Three years ago I was in Monterrey, Mexico to train a group of 14 people on a particular process my employer had out-sourced. This was the first time I would be training in a different country and for people of a different culture. I felt very comfortable being tasked to do this; although I am American I was born to two Mexican parents. From the airport, I was immediately taken to the company’s office. When I walked into the building I was greeted by the Operations Manager’s assistant, Erica. She took my carry-on off my hands and offered me something to drink. During the introduction meeting with Hector, the Operations Manager, I went over the objectives and timelines. This was not a new process to Hector. His employees are contracted out to dozens of Fortune 500 companies like ours. The next day, I had the first day of instruction with the 14 training group members and it went off without any difficulties. By day three I began to see more interaction amongst the team. Until this day, I had not realized that this society was one of high-synergy. “Synergy implies a belief that we can learn from others and other can learn from us. Cultural synergy builds on common ground, transcending mere awareness of differences to form multifaceted strategic alliances and partnerships” (Moran, et al., 2014).
Ruth Benedict an anthropologist and psychologist, Abraham Maslow conducted extensive research on the characterization of a high-synergy and low-energy societies. Through their research, they found the main features that make a high or low synergy society. As the days progressed I saw more of these high-synergy characteristics in my Mexican trainees. I saw that during practice sessions they conducted themselves as if they were one giant group. In the U.S. small pods tend to form in training, but this was not the case. The trainees moved across the room sharing information with each other. If one of them asked me a question they would then explain it to the rest of the team. There was not one over-achieving trainee. In American culture, there is usually one trainee who tends to want to answer all the questions and outshine the others. Here it seemed that they were a community, they used each other’s talents and knowledge as a shared resource for the commonwealth (Moran, et al., 2014). There was an emphasis on cooperation for mutual advantage, as Benedict and Maslow disrobe in their characteristic of high-synergy (Moran, et al., 2014). The trainees believed that if they could demonstrate a strong comprehension and adoption of what I was teaching them, they would all be considered for future projects with the company. They wanted to win together.
The fact that the trainees were homogenous helped them to form a sense of team more quickly (Pennsylvania State University, 2016). When I train adults in the U.S. they might all be American, but may identify with a variety of cultures. These differences in culture can create cross-cultural conflict. With a varying perspective on the world, conflict is more easily ignited (Pennsylvania State University, 2016). To add fuel to the fire, American culture tends to be very competitive and have more of a “dog-eat-dog” attitude; this is a characteristic of low-synergy according to Benedict and Maslow (Moran, et al., 2014). I have witnessed in the training/ learning this type of self-serving attitude can make the team building process nearly impossible and creates an environment of desperation.
From my experience of the high-synergy society in Mexico, I took the notion of allowing trainees (in the U.S.) to learn through others not just me, their instructor. I no longer award those who got the highest quiz score, but those who helped others succeed. My goal is to build a society of high-synergy in the classroom so those individuals can take it with them as they move throughout the organization.
References
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R., & Moran. S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. 9th ed. New York, NY: Routledge
Penn State University World Campus. (2016). Lesson 6: Cultural Synergy. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179091