverage the significant assets that a wide variety of cultures bring to the table, both internally and externally, our success plan will be severely hampered.

In addition to making sure your ladder is placed against the right wall, you need to make sure that you are climbing a well-placed ladder! The vastly multi-cultural “one world” in which we live, in tandem with the lighting-like speed of the evolution of social/digital media, requires us to re-examine our climb at every rung. As my sister noted, homogeneity is so yesterday. Don’t be stuck in the 20th century; master the new and the now by understanding the who and the how.

   Test Yourself!