Germans think systematically. They formulate their understanding of a decision to be made in a very broad and interconnected context. Therefore Germans do not always consider it helpful to take complexity and, as Americans say, “break it down” into its component parts. They aim to do the opposite, to see particulars in their interrelationships. They look for patterns, strive to understand complexity as a whole, as a system.
Resources
German Approach
Germany was never abundant in resources. Germans are economical in what they make, in how they make it, and in how they use it. Suboptimal decisions require modification, which in turn, draws on resources. Germans do their best to get a decision right the first time. Examples
American Approach
The USA has always been abundant in resources. Americans are less economical. In what they make, how they make it, how they use it. Instead, they value rapid resource aggregation and deployment in order to take advantage of opportunities. Examples
American View
The German need to plan their resources in great detail appears to Americans as too conservative.
German View
Germans see Americans as wasteful, which not only limits the decision making autonomy of a particular team, but also of the company in general.
Advice to Germans
Continue to be wary of rash decisions which will limit your room to maneuver. At the same time, use those resources available to you in order to take advantage of an opportunity. Decisions often offer real opportunities.
Advice to Americans
When involved in a joint decision, or in a recurring decision, enter into a dialogue with your German colleagues about the resources required.
Be direct and specific in discussing exactly which resources will be tapped into by whom, when and at what costs. Listen carefully to how they quantify the impact of a given decision on your organzations resources.
Communicate your calculation clearly, also. You will arrive at a resource-allocation acceptable to both.
Analysis
German Approach
Germans regard an individual step in a decision-making process as completed only when all relevant information has been gathered and analyzed with rigorous tools. Germans are scientific. They are skeptical of intuition. Examples
American Approach
Americans gather limited, but highly relevant, information. In-depth analysis is done only when necessary. Americans apply rigorous tools of analysis. However, they balance analysis with pragmatism. Examples
American View
For many Americans, German analysis is overly complex, cautious, scientific, tool-oriented.
German View
Americans are viewed by their German colleagues to be too pragmatic, too inexact, too tolerant of insufficient analysis.
Advice to Germans
Reduce the overall scope of your information gathering and analysis. Focus on the most relevant questions. Americans have less of a need than Germans for depth and breadth, as long as the key factors have been addressed.
Advice to Americans
For Germans, comprehensiveness and completeness are a virtue. If you opt for less depth and breadth in your information gathering, be prepared to provide the reasons.
If possible, place a monetary cost on the extra work involved. Demonstrate how there is limited value added to the decision making process (resource conservation).
When it comes to your approach to analysis, your German colleagues will expect you to describe the process, methods and tools you employed or plan to employ.
Germans seek scientific objectivity and avoid “gut-based” approaches to analysis. From their point of view, your results will only be as good, as reliable, as convincing, as the process/method/tools you used to arrive at them.
Scope
German Approach
Germans think systematically. They view a decision in its broader, interconnected context. The scope of the decision is wide. German decision-making means making several decisions at the same time. Examples
American Approach
Americans consciously break down complexity into its component parts in order to focus on what is essential. Because of that the scope of their decisions is narrow. Americans avoid interconnecting too many decisions. Examples
American View
From the American viewpoint, Germans consider too many factors not determinant in the decision making process. Time is wasted. Momemtum is endangered.
German View
Germans see Americans as moving through the decision making process impatiently, without having thought through the complexity of the issue.
Advice to Germans
Remain systematic in your approach to a decision. At the same time be more pragmatic. Narror the overall scope of your understanding of the problem. Focus on the truly relevant factors. Keep the other factors within your peripheral vision, but do not allow them to distract you from the heart of the matter.
Advice to Americans
Engage with your German colleagues in their seemingly philosophical discussion about the nature of the decision to be made. You will gain insight into their thinking. You may find a broader perspective to be of value.
Once you are a full participant in the discussion, you can influence the course of the decision from the beginning. If you feel that your German colleagues are getting a bit too systematic, considering too many factors, this is your opportunity to reign them in.
Time
German Approach
Germans believe that the time allotted to a decision should be determined by the nature of the decision. And not dictated by internal or external pressures. Germans believe that patience leads to good decisions. Examples
American Approach
In the U.S. an imperfect but fast decision is often preferred over a perfect but slow decision. Imperfect decisions can be corrected. For Americans speed is always of the essence. Examples
American View
For Americans, Germans afford themselves too much time in their decision-making processes. It is difficult to understand why their German colleagues risk angering the customer by taking additional time.
Germans appear overly conservative. From this perspective, German process discipline in decision making can appear rigid, at times in conflict with the purpose of the decision. It is as if the process were more important than the decision itself.
German View
The American tendancy to move fast in order to achieve results quickly can become a source of confusion for Germans. They often have difficulty identifying a clear logic behind the actions taken.
What Americans would term rapid response coupled with a high level of flexibility, their German colleagues would call “Aktionismus” or nervous movement without or at the expense of thought-through action.
Unfortunately, this confusion on the side of the Germans can turn into irritation if they feel blind-sided by an American “Dezisionismus” (hastily decisionism) which endangers their standards of decision-making quality and rhythm.
Advice to Germans
Your operating assumption should be that you have less time at your disposal to make a good decision. Your decision making speed should be based on the time needs of whoever benefits from your decision, whoever is the receiver of your „decision making deliverable.“
Advice to Americans
Be guarded against the cliché that Germans are slow in deciding. Their decisions tend to be further-reaching than the American approach. German colleagues or team leads will allow you more time to make a decision, provided your approach is methodical.
Use the additional time wisely. However, when you perceive the need to decide quickly, inform your German colleagues a.) why this is so, and b.) how a quick decision, if later proven to be suboptimal, can be corrected.
Risk
German Approach
Their history as a people, their experiences as an economy, the lessons they have learned, have taught the German people to be highly sensitive to risk, to what can go wrong, to how thin their margins of error can be. Germans are careful. Examples
American Approach
Historically America has always had generous margins of error: resource rich, protected by two oceans, two neighbors posing no threat. Mistakes were seldom costly. Risk-taking often paid off. Americans take risks. Examples
American View
Americans find the Germans to be overly risk-averse. Decisions are made too late, too carefully, via an overly complicated process. Forward momentum is lost. Opportunities are missed.
German View
Because their American colleagues are willing to take unwarranted risk, Germans feel the responsibility to apply stringency and methodology.
Advice to Germans
Your ability to analyze is strong. You strive for objectivity. But what about your Bauchgefühl, your gut feeling, your intuition? Trust it or at least take it into consideration along with your objective analysis. Be willing to take a little more risk. There is no such thing as a perfect decision. Every decision, if made in a timely manner, can be revised.
Advice to Americans
You know that your German colleagues anticipate, calculate and react to risk in ways different than you do. It is imperative that you engage in a discussion with them about the positive and negative impact of a given decision.
Quantify (measurables) and qualify (non-measurables) the down-sides as well as the up-sides. Anticipate your assessments being askew: German focus more on what can go wrong; American focus on what can go right.
Prepare convincing and detailed arguments for why your assessment is realistic, fact-based. It is fine to rely to some degree on intuition, but be sure that you can explain the concrete experience behind that „gut feeling“