Building bridges across cultures

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: Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do…

…Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world...

John Lennon strumming on his guitar spoke in a different context, but it appe-

ars that at least part of his dream is a

reality now.

Today, physical boundaries are fast being obliterated. People from different countries & time zones, speaking different languages, and belonging to different cultures & religious beliefs are working as one team, in one organisation and on a single project to achieve a common goal. What is it that unites them and inspires them to work in sync despite their differences?

The magic word

It’s our new world order—a fallout of the globalisation process and the technological revolution that have eroded geographical boundaries, linguistic and cultural barriers—that puts a premium on how well organisations can build bridges to bring together a diverse set of people with different skill-sets to focus on a common agenda. While several factors come into play to ensure this, one that’s increasingly bandied around is cultural integration.

With organisations establishing global footprints through expansion, mergers & acquisitions and tie-ups, it’s incumbent on them to ensure that their people are geared to deliver value to stakeholders.

Cultural integration is a key enabler of successful teaming across borders, with a significant impact on profitability; it is fast becoming a critical part of a multi-national companies’ core stra-tegy. The emergence of the Indian multinational has brought this into increasing attention.

It’s in the DNA

Each company has its unique history, attributes, and ways of doing things—its culture. Different schools of thoughts espouse different formulae for effective integration of an organisation’s culture. But daily shifts in paradigms challenge established beliefs, turning today’s solution on its head and making it a part of tomorrow’s problems. Strategists continually go back to their drawing boards to evolve solutions that can strengthen integration. But how does one work a magic concoction that assimilates people with different languages, ways of living, lifestyles, beliefs and dogmas?

The fact is that each organisation’s culture is unique. So the solutions must also be tailor-made and continually evaluated to align with shifting paradigms. Let’s look at some factors around which solutions can be developed.

It starts with breaking culture into tangible pieces to which one can assign goals and measures. Easier said than done, but there are companies that do this across industry sectors.