15 Mar 2020

Cross cultural communications and the coronavirus In a world ravaged by the horrific health threat and its impact of the #coronavirus and the resulting #COVID-19, people have suddenly come to realise some home truths that are far beyond boundaries (thought those are being tested to breaking point) as each one is looking at the other for solutions. Never before has the world been more ...

28 Mar 2018

Managing Intercultural relationships can be quite daunting. Your team mate comes from another state. You can't stand him. Your friend's friend can be quite loud. You don't agree with her views. And now at work you have to deal with a team from three different countries in Europe. Now not only is the culture not same but you don't even have similar beliefs. Is life testing you? Cross ...

22 Mar 2018

Cross culture understanding comes with a bit of awareness and empathy.Working with another country culture is not easy.Just because you speak the same language does not mean you are saying the same thing. When working as a team, say with Indians, here are three vital things to remember - 1. Don't jump to conclusions It's okay to ask questions. Sometimes you may not realise why are person...

21 Mar 2018

A ROUND UP OF THE BEST CROSS-CULTURAL CONVERSATIONS In the past week I have been talking (to those who cared to listen) about Cross-cultural Conversations and their significance in the workplace. Today it's worth looking back at each of them and seeing what they spoke about. Click on the links below to read any of the posts We started with how important cross-cultural conversa...

21 Mar 2018

Cross-cultural communication can literally make or break a team. In a workplace without borders, increasingly every function in a large organisation has a global team. Large US corporations have a back-end team in Europe. European organisations may be working simultaneously with the US and India. And some may have a team that consists of members from China, India, Germany and the US. Whi...

19 Mar 2018

There are many way to look at Cross-Cultural Communication. But one possible way is to look at it going horribly wrong. And sometimes pictures can say it better than words. Worth looking at communication landing you in a soup. Literally. Close the culture gap Of course, you could also look at getting a deeper understanding of how to close the culture gap and work towards a globa...

18 Mar 2018

Cross culture is the unspoken issue in many a  global collaboration. When global conglomerates seek out Indian talent to work with them, a lot of attention is focused on quality of work and cost arbitrage. But there is one important aspect that gets left out. Here's an example. A large Dutch financial organisation is seeking to outsource its IT business to a large multinational ...

16 Mar 2018

Cross-cultural communication can make friends. And it can make... well...enemies. Or not friends. Here's one memorable conversation I've had with someone. This young man was an Indian working in Germany. He had been there for almost 8 years when I met him to do a cross culture workshop. In an informal dinner he talked about his challenges studying, living and working there. While h...

14 Mar 2018

Cross cultural communication is one of the biggest disasters that technology has enabled. Seriously. Picture this scenario (quite a common one at that) Bob is running a very important project out of Texas, USA. His counterpart in India, Raj is now on a call with him. Here's a conversation that takes place between two people who speak English but whose communication styles are diffe...