12:02:04 Well, welcome everyone. Welcome to the World Trade Center Palm Beach webinar series on international business global markets on cross cultural communication. 12:02:16 Our mission is to bring international business to Palm Beach, and to assist businesses and industries to successfully complete for trade and investment opportunities in a global marketplace. 12:02:29 Today, we're very excited to have her nada urban as a presenter and speaker on doing business with another English speaking country pitfalls and solutions. 12:02:40 In part one, Renata will give us some insights into differences in language and culture, between the US and then you. 12:02:48 Okay, and she will provide tips and tricks on how to succeed when doing business in two countries, divided by one common in which Renata is the founder of urban training and services, and an acclaimed intercultural coach communication skills trainer on 12:03:06 language teacher hobby live and work in US and the UK Renata will speak from her own experience with both countries, she will provide examples of on successful business ventures and fill expert assignments and how to prevent them. 12:03:23 She will talk about difference in language and culture, and how to build intercultural competence for successfully doing business in an international environment. 12:03:34 This webinar is being recorded. 12:03:37 Renata over to you, and thank you very much for being a speaker today. 12:03:42 Thank you very much for the introduction Valentino and welcome everybody for joining us here today. Thank you for your interest in this topic. 12:03:51 I hope many of you have experienced with working with the US, with the UK, or other intercultural scenarios working across cultures, but it's a particular case, when you work with two countries that actually share the same language, but are in fact different. 12:04:09 So that's what we're going to focus on today. 12:04:12 So, I'll try to keep an eye on the chat so thank you very much everybody who's already typed in where you're from, feel free to share with us in the chat, where are you joining us from today. 12:04:24 If you have any experience with the US, with the UK. Maybe you're working with one of the two countries, maybe you live in one of the countries or maybe you've even lived in both of the two countries. 12:04:35 Go ahead and take to the chat throughout the entire webinar and share with us your experience your comments, your ideas, but then Tina is going to have an eye on the chat and share questions with me so please feel free to comment and ask questions throughout 12:04:50 the entire webinar. 12:04:52 Alright, so let's go ahead and share my presentation here with you. So we've. 12:05:01 So this is our world trade center Palm Beach webinar series. 12:05:06 And today, this is the particular one you're joining us for today. The doing business with another English speaking country, the pitfalls solutions, and we're planning on doing more of them, the US and Canada maybe other English speaking countries so 12:05:21 this is our part one looking at the US and the UK. 12:05:26 Now, I want to get started by giving you an introduction about myself, who I am, what my linguistic and cultural background is to kind of make you more understand where I'm coming from with all of this. 12:05:40 So, I always like putting those two flags at the very beginning of my introduction, because these are the countries I've experienced the most, the very early years of my life. 12:05:51 So I was born in Germany I grew up in Germany and the UK and I've spent a lot of time in these two countries. And this is why I would consider both German and English my native languages. 12:06:02 I've also lived in Italy and worked there for some time. 12:06:07 And now I live in the US, I live in South Florida and Boca Raton, I do consider this my new home. And apparently my English has changed. Moving from the US, we started we went from the UK to the US. 12:06:23 And that's something that just happened organically over time, since I've been here for more than a decade. 12:06:29 I've obviously worked with many other countries and cultures, my clientele is quite International. 12:06:37 I have a business linguist and a training background and I work as a language teacher in a cultural diversity coach communication skills trainer and a speaker. 12:06:47 So this is why I'm doing this, these webinars series for the World Trade Center Palm Beach, to support their mission in supporting businesses in the international on the, on an international platform and supporting international trade. 12:07:04 As far as my business is concerned, I'm the owner of urban training and services and my motto is that I help people communicate successfully with others in their own language in a foreign language and across cultures, and I worked with a lot of international 12:07:18 teams to help build successful diverse and international teams who worked with an international clientele. 12:07:26 Alright so I'm taking a quick look at the chat, where everybody is from. 12:07:32 So we have Italy we have Germany. 12:07:36 We have people who know about the UK or join us from the UK today. 12:07:42 We have sunny Jamaica wonderful welcome and something about the US and the UK. Yes, so you might want to just chime in, and share your experiences Also with us. 12:07:55 I know a lot of my intercultural trainer friends are here today so feel free to share any time you want. 12:08:03 Alright, so let's have a look at what to expect today. So I'm going to give a brief overview. 12:08:11 Looking at the US and the UK, give you some examples of failed business ventures and the reasons why. 12:08:18 Then we're going to have a look at American versus British English and culture. And finally some strategies to succeed. 12:08:27 Alright, so let's have a look at those two countries. A lot of people say well, they're so identical, and it depends on perspective like it always does and intercultural intercultural communication from what perspective, am I looking at the two countries. 12:08:45 So let's take a very different country let's say you're in China, you might you might think, these two countries are so similar because what you see is that that dominant language is English. 12:08:59 Their Western democracies they're both economic powerhouses they're both members of the g8, and their industries are heavily focused on almost identical things they're big exporters, and both have overseas territory so they look very identical from a 12:09:18 certain perspective. But when you go deeper inside you see that they're actually very different. And that's what we see in failed business ventures and expat assignments. 12:09:31 So I want to introduce to you, two cases. One is forever. 21 If you live in the US you're familiar with this fashion retailer, and they try to set up shop in the UK. 12:09:46 And as you can see from this article here fails to crack UK will shrink retail footprint. so it was quite unsuccessful. 12:09:55 And then the other way around. Want to use Tesco as an example. So if you live in the UK Have you been to the UK you're very familiar with Tesco a huge supermarket chain, very comparable to Walmart in the US, very popular. 12:10:11 And they try to combine like good prices with high quality, and they came up with this solution to have fresh and easy markets, not shops markets, a neighborhood market, that was a name they created something they coined specifically for the UK market 12:10:31 their little shops in various neighborhoods, high quality products, a lot of organic produce little package items for lunch break for one person households, little things you can put in your bag and carry home on foot. 12:10:47 So this was the concept that they had and then it goes really well in the UK, and they tried to expand the concept to the US, and they failed. So I want to use these two examples to show you what can go wrong. 12:11:01 So let's look at forever one first what went wrong. So, first of all, they have too many stores. 12:11:10 They should have concentrated on the big cities on the hubs on the fashion hubs where their stores would have gone well. But all these little stock stores around the country didn't work. 12:11:24 Their fashion they it's often called cheap chic was at the time no longer an appeal to the UK shoppers and they weren't quite aware of that. There was even a lawsuit going on with Ariana Grundy about the color scheme and the concept and that didn't really 12:11:39 help with client relations. They actually lost the connection to their real customers they couldn't identify with the brand anymore. And they made other marketing purpose as well. 12:11:51 So this is basically what we're in wrong for forever 21 in the UK. 12:11:56 And then what went wrong for Tesco in the US. Well, they had these aspirational grocery stores meaning, high quality products, organic food. Slightly overpriced and comparison what we would normally find and they put that in low income neighborhoods during 12:12:21 People wanted larger packages they wanted like buy three get one free and they didn't have that. I was very much self service focused so you had to help yourself and if you had a problem or a question you had to go find someone. 12:12:37 Nobody would look after you come after you offer you help all the time they wouldn't do that. And it was kind of walk in focus, not so much, dR there park your car on a huge parking lot. 12:12:49 They try to copy the UK system, one by one, and didn't take a lot into consideration. they should have done like the little local stores didn't go very well. 12:13:02 Now, the question really is. 12:13:05 How much did it cost. How How bad was it for Tesco Well, there's a comment by Jim Prevnar he's a food retail expert and editor website, who said, We happen to speak English in America, it seems Tesco understood instinctively that when you open stores 12:13:27 in China Poland those stores are going to have to be difficult different from the British stores but somehow arrogance kicked in, and the made the fatal mistake of thinking we know what Americans want. 12:13:38 And I think this is so typical for what happens with businesses that arrogance kicks in and they think we're similar we speak English we know Americans from from movies from everywhere. 12:13:50 We know what Americans want. Well apparently they didn't. And so they had to close nearly 200 stores, and they lost roughly $1.8 billion. 12:14:01 Because of these mistakes. So, this is one of the many failed business ventures that tell us that it is very important not to do only do your market research but to look at culture and language of the differences and it doesn't really help the two countries 12:14:20 speak the same language. On the contrary, you should be extra extra careful. 12:14:25 So now I would like you to take to the chat again, and type in what you think works, where and I'd like to focus on supermarkets the Tesco case. So you can either focus on the US or you can focus on the UK, what do you think works well in the US. 12:14:41 And what do you think works well in the UK. So if you have some idea, somebody is just type it into the chat and I'm going to have a look here as a reveal one after the other. 12:14:54 So let's see what people are saying. 12:14:58 So I know that some of you have lived in both countries, or are there at the moment so it says you as big sizes, oh yes yeah buy in bulk, that's very important if you don't have buy three get one free. 12:15:19 Huge bundle packages, and yes, lots of choice. Correct. In the US for outside urban centers, yeah lots of parking, people like driving there. 12:15:32 Nobody has one of those bring your own shopping bags and walks to the store anymore. At least not around where I live. 12:15:43 So we have a lot about the US. Okay. So, it says here UK children not allowed in a pub. 12:15:52 Okay, yes. Well, I'm not sure how that relates to the supermarkets, but that's a good point. 12:16:00 The customer service is definitely a huge difference. Okay, depends on the neighborhood, you know things like organic and vegan don't go well, in certain areas in the UK definitely the focus is more in fresh produce. 12:16:17 Excellent. Well thank you very much for these comments, you'll probably see a lot of that reflected in the overview I he have here. So I as a first point I chose that in the US, we have cashier staff checkouts. 12:16:31 So, a lot of supermarkets have started having the self checkouts, and a few people go there, but I see this over and over again that there's a long line at the cashier staff checkout and nobody wants to go to the self checkout. 12:16:46 It seems to be something that is a little less popular in the US than it's in the UK, where self service checkout is very common and that's what people want. 12:16:56 Also the free plastic bags in the free bagging service is something I. 12:17:01 It's unthinkable in the UK. If you come with your, bring your own bag that you use again and again, it's very environmentally friendly that's exactly what people like and do the personalized customer service somebody wrote that in the chat. 12:17:15 Excellent. Yes. 12:17:17 And then, as opposed to just on demand customer service. The in store experience is very important in the US, not so much in the UK where you just want to quick in and out. 12:17:28 That'll do. 12:17:47 Buying bulk, the big sizes, we had that, yes, where's the small package sizes might be a little more popular in the UK, low prices important in the US special offers, whereas value for money and the high perceived product quality is much more important 12:17:48 for UK customers. 12:17:51 And we talked about the huge stores the parking spaces as opposed to the small local Volkan stores. So that gives you an overview of what to be careful about. 12:18:00 And if you have a store a business that is heavily based on one of the two concepts, you will find it increasingly increasingly difficult to set up that type of store in a different environment. 12:18:15 And something that is actually relevant for both is that no matter where you are, people want to buy locally known food items so if you forget to introduce them into your own product palette. 12:18:29 Yeah, then it might not go down well with the local markets. 12:18:33 Alright, so I want to move over to more of a cultural aspect of it, and I want to quote, Aaron, Mayor here, most, most of the trainers are here today know her very well have maybe read her book, if you don't know her. 12:18:50 Then I can highly recommend that book. It's very nicely written and gives a different spin an idea on intercultural communication. 12:19:01 And she said, after a study and some research they had done at the inside University. She said that they found out that the highest failure rate. When doing expat assignments is actually not when Americans move to China or in the Japanese move to the 12:19:18 Netherlands now it's actually when Americans moved to the UK. 12:19:23 And at first, this was very surprising for the exact reason but hey, they both speak English. See how little that helps. It's actually counterproductive because it's an illusion. 12:19:36 You think it's all going to be fine, because I'll understand the language, and then you arrive and you go like, whoa, wait a second language is actually quite different, different from what I know. 12:19:48 Okay, I'm just going to check the chat real quick and see if anybody had another comment. 12:19:59 So. 12:20:00 All right, so also something about Starbucks Yeah. 12:20:04 Starbucks store. Well, Starbucks has been pretty good actually at adapting I have to say, in comparison to other businesses that have stores internationally. 12:20:16 So they've kind of figured out what goes where. 12:20:19 So, there are businesses that have actually really figured it out and taken all these differences into consideration. 12:20:27 All right, so, like, you heard in the introduction I also want to focus on the differences between American and British English and then the culture. So let's focus on the language first. 12:20:40 And as always, I love quoting George Bernard Shaw on this this is basically the motto of our webinar today. And I want to use this as an opportunity to show you show you some examples of different words. 12:20:54 So, between the UK and the US, what our chips. 12:21:00 Well I'm pretty sure you have a good idea you see them right in front of you. Were you imagining these are those which of them do you call chips or do you call one of them, crisps. 12:21:13 That's the big question has led to a lot of miscommunication. In many cases, I'm sure, or after meal. do you order to ask for the check, or for the bill. 12:21:26 And when you pay, or these bills, or do you call these banknotes. 12:21:32 There's more there's an endless number of these confusions about words we think we speak the same language and we don't. I could just pick a few of them. 12:21:41 I know there's a list of more than 200 words I probably have on a document that I sometimes use so this is just an example of where we could have misunderstandings. 12:21:52 So when you look at this, is this a flat. 12:21:57 Would you call this an apartment or even a condo, and where the red arrow is what floor is that 12:22:05 I can literally hear the British say first floor, and the Americans say. 12:22:13 Now, this is the second floor. So, what is it, is it the first or the second floor, and who actually goes to the ground floor. Yeah. 12:22:21 These are misunderstandings and you think you know the language to kind of don't like this classic one I know what you call this a lorry or a truck, what would you call this a shopping trolley, or is it a cart. 12:22:39 What you call this one. 12:22:41 So no machine or an eggplant. 12:22:44 And finally, if you want one of these to ask for biscuits, or cookies. 12:22:52 There's more. And I kind of like to you to take to the chat again on this one. 12:22:58 I selected a couple of UK idioms. So if you're from the UK or if you live there and you know exactly what it means. Hold on. 12:23:08 Let someone gets, who doesn't know. So, here a couple of examples, if somebody says, Let's go for a ticket points and bounce Shall we are if somebody says, blow me. 12:23:20 She can talk the hind legs of a donkey. 12:23:30 Or, mate. He's not the brightest candle in the boxes see or. Oh, this cute execute the chair cashpoints. Let's have a 10 work as well waiting all. 12:23:35 Oh, it's raining and I haven't got too broadly sorts law, or my last one. 12:23:40 Of course, he got the deal. What's your uncle. 12:23:45 Now, if you feel like what can you repeat that. What is that, well, then you're not currently in the UK, and you're not familiar with the So who wants to take guess it's at least some of them, so I'm going to have a look at the chat now see what's going 12:24:04 on Murphy's Law question mark. Uh huh. So, yes that's true salts law is the British version of Murphy's Law. Very good. 12:24:14 The latest bulb in the house yeah that's a variety of brollies an umbrella. Very good. Excellent. So, see how you have to know the code, you have to almost decipher the language because you're not entirely sure what it means. 12:24:33 So I just wanted to give you a couple of examples I could do this the other way around. I've done this to some British friends and colleagues before said something very American that like. 12:24:43 Excuse me. 12:24:45 So, we don't always understand these words, the queue is the line yes maybe that's the more famous one but others are not so well known, and you might stumble across the language, even though it's your native language. 12:25:03 So, I'd really like you to bear that in mind. Okay cashpoint is an ATM. Great. Yes, keep going. So keep sharing what you know. 12:25:12 That's very good. 12:25:13 And I'm going to move on to my next slide about pronunciation. 12:25:17 I'm just gonna throw the words here, you know, they sound different. As you see them, you can imagine how they might sound. In the US, in the UK, as they keep coming go like, Oh yes, oh, yeah, here we go. 12:25:36 So maybe I'm going to just pick a few like 20 verses 20 half versus half water versus water. 12:25:53 And so, I mean, you see them, you know it. 12:25:56 And even though it might be the same word, it sounds different. You have no idea how difficult that can be in business negotiations among colleagues who think they can have a chinwag let's use a British word again a chat basically very casual one but 12:26:17 then one says something and pronounces is this one the other one goes what. 12:26:21 So, not just words, not just idiomatic expressions, not just pronunciation, but also spelling can be a major obstacle. So, I decided to put the British spelling of certain words here for you. 12:26:40 And if you're familiar with the American spelling you will recognize the words but go like, Oh, that's different. 12:26:48 And so, that can also be a huge obstacle especially if you've lived in both countries or you've worked with businesses from both countries or you exchange emails with people from both countries, because then you pick up the spelling from one person and 12:27:03 another person and you start mixing them together. So you basically write an email you write color with ou but you write organization with z, then you ride dreamt with an ED but traveling with a double L, and so on. 12:27:18 So, this is something that becomes very difficult for people who live between the two countries over do business between the two countries to keep their spelling on point and to be either American English or British English, it's actually harder than 12:27:32 you think. I still make some of those mistakes and have to double check is it. Oh, is this the American or the British version I can't remember. 12:27:42 This happens to me all the time. 12:27:45 And then moving slightly into the area of culture, and there's also coded language, I think the UK is very famous for coded language. So once again, if you want to participate. 12:27:57 Here we go. If somebody says, well that's a very interesting idea. What exactly does that mean, if we translate it into plain, honest, direct straightforward language. 12:28:15 Okay. Somebody says that's garbage okay that's very honest crap I love your choice of language. Okay. 12:28:28 I'm not so interesting well that's more subtle. Thank you, by that. So, yes, so I chose. 12:28:31 I'm like your idea so whichever, but you get the idea of this being kind of not what we think it is. So if you come from a culture or a personality mindset that is very direct taking everything for face value, you might actually think it is a very interesting 12:28:49 idea. So you really have to learn to distinguish between somebody saying, hey, it really is a very interesting idea was like, Oh, well that's an interesting idea. 12:28:59 It's the intonation is the way how I say it to decipher what I mean. 12:29:05 Very hard to do. If you're not really a high context communicator let's put it that way. Okay, here's another one. I might have a few minor changes. 12:29:18 How many changes are we actually going to make just a few, and are they going to be minor. Yeah, please rewrite completely somebody just love it. Thank you, Pamela. 12:29:29 That's kind of the point yes so you want to change a lot. Exactly. 12:29:37 Or, I hear what you're saying that's brave perspective, I'll bear it in mind. 12:29:48 Who a brave perspective that's kind of a coded language for what. 12:29:51 Well, I tried to explain it this way maybe have a another way. Yes, I see a couple of suggestions from you guys thank you so I disagree. I don't want to discuss it any further. 12:30:04 That was my take on it. So why don't we forget about it. 12:30:08 Brief perspective really means. Yeah, exactly. crazy. 12:30:12 What the heck are you talking about is a brave perspective. 12:30:15 All right. And how about this, having decided, having dedicated the last decade or so to this research, I might know a thing or two about, and then you say whatever subject. 12:30:29 And yes, this is actually from their personal experience I used to know a professor in the UK who, who said that, like double PhD professor. 12:30:39 The expert in the field, said, I might know a thing or two. Wow. And yes, thank you for sharing that in the chat This is UK understatement. Total understatement and totally misunderstood in the US, because this person is trying to say that he or she is 12:30:55 an expert in the field. 12:30:59 Now, this is UK understatement everybody in the UK were like whew, you're an expert. Everybody in the US would go like, wow, why do we actually have this person as a speaker here she only knows this thing to keep the watch right so this is not necessarily 12:31:13 understood across the pond. 12:31:19 Now this is not all there's more. Obviously, so I want to really delve more into the idea of intercultural communication now, and use some of the slides. 12:31:30 You might have seen before, if you've attended one of my webinars before. But if you're new to this, you'll hopefully find this very interesting and enlightening. 12:31:39 So, intercultural communication, I want to start with communication where you have a sender and the receiver. 12:31:45 The message is encoded and decoded and he goes through a lot like channels filters personalities egos, and so on. 12:31:53 Then when you answer the receiver turns into the sender, the sender and the receiver and we start the entire process all over again. 12:32:03 Most people who I worked with who do communication skills training in their own language. They already feel that is is too much. It's like walking on a tightrope, but if you throw in the extra element of culture, it becomes a highly volatile situation. 12:32:19 Now, what is culture I keep talking about culture, and there's so many definitions out there so I also wanted to share mine. 12:32:28 So, I always say culture is what we have subconsciously acquired what we're used to. And what we have learned to navigate. 12:32:37 No matter how much we agree or disagree with it. Because these patterns norms and behaviors are recognized reinforced and rewarded by the group. This is why we do it. 12:32:49 We learn how to navigate. It is something Think about all those patterns Nora's behavior, everything is so typical sometimes even stereotypical for a particular culture. 12:32:59 It's recognized everybody knows what it is. It's reinforced people keep using it and expect it to be used and then it's rewarded if you know how you use it and if you don't use it well. 12:33:10 Well, non compliance is often frowned upon or punished. 12:33:14 So, this is what we learn, but not in school it's not a school subject we learn it subconsciously we somehow soak it up like a sponge and we seem to know it without really knowing it, like the famous quotes about fish in water, not knowing what water 12:33:31 is. 12:33:32 We seem to just know it. 12:33:35 Now, those three are I find them very important so the recognized reinforced and rewarded so when you do business with another culture, even though they speak the same language, make sure that you tell yourself to look out for recognized reinforced and 12:33:50 rewarded patterns norms and behavior in the culture, and that can also be reflected in the language. 12:33:59 I'd also like you to bear in mind the different layers of culture. 12:34:02 Today we're talking about national culture we're focusing on the US and the UK, but this is not everything there is regional culture, there is professional educational culture. 12:34:14 There's gender ethnic class religious philosophical generational culture within a company, there's even corporate culture, and you own your own, you have your own culture, called personality. 12:34:30 Now if we take everything together. It's not a surprise that the visible behavior and communication style, the things we see often displayed with the iceberg model what sticks out of the water is down to a combination of culture personality and circumstances. 12:34:49 Now those cultural differences are often explained in certain models, a very famous one is the model by faith hosted them light. 12:35:00 That's social psychologist and inter cultural pioneer. And I'm sure many people are familiar with this, and if not, have a look at it country comparison it's a free tool on the hosted a website. 12:35:13 It can give interesting clues on where we are, but if we're looking at the UK and the US here. 12:35:19 It actually makes us believe that they're very similar. Look at this, maybe, with the exception of long term orientation, that's maybe the only thing here. 12:35:31 It looks very similar so someone only looking at this might come to the conclusion that there are not many cultural differences. 12:35:39 There are other other intercultural models out there like the Richard de Lewis model, which I love, and I'm a registered certified and licensed user of this model, but again if we only superficially look at where the countries are, you'll find them down 12:35:59 here the US and the UK huddled together in that linear active corner. So, they should be very similar. Right. 12:36:10 So this is kind of a stumbling stone a pitfall that some of these models. 12:36:16 Put them close together, because in comparison let's say to other cultural features yes maybe they share a lot, but not enough so that there are no cultural misunderstandings. 12:36:30 And another model that some of you might be familiar with is the culture map, but Aaron Mayor Ed is also available online. And you can run country comparisons. 12:36:41 But look at this i, this one here, and I chose English speaking country so the country so you see mapped out here or Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. 12:36:55 So in some cases, the dots the multicolored dots are kind of huddling together in one corner. 12:37:04 And sometimes they spread out across. 12:37:08 And so, that shows us that there are differences between English speaking countries. 12:37:14 I quite like to stay with this model for a little while, because now it's isolated it's only the US in red, and the UK and yellow so you can see how closely together they are on certain features and how different their preferences are so you can look 12:37:36 at different things here. 12:37:38 Compare low and high context communication. Obviously the US being very famous for being low context meaning very direct, but then when we look at how to give direct feedback, will that they little closer together. 12:37:56 But still, this huge differences also the difference in hierarchy in decision making. I don't want to go into too much detail we don't have much time for that today I just want to give you an idea that in different areas of business. 12:38:12 Like, decision making like leading evaluating communicating. 12:38:16 Also scheduling and presenting and persuading how I do presentations how I present information can be very different in those two English speaking countries. 12:38:29 Alright so I'm just going to have a quick look at the chat. See if there any questions or any more comments but I can't see anything for now so that's good. 12:38:40 If you do have a comment or a question just put it in the chat will definitely see it sooner or later, and then go back to it. 12:38:48 Alright, so this is also an overview from the Richard Lewis communications materials that I use. And I kind of liked the graphic aspect of it. When you compare the preferred communication style and the US, with a preferred communication style in the UK, 12:39:08 simply by looking at you see there's something very different going on, how it starts how it ends the middle part. 12:39:16 The, the idea that there must be a fight, and a lot of arguing, whereas in the UK it's don't rock the boat. It's a very different approach. And I kind of like these overviews because they really show people that there's a different way of doing it, different 12:39:34 approach to it. 12:39:37 And these would highlight the things that are important. When you communicate or do business between the two countries now want to summarize it a little by putting some things next to each other, how to communicate successfully. 12:39:55 So for example in the US, we tend to even teach kids in school, and it continues in college and at work. We always teach people tell them, which you've done tell them then tell them, and then tell them what you told them whenever I tell, let's say, immigrants 12:40:14 or non native speakers who've moved to the US and to have a business here or study here, some of the clients I work with whenever I tell them that some would say, That's awful. 12:40:24 That's not a good way of communicating. 12:40:26 And that's exactly the problem, not a lot of people see this as a good way of communicating, but in the US, it is. So, in the UK structure is good, of course, but don't forget to make some small talk. 12:40:40 Begin casually. Don't forget the all important understatement. And if you have lots of entertaining stories to add to the structure, wonderful yes of course you need your core message. 12:40:52 but then you have to have a showdown and the need to be pleasantries, so it's a lot more wrapped rounded, then we expect in the US, and once again their personal preferences. 12:41:03 Maybe you're from the UK and you love the model, or maybe you're from the US, and you'd so love the way how they do it in the UK, we have personal preferences, where remember there is something that is expected of you something that is recognized reinforced 12:41:18 and rewarded, and these are just some features that happened to be recognized reinforced and rewarded in both countries. So, I see that people are taking to the chat and adding a few things here so let me have a look. 12:41:34 So, Mariana says Americans like to toot their own horn oh yes absolutely people from the UK have a hard time promoting themselves. Yeah, that's because of the highly valued understatement. 12:41:47 So how are you how are you going to overcome that. If you do business in the US and you have to promote yourself in a way that you might even find disgusting, or over the top, or, you know, you might have to do something that you don't like. 12:42:04 And then we have here, something about the Brits to English to indirect Scots and more direct Yeah, even within one country, yes I mean if we look at the US such a huge country, there are vast differences in communicating from east to west from north 12:42:19 to south. 12:42:21 So someone from New York calving to negotiate with someone from Luciana Well, good luck. 12:42:28 And so, but I'm trying to find some commonalities and just compare them between the two countries, just to draw awareness to some points that might deserve your attention. 12:42:40 If you're doing business between those two countries. 12:42:53 Another thing to bear in mind, certainly is that in a presentation in the US Empress Empress Empress, whereas in the UK. Well, you should also inform and entertain us wit and eloquence that is very welcome by the audience. 12:43:02 In the US, we kind of like informality some quick witted humor is good self promotion there it is again very welcome. 12:43:09 Whereas in the UK etiquette subtle humor this very important understatement. These things are very welcome in a presentation. 12:43:19 A few other points is maybe say it as it is versus coded language or get to the point quickly the keep it short and simple for dummy style versus Well, take your time have lots of background stories maybe be vague, this kind of coded language, again being 12:43:36 vague and, if necessary postpone it doesn't have to happen today. 12:43:40 Whereas in the US yes it has to happen today. Let's make a deal today fast as good a time as many things can happen very fast in the UK, don't, don't get me wrong but if it's the second or the third meeting, that's okay too no rush. 12:43:54 don't rock the boat. 12:43:55 And then definitely superficial small talk is preferred in the US. 12:44:00 You really have to relearn how to do small talk during networking events in the US as opposed to the UK, where this is slightly different type of small talk is more sophisticated very different and I can say from experience. 12:44:14 Alright, so here's some essential things I want you to bear in mind when entering a foreign market, and I'm not speaking as a, let's say market researcher but more from a linguistic and cultural perspective. 12:44:32 So, first of all, adjust your marketing message in the foreign language, think in the foreign language have somebody who speaks the language, even if it's the same language as a native speaker of British or American English How does this go down in your 12:44:48 version of English, how would people understand that is there different word for it. 12:44:53 Very important. Also the cultural adjustments that we talked about. 12:44:57 There is something called localization that's actually quite recent business. It can mean translation sometimes it can mean cultural advice. 12:45:09 There are many agencies that do it or people like me can help you with that as well. of finding a solution that would actually work in that particular area with that particular client. 12:45:22 So localization is something that is very important, even more than in the past. You've got to of course understand your markets and market segments in the local customer or consumer preferences. 12:45:35 You might need to employ a marketing agency for that also find out about the price adjustments you might have to make or the package sizes as discussed with Tesco. 12:45:46 Also the product presentation some colors, shapes and symbols might not work in the other country, even though they speak the same language. 12:45:57 It may be culturally associated with something undesirable. 12:46:01 And of course, to adapt your own communication skills. 12:46:05 That's super important in this process. 12:46:10 Okay, I'm going to check my chat one more time. 12:46:14 because I see somebody typed something in here. 12:46:18 So we have in the US, often love to start with a joke icebreaker that so many other cultures don't understand the token. Yes, well thanks for that Pamela humor humor is a huge divide dividing factor. 12:46:33 So the British and the Americans might not always understand each other's jokes for sure. Oh yeah, been through that many times. 12:46:42 Even though we understand the words, but we don't understand the meaning that's the interesting thing between the UK and the US, somebody says something is laughing and then you're like, Okay, understood the words. 12:46:55 Why is he laughing. I don't understand the meaning. 12:46:59 So, and then Susannah says Could you give an example for sophisticated small talk. Ah, ok. So, by sophisticated. I mean something culturally relevant, something that happened recently that is relevant to the area to the country to to local politics the 12:47:17 local weather, the local theater the local something, and then in a little more depth, because this is how you convey that you have knowledge and experience of what's going on locally. 12:47:30 It is basically to bond with each other, because we know the local environment. 12:47:37 And it's somehow excludes, those who just want to make superficial conversation about something very general that everybody can understand. So these sophisticated small talk conversations, they often exclude those who don't have local knowledge, or are 12:47:57 not aware of what is allowed to talk about and what is not. 12:48:03 Okay, I see this sounds sad, talking about these two booths here yeah how, how, how do you how do you do it I guess won't be a taboo topic. Yeah, you better do some research talk to someone read a read of upon it. 12:48:19 And if you're still not sure what is it to boo and what is good humor, what should talk about and should not talk about, it's better not to stay safe if you're not entirely sure. 12:48:31 And my general recommendation always is. Listen, observe and learn. So if you're not sure actively listen and learn from what other people are doing. Don't be too adventurous, if you're not sure if it's appropriate, and and somebody says yeah weather 12:48:53 an important topic for the British Yes, absolutely. Whereas in the US, they may talk about sports all of a sudden, you got to American football I hate the sports, oh you're, you're out, you're still out, you can participate so all of a sudden you're not 12:49:04 in the in group you're in the group. And so, this is what can make small talk really really difficult because you don't know what is preferred. 12:49:15 Okay, so how do you build intercultural competence in general I always want to finish with something more general not so specifically focused on two countries. 12:49:25 So, I always list those three things that I can highly recommend. So if you're not already in the intercultural field, if this is something brand new to you think about these three areas. 12:49:38 So as far as attitude curiosity and openness are concerned, it starts with self reflection, your willingness, like I said to listen watch and learn this is extremely important, have a lot of patience and empathy and tolerance. 12:49:53 Don't be afraid of difference appreciated approach it with curiosity and openness and even if you have a sense of adventure, that's definitely going to help. 12:50:03 So people who take those boxes are usually more successful in international business than people feel uncomfortable doing so. 12:50:13 Then there's the skills and knowledge part. That's what you can read up upon so you can read things you can become self aware you can do training or buy a book or become certified in which does a lot you can do to build skills and knowledge, and you have 12:50:30 to become aware of your own culture first before you can understand another culture. So if you're not even aware of what so specifically unique about the US or the UK, then you can't compare it with the other country. 12:50:41 And that's true for all different cultures and countries, good communication skills whatever they mean in different places so become aware of that. 12:50:51 Those before mentioned customs values, norms and beliefs and perceptions, just become aware of it and do your gap analysis. 12:51:00 Well, how much do I have to stretch myself to get where I need to be or how uncomfortable is going to be for me, or is it actually going to be enjoyable because I don't really have to stretch myself that much. 12:51:12 And then, the adaptability of course your willingness to adapt and change. Do you have high emotional like an EQ, are you flexible, can you work with ambiguity and uncertainty people who can usually do better in an international environment, and very 12:51:29 important to see the Y beyond the watch. 12:51:34 That is very important in the training courses that I offer and then the work I do with my clients. And this is why towards the end, I do want to mention some of the those pitfalls and communication and how I work with them with the tools that that I 12:51:53 find very useful for this because you have to bear in mind that people do what they consider right they use their values based on what they believe is true. 12:52:02 Using familiar actions which is the behavior and the communication style. They have a certain thought process which is their norms and assumptions, and they go into these situations into these negotiations with the best intentions to get the best outcome, 12:52:21 yet they fail, and the system I use, I just wanted to mention it here as something very very insightful is global disc to help people recognize these values, beliefs norms and assumptions to expand your comfort zone and to communicate successfully. 12:52:38 So if you're interested in global disc I just want to introduce it real brief. If you're someone who wants to work with an intercultural trainer and they use that or if you're training yourself and you're interested in it. 12:52:52 It is a very up to date tool. It is a very modern economy, 21st century tool, as opposed to other models and tools that have been around for for much longer and haven't been updated in a way that this one has. 12:53:07 So it focuses on unlocking the potential within and between people so within meaning that self awareness that is so important and between when you communicate with others. 12:53:19 It's based on a growth mindset, and it's it's device to increase agility, a very important tool these days in many areas. 12:53:29 What I really love about it that it combines the personality type and the cultural background for both behavior and communication style. It creates that awareness and the underlying values and believes it helps you develop these very important strategies 12:53:41 to communicate successfully with others. And so it can eventually translate into diversity and synergy rather than friction and misunderstanding between team members, or you and your clients. 12:53:59 I know some of you know this. And thank you, Christina for saying that gold will discuss great I know you're using it to. That's wonderful. And so this is the overview of the doing business between two English speaking countries focusing on the US and 12:54:18 the UK today. 12:54:20 If you have any questions if you want to contact me if you are a business if you want to work with me here my contact details, my email address my website, Please have a look at it. 12:54:33 Get in touch, be more than happy to talk to you about these two countries or inter inter cultural communication in general. 12:54:44 And then, before we start our q&a section, let me point your attention to this. So, if somebody you know wants to see this, if you want to recommend the webinar series that the World Trade Center Palm Beach runs on a regular basis. 12:55:01 This webinar, as long as with many other webinars that the World Trade Center offers will be posted at this website within a few days or next week, so please check out the website for more information about what the World Trade Center Palm Beach does 12:55:16 how it helps businesses on a international scale for doing business globally, and the support and services that they offer. 12:55:27 Right. So we do have a couple of minutes left, so I'm going to stop sharing my slides now, and we are happy to entertain your questions and comments. If you have any, thank you very much for joining us today. 12:55:51 All right, so I'm just watching the chat here if there's anything else in the chat. 12:56:00 Something about pronunciation. Yes, go ahead. 12:56:04 So, how long do you think it takes to get a costume to how to do business between the two countries. 12:56:13 One if I go and talk to you and say, can you help me. 12:56:17 What's the title. 12:56:20 Well for my experience it's a process. 12:56:23 It's the same process with intercultural competence as it is with language learning a very often compared with language learning. 12:56:32 Since I also work as a language trainer. I often get that question. I want to learn a new language, how long is it going to take. I said, Well, what would you like to be able to do. 12:56:44 You want to be able to say, Excuse me, I don't speak Chinese, where is the hotel. 12:56:51 Can you please speak English, you know, if you want to be equipped with 10 phrases to survive. Yeah, that's very doable. 12:56:58 Okay, don't take, don't take teach Chinese I only teach English, German, Italian and French. 12:57:05 But if you wanted to learn one of these languages you'd really have to tell me what would you like to be able to do and it's the same with cross cultural skills or inner inner cultural competence. 12:57:16 What would you like to be able to do. So I have clients I work with who have a very specific event. They go on a business trip, they have a meeting with the potential partner or client, and they want to get ready for that negotiation for that one meeting. 12:57:33 So we can specifically work on what might happen during the meeting, and I probably go through a long list of situations of cultural dimensions of what they might hear of behavior they might see. 12:57:49 And then if they want to dig a little deeper I would use global disk so they can become self aware, and that they learn what to watch out for. 12:57:59 It can stop there. And a lot of people learn very quickly. A lot of people have that. 12:58:07 Let's say Sixth Sense of, ha, that's interesting. Now I'm going to pay attention and they really do. Whereas for others, it's really hard to be to become let's say proficient in this on a daily basis without being constantly reminded. 12:58:23 It's the same with language learning some people to pick up a language and they jump right in and they, they make mistakes and learn from mistakes and improve and just run with it whereas others, they hardly speak because it's not perfect yet, so I can't 12:58:38 speak. And so you really have to see what personality you are what what type of learner you are what experiences you have already made. And going back to that slide I had with curiosity and openness and attitude. 12:58:53 If you already naturally have that it's going to be much easier for you. 12:58:57 If you have a feeling of hi don't want to go there and I don't want to talk to them because they're weird. 12:59:04 It's going to take a lot longer than someone who's at this is exciting I've always wanted to do this and I'm, I'm open to learn and all this so the attitude and the Curiosity level is probably really what determines how successful you're going to be in 12:59:17 the long run. 12:59:18 Absolutely. And that happens with many other things in life. 12:59:22 We do have two 12:59:27 people who raise their hands. 12:59:29 If you are. 12:59:31 If you want to put it in the chat, what do you want to ask one to one to say, that way we can address them. 12:59:39 I don't know if in this format we can unmute them you have one. 12:59:43 Let me see. 12:59:44 Okay. 12:59:46 They can talk now. 12:59:48 Okay, 12:59:53 if they want to. You want to. Yeah, okay. 12:59:59 So, Kitty Can you raise your hand if you want to say something you can you can do now or type it in the chat if you don't want to hear me. 13:00:07 Yes we can. Okay. And my question was about the global disk is it scientifically proven or it's just a tool that can be used, scientifically proven in a way that many researchers and professors in the field of communication and Intercultural Studies have 13:00:27 done research and it's basically a collection of many of the studies and research that has been done over the past. 13:00:37 Maybe 4050 years because a lot has happened since full study, and a lot of research has gone into the field. So, it really incorporates, everything that has happened over the past decades. 13:00:51 In addition to the foundational principles, going back to Edward t Hall hosted at Lewis and so on. It basically builds upon that foundation but takes a more modern a more up to date look at different concepts of communication. 13:01:12 And like I said, it doesn't focus on countries, only focuses more on personality and preferences in addition to cultural background. 13:01:25 And this is not there. This itself. What does exist. 13:01:30 The original disc focuses on personality, only, whereas global disk is like a merger of different systems. I always like to compare it with our smartphones, a smartphone has not just still just a telephone right so it has email as has internet, it has 13:01:53 a camera. It has complained music, it's your alarm clock, and it has so many functions, and this is what global disk did it took many different ways of looking at cultural assessment personality typing and other methods and models that are out there, 13:02:12 has tried to combine them into one system. 13:02:16 Okay, thank you very much. 13:02:18 All right. 13:02:19 Thank you for asking. We do have another question in the chat. Okay, from Michael, it's, I am from the UK and work with America. 13:02:29 I often have difficulty of searching what their strengths are. 13:02:34 Let me go back and wicked weaknesses are, because their style is often to present themselves as experts at anything, which is true. 13:02:43 This can lead to a relationship of mistrust mistrust in on my part. Any advice on this. 13:02:50 Right, trust, yeah. 13:02:52 I probably could do 10 different slides on trust alone as a topic I have that as a separate topic how to build trust. 13:03:01 Because there's basically two very different types of trust, cognitive trust and effective trust cognitive trust means. 13:03:10 Show me what you did your actual results your numbers, your successes show up on time, do what you say it is a building cognitive trust with you because you prove things that I can measure. 13:03:24 And that's why I trust you. I don't care who you are. I don't need to have a relationship with you. I want to be friends with you I don't want to have a beer with you. 13:03:31 I just want to do business with you and make sure I can rely on you that when you say that's the deadline, you will deliver on the deadline. You know you say what to do you do what you say that's building cognitive trustworthy effective trust is first 13:03:44 of all, after get to know you see if I like you, because if I don't know you, I don't know anything about you what you've done in your life and how you deal with people if you're very kind and understanding and flexible. 13:03:56 Before I know that I don't even want to know about deadlines you know that that doesn't interest me because that comes later at some point because I have the idea that if I like you, if we understand each other if we trust each other if we have a relationship 13:04:08 and you're kind and understanding and flexible the deadline isn't so much of a problem because now we can talk about it if the deadline becomes an issue, down the line. 13:04:18 So it's a very, very different mindset of building a relationship and building trust. 13:04:25 And on that scale. I would say that the, in general, you know, people are people, they're different, you might run into somebody who's very different from what I'm going to say, but in general in the US, I think the cognitive trust is what is recognized 13:04:44 reinforced and rewarded. Yes, we love having relationships of course but the cognitive trust thing comes first. In the US, you can perfectly do business with someone you don't like, and it can work well. 13:04:59 whereas in the UK I'm not so sure about this. 13:05:03 Maybe as you can and you have to on many occasions but still, how you build trust and how much time you take. 13:05:12 I think things are a little on the slower side. 13:05:15 Not as slow as in other parts of the world but compared between the two countries I would say relationship building, building a business trusting each other. 13:05:26 Talking about what we're experts in what we're good at what we're bad at being honest about it, you know, that may take a little more time in the UK and maybe even slightly more honest in the UK I know it sounds weird because the UK has coded language, 13:05:41 and in direct communication but still we use it stretched out over a longer period of time to really find out who people are, whereas in the US, I just want to know. 13:05:51 Okay, tell me how much the product costs when you can deliver it sign the contract, if you don't do what's in the contract I'm going to sue you done, we can do business now, we're good. 13:06:01 Whereas, in the UK that's often perceived as awful. 13:06:06 And maybe this is where the communication issues come in, because in the US things tend to be very fast. On the surface, and they don't take their time to appreciate you to sit down with you to build a relationship with you to get to know you to think 13:06:23 about long term aspects of the business. 13:06:28 Everything is very short term in the US and that can put off a lot of people from other cultures that have a slightly more long term orientation. Yes, I need 500 of those products, by the end of next week, and yet but that's maybe just the first step, 13:06:43 And, yeah, but that's maybe just the first step, maybe I want to continue doing business you for years to come. But this is something miracles are not always so interested in the first conversation that's get the deal done sign the contract and then get. 13:06:55 Let's get the next deal done and so on. 13:06:57 So I hope that answers the question. If not, please feel free to to raise your hand and we'll unmute you and you can also talk about it. 13:07:06 If you gotta go because we're over running I'm aware of it. Thank you very much for coming and I'll let you go, but if you want to stay and have a specific question, um, I can stay and talk about it more than happy to. 13:07:19 Perfect. We do have someone else in the top, Colin. 13:07:25 In China, established relationships, Trump everything, including contractual obligations. 13:07:30 Yes, so that's that's often a conflict between us and Chinese businesses reflected in other parts of life, between the two countries as well. That establishing the relationship is so much more important than anything. 13:07:49 And if you don't take your time to establish it, then you're not interested in the business, but the US attitude is yes we are interested in the business we just don't want that relationship. 13:08:00 And so it was tough to understand, depending on what your preferences are because again it's perspective from one perspective is like you don't care I don't want to have anything to do with you from the other perspective. 13:08:13 Why do you care so much I just want to do business with you. 13:08:16 It's very hard sometimes. 13:08:19 And I get it that you might end up not ever working with this person or not ever working with this business because the differences are so huge, they cannot be overcome, it might happen. 13:08:32 But if it's really just knowing what to do what should be careful about and to openly speak about it this is what I do with teams when they have to work together they don't have a choice because they're on one team, then putting it on the table and building 13:08:49 a framework around it. 13:08:52 Where we openly discuss these preferences. That's the only way to get rid of them. So, but you need a facilitator, you can't do that on your own. This is why there are coaches that work with teams, because teams need someone to tell them what these things 13:09:07 are help them put it on table help them talk about it. Build a code of conduct and a framework around it so that they can actually accept the other person's behavior like you always do this You always say that I find this horrible. 13:09:18 Yes, let's look at the reason why and why this person needs this type of behavior communication style and then you say, okay, fine, you hopefully you arrive at a point where you say, um, gosh, he's doing it again but I know why he's doing it, it's not 13:09:35 my preference. Take a deep breath. 13:09:39 There no melon tensions. I'll just do this and that would we agree to do in that situation and will will will be done. 13:09:47 And I'm just going to move on from there but at least I know how to deal with it. And so, in many cases that the minimum that we can achieve is. 13:09:57 I can accept it for a short period of time I can deal with it I can get out of it what I want what I need and then I'm move on. 13:10:03 But very often if the gaps are two huge, it's probably impossible to do business. 13:10:11 And it starts with that mindset, like I said, the openness the Curiosity the attitude. 13:10:17 This is where good international business deals are made when people from both sides come in with the right attitude and are willing to learn and open up and go through the process. 13:10:29 So much information. I mean I missing family, you can find the same problems the same issues right and communication it's yes idol. 13:10:40 Your best friend can come from the other side of the planet, and your worst enemy can live next door is very, very possible, and every single one of you, who has someone in your own family who you don't get on with well. 13:10:56 Or maybe you have a very good friend from another country, you have experienced that yourself that this is absolutely possible, because remember the different layers of color of culture and color. 13:11:10 Yes, of course. And it's not just national culture. There's professional culture somebody has the same profession you might get on very well with them, even they're from a different country or the gender culture the generational culture that there's so 13:11:21 many layers of culture, we belong to so many groups, through which we identify who we are, that we have to move away from just looking at country specific features, but we keep doing it, and I did it today. 13:11:35 I'm aware of age. 13:11:36 So this is why I keep saying let's look for a few things that are maybe typical typical stumbling stones and pitfalls we might run into, but always keep an open mind, you might encounter something that is different from what you expect.