Multiculturalism is great for teams - But what are the challenges and benefits we face?
Many companies are experiencing an increase in multiculturalism. The work from home new norm helps to further propel this trend, connecting employees from different regions and different time zones more often than ever. While we enjoy the benefits of cross culture communication, such as better knowledge sharing, gaining more perspectives and ideas, we are also exposed to some down sides. What are these down sides and how can we address them? But also, what are some of the key benefits? Some of the most common obstacles to a collaborative and successful team is the lack of cultural awareness and empathy, persistent unconscious biases, as well as conscious biases and stereotyping. Considering how our world and work are even more connected these days, we find it important to address this rising trend.
What are the benefits and importance of multiculturalism?
Creativity
Having employees bring different perspective is a crucial resource for a company’s success. Based on research, a good mix of people, diversity, respect and true inclusion help spur creativity and increase problem solving skills. Based on a recent study, teams with cultural diversity are likely to be more productive, creative and achieve better results. A good way to cultivate out-of-box thinking, for example, is to let employees bounce off ideas with one another freely, with no judgment. Multicultural teams with different backgrounds, at different locations and diverse perspectives create a perfect ground to breed brilliant and innovative ideas, and overcome unconscious biases.
Market Advantage
When a company enters a new market, it needs eyes on the ultimate goal. Whether it is on product development, market research, local trends and customer preferences; it is important to have employees with local expertise in your team as they posses qualities such as local connections, native language skills and cultural understanding which are hard to gain from research alone. So, if you have a multicultural team, please let the “experts” in the market culture share, create and even guide you through when the opportunity arises. It is by exchanging ideas and learning form one another, that multiculturalism will work.
Product/Service Development
Stretching and expanding from the previous point on market advantage, a multicultural team with deeper knowledge of local market may be able to spot potential market space and opportunities more easily. Moreover, they may be able to suggest how products and services could be adapted in a way to make it more relatable to local market. Having said that, it is the combination of local and international expertise that allow for a more innovative and inclusive product/service development, where no one is considered “better or worse” but that everyone has a voice in the development of the team and company.
What are the common challenges of multiculturalism?
Lack of awareness is one of the most common issues in multicultural teams. It may seem like an oversimplification, but it is the truth. Team members may lack the awareness to understand themselves and to understand other people’s traditions, values, perspectives and so forth. The gap in cultural awareness is most commonly presented in communication. Usage of slangs and culturally relevant language may not appeal to other people and may lead to misunderstandings and/or even micro-aggressions, discrimination and racism. The lack of awareness may also lead to a lack of empathy for others.
Multiculturalism is supposed to foster growth and build flexibility, expansion, innovation but if miscommunications are not handled well, if cultural awareness and empathy are not increased and developed - then the challenges can be a source of conflicts and confrontation. So, how can you manage multiculturalism in a team for a more collaborative and successful outcome for all?
What are some of the solutions?
Cultural awareness
Are you aware of the different cultures in the room? Different customs, traditions, even festivals and holiday celebrations? We can take some time to learn about different cultures and these knowledge will guide us on how to talk, communicate, empathise and work with people from different backgrounds than ours. Building a sense of empathy and sensitivity by openly communicating the differences with others and finding common ground are also useful ways forward. The key here is empathy and openness, respecting others’ perspective, slowing down decision making process and understanding the rationale behind actions.
Generate resources pool
All members should be given knowledge and resources to develop. The knowledge and perspective gap between members may create dissonance in communication and decision making, so we must address and minimise the potential traps. Having shared resources, folders, schedules and files across different locations can help close the gap. Creating a culture of sharing, openness and avoiding judgement toward diverse ideas can also promote a richer resource pool.
Training and education
Diversity, inclusion and belonging trainings looking at biases and behavior can also be a crucial tool to help. Training can be done in top down approach, because seniority is likely to translate well to ability in making changes in an organisation. It is more effective to incorporate multiculturalism in decision making process. Having said that, in less hierarchical organizations and with more fluid reporting lines, we can also work from the bottom up - depending on the organization. Training content can be created and customized to identify the blindspots and help reveal them for employees to learn and adapt.
Walk the talk with FELIZ
At FELIZ Consulting, we aim to walk the talk and help our clients in building multicultural successful and inclusive teams. In recent projects, we introduced bilingual training for clients with Mandarin/English needs. This helps our clients to truly understand the content and build better interactions across teams.
Our own team is diverse, inclusive, open and collaborative.
Reach out to us via [email protected] and find out how we can help you in building effective and successful multicultural teams with our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging /Unconscious Bias trainings delivered in bilingual setting or as you require.
Written by Howard Chim
References:
1. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/cultural-diversity-training-workplace-43290.html
3. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/010215-cross-cultural-training.aspx