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Discipline vs. Deviation

German Approach

Processes are most effective when they maintain a balance between discipline and deviation. Germans prefer generally formulated processes allowing for interpretation based on the “situation on the ground.” Examples

American Approach

Americans seek that fine line between process discipline and flexibility. However, the moment a process step makes unnecessary demands, “no value-add”, Americans will deviate. Examples

American View

When and why Germans adhere strictly to a process versus when they deviate, appears arbitrary, remains a mystery to Americans, is a source of irritation. And although many Germans processes are formulated in only very general, often theoretical language, they expect strict discipline.

German View

When and why Americans adhere strictly to a process versus when they deviate, appears arbitrary, remains a mystery to Germans, is a source of irritation. Because they construct complicated and interconnected parallel processes, it is critical to be informed early about deviations.

Advice to Germans

Sit down together. Address those processes which are key to your success. Identify their key gates or checkpoints. Discuss, understand, then if possible decide when specific process steps must be followed strictly versus when they can be interpreted.

Also, agree on how you will inform yourselves of these choices. Life is fluid. The business world is fluid. Your internal processes need to be fluid. Be prepared to meet on a regular basis so that you remain fluid in your cooperation.

Advice to Americans

Process as Power

German Approach

If processes govern the inner workings of a company, whoever has the say about those processes determines how the work is done. Germans strive to have the say about processes. Examples

American Approach

Because Americans are less inclined to view processes and procedures as governing the inner workings of a company, having the say is seldeom the forum where battles over power and influence take place. Examples

American View

The more that success is based on the relationship with the customer, the less important are the disiplines develoment and manufacturing.

Germans don‘t understand the primacy of market orientation. Americans, therefore, are less concerned about Germans having the say in that area.

German View

The more that success is based on the product itself, the less important are the disciplines sales and marketing. Americans don‘t understand the primacy of product. Germans, therefore, are less concerned about Americans having the say in that area.

Advice to Germans

You Germans and Americans are colleagues. Get out of the power and influence game. If processes are crucial to success, convince your American colleagues to remain involved. Don‘t make the mistake of creating processes without total transparency and involvement of your U.S. colleagues.

Otherwise you‘ll produce German processes which don‘t work in the U.S. Your American colleagues will not implement them and make convincing arguments to upper management why. You‘ll lose that battle. It‘ll be painful.

Advice to Americans

Whether you think it important or not, get engaged in the internal debate about processes. To prevent it from devolving into a power struggle, demand full representation, full transparency and full accountability.

While involved, avoid being drawn into skirmishes. Focus, and keep your German colleagues focused, exclusively on those processes which improve performance and the bottom-line.

At the same time, get your German colleagues involved in your strategic thinking about how you go to market. Give up some of that power.

Success Factor

German Approach

If surveyed Germans would rank internal processes, how the work is done, just after people as the most critical success factor. However, often it seems that people serve processes more than processes serve people. Examples

American Approach

If surveyed few Americans would mention processes as critical to success. Instead they would state factors such as customer orientation, innovation, rapid reaction time, and pricing. Results are more relevant than how they were achieved. Examples

American View

German internal analysis of processes quickly leads to a form of navel-gazing. The longer and more intense the analysis the faster and further the company distances itself from the external world: customers, competitors, the market.

German View

Americans appear disinterested or unaware of the central importance of processes. Especially in times of crisis, when their German colleagues focus on structure and processes, their American colleagues seem to not engage in the internal discussion and analysis.

Advice to Germans

Analysis of how the work is done is important. But be sure to focus on its causal connection to the results for your external customers. Engage your American colleagues by starting with the market and your customers, then working back into your organization and its internal processes.

Advice to Americans

Be patient. Listen carefully. When Germans talk processes, they‘re talking output, and the business bottom-line. They are one and the same.

At their core Germans are European craftsmen. Success is based on craftsmanship. It‘s all about how the work is done. Get engaged in the discussion about processes. Add your pragmatic American business thinking.

System vs. Particular

German Approach

Germans are systematic in their thinking. They believe that complexity is understood only by grasping how its component parts interact and interrelate. Explaining complexity is persuasive in Germany. Examples

American Approach

Americans are particularistic in their thinking. They prefer to break down complexity into its component parts, in order to focus on what is essential. Americans are skeptical of theory. Facts and experience are far more persuasive. Examples

American View

The German inclination to paint the big picture, especially with the help of theory, can make a professorial and arrogant impression on American ears. German comprehensiveness can come across as long-winded, overly complicating and impractical. Americans react impatiently.

German View

Facts and experience, without an understanding of the big picture, do not persuade the Germans. To concentrate on the key variables often means to misunderstand or to overlook other important aspects. Americans are often judged to be over-simplifying and superficial.

Advice to Germans

A wholistic approach is fine, but be careful not to get tangled up in theory. Warn your audience when you need to go into detail in order to get a particular message across.

Leave out facts and factors which are not pertinent. Do not be comprehensive for the sake of comprehensiveness.

If Americans need more supporting information, they will request it. Anticipate those questions. Have the data ready. Questions are a sign of interest, and not that you are unprepared.

Advice to Americans

Take the time to explain the analysis which led to your conclusions. Your German colleagues want to know the what (statements), the why (reasons) and the how (methodology).

Go into much more detail. Include facts and information about various factors. Germans rarely save information for the question & answer part of a presentation. Provide it up-front.

In the German context, the fewer the questions asked during Q&A, the more persuasive the presentation.

Evidence

German Approach

When resolving a conflict the German mediator focuses on reconstructing the causes and circumstances. Objective evidence is sought to answer the question: “Why did this have to happen?” Examples

American Approach

When resolving a conflict American managers see themselves more as judge than mediator. They consider both objective facts and subjective witness testimony. Examples

American View

Many conflicts are the result of non-quantifiable, nuanced, context-oriented factors. Often there is a fine line between objective and subjective information. The German approach takes into consideration only the factual evidence.

German View

The American approach is too susceptible to manipulation. Colleagues often choose sides in a conflict. Their testimony is inherently subjective.

Advice to Germans

Go beyond the literal, quantifiable facts. Talk to the folks near and/or impacted by the internal conflict. An American party to the conflict will ask and expect you to get the opinion of colleagues who see the situation they do.

To ignore that input as subjective, is to not gather all of the facts. If your team lead is an American, anticipate him/her talking to all sorts of folks in the organization in order to get as complete a picture as possible. Line up your references.

Advice to Americans

If you lead Germans, go ahead and interview folks near and impacted by the conflict. But be sure to start with the facts. Otherwise, your approach could be misperceived as relying too much or exclusively on hearsay.

If your German boss is involved, avoid suggesting that he/she talk to folks who support your point of view. That could be perceived as attempting undue influence on the process.

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.

Deductive vs. Inductive

German Approach

Deductive thinking is by inference. The conclusion about particulars follows necessarily from general or universal premises. German processes are arrived at more deductively, based on standards and norms. Examples

American Approach

Inductive thinking is inference. It is a generalized conclusion based on particular instances. American processes and procedures are arrived at more inductively, based on experience. Examples

American View

German processes are developed in a vacuum, are theoretical, too far removed from everyday business. Deduced from principles (standards and norms) they have a one-size-fits-all character, not taking into account the particulars of our market, of our customers.

German View

Americans don‘t gain sufficient distance from the details of their work to recognize certain patterns. The basis is not there for process optimization, an analysis of what is and is not working. Abstraction is required.

Advice to Germans

Explain your standards and norms, and how you arrived at them, your data and methodology. Most importantly, engage in a dialogue with your American colleagues about when the processes can be adapted to the „situation on the ground.“ Strive to understand the impact of processes on their reality.

Advice to Americans

Don‘t sit just back and criticize German processes. Step into their „process laboratory.“ Gain distance from what you do. Get abstract. Search out the deeper-lying principles governing how you do the work. Engage in the discussion of when to deduce from the principle, when to induce from the particular.

Performance

German Approach

Germans separate the personal from the professional. Feedback, both formal and informal, addresses performance only. It is given in a neutral and unemotional way. Feedback, whether positive or negative, is not meant personally. Examples

American Approach

Americans link the personal with the professional. Feedback addresses primarily performance, but takes into consideration how it will be received. Feedback on one’s work is feedback on that individual. It is by its very nature personal. Examples

American View

The German separation of personal and professional is impersonal, removed, cold. A stern teacher versus an inspiring coach.

German View

The American approach is too subjective, personal, almost cozy. A psychotherapist versus a demanding teacher.

Advice to Germans

As in all communication with Americans, soften your tone, see your interaction not only as between two functions within an organization, but also as between two people. Your American team member or colleague will not lose the fact of the former.

Advice to Americans

The German business culture favors more of a teacher-student relationship than coach-player. If you lead Germans, cultivate more of a teacher-student relationship with your German team-members.

Add a little distance between yourself and your German reports. You will not come across as disinterested or uncaring, but as clear-headed, focused on progress.

Guaranty vs. Tool

German Approach

For Germans the product, and the processes which lead to that product, are two sides of the same coin. A work result – a product or service – is only as good as the processes which led to it. Good processes guaranty good results. Examples

American Approach

For Americans processes are tools, a means to an end. Processes enable people to organize their work and their interaction. Processes cannot and should not replace human judgment. Examples

American View

Germans attempt to analyze and solve all problems via processes, thus misunderstanding their limits. Many aspects of a complex business are difficult to objectify, made abstract, forced into the structure of a process.

Constant focus on incremental modification of internal processes often does more harm than good. Its added value is questionable, at best.

German View

American processes are often no more than a series of to-do lists, like cooking recipes, no more than tools, a helper‘s helper. Their potential is misunderstood and misused.

Advice to Germans

Naturally the question of „how we work“ is very important. But don‘t overstress it. Together with your American colleagues identify those aspects of your work which are best understood and managed via processes.

Other areas, due to their complexity and deeply human nature (leadership, customer interaction, innovative thinking), will only be frustrated, limited, hemmed in by forcing a process on them.

Advice to Americans

Join your German colleagues in the discussion recommended above. Explain to them when you rely on processes and when they are of only limited value. Describe how Americans use processes as a tool to achieve results. Make apparent the very practical and pragmatic role of checklists.

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.