The Successful Hybrid Team

7Pillar IV: Unify Cross-Cultural Hybrid Teams Through Cultural Awareness

Introduction

When Meera Sapra joined the Indian multinational technology company Zoho, working remotely out of New Delhi, she quickly discovered that working 2184 km away from the main headquarters in Chennai and with colleagues in the USA in different time zones meant she had to evolve and adapt to make it work.¹ Not only was Meera working with teams across different time zones, but she was also working with people from different continents and different countries. Meera noted, ‘What could get in the way though, are cultural differences.' She observed that it can be challenging for people from different cultures and languages to work together, especially if they are not physically in the same location.

Figure 7.1 Pillar IV – Unify cross-cultural hybrid teams through cultural awareness.

Meera also explained that for many Asian countries that are high-context cultures, ‘communication is about maintaining harmony and not causing offence'. Many Asian people may be unable to say, ‘I don't understand this', or ‘I cannot do this', or ‘I would need more time to do this'. Meera pointed out that her way to prevent miscommunication due to cultural differences was to follow up with chat messages summarizing the action items. Meera also shared that after many interactions with her colleagues from South India, she ...