Among the several things I learned about myself this weekend is that I am uncomfortable with silence. I need some way to fill the void.
I was clueless during the card game and hoped that the others knew what they were doing. Surpisingly I came to understand the set of "rules" based on the non-verbal cues from my teammates. Sitting in silence and watching the others made my clueless situation comfortable. Not being allowed to talk actually helped my situation, because it was easier for me to follow and understand directions. :)
The X-ian exercise was awkward and intimidating. I felt compelled to take control of the situation by talking. When the "X-ians" were not responding I felt I was going nowhere in the conversation. The silence between each question made it harder for me to talk to them. It wasn't until I took a step back and was desperate to try anything that I thought about communicating with them the same way they communicated with me: no eye contact. X-ian taught me that silence is golden. We can actually get stuff done and understand each other.
The Aracruz simulation taught me that listening cultivates understanding. Listening to multiple points of view while trying to balance mine helped me keep an open mind. Our dialogue around our goals, assumptions, and direction of our solutions made our group most effective. I think we could have done a better job of stating our assumptions. I know at least I could've! :) I assumed they knew my assumptions since they listened to our presentation. If I had to go back and redo the simulation I would initate more dialogue. I would take what I heard and reiterate it to the other stakeholders to make sure I understand them.
In Stock Administration I constantly meet with differenet stakeholders: employees, managers, human resources, legal, and payroll. I will work on approaching issues and meetings from multiple points of view. Rather than going into a meeting thinking, "They need to undrstand us and we are right," I'll remind myself to think, "What are their goals? What can we accomplish together?"
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Dianne, nice summary of learnings from various activities.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that silence i.e. active listening is increasingly critical during global (cross-cultural) comminication. Another point I learned during my work life related to inter-cultural communication is to slow down your delivery speech so that the other party gets a chance to understand and interpret your message.