Wharton Business School professor and negotiation expert, G. Richard Shell thinks its ‘personal’.
Most of us when working globally, already have pre-determined ideas about our colleagues in different countries. These ideas are borne out of experience, hearsay and even from what we’ve read or studied. We start engagement with new colleagues based upon our views of the past instead of looking or listening to the individual before us.
Professor Shell says that stereotypes get in the way, “They make you think you know more than you really do. A generalization about all Russians or all Nigerians doesn’t take into account that cultural differences are more pronounced, for example, between urban and rural negotiators no matter the country.”
He believes that everyone has a personal style and approach and suggests that if you really want to be successful when working abroad, your focus should start with understanding exactly who the person is; what they want from you or your organization and further, understanding how they are likely to try to get what they want.
It’s easy to miss what’s truly going on in an engagement when you are busy trying to understand non-verbal signals or trying to remember that your Japanese counterpart is likely to want to avoid conflict – a stereotypical attribute often assigned to the Japanese.
Good advice is to take into account what you know and understand about the culture, but realize that it doesn’t necessarily apply to the individual you are working with because their personality might not match the stereotype.
In other words, it’s dangerous to assume anything.
Go back to basics and start with first principles.
• Make sure to spend some time getting to know each other, observing the other person’s style. We typically have these ‘flying visits’ that do not lend themselves to long-term successful engagements. Make time.
• Avoid starting any engagement with ‘the bone of contention’. Leave that until you feel comfortable that your counterpart knows and understands you as a person first.
• Start by discussing areas where you could both benefit. Whether you are from Abu Dhabi, the U.S., or South America, it is much easier to have a discussion when you start with the wider picture — areas of commonality.
We generally all default to using email or telephoning or in some cases Skyping or video conferencing. However, the first meeting for almost all types of negotiations has to be in person if you want to have longer-term success.
Email in particular, can lead to many problems. When you are communicating by email across cultures in a language that is not your first, it is complicated. It is easy to misinterpret someone in an email, and it can cause a lot of confusion and irritation. The more international your business becomes, the harder it can be to communicate. You have to start building trust, and it’s difficult to do that electronically.
For more information contact Melvin Day at mday@marketingmoves.com
