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What is a team and how does it work? Germans and Americans often answer this question differently. So it is not surprising that American-German work teams often get stuck and conflicted when working together. The resulting breakdown in communication and lowered levels of trust often manifest as decreased productivity.
We have been very successful at helping American-German teams explore the cultural, structural and interpersonal factors in their collaboration. Our interventions have resulted in decreased conflict and misunderstandings, as well as improved decision-making quality, increased motivation and higher productivity.
Example: A German engineering company has recently acquired the majority stake in a American company. The management team consists of both Germans and Americans. The business situation calls for speedy and decisive action, but the managers struggle with cooperating in a productive way.
The multi-cultural makeup of international teams increases the challenges and complexity of collaboration exponentially. Assumptions about the role of the team leader, the roles of team members, the process of working together, the reasons for planning and much more may be widely divergent. Thus, international teams need to develop higher levels of awareness, knowledge and skills to deal with both process and task issues.
We support multi-cultural teams in appreciating the value of the different perspectives present, as well as in working out functional ground rules and processes for effective collaboration.
At times, a neutral facilitator can be invaluable in international meetings or a challenging team situation. Are team members struggling to make decisions? Are you looking for ways to structure a meeting, during which you expect different opinions to surface? Do members of working groups feel that they could be more creative, but don’t quite know how?
We help our clients navigate the cultural challenges inherent in agenda-building, timing and bridging different communication styles. By making sure that all voices in the room are heard, we contribute to decision-making quality, motivation and increased commitment to implementation. |
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Teambuildings |
