Cross-border Agile teams face cultural issues that must be debugged using sophisticated training and communication strategies.
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.
Making Agile teams work effectively has never been easy. To get the most out of Agile, teams must get used to being honest with themselves about the work they do, and come to terms with the limits and obstacles they face. Once a team has become comfortable with being uncomfortable, the real productivity promised by Agile can emerge.
This is especially true for cross-border teams that have members from different international cultures. As the world has become more distributed and virtual, the barriers to making Agile work have become more numerous and difficult to overcome. We may all be able to work remotely now, but that doesn’t mean that all cultural differences have vanished.
However, these issues are not insurmountable and do not have to derail Agile adoption. Improved and open communication is the foundation of all successful Agile teams. To make Agile teams work, that open communication should be reflected in the four key ways explained below.
When individuals are working together on teams with people from other cultures, there are simply some things they cannot know without proper training and debriefing on appropriate ways to interact with other cultures. Companies, therefore, must invest in in-depth, culturally specific training for all members of the team.
For instance, the first time I traveled to Japan, my team provided me with extensive training on Japanese culture. Not only did this help me to be aware of customs such as greetings, but it also let me avoid faux pas that could have caused offense unintentionally. Additionally, this training helped me begin to learn Japanese words for common terms like invoices so I could begin to acclimate to those with whom I worked.
My experience reflects one of the reasons these types of training are so important. To make Agile work, we all have to strive to avoid people unknowingly offending those with whom we’re trying to work. To give another example, when I worked in Egypt, I learned that a man trying to shake hands with a woman is considered rude or even a form of harassment. Fortunately, I was able to avoid this entirely because I knew about the custom beforehand.
To truly foster cultural understanding on Agile teams, these trainings and info debriefs should involve:
As alluded to in the previous section, for cross-cultural Agile teams to succeed, every member of the team must have some understanding of the other members’ cultures.
