The following story is one that I heard many years ago in a history class. It stayed in the back of my mind for many years, but now, seeing our President use Twitter to communicate with World Leaders, it has become something I think about every day.

1945 Japan, allied leaders meeting in Potsdam send Japans terms for which to surrender, Japan studied the terms; Truman and Churchill added in the message that any negative answer would be met with “prompt and utter destruction,” (National Security Agency, n.d.)

The Japanese Press in Tokyo; asked the then Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki, about the country’s reaction to these demands, waving the reporter off, he uttered one word “mokusatso,”  or “no comment.”

Except that that word has many different translations. And because of the way it was delivered to the Press, the Press took it to mean the worst of those translations, which translates to “we have contempt for, we will kill with silence.”  It could also mean, we are “ignoring it” or “we take no notice of it.” (National Security Agency, n.d.)

The word went out to Japan and finally a translator for the Domei Press, brought it to the allies, “The Japanese ignore this, and we are determined to continue our fight until the end.”

It was simply made to convey, “No comment!”  The Japanese had not had the time to consult and were simple considering the manner.

But the allies received a different message and ten days later, there was indeed “prompt and utter destruction,” as the U.S. attacked with Atomic Bombs and the world changed forever.

We live in a world now that seems to be heading into the same murky waters of World War; and people who are using these divisions to create the type of chaos that will create conflict. After all, Wars are declared by people in power, but fought by the general population, often making the people in power very wealthy in the process.

What seems to me is how willing the 24 hours news media is willing to participate in these games of words and miscommunications; for example, Fox News has a culture that leads to a completely different interpretation than say that of CNN.

One of the things we have to do however, as we go dive deeper into a globally interconnected world is really figure out the meaning of words and what our intentions are when we use them.  It’s not just about non-verbal communication, but also about knowing a culture’s ambiguous words, picking the wrong word can often time leads to problematic situations.

In the section of Chapter 2: Using English with Non-English Speakers, there is very wise advice,

“Companies work had not only to ensure accurate translations, but also to achieve fortuitous translations. Accurate and fortuitous translations is dependent upon knowledge of the intended group’s culture and how their cultural values influence their perceptions.” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014)

Let’s elevate the way we communicate as globalists, and chose our words with wisdom as we step forward into leadership roles in this inevitable global village.

 

References

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. London : Routledge.

National Security Agency. (n.d.). declassified-documents. Retrieved February 5, 2017, from NSA.Gov: https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/tech-journals/assets/files/mokusatsu.pdf

 

 

 

“You were born with two ears and one mouth, be sure you use each accordingly”. These were words uttered by my Grandfather many years ago when I was a child. He was giving me grandfatherly advice, as I was prone to speak more than listen. As I was reflecting on the subject of this week’s lesson, Global Communication, I was brought back once again to how valuable this advice is that I received so many years ago.

“Listening is at the heart of all successful communications. We listen to both the words and nonverbal signaling. We learn to listen and talk before we read and write”. (Moran, 2014 P. 39) Thinking back on my childhood, through high school, then in to the work place I can remember many key “ah ha” moments I have had, where it felt like I had, figured it out. In those moments I was almost always listening instead of talking, truly hearing what I was learning, creating the many break through moments I had in my personal and professional life.

The importance of listening in a leadership role cannot be underestimated. The complex makeup of how we speak and listen as covered in Moran was very interesting; on average a person can speak about 150 words per minute while the listener’s brain can process around 400 words per minute. (Moran, 2014 P. 39) As leaders we can process the information our team members are sharing with us quite easily. Fact is that sometimes in leadership we are ready to give the answer to the question, solve the issue and state what we want done before the person we are speaking to even have a chance to finish.

So how do we better listen as leaders? Active listening is generally considered to be a good place to start. Active listening is seen as a positive form of listening as it seen as a sharing of oneself with another. When speaking with someone who is actively listening we as the person communicating gain a sense of something being accomplished, we know that the message as been successfully transmitted. (Moran, 2014 P. 40)

In a Harvard Business Review article by Melissa Daimler, the head of Global Learning and Organizational Development @ Twitter listening is described as an “overlooked tool that creates an environment of safety when well done”. (Daimler, 2016) At Twitter they use the following levels of listening during their management development sessions with members of their leadership teams; “Internal listening is focused on your own thoughts, worries and priorities, even as you pretend you’re focused on the other person. Focused listening is being able to focus on the other person, but you’re still not connecting fully to them. 360 degree listening is where the magic happens, you’re not only listening to what the person is saying but how they’re saying it-and, even better, what they are not saying, like when they get energized about certain topics or when they pause and talk around others”. (Daimler, 2016)

So, from the time my Grandfather gave me the two ears and one mouth advice almost 40 years ago to today, where a leader from one of the darlings of Silicon Valley, Twitter the value of listening, actively listening remains an important part of communication and should be a focus for anyone who desires to lead a team of people in an organization.

When you consider the divisive country we find ourselves in I wonder if both sides of an argument are truly, actively listening? Are we all putting ourselves in a position to truly listen so those we are speaking with can feel heard? It would seem we would all benefit from talking less and listening more.

References

Moran, Ph.D., R. T., Abramson, Ph.D., N. R., & Moran, MA, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences; Ninth Edition. New York, NY, USA: Routledge

Daimier, M. (2016, July 28). Listening in an Overlooked Leadership Tool. Retrieved February 04, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2016/05/listening-is-an-overlooked-leadership-tool

 

I recently watched the film, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” (based on the book “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan” by Kim Barker). Tina Fey stars as Kim Baker, a bored journalist who takes an opportunity to invigorate her life by traveling to Afghanistan to cover the war. Her character is portrayed as not having an understanding of the culture or customs of the culture in which she’s entering.

This week’s lesson covered global communications. While watching the film, I realized many similarities to what I was reading for class. Errors in communication can occur in simple communication, from simple noise or biases. There’s even more complication that results in interactions across language and cultures (PSU, 2017).

We can all fail at remembering people of other cultural backgrounds have different goals, customs, thought patterns, and values from our own (Moran and Moran, 2014). Luckily, Fey’s character had an interpreter who was helpful and necessary in adapting social situations. Christopher Abbott playes the interpreter. He was competent, and understood the deliberations of negotiating in his country (Moran and Moran, 2017), keeping her safe. He also shielded Fey’s character from harsh criticism like when she first arrives where a native woman yells at her to cover up her hair, or when a derogatory remark is made to her by an interviewee.

Gender roles are different across the world, and the comparison between the US and Afghanistan is monumental. As a female expatriate, Fey’s character experiences the conservative society, where women’s rights aren’t as well established (Moran and Moran, 2017). She puts herself and her crew in danger when she uses a video camera while dressed in a burka to tape an all-male political gathering.

Aside from that, the Middle East is a high context culture, while the US is low context. “Communication between high- and low-context people is often fraught with impatience and irritation on both sides” (Moran and Moran, 2014). In transferring messages, “as much as 80 to 90 percent of the message we communicate is nonverbal” (Moran and Moran, 2014). Nonverbal communication involves gestures, eye contact, posture, clothing, makeup, use of silence, and more. Throughout the film Fey’s character not covering up her hair was problematic as it was insulting to the country she was in.

These are just a few examples of how Whiskey Tango Foxtrot tied in our lesson on Global Communication.

 

Reference:

Ficarra, G., & Requa, J. (Directors). (2016). Whiskey Tango Foxtrot [Video file]. USA: Broadway Video, Little Stranger, Paramount Pictures .

Internet Movie Database (IMDB). (2017). Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016). Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3553442/

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences. London: Routledge.

The Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2017). Lesson 4: Global Communication, screen five. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules

 

 

In todays world we have the option to communicate with one another through several different technological methods such as email, phone, face-time or Skype to name a few. Technology has provided the world with faster means of communication but in the same token it has reduced the amount of face-to-face communication we share. Face-to-Face communication creates a clearer understanding between the sender and the receiver. I am guilty of using text messaging as one of my primary forms of communication between myself and my friends, co-workers and family. Text messages has caused minor conflicts amongst myself and my peers due to the messages being misinterpreted by myself or my peers also known as a decoding error.

I have experienced decoding errors with my best friend frequently and always have to call her to clear up the misunderstanding. Face-to-Face interaction allows the sender and the receiver to analyze each other’s tone and facial expressions and come to a fair understanding of the meaning behind the information that is being delivered. Communicating via text regarding a serious discussion can lead to both parties not fully understanding the true message the other is trying to convey. According to Ashton College “Face-to-face communication and in-person meetings can boost efficiency. Instead of spending an entire day e-mailing back and forth, you can hash out all of the details of a project in one go. Face-to-Face meeting can also boost creativity as the overall energy will be higher so you can brainstorm and solve a multitude of problems at one time” (ashtoncollege.ca, 2013). The down side to digital forms of communication compared to face-to face communication is that Digital forms of communication tends to be impersonal and can lead to unprofessionalism in the work place.

A lot of individuals add heart emojis and smiley faces to their text messages to express their emotional feeling behind the message, but in doing so it can cause the receiver to feel uncomfortable. For example I may send a message to my boss to explain a new idea I have in contrast to the idea he or she just gave and I decide to end the text with a heart eye smiley emoji to make by boss aware that I don’t mean any harm by my text but in return my boss interprets the message as if I am flirting with him or her and causes a big sexual harassment issue within the work place all because of misinterpretation of my text. If I communication my idea to my boss face-to-face I can avoid having to use a emoji to communicate my feelings in return avoiding any form of miscommunication. Properly executed communication is detrimental to a healthy home and work environment.

Works cited

Errors in Communication. (n.d.). Retrieved February 03, 2017, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654106

The Importance of Face-to-Face Communication. (2013, November 21). Retrieved February 03, 2017, from http://www.ashtoncollege.ca/the-importance-of-face-to-face-communication/

 

 

Many American companies have an international presence and it is growing rapidly.  From 1983 to 1993, only one company, McDermott International, incorporated overseas. From 1994 to 2004, twenty-eight companies incorporated overseas.  From 2005 to mid-2014, 44 companies incorporated overseas (“American Companies,” 2014). In 2016 alone, there were over 46,000 mergers and acquisitions completed world-wide (“M&A Statistics,” n.d.).  It is apparent that organizations who wish to globalize their market will have to become proficient with international and intercultural communications.  The good news is that organizations will have success if they do so.

Intercultural communications is synonymous with international communications.  It is individuals from different cultures or countries communicating (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).  The United States has a fundamentally different culture than China who has a fundamentally different culture than Argentina.  The reasons why corporations are going global is to enter new markets or to utilize resources only found in that area.  Today, many are utilizing the labor resource because it is cheaper as well as the raw materials to do manufacturing (Roemer, 2015).  Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) provide a list of cultural differences that need to be learned.  Among them are values, social norms, stereotypes, roles in society, language and its dialects, conflict management, negotiation preferences, body language, body gestures, and face-to-face preferences.  This is not an exhaustive list which shows how different we really can be.

Within the cultural differences, one also has to be cognizant of individual differences.  As we touched upon diversity in the course, that has to come into play as well.  At this point, it would seem that it is impossible to learn everything about a culture enough to be successful.  This is correct, however, there are a number of steps a corporate can take to be successful.  The first an obvious step would be to learn the basics about the culture such as spoken languages, how introductions are handled, how basic human interaction is handled, and then dive into deeper subjects.  Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) describe the personality similarities that are common across cultures.  They provide a few ways to learn about them such as the Myers-Briggs MBTI personality type indicator, the Big Five personality types, and human dynamics which is comprised of three principles of being logical, relating to people, and practicality.

Putting this against real research, we see that the national culture of an organization affects how the “foreign” organization is perceived by the employees.  The best method for getting up to speed quickly about another culture or organization is to find a local person to assist.  Even when you have all of the steps of an acquisition process detailed and both sides understand, executing the steps will still face cultural barriers including not fully understanding the cultural differences.  Focusing one’s efforts in two specific areas has shown to have the best results: targeted learning and experience accumulation (Very & Schweiger, 2001).  The targeted learning focuses on acquiring the knowledge about the other culture and the organization.  The experience accumulation focuses on a lesson’s learned type of approach and incorporating the local person.

I believe one can pull informational topics from any chapter of the textbook and apply it to the research study.  The research indicates that there are cultural barriers to successful negotiations and integration and to overcome those, one must be as educated as possible and acquire as much experience as possible with the other culture.  Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) discuss the various ways different cultures prefer to handle business.  Most of the Asian countries want to get to know you before making any deals.  While this may be counter to western cultures who want to close the deal as quickly as possible, spending that extra time may prove beneficial as it will build up the learning and experience.

Corporations who wish to do business in another country or culture need to ramp up their intercultural communication skills.  They need to learn about the culture, social norms, and even the personalities of those with whom they will be negotiating.  Research shows that by doing so, an organization can increase its effectiveness in closing the deal.  The organization needs to have a targeted learning system and needs to get experience with that other culture.  Research shows that the best way to accomplish those two tasks is to find a local resource to provide the nuances that are not obvious to the foreigner.

 

References

American Companies that Have Incorporated Overseas. (August 6, 2014). The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/business/american-companies-that-have-incorporated-overseas/1238/

M & A Statistics. (n.d.). Institute for Mergers and Acquisitions & Alliances. Retrieved from https://imaa-institute.org/mergers-and-acquisitions-statistics/

Roemer, T. (2015). Why it’s time to bring manufacturing back home to the U.S. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2015/02/02/why-its-time-to-bring-manufacturing-back-home-to-the-u-s/#3a933a957026

Very, P. & Schweiger, D. M. (2001). The acquisition process as a learning process: Evidence from a study of critical problems and solutions in domestic and cross-border deals. Journal of World Business, 36(1), 11-31. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/science/article/pii/S1090951600000523?np=y&npKey=c918d9dc28dc8be55ac44399d0912ff315bad015078bdc292de9fa048563e45c

Communication is an interpersonal act that exchanges meaning and information. When we look at communication we can see how people view the information and interpret it when received. Communication is a very important skill that needs to be learned and the way you communicate can mean the difference on how your information is received. Boding language can also be a form of communication. When speaking to someone be mindful of your body language because the way your posture is can also send signals that can be misread by the person receiving the information or anyone who see you from a far. Communication will be a very valuable tool for the global leader who will need to address people from other parts of the world including the ones here at home.

One thing to be mindful also when it comes to communication is being egocentric when it comes to the views of others. When properly communication we have to see all views from other people and then make a formal argument in response to them. This is something that we can see during political debates or even sport debates.  Communication can be very difficult to understand and if people don’t take the time to understand the issue they will be in constant debate. Global leaders are in a position of power which makes them very visible and the way they interact with other people especially the ones that are different than them will play a major role in how they are viewed.

In “Managing Cultural Differences” they cover a lesson on communication and what is interesting is that in the beginning in one of the paragraphs it state that listening is at the heart of communication. Now how does all of this tie in to one another? Well we have to think about for a second. If we are all trying to communicate but no one is listening, then how can we move forward? Listening will go a long way is only every one takes a breathe and listen to what the other person has to say. When trying to decode a message that is being given to you listening will help in trying to decode it. However listening could be very for some people but extremely important to do.

A type of listening that is mentioned in the textbook which I think is the one we are familiar with is the polite listening. Most of us listen to the point where we are just listening to be engaged in conversation. In this type of listening you are thinking about what you are going to say next instead of really listening to the conversation. This can lead to an ego driven response in my opinion because one is not listening but worried more about how they are going to response and stand out. Especially in a social environment where at times people want to out shine the other person, just think or a high school reunion for example how many times haven’t we seen this at the reunion?

 

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences. London: Routledge.

Canvaslearning management system. (n.d.). Retrieved February 02, 2017, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654104

Until recently, I was a corporate trainer for a rapidly growing tea company based in the United States. As a trainer, I was responsible for opening new store locations and preparing employees for their grand opening. In 2012 I had my first international experience while opening our first international store in Toronto Canada.

Before my visit, I was naïve. I expected to have seamless communication, and to experience few cultural differences. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to compare, Canada and the United States share many similarities. (Moran & Moran, 2014). However, while they have comparable cultural values, this does not mean they are the same. I soon learned this fact. I had several experiences where I had errors in my communication. I failed to recognized our cross-culture differences in our thought process, customs, and values. (Moran & Moran, 2014).

As we prepared for the store opening, I lead daily training sessions, covering product knowledge and sales technique. As we progressed through the material, I began to sense hesitancy and confusion. From their questions and body language, I first I thought they did not understand what I was saying or what I meant. So, I was often repeating myself and providing more low-context information, yet this did not correct the sense of being misunderstood. By the end of the second day, I opened the floor for concerns and soon realized that many of the ways we communicate customer service here in the States are considered rude and aggressive.

For example, as a tea company, we have premade tea samples ready for our guests to try. We place a few samples near the door entry and stand next to them smiling and waving to people as they pass. If they are interested, we serve them samples and try and engage in a conversation. While we do this to make sales, the other thought is to create conversation, make connections, and make the shopping experience different and personal. This group did not see it that way. They found many of these nonverbal actions as awkward and overly assertive. During my visit, I learned that in most stores people would rarely greet you, ask if you needed help, or engage in unnecessary pleasantries. I found Canadians to be very nice, and were happy to help, but preferred to let the customer initiate conversation. I took this feedback home, and as we continued to expand in Canada, we adjusted our sales tactics and to training to better suit their verbal and their nonverbal preferences. Now in Canada, their sales process is tailored to meet their communication style. The new sales program uses softer sales verbiage and does not include so many details about nonverbal communication like eye contact and hand gestures. We decided to leave those choices up to the individual.

References:

Moran, Ph.D., R. T., Abramson, Ph.D., N. R., & Moran, MA, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences; Ninth Edition. Chapter 1: Global Leaders, Culture, and a Changing World. New York, NY, USA: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

Moran, Ph.D., R. T., Abramson, Ph.D., N. R., & Moran, MA, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences; Ninth Edition. Chapter 2: Global Leaders and Intercultural Communications. New York, NY, USA: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

While on my first deployment in the Navy, one of our port stops was in Japan. This is where I feel I learned what a true language barrier was. No one in this city knew how to speak English! As a young kid, this was my first experience abroad and to that point, I had never experienced such a wide gap in communication.

“We recognize that we are most comfortable communicating with those who are the most similar to us. This comfort level tends to decrease as dissimilarity increases” (Moran, Ph.D., Abramson, Ph.D., & Moran, MA, 2014, p. 37) If there ever was an example for this statement, I was living it. Trying to convey a message as simple as “Where is the closest bathroom?” was nearly impossible. This was before smart phones took over and closed the gap a bit. Each sailor was given a sheet of paper with about 10 common sayings printed on it with the meaning in English beside it. Not accurate. The longer we were out in the city, the more we realized we needed to find a common ground to communicate on if we were going to accomplish anything while out on liberty.

This is where nonverbal communication came into play. It’s funny, but you would be surprised at how affective one can be at charades when the prize is dinner, or a bathroom. “…80 to 90 percent of communication was nonverbal in that it involved no exchange of words” (Moran, Ph.D., Abramson, Ph.D., & Moran, MA, 2014, p. 43) How true that statement really is. By the end of our visit, we all felt we found common ground with the locals without even exchanging a single word in the same language. There were plenty of laughs along the way, but in the end, I feel as though we developed a level of appreciation for each other.

References

Moran, Ph.D., R. T., Abramson, Ph.D., N. R., & Moran, MA, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences; Ninth Edition. New York, NY, USA: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

 

 

 

Assumption

Wakes “Bob” Every time.

 

We’ve all heard the saying that to assume is to make an ass out of you and me. I’ve heard this said for many years, since I was a child. There is a reason why it has withstood the test of time and that reason is for the abundance of truth found within it. For this post, I will refer to that old saying as “Bob”. Communicating with someone whether their culture differs from ours or not, often takes a bit of finesse. It takes consideration and specific delivery of context in order to effectively convey out message. While communicating with someone who’s culture does differ from our own, it is especially important to keep in mind that if we are to assume anything, it is that we can assume nothing at all… lest we wake “Bob”.

“The most common assumption is projective cognitive similarity, that is, one assumes that the other perceives, judges, thinks, and reasons the same way he or she does.” (Moran and Moran, 2011) We like to assume that the world mirrors our personalities, characteristics and idiosyncrasies but as it often happens, this only results in bringing “Bob” back to life. In regards to communication, I’ve always said, “it is all in the delivery, delivery is everything”, and for working within my own culture, it usually is; but assuming that nothing else matters in my communication with someone from another culture could prove disastrous and even dangerous. Within my own culture, looking someone in the eye is regarded as a sign of integrity and honesty but looking someone in the eye in another culture could be construed as extremely disrespectful. So, the lines can be very fine, hence why assumptions can get one into a multitude of trouble.

Allowing ourselves to base important information on assumptions without ever looking into facts or testing theories out for ourselves, I think can easily lead to a form of “ethnocentrism”, “an exaggerated tendency to think the characteristics of one’s own group or race is superior to those of other groups or races” (PSU-WC, 2017) Even if this is genuinely not how we see ourselves, assuming things about another culture can certainly project qualities of ethnocentrism from our words and/or actions; yet again waking “Bob”.

In conclusion, I believe the best practice is to assume that you can assume nothing at all. This allows your mind to open and gain information rather than being preoccupied with what you think you already know…. Thus allowing “Bob” to rest.

 

• Moran, R. T., Ph. D., Remington Abramson, N., Ph. D., & Moran, S. V., MA. (2011). Managing Cultural Differences(9th ed.). Chapter 3. London: Routledge.
• Pennsylvania State University (2017). Leadership in a Global Context. OLEAD 410. Online course lesson. Penn State World Campus. The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved February 1, 2017 from

https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654085