It’s About Awareness: Cross-cultural Management Training for Global Teams

This summer, OnLogic managers as well as the full HR team participated in a cross-cultural management training course, facilitated by global cultural analytics and strategy advisory, Hofstede Insights. The training was initiated and organized by OnLogic’s Inclusivity Team, whose aim is to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion is part of everything we do. 

Different cultures and cultural differences

One of the incredible parts of working at OnLogic, is being a part of a growing global team. We currently have locations in the United States (Vermont, North Carolina), the Netherlands, Malaysia, Taiwan, and most recently, Germany. Across each of these locations, our team consists of people from a wide range of countries and cultural backgrounds that extend well beyond those locations listed. And, of course, with different cultures comes cultural differences. 

The purpose of this training was to provide participants with insights into how team members working across cultures work differently, and how to improve synergies among them. Ahead of the in-person session, participants were asked to complete some pre-work which included a survey, a Cultural Compass assessment, a master class on culture, as well as an introductory course on intercultural communication. 

This particular training focused on the Hofstede Model of National Culture, which uses six dimensions to better understand the culture of a country. The dimensions include: power distance, individualism, masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation, and indulgence. Without getting too in the weeds, it’s a helpful framework for understanding intercultural interactions, especially in the context of the workplace. Each person that took the training had the opportunity to figure out where they fall on each dimension, and how this may impact communication and collaboration. 

Key learnings and takeaways 

According to Justin McCabe, General Counsel at OnLogic and leadership sponsor of the Inclusivity Team, the training was a learning opportunity to bridge some of the gaps without being prescriptive. It was never “Here’s what you should do.” or “Here’s how you should change.” Instead, it was focused on awareness. The training encourages self reflection like, “This is what is helpful for me to know about myself, and to know (in general) about other countries, so that I have the tools to think about and understand where somebody might be coming from.” Justin emphasized that it was very much, “Be aware – and then navigate that”. 

Laura Zuelch, Recruiter at OnLogic and member of the Inclusivity Team, also participated in the training session. She shared that it was insightful to compare the results of her Cultural Compass Report to those of her fellow HR team members. “It’s really interesting because we were able to compare how we all look according to this graph and see that even within a team – and even within just the Vermont part of the team – how different everybody is, and let alone adding the global component into it, and then adding some of those cultural expectations – it is just a really interesting exercise.” The HR Team is planning on doing a deep dive into the results and talking about how they can work and communicate even more effectively as a team.

Both Justin and Laura shared a number of anecdotes that were part of the discussion, highlighting how cultural differences are relative, and again laying emphasis on how important it is to approach interactions in the workplace with this sort of cultural nuance and understanding. 

It’s about awareness

These sorts of training efforts are critical to the work of the Inclusivity Team at OnLogic. By educating our team members and providing them with useful information and tools to bring to the table, we can all become more aware of where each of us are coming from. 

If this write-up has piqued your interest, and you would like to learn more about where different countries land for each of the 6 dimensions as outlined by Hofstede, check out the country comparison tool provided by Hofstede Insights. If you are interested in learning more about some of the intricacies of intercultural business environments with some really great storytelling mixed in, we recommend reading The Culture Map, a book by Erin Meyer. 

And remember, when learning about cultural differences, it is not about correcting or changing each other’s cultures. It is about awareness.