Lionel LaRoche: Grand Rounds Introduction: why is this important?

Lionel LaRoche: Grand Rounds
Author: Ms. Joanne Hamilton
Introduction: why is this important?
Focus of talk: How do we accommodate for people who have different ‘ways of thinking’ when it comes
to skills assessment. In particular when we think about soft skills...which are valued differently in
different cultures when compared to technical skills.
Technical Skill proficiency
Technical Skills vs. Soft Skills
High
New Immigrant
Canadian Grad
Med.
Low
Low
Med.
High
Soft Skill Proficiency
New Immigrants to Canada as a component of the immigration process to Canada, generally have high
technical skills. Technical skills are valued in our immigration process, as well as tend to be more valued
in some of the Countries of origin (India, China). They tend to have what we perceive as low soft skills,
as these tend to be less valued in the immigration process. Importantly though, we need to recognize
that ‘soft skills’ (management of self, interactions with others) are culturally based.
In comparison, in general (all professions studied):
Relative Weight
Technical Skills
Soft Skills
Canada
50%
50%
Hierarchical based Countries
90%
10%
For example: in the ‘skill’ of making a good presentation. This is an important skill in Canada, and in the
education system, this is taught early (show and tell in kindergarten). Whereas in Hierarchical based
countries (HC) it is only in the workplace or in university where individuals generally encounter their first
experience in giving a presentation.
For our international medical graduates the consequence of these phenomena is that they may not
know how performance is measured, or they may measure their own performance by the performance
standards in their home country.
What we must consider when Teaching and Assessing
Generalizations vs. Stereotypes
Definition: Culture is the way we do things when no one tells us what to do….
Using this definition we can see the following ‘behaviour’ pyramid.
Individual level
- everyone is unique (must
always be considered)
Culture
-we are more alike some
people than others
Universal
-we are all alike in these areas
As such the differences between generalizations and stereotypes become important.
Generalization
Focus is on observation
Provide general characteristics on cultural and
social factors
Recognize that individuals within a group vary in
their compliance with the generalizations
When used to guide the observation of people’s
behaviour, generalizations are very useful
Describe behaviours without judging
Stereotype
Focus is on anticipation
Present a fixed and inflexible image of a group
Ignore expectations
When used to anticipate people’s behaviour,
stereotypes often lead to difficulties
Describe behaviours negatively
Cross cultural communication:
Translating/English as an additional language:
Non-verbal communications that arise out of ‘internal’ translating arising from speaking in a non-native
language may lead us to make negative assumptions. (E.g. time between question and answer, less eye
contact, as well as mispronounced or misused words). This can be compounded by accents.
When teachers have difficulties with accents, a best practice is: Ask the person to repeat only once, then
ask them to paraphrase. Ask questions to get more information. State what you understood and what
you did not. Avoid contractions.
Encourage the individual to continue to work on language skills and accent modification.
Non Verbal communication:
There are cultural differences in how emotion is expressed by people in communication. (Consider the
Chinese vs. the English vs. the Italians)
To bridge this gap:
1. Acknowledge people’s feelings and show you understand how important this is.
2. Gauge people’s interest based on their emotional thermometer.
3. Monitor your own emotional state to ensure it is not interfering with communication
The top 10
1. Awareness is 50% of the solution
2. Patience is a virtue
3. Communication is not just about sending a message but also understanding what was
meant.
4. Continuously monitor the impact of your communication on other people
5. Stop and clarify if the impact is not what you intended.
6. Monitor you emotional state to determine when you are impacted negatively.
7. Don’t act on these negative feelings.
8. Analyze your emotions to identify your triggers.
9. Separate impact from intention (the way you feel may not be what was intended).
10. The golden rule needs to be replaced by the platinum rule: since being helpful or respectful
means different things to different people.
Lionel LaRoche Workshop “Reaping the Benefits of Cultural Diversity”
Nb. Behaviour is culturally driven (i.e. which way do you look when crossing the street?).
We often see one right answer as a result of our cultural ‘beliefs’.
There are visible and invisible cultural differences:
Visible differences have largely been dealt with (dress, org chart, office layout, presentations, etc.)
Invisible differences: the real issues lie here (e.g. communications, use of time – concept, feedback,
sense of hierarchy, coaching, teamwork, risk tolerance, problem solving and decision making).
Cross cultural feedback:
Difference views on feedback: some view negative, some positive, some neutral. Most of the world
gives more pointed feedback than Canada (e.g. US, UK, AU, NZ, IR, and SA).
For example: in most of the world, a zoo sign regarding feeding of animals would read:
“It is strictly forbidden, under any circumstances, to feed the animals”. (France)
In the Toronto the zoo sign reads “Please refrain from feeding the animals in the Zoo for the following
reasons: <long list of reasons>. Thank you for your cooperation in not feeding the animals.”
And the Toronto sign would be less clear outside of Canada.
For example: In Canada when someone is 30 minutes late for a meeting, the comment generally is
“Thank you for coming, hope everything is okay”. Then we approach later to ‘get the scoop’.
However in the UK, the approach is to make a ‘joke’. “Nice of you to join us”.
Cultural views of Feedback:
--
-
--
-
--
-
Neutral
East Asia, Mexico
Neutral
Canada
Neutral
The rest of the world: most of Europe,
Africa, Latin America, Middle East
+
++
+
++
+
++
How do you know how ‘strong’ the feedback is? This is culturally driven as well: in Italy it is
characterized by volume and movement of the hands, in France it is characterized by volume and tonal
pitch.
In Canada there are four patterns:
1.
2.
3.
4.
No big deal (feedback sandwich)
1 positive and 1 negative
Two negatives and no positive
Two negatives plus a consequence
(NOTE: The presenter did not note whether there was any characteristic volume or movement, or tonal
pitch)
In giving feedback, we really want to make sure that what was intended was received.
In Canada, choice of words is key: (crisis, problem, concern, issue: or critical incident, mistake, error,
oops). Thus as teachers, we need to be explicit with students, and perhaps develop a rubric. That is, we
need to create a scale and agree of what the scale means. For example, feedback on a presentation
could look like:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cosmetic appearance improvements only
Clarity of message need work: minor re-ordering, slides to busy
Major restructuring
Start over, presentation ‘wrong’ or data does not support message. Or plagiarism.
There are also cultural differences in the use of silence:
• In East Asia there are long pauses between speakers to ensure that the first speaker is finished
before the second speaker begins.
• In Canada and the USA the pauses between speakers is shorter.
• In Latin America, there are often no pauses between speakers, and some overlap.
• In France there is significant overlap. (reflective speaking)
TIPS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Be patient with people who need longer pauses or periods of silence
Leave enough silence
Use round table approach to ensure all ideas emerge, encouraging a culturally diverse approach
Withhold judgment
Explain conversation style
Who should adapt to whom?
Should immigrants adapt to new country or should be adapt to them.
1. In US believe immigrants do the adapting (90% immigrants/10% country adapt)
2. In Europe it is 99-98% / 1%
3. In Asia: no expectation that immigrants will fit in, only can be ‘a good friend to the Chinese’.
4. Canada 80%/20%
However, there are misperceptions about the true magnitude of the gap, and in this case, learners must
learn the unwritten rules, and teachers must teach more explicitly.
Hierarchy and Work Relationships
There are five dimensions of culture and hierarchy is one dimension. Canada is fairly egalitarian. (Only
Scandinavian countries are more egalitarian). All other countries are less egalitarian.
For example:
GDP/Capita
Starting salary (professions)
Canada
$40k/year
$40-70k/year
India
1K/year
15-20K/year
Purchasing power parity $CAD = 5000/year
So, professions are really wealthy in India compared to the average citizen in India. And have a really
high social status. This is especially true for physicians.
Status translates in many countries to ‘people will do things for you’. When immigrating to Canada, new
immigrants find a big gap between their expectations for status, and the reality of status for the
professions in Canada. And most immigrants who come to Canada are in a high social status in their
home country, higher than 98% of Canadians. Disconnect between expectations around respect,
influence, purchasing power….
This is also influenced by the ideas around ‘best universities’. In Canada, there is little distinction
between our Universities. But in other countries it is different. In China and India, there are grueling
entrance exams which drive selection. In these exams, emphasis is placed on technical skills. In
India/China ranking of university is really important, and a source of pride and status for graduates.
Whereas in Canada, university of graduation it is not so important in determining status.
Working relationships with Managers
Freedom vs. Direction: This varies culturally. (Remember in every culture there is a range and individual
variation within that range).
Culture
More direction
Pakistan, Philippines,
Mexico
Middle
India, South Africa
More freedom
UK, Canada
The differences in employee expectations around freedom and direction cause conflict between
employees and managers, which sometimes can be explained culturally. Nonetheless they sometimes
lead to labels (micromanager, loose cannon) and may be alleviated by clarifying expectations for
behaviour. In fact, new immigrants often have to learn what the term ‘initiative’ means in Canada, as
most employers desire it in an employee, but don’t often describe what it means. This often happens
through trial and error.
When working in diverse groups, we need to broaden our range of ‘acceptable’ behaviour (within
reason). For example, what is acceptable on teams for behaviour vis-a-vis individualistic or collective
behaviour?
The USA is the most individualistic nation, with Canada next, whereas China is the most collective
nation, and India and Arab states somewhere in the middle.
Roles
Information sharing
Information sharing external
Views of the other
Willingness to help
Individualistic Team
1st task is to define roles and
responsibilities, clarify who is on
and who is not on the team
Less information sharing, done
on a need to know basis
Free sharing of information, on a
need to know basis
Sees team members who value
collectivity as time wasters,
sharing too much information
Only if asked
Collective Team
Roles less important
Lots of information sharing
Less sharing externally, need to
discuss with team first regarding
what gets shared
Feels individualistic team
members are hoarding
information, selfish
Intercedes sees team suffering
(even when help may not be
wanted)
Benefits of cultural diversity:
1. Creativity. Larger set of adjacent possible. Seeing problems in different ways leads to more
potential solutions. This is more likely in diverse environments. (see the book ‘where do good
ideas come from’)
2. Human resources. Larger talent pool. Enhances customer service to diverse population.
3. Business: increase size of target market, better connections with customers and clients,
opportunities to expand overseas.
BUT: need to create trust to do this.