How Understanding Cultural Differences Improve the Work Environment and the Bottom Line

The second step was to conduct the interviews again, but this time with the translation assistance of one of the senior staff who thought he could improve this communication gap because he was part-Hispanic and said he spoke both Spanish and English. This second attempt also failed. Even though this fellow worker had communicated with the staff for years on a casual basis–and thought that his understanding of Spanish was sufficient–he was, in fact, unable to bridge the differences in language to adequately translate and convey the intended meaning of the questions, as well as their answers.

The unexpected third step (unexpected because we had anticipated that we would have already gathered the pertinent input from the Hispanic staff) was to create a paper survey in Spanish. This too, quite disappointingly, proved ineffective as the responses once again indicated that a significant barrier still existed prohibiting an accurate information exchange. Furthermore, there appeared to be a low level of trust, which was difficult to penetrate.

Puzzled, I contacted a fellow graduate colleague from Bolivia and explained the situation. She listened emphatically to the circumstances and volunteered to look at the “translated” questions and answers. After her review of all the surveys and a lengthy discussion about the differences in language and culture, the pieces began to come together.

As a result, my Bolivian colleague was added to the project team to interview the Hispanic staff members–a significant change from the original concept and work contract, that only I would be interrupting the normal work process. The language and cultural barriers became less figural as the staff was now able to easily and comfortably communicate with a fellow Hispanic, who understood their language and culture. By bridging this gap, authentic and often deeply held information was revealed, which became essential for understanding their needs and expectations.

At last, we had arrived at a productive stage of our work. After condensing this information, which is first summarized, quantified and categorized into themes, I shared the results with my colleague. After a few meetings and lengthy dialogue, we presented this reservoir of information in both languages to the rest of the company; first with management, then the whole organization. Because we continually included the entire staff during the process and had promised this feedback meeting from the beginning, the presentation was highly anticipated.

This is a key difference in OD consulting as opposed to management consulting. Historically the heritage of OD consulting is based on democratic principles of inclusion (Burke, 1992). Because the OD process does include all organization members, it makes sense that the rate of success in an OD driven change effort would be higher than most management consulting change efforts. For example, if a change effort is implemented by dictum, announcing new policy decisions and direction (which is a common practice in organizations today) it is more likely to fail. If change is to be effective and long-lasting, the entire group who participated in the assessment must be included in the feedback process and remain actively involved (Block, 2000; Burke, 1992).

From the beginning of a feedback meeting, as the results of the assessment are presented, the employees begin to recognize the information as their own and agree enthusiastically that it is an accurate depiction of their issues.

Confirming that the information is their own and having them validate it, is an important step the consultant must reach in order to keep all members involved and prepared for what’s next (Segal, 1997). Following this acceptance, a brainstorming process is facilitated where the staff prioritizes what they choose to do next. This step is enormously empowering as the stakeholders begin to take ownership. In essence, they create their own action plan and move forward together with this newly discovered, jointly created vision.