How to be Culturally Capable

Yesterday, Clarence Eddy and I co-facilitated a class called "BKM's for Global Productivity".

We work with 'global goddess' Heather Hinrichs of Meridian Resources to provide this class, which is based on the book "Working Globesmart" (highly recommended).

No better tool set exists for approaching an unfamiliar location than keen eyes, open ears, a flexible mind, and a willing heart.
-Ernest Gundling, "Working Globesmart"

That said, Meridian provides an awesome tool called 'Globesmart' that identifies your cultural profile, and maps it to your target countries cultural profile. Gaps are then mapped, and the tool helps you identify a plan to close those gaps.

The picture above shows my cultural profile vs. US and Japan.
I map pretty well against Japanese culture in terms of Long-term outlook and Interdependence, but have large gaps in my views on Status and Risk.
Based on this information, I can prepare myself to adjust to the Japanese culture by:

• Ibserving and leverage protocols around age and title, where appropriate
• Focusing on how my programs avoid risk, as opposed to embrace risk

It's a very cool tool and a class worth taking.
I never make a first trip without consulting it!

Does your DiSC profile change when you travel?

Yesterday, I was leading a 'High Performance Teams' session in Yokohama, Japan.
We always do individual behavior profiling, using DiSC, to open our session.

In the past, we've tested everyone using the English version of DiSC, since we're a US-based company.
This trip, for the first time, we used a Japanese language version.
As a test, I had my good friend Fumio Nishikata take both the English and Japanese versions.

Since he does a lot of work with both the US and Japan, he took the Japanese version thinking of his Japanese work environment, and the English version thinking of his US work environment.
I wasn't very surprised to see that his profile changed slightly.

In Japan, Fumio is a 'power D' (directive), with a secondary 'I' (influence). Under stress, his 'D' becomes even more pronounced. So Fumio uses primarily a directive behavior in Japan.

In the US, however, Fumio is a 'high I', with a secondary 'D'; meaning he is more likely to use influence. Under stress, his directive behavior drops, and his 'S' (sociability) rises, so he's more likely to agree to consensus decisions.

As we discussed this, we surmised that most people who are successful in global organizations probably have a similar pattern. That is, it's likely that they will become less directive, using more influence and consensus away from home.

The people who continue to be directive, on foreign land, are usually the ones who fail...