When Professionals Get Culture Shock

This may come as a surprise: professionals whose livelihood depends on being able to travel the globe and decode the nuances of what they experience suffer from culture shock. Everyone is susceptible.

The topic of culture shock is a taboo amongst would-be professionals.

It can impact an individual researcher’s ability to function in their role; significantly affects team dynamics and can continue to resonate long after returning home. Since the field study aims are likely to include documenting and interpreting local culture and advising clients based on the findings culture shock can significantly bias the research results. That the topic of culture shock is a taboo amongst would-be professionals makes it more difficult to address the cause and effects. For example an account manager is unlikely to bring the issue up with clients even though a representative of the client, or a team member is experiencing it in-field.

The symptoms of culture shock include: increased irritability; becoming hypercritical of local people and practices; withdrawal and in particular spending long time resting or in bed; physiological reactions; and excessive eating, drinking or drug use. Our teams have seen and experienced it first hand. Many factors can hasten the onset of culture shock including: feeling out of control, particularly when it comes to food, hygiene and language; personal insecurity issues; limited prior experience of other cultures; illness and low levels of energy something that is often exacerbated by jet-lag; significantly poor quality accommodation and/or working environment; separation from friends, family and professional network.

In addition the corporate traveller often has to contend with the everyday stresses of working for a large organisation such as the cyclical job insecurity that comes from yet another corporate reorganisation. The one sure-fire way of avoiding culture shock is not to travel: recognise that not everyone is cut out for intensive work travel and don’t be afraid to voice your opinion and authority before the project commences. The Pop-up Studio helps reduce the likelihood of culture shock by fostering a strong sense of camaraderie across the extended team, creating plenty of space for formal and in- formal interaction. Other reducing factors include: assigning clearly structured roles; having a comfortable shared working space and creating practices around its use; monitoring stress and energy levels and scheduling additional time off; ensuring that team members have the space and re- sources to communicate with remote loved ones.

The time of the day that team members tend to be most vulnerable is early morning/at breakfast — supporting rituals around hot drinks can be a particularly effective ‘normaliser’. It requires minimal forethought to invest in a particular blend of tea or to bring the tools to make a decent latte.

Taken from the Popup Studio Booklet, a guide to designing the design experience. Brought to you by Studio D . Follow @studiodradiodurans on Instagram. Enjoy this? Click [heart] so others can too.