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Cross Cultural Clients

The ALLIANCE Academy team recently attended the OBCAI conference in San Diego, California. The meeting was informative and lots of fun. One of speakers, J. Antonio Villamil, Ph.D., is an experienced business economist and policymaker at both federal and state governments. His message centered around the fact that OBCs must focus on their core competencies and fully embrace new technology if they are going to evolve and thrive in this tough economy.

He also prepared us for the strongest emerging markets referred to as the BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. How you are training your team members to be ready to work with these cultures and the cross cultural communication challenges they bring? Start building your center cultural knowledge now so you will be ready for the BRICs.

Masters of The Academy

Susan Smith, Executive Director of The ALLIANCE Academy

Susan Smith, Director of The ALLIANCE Academy, has the pleasure of working with many international operators. She travels to London 3-4 times a years, works in the Netherlands often, and is currently planning a trip to work with our Belgium OBCs. Travels to other countries afford The Academy a true global view of best practices of all operators. We are always comparing the differences and similarities to bring the best of the best to those who choose to engage The Academy to optimize their centers and strengthen their team.

For more information about bringing The Academy to your center, please contact Susan at +1 (678) 641 4467 or at ssmith@theallianceacademy.com.

Training that Works

One of the best ways to learn about a culture is to observe their non-verbal communication when approaching another person. There are different parts of the world where people act differently.

Geographic Territory
The primary territory of a person is their personal area, which may be a house where they feel most comfortable. Here they can be themselves and relaxed.

Secondary territory is where they also feel comfortable. This may be a neutral place such as a restaurant or other private place such as a friend’s house.

Public territory is not owned by us or people we trust, but is neutral. This includes streets, the business center, and other public places. There may be threat or safety here, depending on the place and time.

Interaction territory is a temporary, private place where you are having a conversation with others. This may be in a café or business center. It is assumed you can communicate with relative privacy within this space.

Personal Space
The personal space around your body includes a number of concentric circles where the closer areas are reserved for more trusted people. If you get too close, they feel attacked, so those close areas are forbidden except for approved friends.

There are four types of personal space
Intimate Personal Space: This is touching distance to 10 inches away and is reserved for close friends and family.
Casual – Personal Personal Space: This is a 4-18 foot distance and is allowed for informal conversations with friends.
Social – Consultative Personal Space: A 4-12 foot distance is best for formal transactions.
Public Personal Space: Addressing a group of people where you are not in close proximity.

Note that personal space can vary significantly. Extroverts, for example may have smaller distances while introverts may prefer to keep their distance further. People who live in big cities are used to squeezing closer to others and so have smaller spaces, while country people stand so far apart that they have to lean forward to shake hands.

Also, the distance in personal space varies greatly with nationality. For example the Casual-Personal distance may be:
• North America: 18 inches
• Western Europe: 14 to 16 inches
• Japan: 36 inches
• Middle East: 8 to 12 inches.

So look and observe every chance you can. View documentaries, international films, and observe your clients and guests to ensure you do not invade a culture's comfort zone.

For a full discussion on how you can improve your team's non-verbal communication skills, contact us today.

Case Study

While it is not feasible to be fluent in all languages and understand the differences in all cultures, there are steps you can take to show your international prospect and clients that you respect their differences and are trying to adapt to their preferred communication methods. The first step is to be aware of how you greet them physically, verbally and non-verbally.

Here are a few to get you started:

Shaking Hands
• In the U.S. a firm grip is an indicator of strength of character.
• In Asia a weak extended grip is the norm.
• For Muslim and Orthodox Jews, you must be highly sensitive to touching the opposite gender.
• In Asia, bowing is the custom. A polite bow in greeting will be appreciated by an Asian prospect.

Eye Contact
• In the U.S. direct eye contact is a sign of honesty and reliability.
• In Latin America intense eye contact is considered challenging and aggressive.
• In Indonesia, direct eye contact is considered rude and threatening.

Smiling
• In the Western Hemisphere, smiles invite communication.
• In the Far East, a smile is used to cover up embarrassment, dismay, or fury during a negotiation.

Verbal Communication
• North Americans commonly use first names and are notorious for losing credibility overseas.
• There are very few countries in which business people address each other by first names after knowing them for a short period of time.
• In Asia is it proper to address everyone with their title first.

Focus On...

Tips & Tricks for Business Communication

Remember being told to "Mind your p's and q's?" Even in the digital high-speed age, we need to mind our manners when communicating. Whether you e-mail, text, blog, or tweet your message, it will be better received if it is polite. We have gathered some common sense tips, some new words, and a new friend to help you out. So watch those p's and q's and get your message heard.

Missing Something?
The subject line of your e-mail is like the title of a document; it tells you what the e-mail is all about. Do not neglect to include one! Find the main idea of your message and state it. Some e-mail programs may, with other factors, mark a message missing a subject as junk and not deliver it to the recipient's Inbox. A clear subject for an e-mail message will help your recipient prioritize and categorize your message, and will also make it easier for you to locate the message in your Sent Items folder.

No Need to Open
When placed at the end of the subject in an e-mail message, "-eom" stands for "end of message." It can be used to notify your recipient that there is no text in the message body for them to read. Use this when you only need to send a quick message; since they will not have to open the message, your recipients will save some time. If you receive a message with "-eom" in the subject and need to reply and add text in the message body, be sure to remove the "-eom" designation.

Copious Copies
Not everyone wants their names and information forwarded for the world to see. It is considered courteous to use the blind carbon copy, or BCC, field for the addresses of your recipients when including them on an e-mail message. This keeps each recipient's information private. As an added benefit, if the message is forwarded, those who receive it do not have to scroll through pages of addresses and header information; they immediately see the contents of the message.

Similarly, not everyone needs to be included in a chain of e-mail messages. The carbon copy, or CC, field should be used to keep people in the loop, not to bring Big Brother into the conversation. Make sure you use the CC field only to include people to whom the message is pertinent.

Flying Blind
When composing an e-mail message in Microsoft Outlook, you may occasionally want to send it to multiple people without them being able to see who else the message is being sent to. This can be achieved using the blind carbon copy field, commonly referred to as the BCC field. When e-mail addresses are entered in this field, the message will get sent to all the recipients, but to them it will appear as though they are the sole recipient.

By default, the BCC field does not show on new e-mail messages in Outlook, but it can be easily added. Look for instructions in Outlook's Help section.

Mobile Sign Off
When sending messages from your Windows Mobile device, it can be useful to let your recipients know that you are not at a desktop or laptop computer. One way to do this is by ending your messages with a signature that includes this information. When your recipients see a signature that concludes with something similar to "Sent from my Windows Mobile device," they will understand that you are on the go and may need to be brief in your replies.
To create a signature:
1. Open the Messaging application from Start, Programs, or Soft Key from the Today screen.
2. Click on Menu, tap Tools, and select Options.
3. Tap Signatures.
4. Select the account, then check the "Use Signature with this account" checkbox and type your signature.
5. If you would like this signature on your replies and forwards, then check the "Use when replying and forwarding" checkbox.
6. Click OK on the top right to apply the Signature.
7. Click OK at the top right to close the Options dialog.

Author Anonymous
When communicating in the business arena, using a signature can make you look more professional. It is also considered courteous; at a glance, the reader can see who wrote the message and how to contact you.

Make sure your business signature includes your full name, job title, company name, and contact information. At the minimum, your contact information should include your e-mail address, but other things worth including are your phone number and a fax number, if applicable.

If you use one e-mail account for multiple purposes, you might want to consider adding a second signature for personal use, if possible. A personal signature will add your personal touch to an e-mail message.

Make Yourself Known
When you include a signature at the end of an e-mail message, you are doing a service to your recipients. At a glance, they can easily see from whom the message is being sent and the best way to contact you back if needed. This tip will describe how to create a signature and apply it to all outgoing e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook.

Insider Tips

In today's global business environment, more and more of us are required to understand people who come from countries and cultures different from our own. While there is no short and easy way to learn about a given culture in any depth, there are some general principles that lead to success in communicating and conducting business with people of backgrounds unlike our own.

1. Direct experience is the best way to begin with any culture. Just as the best way to learn a new language is to become immersed in that language, so too is it most helpful to learn another culture by jumping in. This might not always be practical, but listening to local radio stations, taking trips to organizations that cater to members of a specific group, and interviewing clients, team members, and friends from other countries can be helpful ways to begin. There are also many publications that outline how to communication with other cultures. One example is the book Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands by Terri Morrison and Wayne Conaway

2. Differences can feel like a threat. No one likes to feel like a stranger, and feeling unable to communication or decipher aspects of behavior that don’t fit with our own habitual experiences can make anyone feel alone. This is a natural part of human experience, but even so, it is important to keep these feelings in perspective and remember that differences are less important than commonalities.

3. We tend to overlook similarities and notice just the differences when we first begin to interact with members of another culture. Then, if we apply the standards of interpretation that we would use in our own cultures to the behaviors of those in the unfamiliar culture, we will draw mistaken conclusions. We all share 98% of the same DNA, and we are all far more alike than we are different, but that’s easy to forget in the beginning.

4. Stereotyping due to overgeneralizations is a common occurrence, especially among those who only interact with another culture infrequently. When we are faced with uncertainly, the human mind naturally seeks to create some order or system from what we observe. This is especially true when we may feel vulnerable due to uncertainty. So the mind creates its own set of rules or generalizations that may be based on some surface realities and patterns but which fail to account for real experience and individual variations. What’s more, since we may feel threatened, the human mind can presume negative motives or draw negative inferences from the generalizations we create/observe, which then forms the basis of prejudice.

5. Finally, cultures are always changing, especially as they interact with each other. Even from within, cultures move and flow and change through time, even then they think they don’t. But the pace of change is accelerated when cultures that reinforces different styles of communication, and which accent different binding customs and values, interact with each other. Team members who begin to bridge these gaps are like pioneers, blazing paths and creating plausible options for their center to develop hybrid identities for their center culture.

For more Insider Tips, visit the Academy site to access the Training Bytes section.