How to Foster Collaboration Across Cultures in Distributed Project Teams
In today’s digitally connected world, the landscape of project management is evolving rapidly. International collaboration is increasingly becoming the norm, creating a dynamic where project teams span multiple work cultures and continents. This complex, yet exciting interplay of cultures presents both incredible opportunities and significant challenges for project management professionals.
Galen Low is joined by Yasmina Khelifi (Senior Project Manager) & Mayte Mata Sivera (Head of PMO) to explore some key aspects of international collaboration.
Interview Highlights
- Biggest Barriers in Remote Cross-Cultural Collaboration [01:21]
- Yasmina highlights two main barriers:
- Different definitions of professionalism vary by culture and industry. For example, some expect responses to all emails, even on weekends.
- The misconception of having no assumptions about other cultures, when in reality, everyone has cultural assumptions.
- Mayte adds that time zone differences and communication barriers (like accents) are basic challenges in cross-cultural work.
- She notes that cultural differences, like interest in sports, can hinder connection—especially during Monday meetings where U.S. team members discuss weekend college football, which may not resonate with everyone.
- Yasmina highlights two main barriers:
- Creating a Safe and Inclusive Team Culture [04:46]
- Mayte emphasizes that project leaders manage not only tasks but also people, making them responsible for creating a safe, inclusive environment.
- She suggests project leaders ensure inclusive conversations, avoid culturally insensitive jokes, and foster a sense of belonging where team members feel comfortable raising concerns.
- Mayte believes project success includes not only quality, time, and budget but also team members feeling safe and valued.
- A lack of safety can lead to burnout, hinder transparency, and prevent team members from voicing concerns.
- Without trust, team members may not raise risks, affecting project outcomes and communication with leadership.
- Yasmina agrees that building a safe, inclusive environment is crucial for effective problem-solving in projects.
- She highlights the need for “globish” or simplified English to accommodate varying proficiency levels.
- Using overly complex English can cause misunderstandings and discomfort, as she experienced with a British colleague.
- Yasmina sometimes switches to French in meetings to ensure non-native English speakers feel comfortable and can fully engage.
- Small adjustments, like language flexibility, can significantly improve team cohesion and understanding.
- Mayte emphasizes that project leaders manage not only tasks but also people, making them responsible for creating a safe, inclusive environment.
As project leaders, we need to understand that we don’t just schedule meetings and manage projects and risks. We also manage people. We are the ones who need to take care of these things, allowing them to feel that they belong to the team and creating a safe space where they can raise a flag. They should feel comfortable talking openly to us if there is an issue where we can offer support.
Mayte Mata Sivera
- Strategies for Overcoming Language Barriers in Project Settings [10:11]
- Mayte offers advice for both project leaders and non-native English speakers:
- Project leaders should familiarize themselves with various accents and encourage understanding through one-on-one or social conversations.
- Non-native speakers can improve clarity by slowing down, especially in presentations, and choosing easily pronounced words.
- Mayte personally monitors her speech speed, especially when excited, and uses visual cues to remind herself to slow down in formal settings.
- Yasmina echoes Mayte’s tactics, noting that fast-paced speaking is common among Spanish and French speakers.
- She emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in international teams, encouraging openness about communication preferences.
- Yasmina holds introductory meetings with new collaborators to clarify her communication style, preferred contact methods, and boundaries, like not reading emails on weekends.
- She encourages team members to share their own communication preferences for smoother collaboration.
- Mayte offers advice for both project leaders and non-native English speakers:
Each member of the team must become more self-aware—aware of the challenges they may face and those that could block collaboration.
Yasmina Khelifi
- Learning About Different Work Cultures [14:21]
- Yasmina suggests intercultural training, which helped her feel more confident in working with new cultures.
- She also recommends consulting “cultural mentors”—colleagues with experience in specific cultures—for practical insights and guidance.
- Yasmina shares that she clarifies her work style with new international colleagues and asks questions along the way to foster mutual understanding.
- Yasmina adds that organizational culture also impacts collaboration.
- Cultural norms learned from a course may not fully apply, as each organization’s approach differs.
- Her department, for example, frequently works with various nationalities and uses English often, even in French discussions.
- Mayte emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and humility in learning about other cultures.
- She shares her experience preparing for a business trip to Korea, where she learned about local customs, such as office dress code and meeting structures.
- Mayte stresses asking questions with genuine curiosity, not superiority, to show respect and willingness to learn.
- The goal is to adapt and collaborate effectively by understanding cultural differences.
- Yasmina suggests intercultural training, which helped her feel more confident in working with new cultures.
- Mobilizing Cultural Awareness and Team Learning [23:06]
- Mayte shares her experience in Spain, where she explained the importance of cultural understanding to resistant team members.
- She used team-building activities, like cultural trivia, to make learning about different cultures fun and engaging.
- Mayte also organized potlucks, encouraging team members to bring culturally significant dishes to promote inclusivity and learning through food.
- Mayte shares her experience in Spain, where she explained the importance of cultural understanding to resistant team members.
- Storytime: Real-Life Cultural Challenges [25:36]
- Yasmina shares two stories about cultural differences and conflict resolution.
- In the first story, she helped resolve a communication issue between a British colleague (Brian) and an African colleague (Joe) by facilitating a call when email communication failed.
- The second story involves a conflict between a British colleague (Mark) and a French colleague (Fred), where Mark escalated an issue via email instead of speaking directly to Fred, which upset Fred.
- Yasmina emphasizes the importance of direct communication before escalating issues to preserve harmony in cultural interactions.
- Yasmina shares two stories about cultural differences and conflict resolution.
- Final Thoughts and Takeaways [29:59]
- Yasmina advises gaining knowledge before starting an international project through formal training or reading.
- She emphasizes learning about both national and organizational cultures.
- Recommends connecting with people who have experience working with the cultures involved in the project.
- Mayte advises project leaders to avoid making assumptions, especially about team members’ working styles and preferences.
- Highlights that not everyone may follow the same schedule for breaks or working hours.
- Emphasizes the importance of understanding individual team members’ needs to improve collaboration.
- Yasmina advises gaining knowledge before starting an international project through formal training or reading.
Meet Our Guest
With a background in chemical engineering, Mayte began her career as a Business Analyst and accidentally transitioned into project management. After more than 10 years in technology, she moved into strategy and projects supporting core functions and business development. This transition allowed her to discover her passion for managing programs and portfolios on large cross-functional initiatives.
Be self-aware of the things you don’t know. Be humble, ask questions using the right words, and show interest in other people’s cultures.
Mayte Mata Sivera
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career, she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: her project management skills, the languages she speaks, and her passion for sharing knowledge.
On a project, as we know, you may face obstacles and issues. When you haven’t created a safe environment or fostered great collaboration, obstacles become harder to overcome, and people may not collaborate effectively to solve them.
Yasmina Khelifi
Resources From This Episode:
- Join DPM Membership
- Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts
- Check out this episode’s sponsor: Jotform
- Connect with Mayte and Yasmina on LinkedIn
Related Articles And Podcasts:
- About the podcast
- What is Collaboration? Definition, Types, & Best Practices
- 10 Collaboration Best Practices To Improve Team Performance
- How To Create A Psychologically Safe Team Environment And Why It Matters
- How To Use 3 Collaboration Roles To Make Meetings More Effective
- How To Leverage Neuroleadership For Effective Project Management
- How To Resolve 9 Common Conflicts In Project Management
Read The Transcript:
We’re trying out transcribing our podcasts using a software program. Please forgive any typos as the bot isn’t correct 100% of the time.
Galen Low: Hey folks, thanks for tuning in. My name is Galen Low with The Digital Project Manager. We are a community of digital professionals on a mission to help each other get skilled, get confident, and get connected so that we can amplify the value of project management in a digital world. If you want to hear more about that, head on over to thedigitalprojectmanager.com/membership.
Today, we are talking about international collaboration and how to develop high-performing, distributed project teams that span multiple work cultures. With me today are two movers and shakers from the world of international project management, Yasmina Khelifi and Mayte Mata Sivera.
Yasmina is a France-based senior project manager in the telecom industry, a podcaster, and an avid blogger. Mayte is the head of a PMO, managing an international team and is also a prolific speaker.
Yasmina, Mayte — thank you so much for joining me today.
Mayte Mata Sivera: Thank you for having us.
Yasmina Khelifi: Thank you, Galen, for having us.
Galen Low: I'm so excited because, honestly, for my listeners who might have been living in a hole for a little bit, you two are like my entire LinkedIn feed right now. I know you guys have been working together. You've released a book. You've been at summits. You've been presenting. And yeah, that's my way of saying, I think the universe wanted you to be on my podcast. So, thank you. I appreciate that I get both of you here at the same time to nerd out about project management.
I wanted to dive into just like one juicy question just to get us rolling right off the bat and yeah, maybe start a bit of controversy now, but really get some value out of here right off the bat.
My question is this. You two have been working on international projects for quite a while. You've been sharing your experiences. I'm just wondering, based on your experience, what's one of the biggest barriers limiting the success of remote cross-cultural collaboration on international projects?
Yasmina Khelifi: I would say two main barriers.
One is to be convinced that we are all professionals, but the meaning of being a professional may differ from people to industries to countries and cultures. So being a professional for one person is answering all emails, including during the weekend. And when you don't answer these emails, people think you are not professional. And for others, it is always also using emails instead of messaging. So that's the first assumption.
And the second one also is to think that we have no assumptions at all, which is wrong because as human beings, we have assumptions about other cultures. So that is my two biggest barriers over the years.
Galen Low: I love that you call that sort of this sort of bias or unconscious bias. And just the terminology, because honestly, I've said that so many times. Hey, we're all professionals here, and what does that even mean? I think, especially when you're working across cultures, we kind of make that assumption that we're saying the same thing, but we haven't necessarily defined it for everybody. I love that.
Mayte, how about you?
Mayte Mata Sivera: That's true. And also we have the basics like the time zone difference, communication barriers for having different accents or different ways to explain things. But something that that really I'm in a lot is the cultural differences. And more now that we start the college football season.
So how many times we have in a Monday meeting, the small chit chat talking about the sports that happen on the weekend. I believe that this cultural difference are sometimes a barrier because it doesn't allow us to connect with some of the team members that don't follow college sports.
Galen Low: I love that too, because honestly, I've been, I'm not very sporty at all.
Well, we have this like small talk and we were like, okay, the small talk is meant to like, bring everyone together and feel that camaraderie that we all have something to relate to. But I'm often the person going what is super Tuesday? And I'm like, I'll just keep my mouth shut. It actually ends up doing the opposite.
The thing that we wanted to bring people together through small talk actually ends up pushing us apart because we're like, they're all laughing, they're all saying sports stats, and I'm just gonna, I'll sit here and maybe afterwards I'll bring up the cricket and see what they have to say about that.
Mayte Mata Sivera: That's a good one.
Galen Low: Reverse small talk. No, I love that. There's so many of these things just to be like, aware of. And honestly, I think when it comes to international cross-cultural collaboration, a lot of people just go in assuming it's gonna be, I'll just do what I normally do. And we don't need to pay attention or add this extra layer of awareness to our interactions with our colleagues.
Because, we are who we are and we'll just figure it out as we go. But both of those things are just like such important things to be conscious of going in. And like all good things, not necessarily like perfect before you start your project. But, being aware of, so that you can be like, you know what, maybe we should stop referencing American football every time we have a stand up. We could talk about something else what should we talk about everybody? And kind of getting everyone on side with that. I think that's really cool.
Maybe we could rewind a little bit. So the way I see it, projects that cross borders involve, teams in different countries, and that's not a new thing. But the way that these teams collaborate and the closeness of that collaboration is somewhat of a modern concept. Having everyone in the same space in Slack or Teams, right? To your point, Yasmina, about messaging and email, just even collaborating on things like user stories in JIRA, or being at the same standups, right?
Talking about American football or the cricket. All of that requires a deeper level of camaraderie, familiarity, and I guess empathy. And just coming back to what we've been talking about these barriers and challenges for remote international work what is the project leaders responsibility for creating a safe, inclusive team culture, and why is it their problem anyways?
Mayte Mata Sivera: Yeah, so I'm going to take this one because I'm very passionate about diversity and inclusion in teams. And as a project leaders, we need to understand what that we don't only schedule meetings and manage the projects and risk. We also manage people. We are the ones that need to take care of these things and allow them to feel that they belong to the team and create for them a safe space where they can raise a flag.
They can talk openly to us if there is some issue that we can support them. It's for that I mentioned that the part of inclusion and maybe when we do a stand up, it's not talking about topics that maybe other people don't care or prepare a topic that you think that all the people can align for this small chit chat.
Another way to do it, for example, is a misunderstandings. Making jokes in Team or Slack or depending on your cultural background, something that for you is funny is not funny for other people or can be offensive. So as a project leader, we need to have this cultural awareness to ensure that all of our team feel included in our meetings, in our Team chats, in our Slacks, and make it them feel that they are safe and they belong to our team, basically.
Galen Low: If I were to play the devil's advocate on that and say, well, what if I didn't care? What if I'm a project manager who's You know what? People can make jokes that other people don't laugh at. And we can, people can not understand American football.
As long as the work is getting done, like that's how I'm going to be measured. Did it get done? Did it get done to the level of quality that is defined? Was it on time? Am I on budget? What difference does it make to a project manager of how the team feels and gets along?
Mayte Mata Sivera: I think that at the end is is the success of the project.
I don't measure success only in quality time and budget. It's also that these people can speak up. And if they don't feel safe to speak up or they feel that they are not valued, you can provoke some kind of burnout. You can provoke that they are not transparent to you. And if you ask, Hey, let's think about how long it will take that so if they don't trust you, maybe they don't raise the risk that they need to speak up and raise a risk to bring to the sea level.
Yasmina Khelifi: Exactly. And I want also to complete what Mayte is saying. When there is no issue, perhaps it will not, you will say, okay, I don't care about football. I don't care about including everyone. But on a project, as we know, you may face obstacles and issues. And when you haven't created a safe environment, a great collaboration, then when there is an obstacle, people are going to not really to collaborate to solve the obstacles.
And another thing also, we talk a lot about cultures, but I think if we go to basics, as Mayti said at the beginning, it's quite important also about the English. I understand what you say, because currently in the business world, we have to talk in English. And it's not necessarily understood at the same level of proficiency for everyone.
So I think it's important to talk global English. We call it globish. And also it's important to make people's English of communication, because I, for example, I worked a lot with British people and I remember one, he sent me a very long email. First, it was very long. And with a lot of words, I didn't understand really at all.
I think, I don't know if it was intentionally or not, because we had some, not a good relationship, I would say, with this person. And it was very uncomfortable for me, to be honest, even if I knew English, because you don't know how to, what to do. You feel you have no other power really to react.
So that's why when I work with some people talking in French, native language. And they don't really feel comfortable sometimes in English. So we just say, okay, we are going to have the meeting in English, but if any problem, we can switch to French and I can translate. So I think that the kind of things that may appear very small, that we are back to the thing that is, what is obvious for people is not necessarily so obvious, in fact, if you change the perspective.
Galen Low: I recognize English's prevalence, and also, it is such a complicated language. And I'm like, it's my first language, but whenever I hear stories about people learning it, I'm like, yeah, you're right, how did I even learn this language to begin with? None of this makes sense.
The pronunciation doesn't make sense, the grammar doesn't make sense, it's a big old mess. So sorry, English speakers, but our language is weird. But I love that camaraderie of Hey, listen, we all speak French as our first language and we could have this meeting in French, but let's not, let's try and have it in English.
Let's try and help each other grow and develop and create this level of comfort where we've got each other's back. We're all improving together. We're recognizing that this could pose great opportunities for communication, great challenges in communication. Let's work on this together.
You touched on something and I wanted to circle back on it because originally I wasn't going to but I think it's important, which is this notion of I would say discrimination, almost as oh, these team members, they don't speak English very well, whatever that's their problem.
I'm going to write this big long email. They have to figure it out. They are not on the same level as me, as this person who is potentially a English speaking project sponsor, right, someone influential, it's like this sort of feeling of almost being viewed as lesser than because English is not your first language.
Do you have any sort of tactics, tips, strategies for folks who are in a project where they are speaking not their first language and do feel like they're being thought of as less capable team members as a result?
Mayte Mata Sivera: Yeah, there are tips for project leaders, and there are also tips for people that use English as a second language.
So, as a project leader, my recommendation is to be used to this accent, or be used at how these people speak. Sometimes I pronounce some words very weird, but my team, after listening a lot of times, they know, ah, I know what you are doing. So, as a project leader, be exposed to different accents. That will help you to be even more supportive to your team members.
Try to schedule one-on-ones or social conversations to help that person to grow. And for myself, something that I try to do to help people to understand me, and it's very challenging for me, you see that already, I speak super fast. I'm fast at speed. And I promise you, Galen, I try to speak slowly to help the people to understand me.
But when I am talking about something that I am very passionate, it's like, phew, like an F1 car. See? Reference to a sports. I speak super, super fast and I need to control myself. We are having here a nice conversation and potentially I will go past the speed. When I am rehearsing for a presentation, a formal education class or keynote, what I do is I measure my pace, I have someone in the back of the room making signals like, slow down.
And I try to use words that cannot create confusion. There are some words that I know that I cannot pronounce very well, so I try to use other words that are easy for me to pronounce.
Yasmina Khelifi: I confirm exactly the same tactics as Mayte, so probably Spanish and French, I think are quicker speakers, probably.
So that's exactly the same tactics. And I think it also goes back to what we are talking about, international project teams. It means that each member of the team has to become more self-aware, self-aware of the challenges they may face, of the challenges that may block the collaboration. And I think what you say in terms of tactical, so to talk openly about the way you communicate, it's something else.
So when I work with a new provider or new supplier, I usually have a meeting when I explain, perhaps for some people it's strange, but I tell people, I send a lot of emails. Also when I work, usually you can contact me more like this, via A or B. Also if there is an issue, don't hesitate, but I don't read emails on the weekend.
It's, I try really to be very explicit on the way I communicate and also to encourage other people to do the same.
Galen Low: I love that. And I like that's more common now. And I think because of some of this, right? Because of, remote collaboration, people working in different time zones, and even in a post COVID 19 pandemic when our view on work is different.
It's what are your working hours? They might not be the same as mine. Not everyone's on nine to five, not everyone's in the office. And I love that practice of just being like, Hey, We're going to work together. Here's how I work. How do you work? Great. I don't know why that was such a stigmatic thing before, like before five years ago, 10 years ago, that'd be weird.
I'd be like, Whoa, you're a machine. Yeah. Yeah. Hello. Here's my instruction manual. Everyone would be like, what's going on? But now I think it's a much more common and accepted thing. That's okay, great. Let's just fast forward to the part where we work well together. I think that's amazing.
The other thing, Mayte, that I love about, because both of you, you both are speakers. And I love that sort of comparison of okay, if I'm speaking to an auditorium of people, and I don't know them all, I don't know their background, and I don't know anything about them, really. But I want them to receive the message. I'm going to, yeah, slow down. Or ask my friend to stand in the back and make hand signals at me.
Whereas in the business world, we're like, fast is good. Not even just as the language thing, but I find that a lot of the time it's we're in a meeting, we gotta get things done, it has to be a good use of our time, let's go fast. They're almost at odds with one another, in that if we slow down, we probably actually get more done because everyone would understand and everything would be more clear.
People would just have time to absorb the information, but our view on work is get done fast, get your idea out fast, and then make progress, be productive. But I love that idea, just being aware of the words you're using, and your pace, understanding who's in the room, and taking that into account.
That's actually a really good segue, because, we've been talking about, self awareness, and I think that's really important. And something that's kind of underlying this whole conversation is understanding the differences in culture and learning a bit more about it. And, we talk about talking about our work preferences, but some of it is more deeply cultural.
And I was wondering, a project manager, if they wanted to like, learn more about their internationally distributed team and what that work culture looks like, what can they do? Does this just happen on the job? Do you have to schedule a separate session where you're teach me about your culture?
How can we make this, something where as a project leader, you can learn about some of these cultural differences along the way?
Yasmina Khelifi: When I think on this, it depends. The first thing, there are some intercultural courses or classes. So perhaps some people may think it is useless because they think it's better to learn on the job.
But for me, I was thinking like this at the beginning, but I was fortunate to have some intercultural training at work. And I could learn a bit, to be honest, I could feel more self confident. The first time I had to work with Chinese colleagues, we have a Chinese office. Usually I approach a new collaboration through the language also, but Chinese is very hard to learn.
So you don't have time to learn it. So what I did ask also other colleagues who worked with China. We can call them cultural mentors. And I'm sure there are many people in your environment who lived in China, who traveled there, who worked with them and ask them some questions. And then, as I told you, the first meeting, I explained how I worked.
And after along the way, I asked some questions. That's the way I did.
Galen Low: I love that word cultural mentor. And I think it's one of those things too, where I agree with you. I think a lot of people be like, we'll just figure it out as we go. But that sort of intentionality is to be like, maybe there is a course, or even just maybe I should talk to someone in my network who has some experience with this, and I might not master everything, but at least I'll know a little bit of something that I can build on top of.
I really like that idea. I don't know why, but my head went to Well, people in espionage, they got to learn something and blend in with very short notice. And if you're a spy and you're going to pretend that you are working in this country and not be called out, there's that ability to just learn enough rapidly.
And kind of give yourself a foundation to build off of, not to say that project leaders should be spies, but that it's not impossible to with intention, learn a bit more about the context that you're walking into and take that into account. I love that.
Yasmina Khelifi: The other thing I'd like to add also is we have also organizational culture that plays a role.
It means if you work with me, Galen, perhaps you took a course about how to work with French people. But perhaps it will not apply 100% because in my organization, my department, people are used to working with other nationalities. Also, and we use a lot of English also when we speak in French.
So there is also this organizational culture that will influence also the way the way we work.
Galen Low: That's a really important consideration. And even the flip side of that being that you could be working in between States in America. And just because you are in the same country and just because you're speaking the same language doesn't mean that the way your organizations work are the same.
And to your original point about hey, we're all professionals here, have we defined that? What does that mean for people? And even just the, we send Slack messages that are as long as emails so that we don't have to send emails. But is it really different? I don't know, but that's the way we roll.
That's just expect to receive a four paragraph Slack message. That's just part of the way we work. And that might be different than how another team works.
Mayte, any tips on just learning about sort of other cultures from other team members?
Mayte Mata Sivera: I think that you need to be self-aware of the things that you don't know. Be humble and ask questions using the correct words and showing interest for other people's culture.
For example, I remember a business travel to Korea, so I tried to ping a friend before, it's what is the dress code in the office in Seoul? How is the setup in the meeting? So there is the hierarchies over there are very important. There is a timer on the table too, and each person has five minutes to discuss a topic, something that in Spain, we can be talking about the same and one voice over another voice.
So first, my boss introduced me and I introduced the other person. So asking these questions with the intention to learn, basically, it's not gossip, it's not that because, oh, we are better than you are. No, it's not about that. It's about being humble, willing to learn and using correct words to make people say, Hey, I want to learn more about you.
I want to learn more about your culture. And I want to do the things as better as I can when I travel to your country or when I collaborate with you.
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Okay, you think about like historical human hospitality, right? I'm thinking of like trade routes, Silk Road, right? It's like a lot of those people, a lot of those interactions, like where someone's like putting up a traveler for the night was built around this notion of like warmth, welcomeness, curiosity, right?
And we only have a brief moment of time together, but that doesn't mean I don't or shouldn't want to learn about you. Let me posture, let me position myself in a way that shows you that I want to learn about you. I'm not here to just talk at you. And I'm not here to think I'm above you because, here I am the traveler, and I'm just sleeping in a bed, in your house, but it's actually an opportunity to learn more about one another as humans while doing another thing, while traveling, while doing trade, while doing a project.
And I think that perspective is just, I think it's really interesting of just being and showing that you are open to learning and that you're curious and that you want to know. Cause coming back to the American sports ball thing, but someone might be like, well, they can learn about American football and what draft is and, and all these things, yeah, guess what?
You can also learn about whatever sport or hobby that they are into. And it can be that exchange. And I think that just levels up a collaboration and camaraderie as well. And then I don't know if I had said it earlier, but Yasmina, what you said not because when things are going well, it's important, but especially when things go wrong, that's the whole reason why we build culture in groups, period.
Is to know that we can address problems and work together as a team when we don't have a plan, when things are off plan, when things are going sideways, when we have to somehow survive together. That's like such a good argument for why building a good cross-cultural team culture is so important.
Yasmina Khelifi: It takes time. So this is something we have also to admit, it takes time. So we can make mistakes also along the way. But like Mayte said, if we are in the position of saying, I want to learn from your culture, I didn't know that. I think it changes the way the collaboration would work.
Galen Low: Yeah, I agree. I'm looking at my next question and I'm like, I'm gonna change it. So sorry.
Mayte Mata Sivera: Do it.
Galen Low: Honestly, my next question was like, okay, your project manager, your project leader, like you've learned about your teammates. What do you do with this information? But I thought I'd twist that a little bit and say, A) how can you wield that information? Because arguably there will be others on your team who aren't doing this, right?
You can do all these things as a project leader and it's your sort of responsibility and duty and that it impacts you in the sense that the team will work better and your project will go better and it positions you very well. But you could have a whole bunch of members on your team who are like, yeah, we don't care about that.
Why would I want to learn about this? What can a project leader who is proactive about gathering this information, how can they like mobilize that themselves for themselves, but also like across their team so that it is something where it's not just one or two people who are curious and willing to learn, but everybody is.
Mayte Mata Sivera: That's happened to me when I was working in Spain with the cross-functional teams, very distributed around Europe and the world. What I did is to show the, try to explain them in a nice way why it's important. And the second thing, I have some people that was hesitant or resistant. I did a team building activity that was a cultural trivial.
So, there is nothing to challenge some people that don't want to learn something to do a cultural trivial as a team building activity or do this kind of break ice activities for the team where you challenge and you use cultural questions. So it's a very nice and fun way to push a little that point and make them understand how important is to do that.
Also here in the States is very common to do potlucks. That is when each of us bring some food to the office, doing something like cultural like that. Not all the people bring the typical veggie tray, bring something that inspires for your estate, bring something that is traditional your grandma, that is originally from Philippines, or bring something that it's from your Mexican culture.
So that also helps to the people learning through food. So those are the things that I did and are real examples and how I try to promote that inclusivity, how I try that one people listen and learn from others.
Galen Low: Food is such a good one because we all eat and all our food is different, no matter what.
And then there's a story behind it. And then usually it means we've taken a break from work and we're eating. So it's not even in that sort of professional context of a meeting. We can actually just spend some time and learn about one another. I love that.
I thought maybe I could put one of you on the spot and do some storytelling because, we've been talking about some of these, cultural differences and we've been talking about some experiences and some things that have come up along the way that have made you to have these strategies and tips and approaches to things.
But I'm wondering if one of you could tell me a story about a challenging cultural difference and a conflict maybe that happened between team members or between you and another team member and how you resolve them?
Yasmina Khelifi: So let's share perhaps two stories. So one, it was with one of my British colleagues, so let's call him Brian. And so, Brian, I had to test a service for the project. And to test the service live, he needed also local collaboration from Joe. Let's say Joe is in an African country. And Joe, he received so many emails from the group, the corporate, that he didn't really keep up with all the trends.
And I worked before with Joe, and I know it was more reactive to work with him by messaging or calling him. And when I explained to Brian know the process is I initiate, I send an email and he asked first to answer me with the information and after I can set up the test. So he sends the email and he didn't get any answer and I needed his answer for the project.
So I told him, okay, did you get answer? And after I facilitated it, the collaboration, I organized a call between Brian and Joe to have the information shared on the call and to have the testing done. And we noticed that there was not the right material used, et cetera. So my question is here, it looks like a simple example.
It's not really a conflict, but it's different way of working and how we accept to adjust or not our ways of working. And we have some cultural organizations, very process oriented, that the process it has to work like this. So that's an example. I have another one. I think it's quite important about escalation.
Also, how do we manage escalation? So it's still, I have been working, I worked a lot with British colleagues, very close, but quite different, in fact. And I remember when this was not for me, but for a colleague, we were in the London office and let's say Mark was next to Fred and Fred's a French one.
He didn't really get on very well with Mark. So what did Mark do? He sent an email to Fred's manager and they were close to each other in the office. And then Fred's manager sent an email to Fred. And I remember Fred was completely crazy. He said, I don't understand. He's next to me. Why doesn't he talk to me to explain?
And I think the way we manage also escalation, we manage loss sometimes of harmony. I noticed that some cultural harmony is very important. And the way I do, usually I prefer, it's not conflict, but when there is a problem, I think it's better to address directly with the person if we can, and after to escalate if it doesn't work.
Galen Low: I love both those stories. I love the first one because it's so like you said, this is of process-oriented. This is how it ought to go. And it didn't happen, so I did nothing. And when you reframe it around what you said about this harmony and trying to resolve things between one another first before escalating, and then you start to realize it's okay, well, it was just for testing.
Do we want to release something that hasn't been tested? No, nobody on the team, hopefully wants to do that. We have a shared goal and we shouldn't let some of these sort of, breakdowns and process or preferences or anything kind of get in the way of that. Because, someone could be like, yeah, I shouldn't have to send a message.
I'm an email person. Why do I have to change the way I work so that this person who is obviously, you know, "not a professional", right? This didn't answer the email that I had sent. Obviously, it's a slacker, doesn't do their job, doesn't care about these things. They just lost track of the emails, they're used to getting things, and they want this testing to happen, they want the project to be a success too.
And there, you start to see how this binding between the team members helps orient around a goal that's shared rather than a set of things that are different. That's been my takeaway from this conversation is that it does matter because it matters how we achieve the goal as a team, not about how we are different and, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We're all sort of capable people working towards something that we want to achieve together.
I thought maybe I'd round out, I know we kind of touched on this a little bit, but just to kind of crispen it up, I thought some of my listeners, they've never had an international project. They've been working with colleagues close to them, clients that are close to them, both in terms of the way they conduct themselves from a business standpoint, as well as, other aspects of the culture.
But for anyone who is about to embark on their first international project that involves remote, in-person and hybrid collaboration, what's the most important thing that they need to do as they start interacting with the team?
Yasmina Khelifi: For me, I would say first, if it's possible to get some knowledge, either through a formal training, through reading also. There are some books out there to explain how to work with remote international teams. Also, when I say I get back to it, to try to find in here in the network someone who worked with the other culture. You are going to work with culture. It means national culture, and also if you can get information about the organizational culture, it can also help.
Galen Low: Love that. Love that.
Mayte, how about you?
Mayte Mata Sivera: I always say don't make assumptions. It means as a project leaders, we know that we should not make assumptions about the project scope the budget, and things like that, but also I think that it applies in the ways how we work, how we communicate. Even how we take breaks.
It means maybe not all the team want to have lunch from 12 to 1. So don't make assumptions in their ways of working. That will help a lot. Don't make assumptions that someone is in person and needs to take their break from 12 to 1. Maybe this person only wants to take a little break. So as we do it day to day in our projects, that we push our stakeholders to don't make assumptions about the process, about the developments, about the budget, do the things in the ways of working. So that will be my best first tip for them.
Galen Low: That's so cool because both of them are like these inflections on other business things, right? Talking about mentors versus cultural mentors. We're talking about assumptions versus cultural assumptions, that we have the skills as project people to navigate this.
And as soon as we start seeing the benefits, it's actually quite straightforward, not easy, but uncomplicated in terms of what we need to do to overcome some of these cultural barriers, whether it's work culture or international culture or otherwise.
Mayte, Yasmina — thank you so much for spending the time with me today. This has been so much fun. I've learned a lot and I think our listeners have as well.
Mayte Mata Sivera: Thank you. It was great to spend time to you and talking about this.
Galen Low: All right folks, there you have it. As always, if you'd like to join the conversation with over a thousand like-minded project management champions, come join our collective. Head on over to thedigitalprojectmanager.com/membership to learn more. And if you like what you heard today, please subscribe and stay in touch at thedigitalprojectmanager.com. Until next time, thanks for listening.