Transcript
[00:00:06.080] - Imogen
Hello and welcome to Dear Comms, the coffee break podcast where we tackle your biggest corporate comms challenges. I'm Imogen.
[00:00:13.910] - Amanda
And I'm Amanda. We're here to give you practical, no-nonsense advice so you can focus on the things that will really drive influence, engagement, and impact.
[00:00:24.130] - Imogen
Today's question comes from Sarah. Sarah is leading a communications team in a multinational company, and she says, "I'm finding it tough to navigate the cultural differences, both in how we run communications campaigns across the organization, but also in how I lead a dispersed team. Do you have any advice?" Good news for Sarah, both Amanda and I have been there before, and so we have plenty of advice.
[00:00:54.100] - Amanda
Yep, been there, worn the t-shirt. And for the most part, I found being part of a multinational organization amazing. But you know what? Sometimes it's daunting at times too, and that's just working out the different time zones, quite frankly.
[00:01:12.480] - Imogen
Yes, I used to have multiple clocks on my desktop to figure out who was where and what time they were sitting.
[00:01:20.650] - Amanda
I was always Googling, yeah.
[00:01:23.220] - Imogen
I mean, navigating different cultures can be really tricky. It's not just about language, but it's also about different communication styles. It's about social norms, ways of working, even humor and expectation.
[00:01:38.000] - Amanda
It's a big topic, so I think the best way to tackle this one is to split the question in two. So, communicating across cultures as someone sitting in HQ. And then taking a look at how you can better work with your team when you're distanced by geography.
[00:01:56.120] - Imogen
Okay, so starting with communicating from HQ as corporate communications campaigns, how do you ensure your campaigns are hitting the mark? We want to make sure that they are understood, they're inclusive, and importantly, that they're actually driving action or change.
[00:02:14.750] - Amanda
So the first thing you absolutely need to do is understand the communication styles and expectations of the various countries you'll be working with.
[00:02:23.330] - Imogen
A really good way to do this is using local expertise. So, talk to people, find out how different teams process and receive information. You know, do they like a lot of detail or are they more big picture? Do they want you to get straight to the facts or do they need a little bit of warming up? Do they need a lot of context?
[00:02:46.070] - Amanda
You know, you might not have an official comms person in every market. It's rare, to be honest. So try and have at least one ambassador for your communications who can act as a conduit between you and local employees.
[00:03:03.070] - Imogen
That community is so important, because you can use them to crowdsource ideas and sense-check communications. So get your people together and take advantage of the diversity of knowledge that's open to you. Ask them to share things that are working or things that aren't working.
[00:03:22.140] - Amanda
You know, finding that person is really easy because it's the one who usually knows everything and what's happening on the ground.
[00:03:29.590] - Imogen
Yeah.
[00:03:30.170] - Amanda
They stand out. You'll know who it is. The other thing is different messages for different audiences.
[00:03:37.630] - Imogen
Oh, yes.
[00:03:38.740] - Amanda
You might want to think about the channels you're using too. What works in one country might not work in another. You know, you might have varying internet speeds or patchy access to telecoms. So this is the time to pull out the results of your communications audit.
[00:03:59.840] - Imogen
If you haven't given in to our pestering about communications audits and you haven't done one yet, or if the one that you have isn't really telling you what you need to know, It's time to go back to those ambassadors, those conduits, and find out what is actually working for your audience. It's no good to just guess. We need to really understand, are they reliant on technology? Do they prefer face-to-face? Are they formal, informal? How do they work?
[00:04:31.550] - Amanda
Don't forget your non-desk-based employees, the unwired, if you like. You know what, they're often forgotten. Left out. They can be hard to reach, yeah, I know I understand that, and difficult to influence them, but they are important. And there are lots of ways in which you can get information to them. Think about payslips. I worked in an organization that used the back of the payslip for a large employee base that was based in restaurants. What channels can you take advantage of? Ask yourself that question.
[00:05:06.030] - Imogen
I think finally, when it comes to global comms campaigns and you've figured out the channels that work and you figured out, you know, how you can make it relevant to different cultures, you can't forget your language.
[00:05:21.320] - Amanda
Yeah, you might have a business language, but there's always going to be varying levels of fluency.
[00:05:27.490] - Imogen
Yeah, there's going to be varying levels of fluency, but there's also huge regional differences, even when you're in the same country or in neighboring countries. You know, I'm based in Switzerland now. Swiss French is incredibly different from French French. Similarly, Swiss German and German. So, we need to be aware that even though it's the same language, there may be huge differences.
[00:05:52.940] - Amanda
And never assume knowledge. You've got to keep it simple. Explain any jargon or acronyms.
[00:06:00.720] - Imogen
Yeah, be very, very conscious as well of things like slang and colloquialisms. In English, we have a lot of colloquialisms we like to use. You know, we might refer to, if we're doing IT security, we might refer to a dodgy email, or we might refer to people being flat out. Using these terms, one, your tone might be wrong, but secondly, more importantly, I think people might not actually understand what you're talking about.
[00:06:29.760] - Amanda
You know, I always find difficult humor.
[00:06:32.810] - Imogen
All right.
[00:06:33.480] - Amanda
I think, yeah, it's nice to use it, but it doesn't always work for me. I think it's because it's— I have a very UK sense of humor, well, Welsh really, and I think often it's very easy to be mistranslated and cause offense. So if you are going to use humor, I'd be cautious and I'd go back to those local ambassadors and check with them.
[00:06:58.950] - Imogen
Yeah, I think humour's a tricky one because it's great if you can use it in your communications, but so often humor is linked to cultural references and cultural norms, and so it doesn't always go across the borders the way in which we'd like.
[00:07:15.320] - Amanda
I'm always very jealous when somebody gets that right because it can really help in certain situations, but yeah, be cautious about using it.
[00:07:24.680] - Imogen
Check in with your markets. Make sure you're hitting the brief when it comes to channel style approach. A lot of companies I know send out things like toolkits when they're running big comms campaigns. So if you are doing toolkits, can you do a quick pulse survey afterwards to see what the teams actually used and what they didn't and what they want next time?
[00:07:47.150] - Amanda
Yeah, that's really important because I think we don't tend to follow up on toolkits really, and we should. Because you bet your bottom dollar you'll be producing another one sooner or later.
[00:07:57.170] - Imogen
Yeah, and so why waste time producing stuff that isn't being used?
[00:08:01.180] - Amanda
Yeah, or parts of it. Some parts may be used more than others. I think the other thing to remember is despite your skills, you're not expected to know everything.
[00:08:11.700] - Imogen
When in doubt, ask the question.
[00:08:14.030] - Amanda
If we move on to leading across borders, heading up a global communications team, well, that's a whole a new set of skills?
[00:08:23.030] - Imogen
Yeah, I think we could break it down into maybe 4 areas. So one, it's about learning your team. Secondly, learning yourself, learning your own style. Thirdly, how we create the right team culture. And fourthly, it's got to be about skill development.
[00:08:45.300] - Amanda
Absolutely. So let's start with number one, learning about your own team. What we mean by that is understanding each member of your team's individual working styles. And do you know what? It's not just about their work, but it's how they approach it, how they make decisions, how they give and receive feedback. Another thing that is important is some people are better in the morning, some people are better in the afternoons. And I think by understanding that, you can get the team ticking.
[00:09:15.850] - Imogen
It's not just about you as the leader. Understanding is it's really important that everyone within the team understands how everyone in the team likes to work. You might think about pairing employees from different backgrounds as a sort of form of cultural exchange or mentorship.
[00:09:34.380] - Amanda
I like that idea.
[00:09:35.670] - Imogen
I think the other thing when it comes to your own style, and we mean leadership style, it's hard because everyone knows what kind of leader they wish they had, and sometimes Cultural differences play in that as well. So, some cultures are expecting a more authoritative leader, whereas other cultures really like their leaders to be collaborative or hands-off.
[00:10:03.160] - Amanda
Yeah, you know, ask. I once worked with an employee where I thought she wanted me to be quite hands-on and involved. Actually, the reality was she felt that I wasn't letting her grow and show that she could do the particular task in question. So, be flexible, ask for feedback, you know, are they comfortable with your approach? Ask them what you should be doing differently.
[00:10:30.730] - Imogen
When you've got a team that is diverse, you need to define a culture for that team. Sometimes it helps to be a bit formal about it, actually, and set it down almost in a manifesto, you know, what can the team expect from you and what do you expect from them?
[00:10:52.190] - Amanda
It's a really good topic for a team meeting, actually, in terms of brainstorming that and getting the old co-creation going.
[00:11:00.770] - Imogen
Yeah.
[00:11:01.120] - Amanda
So another thing is that you need to be comfortable working across time zones and how you collaborate across those time zones. You've got to allow everyone the opportunity to participate at a time that suits them. You know, Imogen and I have both worked in companies where we were up early looking at email, we were checking email before we went to bed. And you know, that's not on in these days, really. You've got to be aware of when people are going to be online and not.
[00:11:33.750] - Imogen
Absolutely, and that's something you can set down in that manifesto. Like, do you expect them to be on call 24 hours? You know, and it goes for meetings as well. Nothing worse. I always felt for my poor old colleagues in Australia who always had calls as of 8 o'clock at night, or similarly, you know, our friends in America who've got calls at 5 in the morning because Europe wants to discuss something.
[00:11:58.130] - Amanda
Do something simple, rotate the meeting times to accommodate time zones, and celebrate different cultural holidays as well in the team. Just have a little bit of cultural intelligence.
[00:12:11.230] - Imogen
I admit, uh, when we were researching for this, this episode, I had to look up cultural intelligence, which suggests that I have, um, very little. Um, but it may be something that's new to, to, to other people as well. You know, we've heard of emotional intelligence, um, sometimes I have intelligence intelligence. What is cultural intelligence?
[00:12:32.150] - Amanda
It's simply about being aware of and adapting to different cultural contexts, and it's a skill that we can all learn.
[00:12:40.750] - Imogen
Absolutely. We might want to think about when we're considering development and development objectives for our teams, you know, how can we add in cultural intelligence to those objectives? Because not only will it help your team function better, but it's also going to develop an individual's empathy and adaptability as well.
[00:13:03.390] - Amanda
That's a win-win all round. We'll put a link in the show notes to a particularly good simulation game that could be a good starting point. And there are also tools like the Cultural Intelligence Scale, again, we'll link to it in the notes, which will help you track your improvements over time.
[00:13:21.490] - Imogen
I think the key thing, all that we've discussed today, is the importance of openness. Openness to new ideas, to new ways of working, to new experiences. Your team is going to follow your lead. So help them feel comfortable about sharing their own experience and creating a place where cultural differences aren't just acknowledged, but they're celebrated.
[00:13:49.730] - Amanda
Yeah, and make space for that celebration and give everybody the opportunity to share their experiences. Because remember, the goal isn't to eliminate cultural differences, but to harness them as strengths that contribute to the team's success. You know, if you really embrace the diversity with the team, you can use it as a catalyst for growth and creativity.
[00:14:17.350] - Imogen
If you've got a comms challenge you want us to tackle, send us a note, connect with us on LinkedIn, drop it in the comments. We would love to help. Until next time.
[00:14:28.830] - Amanda
See ya!
)
