Today the Linkedin website group, “Expats Working In China” shared an article that was posted by Abraham Sorock on the Atlas China Staffing Solutions website (
www.atlas-china.com
) entitled, “Meetings: Part 1 – American Blabbermouths and Chinese Mutes.” This article, written by Eliz Rowland, should be read by all American business leaders in China who want to minimize cultural differences within their companies, and who want to maximize the productiveness of staff meetings where the attendees are a mix of people from China and the U.S. Eliz Rowland makes the following points about “mixed culture” staff meetings as follows:
“When I first started working in China, the context in which I committed or witnessed the most cultural gaffes was meetings. As such, this is the first in a series of posts in which I will discuss techniques for successfully navigating cultural differences between Americans and Chinese that arise during meetings in the workplace.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the American style of conducting meetings is the complete opposite of the Chinese style. Americans often brainstorm in meetings and have open staff participation in the discussion. Chinese reserve meetings for dissemination of management decisions, and typically staff don’t speak unless specifically called on by the manager leading the meeting. A meeting in which both American and Chinese colleagues participate is bound to create frustration and misunderstanding for those not familiar with their counterpart’s cultural context…and often even for those who are.
Beware of Assumptions
At one of my first jobs in China, I had an American boss who wanted to engage the staff and solicit ideas in brainstorm meetings. After giving an introduction to what he wanted us to brainstorm, he would open the floor for ideas from the staff. Almost invariably, the first, second, and third staff to speak up would be Americans, even though the Chinese staff outnumbered the Americans two to one. Likewise, when I held meetings to update the team and get feedback on a project I was leading, very few Chinese staff would talk, and the Americans dominated the discussion.
After seeing this occur multiple times, I began to wonder if the Chinese staff had any ideas or even cared about their work at all. If they did have ideas and cared about doing a good job, then they would speak up in the meetings and let us know what they thought, right?
Wrong.
It wasn’t until the end of my second year working in China that I realized how wrong my assumption was. I was having a problem at work, and I decided to ask one of my Chinese colleagues for advice. Once we were one-on-one and I sincerely asked her for her opinion on my problem, it was like the floodgates had opened! She had a variety of helpful suggestions and insight and readily offered them. Not only did she care about her work and have good ideas, but she had a lot of good ideas! And the whole two years I was there, I had assumed the opposite.
How could such a drastic misperception arise between two colleagues?
Taking a look at meetings from a Chinese perspective can help clarify.
Hierarchy and Face Dominate
Considerations of hierarchy, face, conformity, and risk aversion strongly influence how Chinese staff interact with colleagues in workplace meetings. Chinese culture is deeply rooted in Confucian values that emphasize the importance of strict adherence to hierarchy and prescribed social roles in order to maintain social order and harmony. Stepping out of the bounds of your role in the workplace can cause loss of face for your supervisor and disrupt the social balance of your office. Furthermore, speaking out risks potential loss of face for yourself if your suggestion or idea is not adopted.
For these reasons (and others which I will discuss in later posts), Chinese staff are much less inclined to speak out in meetings than American staff that come from a less hierarchical, more individualistic cultural context. From a Chinese perspective, it is expected that the manager will be the one to lead and speak in meetings. If a staff speaks up with an idea, it could be seen as a disrespectful challenge to the manager’s authority or competence and an implication that the staff has better ideas than the manager, causing loss of face for the manager. Even when requested by an American manager to speak up and contribute ideas in a meeting, Chinese staff are often hesitant and uncomfortable with doing so due to their cultural context.
American Blabbermouths
Americans are not the only ones to make negative assumptions about their colleagues when faced with cultural differences in meetings. Because Chinese colleagues tend to be more risk averse when it comes to speaking out, they often will only make a comment when they are absolutely sure their comment is correct, well-informed, and certain to be accepted by others in the meeting. For Chinese colleagues accustomed to such restraint in expression, Americans who tend to “think out loud” in brainstorming meetings can come across as not knowing what they are talking about or just wanting to hear themselves talk. Such perceptions can obscure the fact that American business culture encourages such sharing as a way to foster collaboration and innovation.
The Hidden Value of Watercoolers and Other Tips on Avoiding Assumptions
An important way to avoid making damaging assumptions about your Chinese colleagues (and avoid having them making damaging assumptions about you) is to create opportunities for communication outside of larger meetings. If you need feedback or ideas from your colleagues on a project but they have not been forthcoming with suggestions in larger meetings, then find time for a
casual one-on-one meeting or lunch
with them to discuss it. It might be as simple as
going up to them at the watercooler
after a meeting to ask what they thought about what was discussed. When the boss and other colleagues aren’t present, your Chinese colleagues will be less bound by the constraints of hierarchy and face and much more likely to open up.
It is also quite common for Chinese colleagues to frequently yet
informally touch base with each other throughout the day
as a way to keep communication lines open. Though to Americans small talk at work can often seem like a waste of time or a form of procrastination,
informally chatting about non-work topics
with Chinese colleagues
can build trust, which can then in turn facilitate more open and frank dialogue on work matters.
One American friend of mine that works at a U.S.-Chinese joint venture told me about the hard time he was having getting a new Chinese colleague to brainstorm with him on departmental strategy. One day they ended up chatting during work about how the Chinese colleague was going to visit his girlfriend in another city over the weekend and the difficulties of long-distance relationships. After that ice breaker discussion, my American friend began to feel a greater sense of rapport develop between him and his colleague, and the Chinese colleague became significantly more open in expressing his views on departmental strategy.
Developing good rapport with colleagues is obviously necessary in any work environment, but in China it is even more important and can take longer than in the U.S. In China where office meetings don’t always serve as a useful platform for open dialogue, and where cultural differences can create hidden barriers between American and Chinese colleagues, developing strong relationships and
building trust
with colleagues are critical to workplace productivity.”
When you are doing business in China it is
so important
to learn as much as you can about the culture you are working in. This knowledge will always help you to optimize your opportunity to be successful.
The article referred to above may be found at:
http://www.atlas-china.com/meetings-part-1-american-blabbermouths-and-chinese-mutes
Hawkeye in China
Lex Smith