Say Anything to Anyone, Anywhere: 5 Keys To Successful Cross-Cultural Communication

Chapter 17

Framing Your Cross-Cultural Communication

For Sales, Negotiations, Management, and International Travel

Communication framing is one of the most important tools we have to use in both business and social multicultural interactions. It organizes the communication process to make it as simple, clear, and as easy to understand as possible. It’s necessary to think about the best way to communicate very important or complicated topics so that people will receive the message as it’s intended. We always want to communicate with the intended receiver in mind, especially in cross-cultural communication.

We must think about what a particular person needs to hear to best understand the message and about the most effective way to convey it to that person—given his or her culture and level of knowledge. This is essential to effectively lead and manage multicultural workforces. If our company coaches executives and they aren’t using communication framing, it is the first thing we recommend.

Every culture has its own sensitivities. But no matter what they are, communication framing helps people avoid unintentionally offending others or pushing the wrong buttons. When possible, it’s always best to eliminate conflict before it starts.

Communication framing is a critical part of multicultural sales and negotiations; it can even turn “no chance for a sale” into a “potential future sale.” We recently helped a European company prepare for an important multinational negotiation for which ...