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“