John Magee

July 4th in Manhattan

Bob lives with his German-born wife, Katarina, and their two children in Manhattan. When the holidays approach Katarina often invites over a few German ex-patriate friends – Ingrid, as well as Heinz and Petra. Bob invites his sister, Ann, as well as an old college friend, Larry and his wife, Mary. 

All highly educated and informed people, conversation naturally gravitates towards current events, politics and society. The last time they were all together, however, the atmosphere became a little tense, turning into a competition of opinions. Larry and Mary felt uncomfortable and left early. Katarina and Bob argued in front of their guests. Ingrid and Heinz found the Americans a bit too senstive.

July 4th is coming up. Bob and Katarina want to have another party and again invite their American and German friends. But this time they decided to take a new approach, sending out invitations, with Bob providing insight for their German guests about how Americans communicate, and Katarina doing the same for their American guests about how Germans communicate. They wrote it in a humorous fashion: “Everything you always wanted to know about those crazy Americans … crazy Germans.”

“Who forgot to order the nails?”

You’re quite the handyman. As a teenager you built your own tree fort. You’re an adult now, married, three young children, just moved into a home built in the 1950s, offering all sorts of opportunities to apply your natural talent. 

You decide to build an outdoor deck. The spring is approaching and you simply can’t wait to get started. However, time is limited. The project’s success will depend on farsighted planning and disciplined execution. 

You’ll need an architect. Fortunately, your sister-in-law has an architect neighbor who designs houses and will create the plan. Because you’re particular about materials you want to purchase them from a specialty supplier. 

Thirdly, you’ll need some help. A few of the college-aged young men will be back in the neighborhood at the end of May. You’ll line them up as helpers. Lastly, you want your wife to keep the children away from the action so that folks can work without distraction.

So, you have more than a handful of things to organize and then to coordinate. And this means entering into and monitoring individual agreements with different kinds of people: the architect, the materials suppliers, the neighborhood college-guys, your wife. And all of this on a daily basis over several weeks.

In your culture what is key to entering into and managing those agreements?

“Well, I’d present it like this.”

You, an American, work in a transatlantic team which has come up with a creative approach to a difficult technical problem within the company. But, you need some serious funding. Your German team lead, Uwe, will present the solution to very senior management in the U.S. 

You have a good sense for how these American managers think. At the same time, you have listened to dozens of German presentations, and are quite familiar with how Uwe lines up his arguments. There is the potential for a disconnect. You hint at this to Uwe. He is open to your advice. 

Place yourself in your home culture. You team lead is non-native. What advice do you give to him/her before making that key presentation?

“Tommy needs a car.”

The summer is just around the corner. You and your spouse don’t want to continue driving your son, Tommy (age 18), and his two younger sisters around town to their various activities. Since Tommy has a driver’s license and drives responsibly, the two of you will sit down together on Sunday evening and plan your search for a reliable, safe and economical used car.

Put yourself in the shoes of Tommy’s parents. In your culture. Map out your decision-making process.

“Effective leadership means . . . .” 

You and your other German colleagues have a new boss, Susan Steel. Some of you know of Susan, a few have met her at company conferences, but none have worked directly with or for her. Next week Susan arrives in Germany as a long-term delegate and to begin her work.

Because she wants to quickly get oriented, Susan has invited each of her German direct reports for a one-to-one talk. She would like to understand the expectations of her as the team lead, but also communicate her views about the optimal working relationship between team lead and team.

You’re in your home culture. In a similar situation. You want to help Susan to understand what makes for an optimal working relationship between a team lead and team. Describe that relationship.