Archive for the ‘Cross-cultural profiles’ Category

Global Negotiation and the Power of Understanding 

Today I’m preparing for an around the world trip.  My travels begin in the US and stop first in Shanghai to work with executives from New Zealand.  Then it’s next to Munich for a few days on my way to Saudi Arabia to collaborate with officials at a development bank before coming back home to the US. 

In preparation for my adventure, I am reminded how similar and different we are as citizens of the globe.  While my colleagues abroad and I do not often consider our interactions and discussions as “formal negotiations”, the truth is that much of the communication we have or projects we design must satisfy not only our joint goals, but also our diverse cultural values.

In order for my job as an educator to be successful, effective, and meaningful, I need to take some time (which I have very little of right now!) to reflect on how not only my needs can be met, but also how I can help meet the needs of those I will work with in the next couple weeks.  I have found that the best way to prepare for a mutual gains negotiation is to review the best practices of cross-cultural negotiation. 

Here are the basic tips from both academic research and global executives who practice this every day in our graduate negotiation classes at Thunderbird. 

1.  Appreciate the Impact of Culture

National or organizational culture is complex and often difficult to understand and manage.  Tangible elements as language, food, dress, religion, and customs can be studied quite easily.  However, it is also important to appreciate the intangible beliefs and assumptions which are largely invisible.  Remember to pay attention to the emotional roots of behavior.  For example, where direct and assertive communication may be expected, reinforced and rewarded in the US, it may not be expected or rewarded in China. 

2.   Prepare for Cultural Competence  

Cultural competence is the ability to reduce the risks and maximize the opportunities inherent in cultural differences and similarities.  This also includes how performance is rewarded and how success is determined.  In diverse global organizations and interdependent marketplace, this ability is increasingly important.  A competency in cultural awareness enables more effective responsiveness, speed and adaptability in multicultural situations.  An understanding of this creates the power to fuel innovation, growth, speed, high performance and adaptability. 

3. Analyze Cultural Gaps

The full impact and importance of a new culture only becomes evident when we experience a cultural gap.  This often is thought of as a clash of different behaviors, such as extending our hand when the other person bows.  But these are really just behavioral expressions of a cultural gap.  Most gaps are not easily detectable, more prevalent, and can create distrust.  For example, for someone who expects fixed time as a value, they will have very negative emotional reactions when their client or partner habitually arrives late or does not keep a reliable time schedule.  The ability to analyze in a nonjudgmental way about national or organizational cultures becomes a must.  The cognitive skill to understand where fluid time is expected vs. fixed time increases the ability to manage stress and frustration.  This power of understanding is a resource necessary for potential difficult situations.    

4. Practice Cultural Due Diligence

Cultural due diligence is a form of risk assessment that determines the cultural backgrounds and preferences of colleagues, counterparts, and clients.  It is also an evaluation of potential cultural gaps and the impact this can have on the ability to achieve our own objectives. Cultural due diligence also includes developing a strategy to minimize negative effects of actual cultural gaps.   Cultural due diligence is best exercised by understanding the history, background and experiences that have shaped the perspective, outlook and value system of the individuals or groups with whom we are going to interact and communicate with.  The cultural orientation of a social group represents the values which are favored, expected or desired by the members in that organization or national group.  If a project team you are about to lead has an orientation toward informality, for example, that group would tend to be less comfortable with formal protocol and rituals.  Your strategy would be to lead more effectively by engaging them by dispensing with ceremony and protocol.  This level of understanding provides the power necessary to be an effective global leader.

5. Practice Style Switching

Style switching is adapting to a different cultural context, situation or expectation through changing behavior.  Mastery of this skill requires a clear sense of our own cultural identity and our general and specific flexibility and practice at many styles.  Individuals are capable of style switching along a broad behavioral range.  However, the energy associated with style switching needs to be enhanced and the emotional attachments to cultural values requires reflection and understanding.  In order to be effective and satisfied with style switching behaviors, we need a clear understanding of our own core values which are tied to our sense of self.  This requires a willingness to be flexible where it does not threaten our sense of self.  Style switching is most required when we are emotionally least prepared for it, often when we are tired or at impasse in a negotiation.   

Building adaptive, flexible behaviors and skills is possible and requires mastery of our own personal cultural awareness through reflection and introspection, as well as the willingness to stretch experiment our comfort zone of behaviors.  Through this power of understanding global negotiations can meet mutual needs and lead to more enjoyment and satisfaction with the results.

Afghan Broadcasters

Today marks the graduation day for 10 Afghan men who have been traveling the US with funding from the American Councils for International Education.  I, along with several Thunderbird colleagues, recently spent time with them on campus.

 After the broadcasters spent 10 days in Washington DC touring radio stations, meeting with NPR, National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Voice of America and other site visits, they traveled to Thunderbird for last week’s sessions.  After a trip to the Grand Canyon and further work at ASU’s Cronkite School, tonight we  wish them farewell for their journey back home to influence Afghanistan’s new opportunities in the 21^st century. 

Through the power of understanding methods of negotiation and multitrack diplomacy, these courageous leaders create a new vibrant media landscape in Afghanistan.  These pioneer broadcasters provide a critical link to their local communities, and strengthen Afghanistan’s society with news, information, entertainment, and public service announcements.

Join me in wishing them well on their new partnership with us to create sustainable prosperity worldwide.

Corrupt Venezuelan officials who ask Rum Santa Teresa Chairman and CEO Alberto Vollmer for bribes get something much different than cash or liquor under the table. The leader of the 200-year-old family distillery offers free enrollment instead to courses on anti-corruption, transparency and human rights.

“At first they laugh,” Vollmer said Nov. 16, 2010, at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “But the second or third time you do it, they might go to the course.”

Vollmer said corporate leaders who fret about doing business in corrupt environments sometimes scoff when they hear his solution to bribery. But his approach has proved effective in a culture of bribery, corruption, government land grabs and violence.

“Lots of these officials have mothers who tell them, ‘This is the right way to live, and this is the wrong way,’” Vollmer said. “At first you might find resistance, but in the long run they listen.”

The strategy: Vollmer said business leaders dealing with corrupt officials need to look at bribe requests as an opportunity for negotiation. “What they are proposing is a negotiation,” Vollmer said. “Try to turn the situation into having them accept something legitimate.” Vollmer said many people will do the honorable thing when shown a reasonable alternative. “We try to get the person to think about how he can become a better person, and how we can help him become a better person,” Vollmer said. “We try to sit them down and think about other ways we can satisfy their personal needs. Often this involves education.”

The philosophy: Invest in honesty. Vollmer said business leaders who maintain their values will suffer financially at first. But little by little they will gain respect. The key is to be patient, stay strong and take a long-term view. “At first you will see it as a cost,” he said. “But it is actually an investment. The return you will have is enormous. In the long run you will be respected by the authorities because they know you are not going to fall into that trap.”

The result: Officials who attend Vollmer’s free courses never ask for bribes again because they understand the values governing Rum Santa Teresa. “This guy becomes your protector,” Vollmer said. “When other officials say they will target your company, he says, ‘No, don’t mess with them because they will make you study.’”

Alberto Vollmer interacts with some dangerous individuals as chairman and CEO of Rum Santa Teresa, a 200-year-old family business that exports premium rum to more than 30 countries from Venezuela. After local gang members assaulted a Rum Santa Teresa security officer in 2003, Vollmer launched a criminal reform program called Project Alcatraz. Gang members accepted into the program work for free for three months in exchange for job training and therapy. Most participants welcome the chance to turn their lives around. But some cling to their criminal ways. One participant, a large man diagnosed as a psychopath, committed robbery and attempted homicide after being accepted into Project Alcatraz. Vollmer had no choice but to expel the man from the program. “This guy didn’t know how to talk,” Vollmer said Nov. 16, 2010, during a guest lecture at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “He didn’t know how to smile. He was very primitive, very violent and very strong.” Instead of returning to the streets, however, the man begged for readmission. “Every morning he would reappear at the door,” Vollmer said. Many dismissed the man as a lost cause, but Vollmer decided to reach out to him one more time through negotiation.

The strategy: Vollmer wondered if maybe the man would understand a beating. But Vollmer knew from experience that violence only leads to more violence. So he tried the opposite approach. He brought the man into a room and had him ask his victim for forgiveness.

The philosophy: Get beyond the mask. “Separate the problem from the person,” Vollmer said. “Be hard on the problem but soft on the person. … Human beings have infinite potential. What we tend to do is put people into slots, and we think they cannot get out of those slots. In Project Alcatraz, we try to go deeper and see beyond the mask of that individual. What really makes him tick? What is his soft spot? Everybody has a soft spot, and once you discover that you can start influencing this person.”

The result: The simple act of confession and apology cut through the mask of the man labeled a psychopath. “It was amazing what happened,” Vollmer said. “The victim not only forgave the man, but he gave him a job. This guy never committed a crime again.” Project Alcatraz has experienced two homicides in seven years of operation, and the assailants were handed over to the police and put in jail. But Vollmer said most participants leave the violence behind. “The percentage of repeat offenders is small,” Vollmer said.

Alberto Vollmer woke up to an unpleasant surprise one morning in February 2000. Land invaders had overrun the family estate in Venezuela, where Rum Santa Teresa has operated for more than 200 years. Almost overnight, a slum settlement appeared on the property. As the new Chairman and CEO of the family enterprise, which exports premium rum to more than 30 countries, Vollmer needed to do something. But he  had few options. “Venezuela is not an easy place to do business,” he said Nov. 16, 2010, during a guest lecture at Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Vollmer could not appeal to the police for protection because many squatters were relatives of local officials, who condoned the invasion. Vollmer could mount a counterstrike with his own security team, but he knew violence would lead to more violence. That left negotiation. Vollmer decided to meet with the leader of the invasion and explore peaceful solutions.

The strategy: Vollmer knew he could not evict the squatters, so he offered to donate 75 acres on the condition that the squatters develop an organized housing project instead of a haphazard shanty town. He also started working to improve social conditions in the neighboring communities — to prevent future invasions onto his estate. “It was clear,” he said. “If we did not invest heavily in the social area, we were not going to survive.”

The philosophy: Discover legitimate interests. “When you are being held hostage at the negotiation table, one of the things you have to do is develop bonding with your counterpart,” Vollmer said. “It is the only way to begin to influence this person and to access the true interests this person has behind the position he is stating. As soon as you begin to touch on those interests, a different dynamic occurs.” Vollmer said most hardball negotiators have legitimate interests hidden behind their actions. “The best thing is to drill into the problem, like disarming a bomb,” he said. “Try to put yourself in the other guy’s shoes, even if the other guy is a criminal — not to justify what he is doing but to really find out what he needs.” Vollmer said many criminals and other hardball negotiators do not recognize their own legitimate interests and need help identifying what these things are. Most people, he said, will do the right thing when shown the way. “The key is to ask the right questions,” he said. “Then help your counterpart achieve his legitimate interests.”

The result: An organized housing settlement with about 100 plots has emerged on the land donated by Rum Santa Teresa, and no additional land grabs have occurred. Vollmer has become friends with the invasion leader, who even asked Vollmer to be the godfather of his child. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, generally an enemy to private enterprise, has held up Rum Santa Teresa as a model corporation.

Alberto Vollmer took over Rum Santa Teresa in Venezuela under difficult circumstances. Land invasions, drug wars, government corruption and violence plagued the region, creating an unstable business environment. The family enterprise, which exports rum to more than 30 countries, faced ruin after more than 200 years of prosperity. Conditions took a turn for the worse in 2003, when local gang members attacked one of Vollmer’s security officers and stole his gun.

Vollmer’s security team tracked down the gang leader responsible for the attack and brought him to the family plantation for interrogation. Vollmer had gained the upper hand. Corrupt local police viewed the gang leader as a nuisance and wanted him dead. Execution would come quickly if Vollmer handed the man over to authorities. Vollmer literally held the man’s life in his hands. He could have crushed his opponent at the negotiation table. No compromise was necessary, but Vollmer considered the long-term effects of ruthless negotiation tactics and decided to take a different approach. “Violence begets violence,” he said Nov. 16, 2010, at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “If I responded with violence, the result would be war.”

The strategy: Instead of violence, Vollmer decided to offer the gang leader a chance at redemption. Under the terms negotiated, the man would work on Vollmer’s plantation for three months without pay. The program would include hard work, job training, group therapy and zero tolerance for crime. The routine also would include a healthy dose of rugby, Vollmer’s favorite sport. In exchange for full compliance, the reformed gang leader would earn a chance at legitimate, gainful employment after graduation. For the first time in years, he would be able to make his mother proud.

The philosophy: Turn enemies into allies. “If you don’t have to crush your opponent, don’t crush your opponent,” Vollmer said. “Opponents never really die that easily. If you do kill him, he has family. He has relatives, and they are not going to forget you. When you look long-term, they are going to come back and bite you. You can’t be weak, but you don’t have to crush people either. You have to be strong but just, and people will respect you for that. You will find allies down the road instead of enemies who will come out of the dark.”

The result: The gang leader liked the new routine so much that he recruited the rest of the gang to join voluntarily. Eventually, Vollmer recruited a rival gang to join the program, which he called Project Alcatraz. The two gangs made peace, and soon Vollmer had other gangs lining up for admission.  The homicide rate in the region has dropped by 90 percent since 2003, and Rum Santa Teresa has prospered in the safer business environment. What was good for the gangs was also good for Vollmer’s bottom line.

Global negotiator Willy Sono ’81 has found success in business by bringing people together and helping them find common ground. “You always talk about the expertise and know-how,” he says. “But it is also important to remember the know-who.” Sono, a Peruvian native, works in Lima as a consultant for Thunderbird Resorts (no relation to Thunderbird School of Global Management). He says successful negotiators do at least two things well: 1. They find win-win solutions and 2. They balance their short-term goals with mid- and long-range goals. “People want things to happen in an immediate way,” he says. “But things don’t necessarily work that way. You have to work for things. Everything in life is a process.” Watch more of the interview in the video above.

The Honorable Kathleen Stephens, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, has spent her career immersed in foreign cultures. Her advice for people who live or work in unfamiliar environments is simple: 1. “Eat the food,” and 2. “Learn the language, even if it’s just a little bit, and use the language.” Watch more in this World Cafe video shot Sept. 15, 2009, during the ambassador’s visit to Thunderbird.

Studying cross-cultural communication at Thunderbird has taught Allesandro Nobili to value soft skills. “Anybody can open a book and learn about finance and marketing,” says the full-time MBA student from Italy. “But what makes a difference is how you deal with people.” Nobili, who has lived and worked in three European countries, says one key for success in cross-cultural communication is learning to focus on similarities instead of differences. In this podcast, recorded July 16, 2009, he talks about the Cultural Orientation Indicator (COI), a self-assessment tool that Thunderbird uses to help students thrive in diverse environments. Audio: Alessandro Nobili discusses cross-cultural communication (2:12)

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Full-time MBA student Ajay Gundu never would have thought about working outside India before arriving at Thunderbird. Now the investment manager from Bangalore craves international adventure after his graduation on Aug. 21. “I want to go to every other place possible to learn more and more,” he says. The change in attitude came during a cross-cultural communication class at Thunderbird that uses a self-assessment tool called the Cultural Orientation Indicator. Ajay talks about the COI and its immediate impact on his career in this podcast, recorded July 16, 2009. Audio: Ajay Gundu discusses cross-cultural communication (1:57)

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