core content – Page 2 – understand-culture

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.

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.

Escalation

German Approach

Germans view conflicts as fundamentally negative. Escalation should be an option of last resort. And since effective leadership is expected to anticipate conflicts, those which have “become public” are a sign of leadership failure. Examples

American Approach

For Americans conflict is a fact of life. Escalation is often not only necessary, each individual has a fundamental right to seek resolution, to “have their day in court.” Americans escalate quickly. Examples

American View

Conflicts among/with German colleagues go unresolved, or unresolved for too long. The air needs to be cleared. Colleagues should seek resolution openly and confidently. German management should be engaged. „Isn‘t that what management is paid for?“

German View

Germans are surprised, irritated, at times shocked, at how often and quickly their Americans colleagues raise a conflict to the next management level. Escalation is a sign of their own failure. Competent, professional, rational people are expected to resolve their differences among themselves.

Advice to Germans

If you lead Americans, get ready to resolve conflicts on a regular basis. If you try to avoid them or to push them back down to the working level, you run the danger of being perceived as a weak leader who a.) avoids conflict and/or b.) is unsure about how to resolve conflict. Either way, your legitimacy as a leader will be undermined.

If you are a member in a transatlantic team, and come into conflict situations with your American colleagues, be prepared for those conflicts to be escalated rather quickly. Your American colleagues will be less inclined to go the extra mile with you in order to resolve the conflict at your level.

Advice to Americans

If you lead Germans, you may sense, hear about or even witness conflict among team members. Don‘t be surprised if they don‘t or after some time ask for your assistance in resolving that conflict.

This is neither a challenge to your leadership nor is it an indication that Germans like long, drawn out internal battles. Chances are, they are trying to resolve it themselves. They don‘t want to bother or embarass you.

If you are in a transatlantic team and have a conflict of interest with a German colleague, don‘t be surprised if he/she discourages you from escalating the issue to the next level.

The German attempt to resolve the problem with you personally should be taken at face value. Give it a chance. If you have a German manager, be very careful about escalating the issue too early.

In the German logic, you will be perceived by all – German boss, German colleague, German observers – as uncooperative, rash, possibly hot-headed.

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.

Hearing

German Approach

Germans avoid hearings. Allowing the conflict parties to go head-to-head increases tension, making it more difficult to resolve the conflict. In Germany the conflicting parties are interviewed separately. Examples

American Approach

Americans expect a hearing. The conflict parties, in the presence of each other, make their case. Self-defense is only possible when one knows what the other side is accusing them of. Examples

American View

The absence of a hearing is viewed by Americans as a loss of the fundamental right to self-defense. The German approach of separate hearings is considered ineffective, secretive, fundamentally unjust.

German View

An American hearing is seen as unprofessional, antagonistic and counterproductive. It pits colleague against colleague, in competition with each other, in an open forum. It adds „oil to the fire.“

Advice to Germans

If you have an American boss and are in conflict with an American colleague be prepared for your hearing. It will come sooner than you think. If you lead Americans, and a conflict has been escalated to you, they‘ll expect you to hold some kind of a hearing. Do it quickly.

Advice to Americans

If you lead Germans, and a conflict is finally brought to your level, do not hold a hearing. Talk to the conflict parties separately. Prevent any kind of direct dueling among the conflict parties in your presence.

If you have a German manager, you will most likely not get an American-style „day in court“. The „judge“ will speak with you individually. You won‘t know the case made by your colleague, with whom you are in conflict.

Speed

German Approach

Germans are skeptical of rash action of any kind. Resolving a conflict requires patience. Hasty resolutions are seldom effective. The conflict most likely will resurface. German mediators take their time. Examples

American Approach

Americans become impatient if too much time is required to resolve a conflict. Festering conflicts are disruptive for any team. A suboptimal, yet prompt resolution, is often better than an optimal, but late one. Examples

American View

The negative effect of a festering internal conflict on a teams internal cohesion, and thus performance, is almost always costlier than the benefits of a perfect resolution. Maintaing forward movement has priority.

German View

Quick (hasty) decisions are rarely good decisions. If poorly resolved, a conflict resurfaces, demanding a repeat of the resolution process. Americans all too often address the symptoms, not the illness.

Advice to Germans

If you lead an American team, move much faster than you normally would. The longer the conflict festers, the sooner your American team will question your leadership capability. If you need time nonetheless, explain to the team why.

Don‘t leave them in the dark. If you have an American boss be prepared for a decision you might like or not like, but which either way will come much sooner than you think.

Advice to Americans

If you lead Germans, and a conflict has been escalated up to you, do thorough due diligence. That takes time. Don‘t rush it. In the German context Aktionismus (actionism) – acting before thinking or „shooting first, then asking questions“ – is a criticism which goes to the heart of your reputation.

If the issue has finally caught the attention of your German manager, alter your internal clock. The wheels of justice in Germany move slowly.

Remember, a German working in the U.S. – colleague or boss – is nationalculturally still German. Like snails or turtles, we drag our „homes“ with us whereever we go.

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.