Die nichtöffentliche Sitzung. German works council meetings are held in private by statute, and the duty of confidentiality binds the members afterwards. The law removes the audience before the discussion begins.
meetings
The four-eyes conversation
Das Vier-Augen-Gespräch. The four-eyes conversation. German conflict handling begins with separate one-to-one discussions rather than with a meeting of the parties. Several of them, in sequence, before anyone is brought together — which takes time by design.
Don’t let process get in the way
Said in American meetings, openly, by senior people, and it is not heard as an attack on the organisation. The sentence assumes a hierarchy in which the outcome outranks the procedure, and assumes everyone in the room agrees.
The all-hands
A regular meeting of an entire American company — sometimes thousands of people — at which leadership presents results, plans and problems, and takes questions from the floor. The format assumes that information belonging to the leadership is information belonging to everyone, and that the transfer should happen in one room at one time.
Chasing reads as doubt
A German supplier contacted mid-project to confirm that the agreement still holds will hear the question as it was not asked. The enquiry implies that something might have changed, that the priority might have slipped, or that the supplier might have forgotten. None of those is a neutral suggestion.
The retrospective
American software teams hold one at the end of every iteration: what worked, what did not, what changes next time. The process is treated as provisional by design. It is expected to be different in two weeks because the team will have learned something.
Nothing decided before the analysis is complete
The German phrase is die Entscheidungsgrundlage — the basis for the decision. It is spoken of as a thing that either exists or does not. Uns fehlt noch die Entscheidungsgrundlage — we still lack the basis for the decision — halts a German meeting, and nobody treats it as obstruction.
The status report
German project practice runs on a scheduled report — monthly, fortnightly, at defined milestones — rather than on continuous contact. The client is informed regularly and is not consulted continuously. The rhythm is agreed at the start, and keeping to it is what maintains the relationship.
The named contact
German suppliers ask for one person on the client side who can answer questions and make decisions, and the arrangement is often written into the contract. The information flows through a defined channel rather than through whoever happens to be available.
The negotiation record
Das Verhandlungsprotokoll. German negotiations produce a written record of what was proposed, what was objected to, and what was agreed, circulated afterwards and corrected. Whatever was felt in the room does not survive into the document. Only the positions do.