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Welcome to the new York Associates electronic newsletter Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from York Associates. We would like to wish you all, our clients, partners, administration staff, trainers and host families, a relaxing festive holiday break and a positive start to 2010. In this first edition of our new electronic newsletter you’ll find useful communication tips from Bob Dignen for those working in international projects. You can also get up to date with the latest news from York Associates, including information on our new group training course in 2010, English for International Communication. We hope you enjoy this newsletter and we look forward to receiving your feedback. |
Winter 2009-10
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Making international project team meetings work for you - building a meetings culture Ways of leading and working in international project teams can be very different across cultures. . Attitudes to schedules and deadlines may differ. Decision-making styles can vary between a slow and analytical and a fast and action-oriented approach. Communication style may be indirect in one context but very direct in another. One way for international project teams to manage this diversity is to build a team communication culture which enables different mindsets and working styles to come together and interact successfully. So what does it take to build a communication culture? Cultural and personal differences in the way people communicate can lead to misunderstanding. One way to manage this challenge is to explicitly define a culture of communication – to discuss and then agree how members of the team should talk to each other. Here are some ideas on things to discuss within the team as part of your progress towards defining a communication culture. 1. Discuss the meaning of polite communication. This can be a great way to surface different attitudes to directness and to avoid those who are open and honest being seen as rude. 2. Discuss the best way of discussing. Some people value agenda, structured argumentation and lots of data. Others value imaginative thinking and an open exploration of solutions. 3. Discuss participation rules. We all know the problem of trying to handle individuals who speak for too long and, at the same time, trying to encourage more silent members to participate. Some teams commit to equal participation, a great way to manage native English speakers who so often dominate international meetings. 4. Discuss the value of clarification questions. At York Associates we spend a lot of time training people to listen effectively by asking questions which clarify both the content of what people have said and their intentions. However, questions can be interpreted as challenging a speaker so it is important to agree within the team on the value of questions and to encourage their use. 5. Discuss how to give feedback. An effective communication culture is one which promotes open and honest feedback which can enable a team to learn and develop high performance. For example, the simple action of dedicating the last five minutes of every meeting to review the effectiveness of the communication in the meeting is a great way to improve team communication on an ongoing basis. However, it is important to agree on the style of feedback collectively as very different understandings of feedback (direct or indirect, focus on the positive or the negative) may exist in the team. The message is simple. Discuss and build a communication culture collectively as a project team and review on an ongoing basis. It will enable you not only to manage the risks of diversity but to capture its opportunities. To leave a comment on this article click here |
Your feedback or comments on anything in this newsletter will be much appreciated. Tel: 00 44 1904 624246 York Associates |