Managing Cross Cultural Remote Teams | Ricardo Fernandez | TEDxIESEBarcelona
Summary
TLDRIn this engaging talk, the speaker shares his experience managing a diverse, remote team and the challenges of cultural differences in a global workplace. He highlights the benefits of remote work, such as flexibility and employee satisfaction, but also addresses the potential for misunderstandings and loneliness. The speaker emphasizes the importance of physical presence to build empathy and strong teams, suggesting a blend of remote work and occasional in-person meetings as the key to a successful multicultural team dynamic.
Takeaways
- 🌐 The speaker manages a globally distributed team of 30 people from 10 different nationalities, highlighting the challenges and benefits of multicultural remote work.
- 🏡 Remote work has become a norm, with the speaker's morning routine now involving immediate family interaction and work that starts within seconds.
- 🕒 Cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings, such as the South African concept of 'just now', which can mean a significantly different timeframe than intended.
- 📈 Millennials prioritize flexibility in the workplace over traditional benefits like cash bonuses, private healthcare, and additional vacation days.
- 📚 The speaker addresses communication challenges by providing the team with 'The Culture Map' by Erin Meyer, which improved self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences.
- 🗣️ Direct communication is crucial; remote work can exacerbate misunderstandings due to the lack of non-verbal cues and immediate feedback.
- 🏙️ Remote work can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation, necessitating the need for co-working spaces or other community-oriented work environments.
- 🤝 Physical presence is essential for building empathy and strong team relationships, suggesting that occasional in-person meetings are beneficial for remote teams.
- 🌟 Despite the challenges, the speaker sees remote work as the future, offering flexibility and the potential for a better work-life balance.
- 🔄 The speaker's personal journey, moving across different countries and cultures, has equipped them with practical experience in managing multicultural teams.
Q & A
What is the speaker's typical morning routine now?
-The speaker wakes up between 7 to 8:30 AM, plays with their kids, and then quickly transitions to work in their study where they manage a remote team.
How many people does the speaker manage and from how many different nationalities?
-The speaker manages a team of 30 people from 10 different nationalities.
What challenges does the speaker face in managing a remote multicultural team?
-The speaker faces challenges such as cultural interpretations of everyday workplace occurrences, remote communication limitations, and the lack of physical presence to create empathy within the team.
What is the significance of the speaker's personal journey in their ability to manage a multicultural team?
-The speaker's personal journey as a 'nomad', having lived in various countries, has provided them with a wealth of experiences that help in managing everyday problems arising from a multicultural team.
What does the graph in the speaker's presentation reveal about Millennials' workplace preferences?
-The graph shows that Millennials prioritize flexible working hours, remote work options, and training over cash bonuses, private healthcare, and additional vacation or maternity/paternity benefits.
Why did the speaker purchase 30 copies of 'The Culture Map' by Erin Meyer?
-The speaker bought the books to address communication problems within the team, aiming to increase self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences.
What was the outcome of the team reading 'The Culture Map'?
-Reading 'The Culture Map' helped the team to openly discuss and understand their cultural differences, which was a key factor in improving communication and team success.
How does the speaker feel about remote work contributing to loneliness?
-The speaker has experienced loneliness while working remotely, highlighting the need for physical presence to create a truly connected team.
What is the speaker's view on the necessity of physical presence in a remote work setting?
-The speaker believes that while remote work is the future, physical presence is still necessary a few times a year to build empathy and create an amazing team.
What is the speaker's final thought on the benefits of being away from co-workers?
-The speaker suggests that sometimes being away from co-workers can be beneficial, as it allows for flexibility and the ability to work from various locations, including home.
Outlines
🌐 Managing a Multicultural Remote Team
The speaker begins by introducing a new participant, Mark, to the call amidst technical difficulties. They then transition into sharing their personal experience of managing a team of 30 people from 10 different nationalities remotely. The speaker's background includes living in various countries, which has given them a unique perspective on cultural diversity. They emphasize the challenges of remote work, such as different cultural interpretations of everyday workplace interactions, and the benefits it brings, like flexibility and increased employee satisfaction. The speaker also highlights the importance of understanding and adapting to cultural differences, as well as the need for physical presence to build empathy within the team.
🗣️ Navigating Cultural Miscommunication in Remote Work
The speaker recounts a story from their early days of remote work with a team in South Africa, where a misunderstanding about the term 'just now' led to a scheduling mix-up. They use this anecdote to illustrate the complexity of time expressions across cultures and how it can affect remote work. Another example is given where the speaker's praise for an Indian team member's performance was misinterpreted, leading to confusion. The speaker then discusses the challenges of communication within their US and London-based teams and how providing a book on cross-cultural communication, 'The Culture Map' by Erin Meyer, helped improve understanding and collaboration among team members.
🏡 The Impact of Remote Work on Team Dynamics
The speaker reflects on the feelings of loneliness that can accompany remote work, sharing personal experiences of isolation while working from home or on the road. They suggest that co-working spaces can alleviate this by providing a sense of community and inspiration. Despite the benefits of remote work, the speaker argues for the necessity of physical presence to foster true team empathy and cohesion. The speaker concludes with a call to action, encouraging the audience to consider how they can work towards a future where they can enjoy the flexibility of remote work while still maintaining the benefits of in-person interactions with their teams.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Remote working
💡Cultural differences
💡Flexibility
💡Multicultural team
💡Communication
💡Context
💡Cultural awareness
💡Millennials
💡Co-working spaces
💡Physical presence
💡Loneliness
Highlights
The speaker manages a team of 30 people from 10 different nationalities, emphasizing the challenges of remote and multicultural team management.
The speaker's personal journey includes living in various countries, providing a unique perspective on cultural diversity.
Despite not being a cultural expert, the speaker has extensive experience managing multicultural teams remotely.
Millennials prioritize flexible working hours and remote work options over cash bonuses and additional vacation days.
Remote work is becoming more common due to its cost-effectiveness and the desire for flexibility among the new generation of workers.
Cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings, even when teams share a common language.
The speaker shares a story about a cultural miscommunication regarding the concept of 'just now' in South Africa.
Lack of context in remote work can lead to confusion and misinterpretation of intentions.
The speaker discusses the challenges of loneliness and the importance of physical presence for team building in remote work settings.
Co-working spaces can help alleviate feelings of loneliness and provide a sense of community for remote workers.
Physical presence is necessary to create empathy and strong team bonds, despite the benefits of remote work.
The speaker recommends reading 'The Culture Map' by Erin Meyer to improve cross-cultural communication in the workplace.
Self-awareness of cultural differences is crucial for effective communication and teamwork in diverse teams.
The speaker highlights the importance of flexibility in the workplace, as it is highly valued by the younger workforce.
Remote work can lead to increased working hours, but offers more flexibility during the day, which is appreciated by employees.
The speaker shares personal experiences of feeling lonely while working remotely and the importance of finding ways to connect with others.
The future of work may involve a blend of remote flexibility and occasional physical presence for optimal team dynamics.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
good afternoon everyone I have uh
someone actually joining us here today
so give me one
second participant a has joined the call
hello
Mark can can you hear me hello
Mark there's tons of static
Mark is that you
Mark can can you change your
line participant a has joined the call
Mark
Mark sorry sorry
everyone so up on until about 6 months
ago this was my normal morning
call now my normal morning is I wake up
between 7 to 8:30 in the morning every
day when either my kids uh jump on my
bed they start screaming they start
hitting each other they start crying
something always happens and I get out
of bed I make the most of the morning I
play with them a little bit I mean it's
an absolute
blast then I take a few steps and unless
in 5 seconds I'm at work I get into my
study I open up my computer and this is
what I see
boom one two three sometimes up to 20
different people with either their faces
or names on screens of my
computer 30 different people from over
10 different nationalities spread all
around the world talking Non-Stop
five different offices around the world
five different time
zones complete chaos but it it's
actually a
blast so I do this between two to six
hours every single day of the
week I currently manage a team of 30
people from 10 very very very very
different
nationalities I don't actually know what
is tougher the remote part of having to
interact with of my team just using
Skype video conference telephone or
email or the different cultural
interpretations to everyday things that
happen in the
workplace luckily my own personal
Journey has been a bit of a nomad
experience I I was actually born here in
Spain and before I was even a month I
moved to Africa then I spent five years
in Puerto Rico then a few more years in
Spain then five years in the Netherlands
then I spent 10 years between LA San
Francisco and New York please don't try
to add all of this up it's it's a little
bit chaotic before I moved back to
Europe traveled a little bit around and
finally settling down back in Madrid I'm
no expert in cultures I haven't studied
about cultures and I haven't read many
books about cultures but I've had
hundreds of experiences managing
everyday problems that arise from
managing a multicultural team
remotely and still still I make many
mistakes so why am I talking about this
today because this
situation that I face every single day
will happen to most of you if it already
hasn't happened people want flexibility
people want the choice of where to work
and they want it
now take a look at this graph here so
this is what Millennials want from the
workplace
they want training I think we can all
agree with that you know they want to
learn at work and they want flexible
working hours they want to work remotely
they want to choose when they work they
want to have flexibility during the day
they want this above cash bonuses they
want this above Private health care they
want this above more vacation I mean
they want this above maternity paternity
benefits people want
flexibility I've heard from many people
on my team how great it is to work
remotely
the reality is that they end up working
a lot more hours actually a ton more
hours very late at night but they love
the flexibility that they have during
the middle of the day and remote working
will become even more common because the
new generation of managers wanted in
their workplace and the beauty about
remote working is that you're actually
adding a huge employee benefit for much
less cost and you're actually creating
loyalty for people in the
workplace it's a killer addition for
people but with all this
flexibility you know it's actually not
easy to make it happen it's actually
quite tough there are tons of problems
that arise from everyday situations in
the workplace to illustrate how simple
yet complex this problem is I I wanted
to share a story that happened to me
about two years ago when I first started
working remotely with my team in in
South Africa i' been doing this for
about five years
um and as usual I was sitting down in
front of my computer in Madrid and I had
one of my first conference calls with my
team in South Africa conference call
went went great and at the end of it uh
one of my team members uh tells me I'll
call you just now which I thought oh
great I mean I was actually very excited
to get into the into the detail of it so
I I ended the call and I waited in front
of my
computer and I waited and I waited and I
waited and then after about 15 minutes I
sent a message to my team member in in
South Africa and I told him hey AR are
we talking just now to which he
responded Yes yeah just now and he
pinged me this message sent me this
image describing how South Africans
Define time so just now wasn't you know
I think what we're all thinking right
now you know we'll talk in a couple of
seconds or a couple of
minutes for South Africans just now
could mean can mean you know we'll talk
in the future hopefully today if not
tomorrow maybe someday in the distant
future you don't really know when you're
going to
talk how could something so simple such
as Expressions about time lead to such
misunderstanding and this had been an
internal meeting so it wasn't a big
problem but imagine this had been an
external meeting with
clients cultural differences can lead to
huge
understandings and the remoteness part
of it made it even worse because I
couldn't get out of my desk go around
the hallway tap the person on the
shoulder and say hey are we talking just
now and of course this was my first week
at work and I didn't want to sound like
an idiot asking these questions with my
own team remote workking situations can
be even more confusing so just this week
we uh we launched the project in in
India and it went extremely well and I
wanted to share my enthusiasm with my
team so I in one of our weekly weekly
calls I um I I shared with with the rest
of the team and I told one of my Indian
co-workers you're killing it out there
and uh the next day to to my
surprise I I get an email very early in
the morning from uh my Indian team
member asking me what did I what did I
do wrong can can you give me advice can
you tell me how I can improve and I was
taking a back I mean I was actually
trying to express my enthusiasm and the
great job that he had done and he had
interpreted something completely
different the exact same sentence in the
exact same language being understood in
two completely different
ways the lack of context created this
misunderstanding context is absolutely
necessary when working with remote teams
so even with two teams with the same
natural language which such as English
there are still problems created due to
due to lack of
context so about a year ago I was H
having quite a few communication
problems between my us and my London
based teams we had tons of meetings
probably too many nowadays in in most
companies and uh lots of actions were
coming out lots of activities we were
doing lots of things but the results
were poor people were not communicating
well well with each other and people
were getting extremely frustrated so I I
needed to do something about this so I
bought uh 30 copies of a book about how
to work with people from different
cultures and I gave my whole team this
book here the culture map by Aaron
mayor and the effect was absolutely
amazing it brought out in the open in
plain sight how different people are on
the team so I had 30 different people
from 10 very different nationalities
that were all speaking the exact same
language in this case English but were
all saying things that were completely
different and were acting completely
different in the same
situations so for example my team in in
Latin America they're very hierarchical
so they didn't understand when people
were responding in certain ways or my us
and my Dutch teams based in in London
they found it completely normal that in
in the middle of a conference call you
can interrupt the person and you can say
your opinion and other people were going
absolutely nuts with this this
self-awareness and bringing this out in
this open was absolutely amazing it was
a key driving force for our success so I
think we all agree that uh remote
working is great and having this
flexibility in the workplace is
absolutely amazing but it can actually
also lead to
loneliness in in my case over the last 5
years I've actually felt lonely quite a
few times sitting in my my little study
in front of my computer all by
myself and when I've been in the office
with other people and actually have to
travel I felt very lonely on the road
I've had to take lots of conference
calls in hotel rooms in trains in planes
in public bathrooms even you know in in
horrible situations I've had to take
calls in the middle of the morning know
very late at night at 3:00 4: 5 6:00 in
the morning I mean really horrible
situations both physically and mentally
challenging situations so you have to
find a way to make yourself be in a
comfortable
situation co-working areas such as this
one here are great to solve this problem
you I mean you can feel that you're
you're part of a company you can feel
that work is being done sitting around
with other people you can network with
others you can get into inspired by
others you know you can Inspire others
you can just get out of your chair grab
a coffee and have a conversation with
someone from a completely different
company you just feel that work is being
done so remote working and work
co-working areas are are absolutely
great I I think there's there's no doubt
about it but the reality is that you
still need physical presence to create a
truly incredible team you can have
amazing relationship ship just via video
conference via email you can you can
establish some sort of relationship
between your team but you need the
physical presence to create empathy to
really add empathy to your
team so remote working is the future but
you need physical Presence at least a
couple of times a year to truly create
an amazing team so I want to leave here
today with uh one last thought to share
with
everyone I want you to start thinking
thinking about what you need to do to be
able to wake up in the future hopefully
not a very distant future and to be able
to get up every morning with your loved
ones and with your family and be able to
take your first call in a place such as
this sometimes being away from your
co-workers isn't such a bad thing thank
you
[Music]
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