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Germans don’t celebrate successes

Question

“Our German colleagues seem to be much more reserved in celebrating successes. Whether it’s a business, personal or even sporting event, they do not seem to celebrate victories. I was wondering why?“

Answer

I know what you mean. Americans are often quite surprised by how reserved the Germans are, modest, even stoic. Especially after successes.

Americans inflationary

What Americans might call a success is often for Germans “just doing our job.” We Americans, if we’re honest with ourselves, know that we have become inflationary in praise.

Just look at the terms we use: great, fantastic, awesome, super, etc. Very rarely would Germans use comparable terms in their own language.

In fact, America has become inflationary in general: McMansions of the 1990s and 2000s; oversized portions of food and drinks; grade inflation at just about all levels of education; inflated working titles in the private and public sectors; federal monetary policy (“quantitative easing”); trophies awarded to youth sports teams far from the top of their league.

Thankfully, a debate has begun in the U.S. challenging all of this over-praising. For the danger in inflationary praise is losing touch with reality.

Germans deflationary

At the same time the German approach can be too deflationary. Nicht geschimpft, ist genug gelobt – literally means, not chewed out is praise enough.

Many Germans with experience working with and for Americans have very positive things to say about how in the U.S. people are praised for good work and for team successes.

They feel motivated by it and wish there were more such positive thinking in German organizations.

If not understood, this cultural difference can have very significant (negative) influence on American-German collaboration.

In the end, Americans and Germans who collaborate need to sit down together, discuss these cultural differences, then decide how they jointly define success, as well as if and how they want to celebrate them.

It can be done. It isn’t rocket science. First understand the differences in approach. Then integrate those approaches.

Germans and being right

Question

“Why in Germany is there such a focus on being right?”

Answer

Competitive, Capable

Although the Germans are a people of only eighty million, their economy is ranked fourth behind the United States with three hundred million, the Chinese with one billion three hundred and forty million, and the Japanese with one hundred and thirty million.

The Dax30 are some of the most successful global companies. The Germans continue to be among the world‘s leaders in critical industries: automobiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, telecommunications, and especially those based on mechanical engineering.

Many experts believe that the great strength of the German economy lies in its so-called Mittelstand, an umbrella term for small- to medium-sized companies. Many of these family-owned business enjoy very high market shares, some dominating their particular markets worldwide.

During the financial crisis in the United States and Europe it is the German economy which continues to enjoy consistent growth. Its government is forecasting a balanced budget again in the year 2016. And despite discussion and debate about the merits of austerity measures, the German economy is the envy, and perhaps for some countries, the model of how to work.

As a people, the Germans are indeed battlesome, quarrelsome. As Northern Europeans their history as a people is deeply rooted in centuries of conflict, some initiated by them, many not.

The German strive for excellence. On the athletic field they have proven their ability to win. In the modern Olympic games the Germans have consistently ranked among the top medal winners, despite their modest population size. The most popular sport in Germany is soccer. There, too, they produce winning teams.

The Germans are a competitive and capable people. They like to win.

Zukunft sichern

Zukunft, a noun, means the future. Sichern, a verb, means to secure. In their domestic political debates all German parties address what Germany needs to do in order to secure its future. For foreign ears this can sound a bit exaggerated, purposely alarming. But it is meant literally and taken seriously by the German people.

German society involves a significant role of the government. Social services are many and expensive. The Germans are generous with each other. These services, however, can only be financed by a strong economy, which, in turn, requires that German companies offer products and services which command high prices and high margins.

The key to this, from the German perspective, is maintaining a very high level of intellectual and technical expertise. They are acutely aware of how critical it is to their future to train and develop people strong in the natural sciences, mathematics, and especially in engineering.

For Germans, ideas matter. Ideas are the core, the source of their expertise. Knowledge secures their future, not only of their economy and their companies, but also as individuals in their jobs within those companies.

Discussing and debating important issues, topics, subjects is something the German people take very seriously. Depending on the subject matter, they could see them as affecting directly their future, as individuals, companies, as a people.

Could it be that the subjects, topics, issues, questions which Germans consider to be absolutely essential (core) to their success (Zukunft, future) are not necessarily the same as those considered to be core by the Americans?

In other words, those topics which Germans get competitive (argumentative) about might very well be non- or less-core topics for Americans, leading Americans to think, and perhaps say: „Just relax, folks. This is important, but not a life-or-death issue. Let‘s reach some common ground here, then move on.“

Intellectual Curiosity

The Germans are an exceptionally curious people. They want to explore, ask, inquire, in the end understand. They want to move ever closer to the truth.

Some of modern Western civilization‘s greatest thinkers were German: In the natural sciences such as chemistry and biology, in mathematics and certainly in physics, but equally so in philosophy, theology, history, economics, political theory, sociology, and the law. The German approach to higher education, the Universität, of the 19th century was the model for the modern American university.

The Germans are known for being complex, analytical and systematic thinkers. They take pride in, they value highly, the ability to durch die dicksten Bretter bohren, literally to drill through the thickest boards. Conversely, the Germans have little respect or patience for those who take a superficial approach to any questions, task or endeavour.

Stubborn

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stubborn as „unreasonably unyielding; difficult to handle, manage, or treat.“ It lists the following similar words (synonym): adamant, bullheaded, dogged, hard, hardheaded, inflexible, intransigent, opinionated. stiff-necked. The opposite (antonym) of stubborn is: acquiescent, agreeable, amenable, compliant, flexible, pliable, yielding.

Indeed, the Germans can be stubborn. Some individual Germans can be particularly inflexible. It could even be argued that stubbornness is a German character trait. We will leave that question to the psychologists and sociologists.

The Germans also have a tendancy to be know-it-alls. Their term is Besserwisser, from besser better and wisserknower, from Wissen knowledge. See the link below.

But, if we are honest with ourselves, we should ask „Who likes to be wrong?“, especially on important matters. In fact, stubbornness can be a positive character trait if it means „holding your ground“ or „defending a principle“ or „staying focused on what is right, good, effective.“

Argument vs. Counter-Argument

Depending on how a given culture communicates, interacts, discusses and debates, the Germans can come across as insisting on being right. „Why do they always have to be right?“, one asks in frustration and exasperation. This could be influenced, therefore misperceived, simply by how Germans communicate.

A contributing factor is the Germans belief in the value of dialectical thinking: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Stated in an overly simplified way, Germans, consciously or unconsciously, discuss topics in terms of a statement made by one person, this then countered or challenged by the other person, in the hope of arriving at a higher level of understanding. What for the Americans is an argument, is for the Germans a discussion.

Discussions with Germans can, indeed, take on the character of a debate. They are taught to think this way, in their schooling, in their place of work. Germans believe in the value of rigorous thinking and debating. Therefore, they can come across as argumentative, a term with a negative meaning, simply because they discuss via argument and counter-argument.

Americans shy away from criticism

Question

“I have the impression that Americans shy away from using criticism, be it in personal conversation or at work. In Germany it is accepted to express objective criticism when appropriate.

But in conversations with Americans everything is always great. On what level is it socially accepted to voice concerns or criticism in America?“

Answer

An excellent question.

No society can function well without it having a way to voice and address things which aren’t working. Whether it be within a family, a school, a religious community, a sports team, certainly within a company, the group needs to have a common understanding of what is and is not working.

“What is effective? What is helpful? Where do we stand? What needs to be improved?” These are questions to be asked, and answered, on a constant basis.

Merriam-Webster defines criticism as: the act of criticizing usually unfavorably; the art of evaluating or analyzing; the scientific investigation of literary documents.

So, certainly Americans engage in criticism. Certainly Americans are capable of giving and taking criticism. As are the Germans. Both societies are complex. Both are successful. Both have their approach to criticism. And both approaches work.

The key questions for their interaction as Americans and Germans are: What are the differences in their approaches to criticism? What influence (effect) do these differences have on their collaboration? How can they best manage that influence?