How to cope with culture clashes and different time zones when collaborating across global offices
"If everyone is moving forward together, success takes care of itself."
While this Henry Ford quote sums up a simple idea for businesses, sustaining a culture of collaboration across a global organisation is more difficult than it sounds.
When offices are split across different countries, operations and communications, departments can quickly become siloed.
The trick is finding a way to empower global teams.
Giving power back to the people
In a business environment with increased competition, more digitisation, and a pace of change that shows no sign of slowing – people remain a company’s most important asset.
They are your competitive advantage, and all companies should focus on making them feel integral to the company's mission, however far away they are from a your head office.
Investing in an individual to spearhead internal communications is a great place to start. This person should empower managers, monitor both team and individual development, and share all of this directly with the company chief executive
By spending more time asking people what they want and responding to it, you can begin to build an effective team ethos that promotes collaboration across continents.
Avoid the culture clash
It is also important to build a global team reflective of the countries you operate in.
This means investing in the people you want to serve – employ people from different cultures with the localised knowledge you need to enhance your presence.
It is true that different countries and employees from different cultures will vary in how they conduct business, but this diversity is something to celebrated. Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity outperform their competitors by 35 per cent, according to McKinsey & Company.
The only place employees should strive for sameness is in shared corporate values and common organisational cultural characteristics. This can include coming together virtually or physically to achieve shared business goals.
It's about time
Technology has an important role to play in facilitating easy collaboration.
It is all well and good giving global teams the responsibility to contribute to key business decisions, but while scheduling a conference call at 2pm GMT means that the London and New York offices can contribute, what about the employee in South Korea where it is 11pm? Or Sydney where it is midnight?
It might be impossible to schedule every call to be convenient for every employee, but it is important to at least acknowledge the time zone someone is in, and thank them for going beyond the normal.
There are now easy-to-use platforms that make video conferencing and call recording across continents just as simple as speaking face-to-face.
By recording presentations and demonstrations, those that are unable to attend meetings can feel part of the decision-making process and understand the rationale behind the final choices being made.
Time to face up
However, no strategy or technique should replace face-to-face contact.
Cultivating a global culture is not simple, but people respond to people. While internal communications can help teams feel valued, nothing affirms this more than a chief executive visiting an office and making these acknowledgements in person.
Global companies need to find the right balance between allowing local cultures to thrive, while also sharing one business vision.
Face-to-face meetings offer a great opportunity to clearly communicate company messages to the people who are delivering your service to different parts of the world.