The importance of intercultural competency for people who may never work outside their home country is the theme of “Going Global, Stateside,” an article by Tanya Mohn in the New York Times.
The excerpt below describes RW3 CultureWizard and the experience one of it’s clients, Thomson Reuters, had with its CultureWizard site.
Andrew P. Walker, vice president of global mobility for Thomson Reuters, said online training was easier, quicker and cheaper than in-person training. Thomson Reuters uses CultureWizard, a Web-based tool created by the company RW3, for its employees in 93 countries for what he said was ‘a fraction of the cost’ of formal training.
Mr. Walker said he also used it himself. ‘Without the course, I think I would have made a lot of mistakes,’ said Mr. Walker, who moved back to the United States in July after five years in London. He said his low-key, light-hearted manner was fine on business trips, but when he was working there full time, ‘I wouldn’t be able to get away with it forever.’ He said the program helped speed the transition.
Michael S. Schell, chief executive of RW3, recounted how a mining and exploration company in Britain contacted his firm because the mining company was unsuccessful in winning business from an American company. ‘During the training, we pointed out that the proposal turned off the Americans,’ Mr. Schell said, because it began with 10 pages detailing all the risks of the venture and how much failure would cost.
Americans tend to view failure as a learning experience that inspires creativity, Mr. Schell said, so the American company considered the proposal negative and unenthusiastic. The British tend to be risk-averse culturally, he said, and perceived the Americans as unrealistic. When the British company redid the proposal with a positive spin, they got the deal the next day, he said.
‘Differences got overlooked because we speak English,’ Mr. Schell said. ‘They look like us, wear the same jeans and use the same cellphones.’
The assumption is that we’re all the same, but we’re not all the same.
