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.

Cultural integration combines the physical attributes of an organisation (creating a persona through your brand and visual identity) together with unifying through intangible attributes such as values and a common code of conduct. Companies need to be cross-culturally sensitive to be able to navigate its complex nature and build an understanding of businesses functioning in a global market. They need to strategically find, motivate and deploy a diverse group of qualified people across geographies.

Challenges include building a value-creating mindset, recruiting and managing a global and diverse workforce.

Talented and powerful

The new economy calls for a shift in mindset that would entail being more ‘outward focused’—extensively using cross-functional, heterogeneous and global teams to produce creative solutions to business problems.

It’s vital to develop a global mindset through being inclusive and embracing diversity. “Diversity is all the ways in which we differ”—it encompasses differences in gender, age, physical abilities, qualities, racio-ethnicity, sexual orientation as well as differences in attitudes and perspectives, location and background. The rise of the emerging markets and demographic shifts make diversity and inclusiveness critical to organisational success in an interconnected world. One has to draw on the strengths of everyone and capitalise on their differences. At Ernst & Young, we have a ‘global diversity and inclusiveness leader’ to help ensure that we leverage the skills of our diverse workforce and that we reflect the markets in which our clients operate.

Organisations need to encourage diversity and commit to bringing out the best in individuals by giving them freedom to be themselves. By embracing the differences in your workforce, you are able to provide richer insights to your clients and wider communities, as well as help your people achieve their potential.

Evolving the right culture

Values can provide the foundation that can guide the way your people interact with each other and with clients, and brings them together as one global team. You can also promote a shared appreciation of a common set of values through awards programmes.

It’s also important to promote common work practices, learning & development systems and brand identity. Setting up a global code of conduct creates a clear set of standards for business conduct, provides an ethical and behavioral framework for decisions and reflects the commitments contained in the firm’s values. Learning and development programmes help sensitise employees on cross cultural behaviours, business etiquettes and communications. People rarely expect a career for life, but it’s important to ensure that work opportunities are so rich and varied that it’s possible to try new options without having to change organisations.

Encouraging people to be mobile across geographies and functions can meet your business objectives as well as employee aspirations. Mobility programmes facilitate the mobilisation of high performing people and give your clients access to experienced teams.

Diversity is a source of creativity that can provide the potential for future development and competitive advantage.