United States – Page 103 – understand-culture

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.

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.

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. Exam p les

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“

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.

Follow-up

German Approach

In Germany follow-up is infrequent. Once an agreement has been made neither party feels the need to contact the other in order to check its status or priority. Agreed is agreed. Examples

American Approach

In the U.S. follow-up is frequent. Americans enter into many agreements and on a constant basis. Follow-up is how they maintain a common understanding of the status of those agreements. Examples

American View

If follow up does not occur, one party gains the impression that for the other party the status or priority of the agreement has changed.

„Hmm, odd, I haven‘t heard from my German colleague since last week when he requested that report. Perhaps he got a copy from another source. I suppose he‘ll call if he still needs it.“

Other tasks, projects or agreements are then seen as more important. The danger is evident. The German colleague saw no reason to follow up. He, indeed, is expecting to receive the report by the date agreed to. The American colleague assumes the opposite, however.

German View

Frequent follow up can be interpreted as lack of trust or even as a form of controlling. Germans will ask themselves: „Do they think we forget agreements we‘ve entered into? Do they think that we make promises which we don‘t intend to keep? Are they implying that we are not reliable, not zuverlaessig?“ Their reaction will be one of discomfort, irritation, impatience.

Advice to Germans

Increase your use of follow up by 100%. Your American colleagues will judge it to be neither a sign of mistrust nor control, but of cooperation and teamwork.

Follow up helps them to better understand how the agreement fits into your and their work context. The communication will allow you and your colleague to respond quickly to changing parameters.

At the same time, explain to your American colleague when and how follow up is appropriate in the German context.

Advice to Americans

Explain to your German colleague as early as possible the function of follow up in the American context. Warn them of your need to remain up-to-date on your various agreements.

Then ask that colleague when and in which mode (telephone, e-mail, face-to-face meeting) interim communication is acceptable. At the same time, try to reduce your need for follow up by 50%.

No

German Approach

The German no is more the rule than the exception. However, its level of firmness is based on context. The no can range from hard to flexible. Identifying the barriers to the yes reveals that range. Examples

American Approach

A no in the American context is more the exception than the rule. Americans pride themselves on being can-do people. They feel uncomfortable saying no. They couch their no in affirmative words. Examples

American View

Germans are often and quickly (mis)perceived as born nay-sayers. They can come across as unfriendly, uncooperative, not team-players. The German „no“ can be communicated so quickly and unabashedly that an American does not consider the possibility that it is the German way of saying:

„Sorry, I cannot commit to that right now, or without having thought about it.“ The attempt is not made to determine through discussion to what degree the „no“ might be a different way of communicating a conditional „yes“.

The danger in this interaction is twofold. Firstly, an otherwise mutually beneficial agreement is not struck. Secondly, and more unfortunate, the German colleague might be unfairly labeled as a „nay-sayer“, an uncooperative colleague to be avoided.

That person may never become aware of how they are misperceived by their American colleagues, thus affording no opportunity to correct the misperception, to correct the unfair label as „Herr Dr. No“.

German View

No less irritating for the Germans is the American no, which they almost never hear. Instead they get a conditional yes, which is communicated with terms and phrases which indicate clearly to the non-native speaker a positive, an affirmative response, a yes. Germans ask themselves what is so difficult about saying either yes or no.

Although Germans speak good to excellent English, few are capable of understanding the nuances of American English. And, the more complex the material discussed, the more politically sensitive situation it is embedded in, all the more subtle the language used by Americans.

A highly conditional „yes“ in the American context is in most cases a polite form of a „no“, a „polite no“, understood by each American involved, but perhaps misunderstood by a German to be a „yes“. For it is a sign of professionalism and finesse in the United States to be able to communicate rejection in a positive and affirmative way.

The effect? Two parties have an opposite understanding of the interaction. One believes to have entered into an agreement. The other believes to have clearly communicated that agreement was not arrived at.

Worse than the miscommunication, there lurks the greater danger of Germans drawing the conclusion that Americans don‘t hold up their side of the bargain. To be unreliable (unzuverlaessig), „not keeping your word“, on even the most minor of matters is considered highly negative in the German context.

To be labeled unzuverlaessig is to be labeled with almost a character flaw. It‘s a label which can take time to have peeled off.

Advice to Germans

Your German „no“ is harsh and unfriendly for the American ear. Either take it out of your repertoire altogether, or at least soften it. Explain your reluctance in a more diplomatic way. You won‘t be accused of being a therapist.

Enter into a dialogue with your American colleague by stating the reasons why you cannot (yet) enter into an agreement. Then give that person a chance to overcome your reluctance.

Strive to negotiate a mutually beneficial deal, with both having receivables and deliverables. Keep in mind, you may need and want assistance from this very same colleague at a later time.

Advice to Americans

Communicate more literally with your German colleagues. If you cannot enter into an agreement, simply state so. Provide your reasons, communicate regret, but try not to pack your „no“ into „wads of cotton“, as the Germans say. They won‘t break down into tears.

If you are willing to enter into an agreement, give clear indications to what degree your „yes“ is binding. Parameters can change. Use a percentage: „Sure, Hans, I can deliver that by next Thursday. But, I have a lot going on at the moment. I can guarantee it 80%. Let‘s talk again on Tuesday.“

Praise

German Approach

Germans give praise in direct connection with factually demonstrated performance. Praise in front of the team is seldom. Official awards are rare, for they could lead to envy and undermine team cohesion. Examples

American Approach

Americans see themselves as positive thinkers, motivators, self-motivators. They seek out reasons to praise. In fact, praise is most instrumental when an individual or entire team is struggling, experiencing defeat and self-doubt. Examples

American View

Germans are “praise stingy.” Criticism is direct, harsh, in generous supply. Germans miss opportunities to motivate by recognizing good performance.

German View

American praise comes across to Germans as inflationary, as simply unwarranted. They fear a creeping self-delusion.

Advice to Germans

If you are in an American team, be prepared for folks who say good things about you and to you. Accept it. Maybe you deserve it. Life isn’t a zero sum game. Praise for one person doesn’t come at the expense of another.

Allow yourself to be motivated by a positive, self-motivating environment. You won’t become a naive dreamer suddenly committing one unforced error after the other.

If you lead Americans, get generous. Praise, motivate, cheer your team on to victory. Their victory is your victory.

Advice to Americans

There is a German saying which states, “the absence of criticism is praise enough.” German praise comes in a very understated way. You’ll feel like a flower receiving insufficient water and sun.

You’ll need to motivate yourself more than ever before. Fine. Do it. You’ll develop inner strength. If you lead Germans, practice the German art of sober understatement.

If you decide to single out a team member, include praise for the entire team. Avoid any kind of star creation.

Scores

German Approach

Germans believe that feedback scores are most effective when they are accurate and realistic. When in doubt, Germans are deflationary.

The school grading system is: 1 is sehr gut (very good); 2 is gut (good); 3 is befriedigend (satisfactory); 4 is ausreichend (sufficient); 5 is mangelhaft (insufficient); 6 is ungenügend (failed). Examples

American Approach

Feedback scores are most effective when they are accurate and realistic enough, but also motivating. When in doubt, Americans are inflationary. The school grading system is: A is excellent; B is very good; C is good; D is unsatisfactory; F is failure. Examples

American View

German grades come across as deflationary, thus demotivating, confusing, potentially unjust. The American receiver of feedback is confused about “where I really stand.”

German View

American team leads give inflationary scores. Germans expect – and welcome – negative feedback as orientation and to sharpen their sense of self-critique. Weak performance is described in sugar-coated terms, which over time lose credibility.

Advice to Germans

You‘re getting better scores than in Germany. Be careful. Don‘t let it go to your head. Knock it down by ½ a grade. Look for an opportunity to speak with your American lead alone.

Insist diplomatically that he/she spell out more directly where your weaknesses are. If you lead Americans, erring on the side of praise and motivation has to take the concrete form of higher scores. Inflate them by ½ a grade.

Advice to Americans

If your lead is German, understated praise will come in the form of understated scores. Take it based on the German, not the American scale.

If you feel the assessment is inaccurate or unjust raise the subject carefully, for you could be seen as a coddled American who can‘t take criticism.

If you lead Germans, deflate the scores you give by ½ of a grade. Reduce the “sugar coating”. Germans can take criticism.

If their weaknesses are not addressed, if improvement measures are not recommended, they‘ll draw the conclusion that you‘re either incapable or unwilling to analyze and recommend how they become better players. And that‘s weak leadership.

Lines of Communication

German Approach

Because Germans, those leading as well as those being led, prefer generally formulated, mission oriented tasks (more what, less how), they maintain longer lines of communication: less interaction, fewer status meetings, fewer iterations on tactical issues. Examples

American Approach

Because Americans, those leading as well as those being led, prefer specific, command oriented tasks (both what and how), they maintain shorter lines of communication: more interaction, status meetings, iteration on tactical issues. Examples

American View

German team leads undercommunicate. “Face time” with the boss is in short supply. It becomes difficult to know, understand, or predict what the lead wants. It requires unnecessary guesswork, can be demotivating, and in most cases is seen as a lack of involvement.

German View

American leads overcommunicate. “Visiting the troops” and „management by walking around“ is interpreted as unwarranted and annoying supervision and control. It is distracting, demotivating, and in many cases viewed as a sign of mistrust.

Advice to Germans

Manage more like a player-coach versus a teacher-coach. Stay engaged with your people on the tactical level. You need not become overly prescriptive. You need not „change into your uniform and get onto the field“, but at a minimum stay involved as their coach.

Increase your communication with the team by 50%: staff meetings, phone calls, „drop by and say hello“. You won‘t feel comfortable doing it. You‘ll think it‘s a waste of time. You‘ll fear it will distract, or even unsettle, your team. It won‘t do any of they things. You won‘t succeed without shorter lines of communication.

Your American boss overcommunicates? It is not a sign of mistrust. On the contrary, you should worry about your performance if you see and hear less and less from your American lead!

The higher the level of communication, the more relevant your work, the more important you are for the success of the team. Enjoy the interaction. Engage with your team lead. You can exert influence on strategy and important decisions.

Advice to Americans

You lead Germans? Reduce your communication by 50%. You won‘t like it. You‘ll feel deprived of the key tool in managing your team. You‘ll wonder what to do with your time.

Focus on the broader strategic issues which can positively or negatively impact on your team. Remove roadblocks to their success. And, use the time to protect your team from those constant internal turf-battles so famous within German companies.

Your German boss undercommunicates? Experiencing „face time withdrawal“? It is not an indication that you have a problem, in fact, it‘s the exact opposite!

Your German lead is communicating with you. The message is: „Hey, you‘re doing a great job. I can leave you alone. I spend my time on the problems, not on the areas which are working. Keep up the good work. Maybe we‘ll bump into each other some time!“