1. UK ENGLISH IS NOT INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH. AMERICAN ENGLISH IS NOT INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH.
Avoid slang and colloquialisms if anyone new is in the conversation. Think HARD about what might be slang or idiom. Be particularly careful to avoid phrases where the meaning is the opposite of the individual words.
Learn what "mistakes" are common in speakers from particular countries and learn how to go around them. Often non-native speakers will use academically correct English which sounds imperative and aggressive to idiomatic speakers. e.g. "I'll have John look at that" is perfectly natural American English but sounds imperialist even to English English speakers. I've noticed Indian staff often do the opposite and what should be "you must, otherwise this project is doomed" becomes "if you don't mind when you can get around to it if it's not too much trouble."
2. Remember cultural references are not universal, despite Coca-Cola Co's best efforts. Watch out for this when drawing analogies, especially with TV shows, social situations, and personal money.
3. Be patient. It's not anyone's fault that you were born 9000 miles apart. If a communication doesn't make sense or seems offensive on first sight, check.
4. Quick phone meeting every day is essential. Try and find a slot that isn't the end of day for anyone (can be tough to do that depending what timezones are involved.) And I do mean quick - 15 mins - and have a tight agenda e.g. "UK hotspot/news, India hotspot news, Singapore hotspot/news." Be careful about what "today" and "tomorrow" means in practice. "End of tomorrow" is probably "first thing the day after tomorrow" for someone on the call.
5. Unified Comms is great if used properly, but do remember it's not face to face conversation and works on different assumptions. Instant messaging is particularly dangerous because written English and spoken English do not operate on the same set of assumptions; but in IM it's tempting to mix it up. I ran two similar projects in a bank two years apart; the second time, we had Office Communicator and it made the whole thing a HELL of a lot easier. I was astounded by how useful it was.
6. In a virtual team, it's very likely that not everyone in the team will be in the team full-time. Be aware of that and don't assume that "four hours work" means that it will be done the same afternoon. Ask.
Great advice. My German colleague just said the word "prepone" to me, in reference to a meeting. Opposite of postpone? That's what I guessed. It's not a word I've read, heard or spoken in the last 40 years. I had to look it up.
It turns out that the Indians invented it and it is the opposite of postpone. There is not an English word opposite to postpone, so they made one up. Fair enough.
I do use slang in front of my German colleagues; normally after they've broken out the German, which they know I'm limited i
The very concept of preponing a meeting is intrinsically offensive to Americans. The question presumes that the reason the meeting was scheduled for next week is completely arbitrary, and doesn't represent the first available time that that all parties are available. It implies that in other cultures, a meeting could be scheduled for next month with absolutely no thought put into that date or how it may impact other people's plans or schedules. It's even more offensive when you do confirm that yes, in fa
Remember cultural references are not universal, despite Coca-Cola Co's best efforts. Watch out for this when drawing analogies, especially with TV shows, social situations, and personal money.
But on the bright side, you can make some great personal connections if you just show a little curiosity about those cultural references. I spent a couple hours one evening introducing one of my Indian coworkers to NWA, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and some other hip hop music. This came about after he asked whether a par
Good point. I was thinking more about a virtual team that changes often. If you're in it for the long haul then you do start making personal connections and understand what the various people understand and don't understand. Er, if you understand me.
Then of course there's the whole thing about mental pictures you form on the phone and the shock you sometimes get when you finally meet them.:-)
Yeah, if there's a lot of turnover, those personal bonds get very difficult to form. Most of my work with distributed teams has been with fairly stable international groups all working for a single large company, so we've had a chance to get to know one another a bit.
As trite as it'll sound here on Slashdot, using some social media types of stuff - Facebook, LinkedIn esp. - to "socialize" with your distributed team outside of official business channels can also help foster those bonds - from what I've seen
A successful [software] tool is one that was used to do something
undreamed of by its author. -- S. C. Johnson
Patience, language, and other tips (Score:5, Insightful)
1. UK ENGLISH IS NOT INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH. AMERICAN ENGLISH IS NOT INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH.
Avoid slang and colloquialisms if anyone new is in the conversation. Think HARD about what might be slang or idiom. Be particularly careful to avoid phrases where the meaning is the opposite of the individual words.
Learn what "mistakes" are common in speakers from particular countries and learn how to go around them. Often non-native speakers will use academically correct English which sounds imperative and aggressive to idiomatic speakers. e.g. "I'll have John look at that" is perfectly natural American English but sounds imperialist even to English English speakers. I've noticed Indian staff often do the opposite and what should be "you must, otherwise this project is doomed" becomes "if you don't mind when you can get around to it if it's not too much trouble."
2. Remember cultural references are not universal, despite Coca-Cola Co's best efforts. Watch out for this when drawing analogies, especially with TV shows, social situations, and personal money.
3. Be patient. It's not anyone's fault that you were born 9000 miles apart. If a communication doesn't make sense or seems offensive on first sight, check.
4. Quick phone meeting every day is essential. Try and find a slot that isn't the end of day for anyone (can be tough to do that depending what timezones are involved.) And I do mean quick - 15 mins - and have a tight agenda e.g. "UK hotspot/news, India hotspot news, Singapore hotspot/news." Be careful about what "today" and "tomorrow" means in practice. "End of tomorrow" is probably "first thing the day after tomorrow" for someone on the call.
5. Unified Comms is great if used properly, but do remember it's not face to face conversation and works on different assumptions. Instant messaging is particularly dangerous because written English and spoken English do not operate on the same set of assumptions; but in IM it's tempting to mix it up. I ran two similar projects in a bank two years apart; the second time, we had Office Communicator and it made the whole thing a HELL of a lot easier. I was astounded by how useful it was.
6. In a virtual team, it's very likely that not everyone in the team will be in the team full-time. Be aware of that and don't assume that "four hours work" means that it will be done the same afternoon. Ask.
7. Notice how far down this list technology is...
Re: (Score:2)
My German colleague just said the word "prepone" to me, in reference to a meeting. Opposite of postpone? That's what I guessed. It's not a word I've read, heard or spoken in the last 40 years. I had to look it up.
It turns out that the Indians invented it and it is the opposite of postpone. There is not an English word opposite to postpone, so they made one up. Fair enough.
I do use slang in front of my German colleagues; normally after they've broken out the German, which they know I'm limited i
Re: (Score:1)
Accelerate? Advance?
We need to postpone the meeting time.
We need to postpone the software release.
We need to advance the meeting time.
We need to accelerate the software release.
Re: (Score:2)
The very concept of preponing a meeting is intrinsically offensive to Americans. The question presumes that the reason the meeting was scheduled for next week is completely arbitrary, and doesn't represent the first available time that that all parties are available. It implies that in other cultures, a meeting could be scheduled for next month with absolutely no thought put into that date or how it may impact other people's plans or schedules. It's even more offensive when you do confirm that yes, in fa
Re: (Score:2)
But on the bright side, you can make some great personal connections if you just show a little curiosity about those cultural references. I spent a couple hours one evening introducing one of my Indian coworkers to NWA, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, and some other hip hop music. This came about after he asked whether a par
Re: (Score:2)
Good point. I was thinking more about a virtual team that changes often. If you're in it for the long haul then you do start making personal connections and understand what the various people understand and don't understand. Er, if you understand me.
Then of course there's the whole thing about mental pictures you form on the phone and the shock you sometimes get when you finally meet them. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, if there's a lot of turnover, those personal bonds get very difficult to form. Most of my work with distributed teams has been with fairly stable international groups all working for a single large company, so we've had a chance to get to know one another a bit.
As trite as it'll sound here on Slashdot, using some social media types of stuff - Facebook, LinkedIn esp. - to "socialize" with your distributed team outside of official business channels can also help foster those bonds - from what I've seen