PERF RMANCE 04 - The Performance Portal - Ernst & Young

Setting the scene (take I)
My first project in
Sri Lanka began
in July 2005. The
project goal was to
enable untrained
coaches from
technical colleges to
successfully counsel and coach students in
career planning.
After my proposal was accepted by the
sponsoring organization, I contacted the
local Sri Lankan partner and shared my
project plan. We immediately established
a good working relationship, agreeing
to all steps in the plan, particularly the
preparation phase. This was the first of
what would be many times that I heard
the phrase, “No worries, Miss”. In frequent
phone calls and a lively email exchange, I
followed the status of the arrangements
and the preparation was working well.
In addition to the training, I was to have
the opportunity to introduce the program
to other organizations at the Chamber
of Commerce in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
During my flight there, I reviewed the
training plan, changed a few details, and
landed in Colombo on a Sunday morning,
immediately impressed with the welcoming
spirit of this charming country.
On Monday at 7:30 a.m., I took a threewheeler
(one of those motorbikes with a
shell) to the local partner’s office where the
training was to start at 9:00 a.m. I arrived
well in advance (8:10 a.m.) and had to
wait at the entrance until 8:55 a.m. until
someone came to let me know that I could
enter the office. A nice lady brought me tea
and exchanged pleasantries that I did not
understand. At 9:30 a.m., my local partner
arrived. “I need to prepare the training
room,” I said. He shook his head vaguely
and said, “No worries, Miss. The room will
be cleaned within the next hour.” This was
how it began.
“ How people live affects their work
life and their expectations about
work performance.”
At 11:00 a.m., the participants arrived and
let me know that they would love to have
tea and something to eat. The materials
were printed by noon. By the time lunch
was over, we were ready to start training –
it was 2:30 p.m. I was confused but had the
feeling I was the only one with a problem.
So I said to myself, “Luise, don’t get
German now!” I reminded my local partner
that we had missed a whole training day
and that this was a problem because I
had planned to spend the last day of the
week at the Chamber of Commerce to give
my presentation. “No worries, Miss,” he
said, “We will simply invite people to the
Chamber in the evening, after the training.”
I frowned, “But the presentation was
supposed to be this week; it might be too
late to change now.” He shook his head
vaguely, “Well, yes, theoretically, but we
have not invited them yet. We can still
change that.”
The sympathetic reader might think that
this chain of events would lead to chaos – at
least my German colleagues would think so
— but no, things proceeded very well. The
training participants were enthusiastic and
diligent, and the invitees reacted more than
flexibly. All went extremely well.
A failure to communicate?
Would it have helped the situation had I
asked my local partner to explain what
exactly “No worries, Miss” meant?
Probably not. What would have really
helped is information about local customs
and constraints:
• In Sri Lanka, it is hard to plan ahead
because the infrastructure and the
resources are not as reliable as in some
other countries
• Everybody in Sri Lanka knows about the
problems of planning ahead, so people
are very flexible and adjust quickly and
calmly to changes
• Participants could not afford to book a
hotel in Colombo and had to travel three
hours in the morning from the suburbs
by bus, in the humid climate, which
explains why they were late and hungry
when they arrived
When we work in another culture, we need
not only to understand the constraints of
communication, but also, and perhaps
most importantly, the conditions in which
people operate. How people live affects
their work life and their expectations about
work performance.
My story of Sri Lanka highlights some
of the challenges and adventures of
working in another culture. But what if the
differences in culture happen in your own
team — every day? What are the constraints
for an intercultural team and how can we
solve them?