What are the people in this photo learning? Unless learning is targeted, it can feel like doing your job wearing a blindfold; what if everyone on your team was blindfolded too? Let’s call identifying what you need to know to get your job done “targeted learning.” So, it's your turn- and by that I mean, please participate in this conversation to identify and develop the ideas that will help you get your work done in the global marketplace.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know business has gone global. And, you may have global teams in place or envision the need to create global teams. Whether your role is operations, leadership, or organizational development, I’ll bet you have perspective on what the challenges are for global teams. I think it’s a fascinating area for multiple reasons:
- Global teams are a microcosm of influences in global business (country culture, company culture, and how these work together to get business done)
- While all teams form, norm, storm and perform, in global teams developing norms can be especially tricky (they spend precious little physical time together, and have to overcome the fragmented communication of virtual meetings, not to mention understanding each other’s language and metaphors).
- Norms brings up ethics. Jed Reay asks about ethical behavior reinforced by team leaders. I ask: How do global teams develop standards by which they work, and communicate the standards by which they live and play? And in the process of getting their team’s work done outside the team, what happens when the team runs into ethical challenges that may be rooted in another culture’s way of doing business? I liked Beverly Cornell’s blog about Ethics in Global Business, and what I read here: “Companies operating overseas find that understanding and complying with variant laws, managing employees far from headquarters, serving customers and relating to suppliers and partners in multiple jurisdictions can introduce significant challenges to developing shared ethics in business and values.”
- In his book Working GlobeSmart, Dr. Ernest Gundling states, “The single greatest cause of difficulties in global business transactions is not a lack of technical expertise, hard work or good intentions—it is a lack of ‘people skills’ for relating successfully across style differences attributed to factors such as national culture, organizational culture, job function, and personality.”
- On this list of Ten Top Mistakes in Developing Global Business Ethics two jumped out at me, because of their relevance to global teams: Don’t skip over getting consensus on the reasons for globalization (because shared mission is critical for global teams). And, acknowledge the many cultural similarities rather than focus on the few cultural differences.
Well, if you’re stimulated to want to start tackling these issues, I hope you’ll warm up by coming to two webcasts coming up:
Thursday Mar 4 (with rebroadcasts through Mar 8) at 3pm ET Alexander Brigham discusses Ethics as Business Advantage Alexander Brigham is the Executive Director of the Ethisphere Institute, the world's most recognized authority in research and rating of corporate and institutional ethics.
Wednesday Mar 10 (with re-broadcasts through Mar 12) What Makes Global Teams Work Steven Pritchard, Director Global Accounts and Principle Consultant at TMA World, discusses globalisation, global leadership, teaming and cross cultural capability. Steven leads a team of 36 Consultants based in 26 different countries delivering training in 14 different languages, 70% of this team's work is located in emerging markets.
Target and personalize your learning; please post your comments below and post your questions and learning take away's on the page where you register for these webcasts to engage with these thought leaders and successful practitioners.
