Uncomfortable communication abroad
Living as a foreigner in Brazil, one of my biggest challenges was to adapt to the “Brazilian way of communicating”. Meaning, people would not dare to engage in hard discussions, let alone arguments. This would apply to personal matters and worse, in professional environments, too.
As a people’s development professional, one of my main scopes is: communication. Specifically, difficult conversations. Marshall Rosenberg’s “Nonviolent communication”, Douglas Stone’s “Difficult conversations” and Kerry Patterson’s “Crucial conversations” are all great sources to work with situations which make us uncomfortable when communicating. Nevertheless, they are all from another culture. They do not have Brazilian examples and do not contemplate several behavioural issues which only apply here.
As Martie says in the module “How to grow structure”, “for optimal communication it is important that managers have as few secrets as possible, make all information they have visible and make an honest attempt at connecting with their people in a transparent and genuine way.”
Brazilians have a strong sense of distrust when it comes to believe what their manager says and a strong need to beat about the bush to avoid direct messaging.
Why is Management 3.0 a great source to enhance trust and communication within the Brazilian society?
#1 Feedback: Constructive feedback contributes to a sense of trust and purpose. Feedback Wrap practice helps people focus on improvement, gives actionable items to address which leads to positive and self-motivated team-mates, clients and anyone else. It describes facts and feelings, contrasting with the sandwich praise.
Facts and feelings are honest and build amazing trust, especially in a country where trust is an issue.
Ex:
My local client hired me to improve communication and morale within the team. After a couple of weeks, I had no idea if my work was what the client wanted. I asked several times for feedback, which led to silent or “maybe next week”. (#1 describe context)
I explained why this issue was important, as it was a waste of time and money to continue something which was not what he expected. Team moral was better, but I had no way to measure if productivity was as well. (#2 list your observations)
I told him I felt a bit lost working not knowing what the company thought (#3 express your emotions), and how important it was not to waste anymore time improving morale, communication to improve productivity.(#4 Sort by value)
I suggested scheduling a short meeting soon, but only after answering a few questions to address the issue. (#5 end with suggestions).
You can find this and other practices in the Management 3.0 Module: Better Feedback
#2 Improvement Dialogue practice:
Improvement cards not only improve people’s ability to communicate through storytelling, but breaks the ice in meetings and encourages people to express their needs, thoughts and feelings in a positive and constructive manner. They can also be played online!!
The option I prefer is pulling a card blindly from the pile and then sharing a work story associated with the image.
Try both these practices from the Management 3.0 practice when you work abroad. They are both very adaptable to different kinds of cultures, especially where trust and communication are an issue.
