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        Are you working on or as a team?

      Chapter 1: Perform well as a team

      Teamwork in diverse teams is like a global co-operation in small: Different languages, experiences, personalities, contexts, expertise, etc. come together to achieve a shared goal.  In order to profit to the maximum in this process, there are a few things to consider, remember and become aware of.

       

      Let me ask you:
      What do you think: Who is the driving force in integrating a new team member into the team – the receiving team, the new team member or the team leader? Who creates the team spirit?
      Is trust given or to be gained?

      Why is this important?
      As a team it is essential that there is a foundation consisting of mutual understanding and approach in order to perform well, especially when the team consists of diverse team members. Why is this important? When time pressure kicks in (e.g. deadlines mount), underlying differences in the assumptions of working together (fundaments of how we work as team, what is important) may cause unnecessary frustration, stress and conflict.

      What should be the aim as a team to have figured out before the hard work starts?
      Based on the brief input previously, one of the main aim of teams should be to create/build a basic, shared body of knowledge about rules/standards/values/etc.

      What are the rules, standards, values, etc. of your team, so to say: What is your team culture?
      More importantly: Does everyone know it?

      Even if you have already a well established team/team that has been working together: Make sure this is clear to everyone. If you get a new team member, assure he/she is briefed. (Tip: New influx of team members is also a good moment to bring “older” team members on the same page again, or redefine rules, standards, values, etc. )

      Food for thought:
      It is interesting to see that sometimes misunderstanding in intercultural teams raise only after a while. Why? After a while in intercultural co-working surroundings a sense of normality and routine is established. That leads people to act through own cultural behavioral schemata more and more even though the action would still require intercultural behavioral schemata in foreign cultural contexts. The behaviors are consequently mixed and people start to shift their own cultural behavior schemata into the foreign cultural context to interpret the situation. Particularly because that shift happens mostly unnoticeably misunderstandings can arise after a while.

      Follow this checklist!
      Things to consider

      Checklist with things to consider

      • Forming (Being open to differences between people enables you to look at unexpected behaviors, attitudes and perspectives without judging)
      • Storming (The ability to manage emotions (your own and others) effectively, makes it possible to facilitate positive outcomes when conflict comes up)
      • Norming (a well-developed understanding of other cultures makes it possible for the team to adapt behaviors which will increase effectiveness of cross-cultural interactions)
      • Performing (as each person’s cultural knowledge and openness to differences increases, he or she becomes more comfortable with unfamiliar situations)
        • Source: TRIEC
      • Remember: Diversity is good but don’t be fooled to think that the productivity, as so often proven in research, is increased by the pure fact of having a diverse team. (Diverse not only in the sense of race, gender, age but also cognitive diversity such as diversity of life experiences and backgrounds). If there is no inclusion among the team, diverse teams are not performing to their full potential.
      • Things you might want to define for your team work: how to communicate (directness, formalness, language, hierarchy (who talks to whom – information flow), etc.), emails, meeting etiquette (e.g. seating order; punctuality, etc.), decision making processes, feedback processes, etc.
      • As a team leader, what is your leadership style? How does it fit/not fit to the team -> Check also Toolkit’s material Are you the right kind of leader to your newbie(s)?
      For more info:
      Inclusive decision making processes (last accessed 20.11.2017)
      Reference: TRIEC, Cross-cultural communications in the workplace

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      Chapter 1
      1. Perform well as a team
      2. Perform well as a team
      3. Perform well as a team
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      Table of contents

      3 Pages
      Key takeaways
      • For a well-performing team it is essential that a foundation of mutual understanding is build. Agreement upon etiquette, approach, etc. is important.
      • ”Team culture” is subject to change, make sure it is clear to everybody in the team (especially over time).

      Item recap