HBR articles
How to Build Trust on Your Cross-Cultural Team
The most important characteristic for a high functioning team is trust. But getting trust is especially
difficult in a multicultural team, because:
Different communication styles
Different extents to which people socialize or are down to business at the start
Differences around time, giving feedback and disagreeing publicly
Tips to build trust between (cross-cultural) team members:
1. Structure the team for success; create conditions where the members can function optimally
and use people with both technical skills and knowledge about cultural difference and can
anticipate to it
2. Understand the cross-cultural makeup of your team; leader has to understand the cultural
and individual differences within the team
3. Set very clear norms and stick to them; not simply use your own preferred style, but do
what best fits the team and maybe some additional communication for some members
4. Find ways to build personal bonds; for example bond over having the same hobby or kids.
Hereby the means have to be there for it, for example pairing some people or having an
event
5. When conflict arises, address it immediately; Let small tensions not turn into something big.
Leaders need to be capable of understanding multiple cultural perspectives and an
understanding of direct and indirect communication styles.
Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da
To be effective a negotiator must have a sense of how his counterpart is reacting, because what gets
people say ‘yes’ in other countries, makes people say ‘no’ in others
Rules for negotiating with someone with another cultural or communication style:
1. Adapt the way you express disagreement; for some cultures the deal is of the table if you
say you disagree and for others it’s the starts of a great debate. So you have to listen for
verbal cues that soften the disagreement (upgraders (totally, absolutely etc.), downgraders
(partially, maybe etc.)
2. Know when to bottle it up or let it all pour out; recognize what an emotional outpouring
(yours or theirs) signifies in the culture and adapt your reaction (for example laughter and
touching each other)
3. Learn how the other culture builds trust; in some cultures, cognitive and affective (personal)
trust are separate, but in others not, so to get a deal you have to get an relationship on an
personal level first
4. Avoid yes-or-no questions; A yes or no can mean different things and are not always the
direct meaning
5. Be careful about putting it in writing; in some cultures it is seen as that you don’t trust them
and in other countries a contract as we know it, is not always flexible enough, because of the
changing world
How to Build Trust on Your Cross-Cultural Team
The most important characteristic for a high functioning team is trust. But getting trust is especially
difficult in a multicultural team, because:
Different communication styles
Different extents to which people socialize or are down to business at the start
Differences around time, giving feedback and disagreeing publicly
Tips to build trust between (cross-cultural) team members:
1. Structure the team for success; create conditions where the members can function optimally
and use people with both technical skills and knowledge about cultural difference and can
anticipate to it
2. Understand the cross-cultural makeup of your team; leader has to understand the cultural
and individual differences within the team
3. Set very clear norms and stick to them; not simply use your own preferred style, but do
what best fits the team and maybe some additional communication for some members
4. Find ways to build personal bonds; for example bond over having the same hobby or kids.
Hereby the means have to be there for it, for example pairing some people or having an
event
5. When conflict arises, address it immediately; Let small tensions not turn into something big.
Leaders need to be capable of understanding multiple cultural perspectives and an
understanding of direct and indirect communication styles.
Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da
To be effective a negotiator must have a sense of how his counterpart is reacting, because what gets
people say ‘yes’ in other countries, makes people say ‘no’ in others
Rules for negotiating with someone with another cultural or communication style:
1. Adapt the way you express disagreement; for some cultures the deal is of the table if you
say you disagree and for others it’s the starts of a great debate. So you have to listen for
verbal cues that soften the disagreement (upgraders (totally, absolutely etc.), downgraders
(partially, maybe etc.)
2. Know when to bottle it up or let it all pour out; recognize what an emotional outpouring
(yours or theirs) signifies in the culture and adapt your reaction (for example laughter and
touching each other)
3. Learn how the other culture builds trust; in some cultures, cognitive and affective (personal)
trust are separate, but in others not, so to get a deal you have to get an relationship on an
personal level first
4. Avoid yes-or-no questions; A yes or no can mean different things and are not always the
direct meaning
5. Be careful about putting it in writing; in some cultures it is seen as that you don’t trust them
and in other countries a contract as we know it, is not always flexible enough, because of the
changing world
