Communicating Across Cultures

Questions for Erin MeyerInterview by Jennifer Anikst
Describe some of the ways in which culture impacts business.

A decade ago, the average multinational company might have worked with one foreign culture. But today, a huge percentage of managers have team members from many different countries — so it is imperative that they understand how the various cultures perceive one another, and how to improve collaboration between them.
Whether or not we realize it, small variations in communication patterns can have a tremendous impact on how we understand each other. These subtle differences — such as when to speak or stay quiet, or how to provide feedback — may seem minor, but if you don’t understand them, it can lead to a frustrated workforce.
Here’s an example: in France, people tend to be quite high-context, or implicit, in their communication, whereas Americans are more low-context, or explicit. Conversely, when it comes to giving negative feedback, the French are much more direct than Americans are — which does not follow the traditional stereotypes. In American culture, people are more likely to give three positives with every negative, in order to wrap up positive messages around criticism — which is very un-French. An American managerworking with French colleagues should know about this.

In the global economy, an increasingly-important skill is something you call ‘listening to the air’. Please describe it.

I got into the field of cross-cultural management after a powerful experience early in my career. I had travelled to Japan with a Japanese colleague, to give a presentation at a conference. Afterwards, I asked the audience if they had any questions. No one raised their hand, so I sat down. My colleagueleaned over and said, “Erin, I think there actually were some questions; do you mind if I try?” Fine. So, he stood up and addressed the group: “Professor Meyer has completed her presentation; do you have any questions?” Again, no one raised their hand, but this time he looked around very carefully: as he studied the silent, motionless participants, he gestured to one individual and asked, ‘Do you have a question?’ The woman said, ‘Yes. Thank you, I do’. She went on to ask a very important question. Then he did it again.

Afterwards, I needed to know how he did this. After reflecting on it, he said, “It had to do with how bright their eyes were.” Then, he clarified: “In Japan, we don’t make as much direct eye contact as you do in the West. So, when you asked the group if there were any questions, I noticed that although most people were not looking directly at you, there was one person looking right at you, and her eyes were bright — which suggested to me that she would be happy to have you call on her.”

The next day, I gave another presentation, and when I asked for questions afterwards, once again, no one raised their hand — so I decided to try my colleague’s approach. I looked very carefully at the group, and right away I noticed that he was right: most people in the room were not looking at me; but one man was looking directly into my eyes. I gestured to him and he nodded his head, and then he asked an important question.

This experience made me realize the importance of being tuned-in to the extremely subtle cues that people give off. My goal from that point on was to create a framework that helps people decode the way that different cultures perceive one another.

The ‘Culture Map’ you developed measures eight cultural characteristics.