- I've seen a lot of times where communication breakdowns have really just been related to underlying cultural differences. We're all raised in a family and within a certain culture and we learn how to interact with one another based on the societal norms. And sometimes when we don't understand that someone's-- someone else's communication norms are different from our own, that's where we run into communication problems. So today I want to talk about how cultural differences can impact communication and what we can do to ensure that we minimize the impact that this has on our ability to work well together. 

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So I've consulted extensively to First Nations organizations. And when I first started consulting to these organizations, I did not at all understand or know the cultural differences and I didn't realize to what extent it impacted how people communicated and it led to communication challenges. So despite being an expert in communication, yes, I still experience communication breakdowns at times. 

And so one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about-- to you about today was some of the lessons that I learned through that journey. Because what I learned was that the more I could learn about those cultural differences and how they impacted how we communicated, the more we were able to get around the differences. So let me give you an example. 

I was once on a conference call-- a bunch of people from Montreal, a bunch of people who are up north who were First Nations clients-- and someone from Montreal asked a question and then there was dead silence on the line for a good period of time. Well over a minute. It was an amount of time that makes most North Americans extremely uncomfortable. We're not used to big pauses and big silences. 

Now, because I'd been consulting with first nations clients for a long time. I was used to them at this point. So I knew to just give space that they were thinking and they would speak when they're ready. But what happened is that somebody else on the line from Montreal, who was not familiar with working with First Nations clients started saying, "Hello, hello, hello? Are you there? Hello?" Because they thought that we had a problem with the phone connection. 

Now, had that been me when I had started consulting, I would have done the exact same thing. But I'd grown to learn some of the nuances in my cultural communication norms, which are don't leave big long spaces is what's more typical versus some of these different cultural norms up north. So there's three different things that we can do to help make sure that these different cultural differences in communication don't lead to breakdowns. 

The first is don't make assumptions. So often I see communication differences linked to culture as being viewed through a lens of a characteristic of the person. So, for instance, this person isn't assertive enough or this person is too aggressive or this person isn't organized enough. And when really you look at it, sometimes it's those cultural norms that underlie how that person was raised in the culture they were raised in. So be very sensitive to this if you're working with someone from a different culture. Don't assume anything about that person based on how they're communicating with you. 

Second, and it's related to the first, is ask questions. The biggest way to get around those assumptions is to clarify them by asking open-ended questions. The more you can understand about somebody else's cultural expectations, the more you're going to be able to work collaboratively with them. 

And then my third tip is don't expect the other person to do all of the work to adapt their style to yours. And I see this a lot when there's a majority culture and a minority culture that there's often an expectation that the person in the minority culture has to adapt to the larger majority culture. The problem here is it's extremely stifling. Imagine if you were suddenly asked to be somebody completely different from who you were raised to be and to communicate completely differently just because everyone around you is. 

What's important here is that we all learn to take a step towards the other person. So instead of there being an expectation on the other person to adapt, what if you both looked at trying to understand one another's communication nuances and taking a step towards each other and meeting in the middle. 

And when I can tell you is that organizations who embody this philosophy-- they're really the ones who have the most collaborative communication, which leads to far fewer communication breakdowns that cost tons of time and money. They're also the organizations that I see having the most creativity. Because in that middle ground, as we all start to be able to shift our thinking, that's where pure creativity lies. 

So give it a try. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on how culture impacts communication in the workplace. 

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