The Real Culture Iceberg

During the last decade a lot of new business sciences have appeared in university curriculums.  It is safe to say that entrepreneurship is a good example of a new subject being studied. However, as of late, there is another subject the world has become passionate about… I would say, a bit too passionate about – intercultural management and communication.

It looks to me like people became so concerned with high-context, power distance, together with all the icebergs (on and under the water) that they forgot that being a master in communication means being a master in small details.

Examples… I will give you an example. During my semester in China a group of GEP students decided to organize a two day event – a business idea pitching competition that attracted more than 160 people on the first day alone. In our group of organizers we had both Chinese and Western students. As it always happens during the preparation for such an event, we had been meeting ten times per day, sending thousands of emails back and forth and calling each other non-stop.

Everything went well… at least I felt like everything went well.  A lot of rushing around – yes… A lot of unforeseen problems (that were all eventually solved)– yes… Real problems relating to miscommunication – NO WAY. Until one day, one of our team members told us that we (the westerners) were behaving arrogantly towards our Chinese members. Hearing that was surprising to me.

And you know what we realized after that conversation? We really had behaved arrogantly! We just did not realize the manner in which we were coming across to our Chinese peers… sincerely we did not.

For example, we would discuss two different options for our event venue and then decide that one was better than other as it looked more “western”. Automatically, it sounded like the Chinese style was not as “high class” as western style. Did I mean it like that, or think about it when I was discussing the venue? NO! Could other members see it as being offensive?   Well, looking back on it I could see how they might think it. I would be lying if I said that now I didn’t understand why...

Just think, it could be one small sentence in your email, a sentence you did not even notice. You wrote and forgot about it in two minutes. One small sentence, and all of your efforts towards having an open and global mind-set end with some of your team feeling alienated and offended.

I believe I quite clearly understood Mr. Hofstede. Nevertheless, all my knowledge of his reputable work did not help me to remember the small details that are so important – in what you say, in what you write, in what you show and how you show it… Even small intonations play an important role. Adjusting to another culture is like walking the tight rope – no relaxation even for a minute.

While we are pretending that we are GLOBAL entrepreneurs we need to remember that having a global mind-set means drawing the whole picture, working hard on every small detail.

-Dasha