If I amend my working hours, can I work better with my global team?

When we think about working with global teams, the first thing that pops into our heads is time zone. The most commonly used yardstick for business hours is 9AM to 5PM. All other times are for leisure or family. If you work beyond these hours, it is considered 'stretching'.

Let's say you live in San Francisco and I live in London. I will 'stretch' my work day into my late evening to incorporate your 9-5. Does that guarantee that you and I will work well together?
        

When I was explaining Zifo's global delivery model to one of my customers, we got stuck at this time zone topic for a while. That conversation encouraged me to dig deeper since I was determined that time zone alone can't guarantee effective collaboration.

You don't sound like me, you don't speak like me...

There are so many varieties of the English language. We both might 'speak English', but our sentence formations and accents might be vastly different.

If it takes me a while to understand what you are saying, then our communication is not very efficient, is it? I feel pressured to keenly listen to the words that you utter, rather than your overall content and message. Emails won't work either - there is no way to express or perceive the right tone.

Are we two peas in a pod?

We are open, honest and raw with our close friends. These friends look like you, sound like you and have had similar childhoods. You would have several common topics to connect on and you wouldn't be nervous when you're meeting a stranger from the same 'mold'.

If I don't know your mold, all your behaviours will be new to me. I grew up in a city in India. I don't know what it's like to grow up in a village near Morocco, or by the countryside near Greece. Regional habits and practices also affect work styles.

Imagine we're on a Friday evening - you're waiting for deliverables from me, but it doesn't show up. You ask me why. I say it will be in your inbox on Sunday evening, because when we agreed to 'Friday evening', I assumed you would only review it on your Monday morning.

Would you empathize with me, or become wary of me?
        

There was an interesting article on Bloomfire that said, 'Listen Carefully for Cultural Insights'

Ask your colleagues to let you know when their holidays are, what hours they normally work, how they would like to communicate with you. Try to learn as much as you can about the local culture, and encourage your team to take an active role in training you in the best ways to work with them.

Pongal is a celebrated harvest festival in the south of India, but if you didn't know that you might only recognize the word Pongal as a menu item in your favourite Indian restaurant.

My yoga instructor celebrated Summer Solstice recently and brought chocolates for all of us. She introduced me to the concept of astronomical seasons and I curiously learnt how they are celebrated!

Who wields power? Me or you?

Have you noticed, when you meet someone new, you immediately box them into one of the following categories:

• Leader: 'She seems powerful, she might help me'
• Friend: 'He seems to have the same role as I do, we're equals'
• Child: 'She reminds me of myself few years ago, maybe she's expecting me to help her'

You've just built a power dynamic here 1-on-1 and not surprisingly, we extend the same to a group setting as well.

Tsedal Neeley wrote about a framework for bridging social distance (the emotional connection among team members). She says,

If most team members are located in Germany, for instance, with two or three in the United States and in South Africa, there may be a sense that the German members have more power. This imbalance sets up a negative dynamic.

Who is better? Us vs Them

Heidi K. Gardner and Mark Mortensen, in a HBR article, noticed that we group our colleagues into categories rather than see them as individuals.

Working at a distance limits the amount of information we hold about our colleagues. When we work in the same office as our co-workers, we can notice, interpret, incorporate, and leverage a vast amount of information as we try to make sense of our daily experiences.

How can we re-wire our brains to focus on commonalities, remind ourselves of our shared goals, recognize our dependencies on each other and step away from 'Us vs. Them' competitive cultures?

What can I do?

We can't have same molds in all geographies, so how can we bridge this gap? Heidi and Mark recommend (and I agree)

Take time to share the personal updates as well. Although it’s tempting to dismiss such activities as irrelevant or a waste of time – especially when we’re under pressure – they are vital. Remember that global work runs counter to millions of years of evolution as social animals who leverage our knowledge of others to effectively collaborate.

When you look back at your experience working with global teams, what do you think you are doing right?