Imagine a scenario where you could say good bye to endless follow-up meetings and save your organization a minimum of €15,000.
Sounds too good to be true?
Well, it happened, and it all happened in just 3 hours after working with me.
About me? I help organizations to overcome cultural differences in the international workplace so that people can thrive and lead successfully across cultures.
Why overcoming cultural differences in the workplace is important?
In order to be influential, you need to be able to read, understand and influence human behavior. But the truth is that people learned different styles of dealing within their cultural context. Do you communicate explicit (low-context) or do you read messages between the lines (high-context)?
Do you give direct negative feedback or do you prefer it to land soft and wrapped in compliments? There is no wrong or right, but if you assess the human behavior of the other, through your own cultural lens, you miss great opportunities and important queues for business success.
Recently I worked together with my client on the preparation of a board meeting presentation. A quarterly repeating event for my client and made him feel anxious and insecure every time. Not because of his work performance or his capabilities to present in front of a group, but because of the fact that he never managed to deliver the message in a one-taker. There were always follow-up meetings needed, the board was left behind with unanswered questions and no-one left the room satisfied.
My client asked me for help on preparing the presentation, taken the cross-cultural dynamics and diversity in the room into consideration.
Don’t get me wrong, my client does not enjoy presenting for a group and he comes from a cultural background where hierarchy and authority are deeply respected. So presenting for a board of directors is not something that makes his enthusiasm go through the roof :).
But the cross-cultural dynamics added a layer of complexity that in thepast left my client and the boardroom in chaos. My client was unable to carry and engage the audience and the audience was left with questions and misunderstandings.
My client works in a very multicultural environment, where doing business across cultures, is a matter of daily business and far from the exception.
But with me he dived for the first time into ‘Pursuading’.
Have you ever asked yourself ‘how have you learned to learn’?
Applications first:
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Are you driven by actions?
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Do you listen to a presentation and are you immediately curious what this is going to bring you?
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How you can implement this moving forward?
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Are not very interested in the theoretical pre-study?
Principles first:
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Are you genuinely interested in the field study of the presentation?
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Where do these numbers on the screen come from?
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Do you feel restless when someones comes to the conclusion fast and you feel you cannot keep up with it?
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You are keen on getting all the facts straight before diving in?
How you have learned to learn growing up, plays a massive part on how you are convinced or pursued. Or how you pursue others.
My client is an individual that culturally learned to know all the ins and outs of the process. Principles first.
Driven by his own preference, he builds up his presentation.
He only had 30 minutes for the entire presentation but he spent the first 20 min on presenting all the facts and evidence of the process done in the past. The last 10 minutes were reserved for the conclusion, the proposal and the implementation of his project.
Not wrong. IF his entire audience would have come from a principles first cultural background, this would have been a great approach.
But in a cross-cultural environment, this does not work.
The audience that is more driven by applications first for example the Americans, Dutch & British – completely checked out.
We used the Country mapping tool from Professor Erin Meyer.
On the Country map, we mapped out all the people present in the board room and looked at their persuading preferences.
Should my client expect to focus on the applications?
Conclusions and how all of this information is practically going to support the board, moving forward?
Or should my client focus on the theory and explain all the field research, the investigations done and the theoretical backbone of the topic?
It was clear within 5 minutes; in order to keep the entire group engaged, it had to be a mix of the 2.
Something that is complicated for my client, since he leans strongly towards the principles first approach.
The Outcome: What did we achieve? A presentation so smooth and flawless that it left no room for questions or follow-up meetings.
A one-taker.
Powerpoint slides that support the story line and does not confuse the audience.
A story line that had a great mix between practical examples supported by the theory behind it.
A presentation that had space for questions in between, in stead of an Q&A at the end. Questions in between support the people from the 2 extreme preferences to remain being engaged and to flag whenever they are lost.
Now, here’s the juicy part, those 3 hours invested with me:
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My client gained knowledge that he can bring with him for the rest of his career.
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My client implemented that knowledge which leads to improved skills.
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Saying goodbye to the never ending follow-up meetings and feedback sessions that my client usually had, saved the business €15,000 for our client’s organization.
How much are you prepared on the cross-cultural dynamics of your audience when you present?
Be aware that your cultural background significantly influences your bahavior. The way you communicate, the way you give feedback, how you refer or defer to authority and more…
If you want to convince someone about something, ask yourself; Have we learned, to learn in the same way?
Happy to hear from your success stories, send me a message!
