CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT
Leading a Brainstorming Session
with a Cross-Cultural Team
by David Livermore
MAY 27, 2016
40.
Brainstorming is the default way in which many teams and organizations come up with new
ideas. And it's commonly said that the more diverse the group, the greater the potential for
innovative ideas. However, it doesn't always work out this way.
Brainstorming is better suited to some personalities and cultures than others. Extroverts who
"think out loud" and Westerners who have grown up in educational environments where
classroom participation is required, usually thrive in brainstorming sessions. But others around
the world grew up in classrooms where they were taught to think before speaking and to avoid
standing out with unique ideas. As a result, many individuals in the global workplace dread
brainstorming sessions and say very little.
My colleagues and I have spent the last 15 years researching cultural intelligence, or CQ,Cänd
we've studied more than 55,000 professionals across 98 countries. We have found several
challenges that global teams face when it comes to brainstorming. Of course, many occur on
homogeneous teams as well, but these challenges tend to be accentuated within multicultural
teams:
The first idea wins: More often than not, the first idea presented in a brainstorming session is the
idea most likely to be accepted. And usually the first idea comes from the most assertive and
often the most powerful participant in the group. So conformity can quickly crowd out the
diverse perspectives around the table.
Language fluency: For non-native speakers, coming up with new ideas and expressing them in a
different language can be extremely difficult. It often means translating the question into your
native tongue, coming up with a response, and translating the response back into English, by
which time, the conversation has moved on without you
Saving face: Many global team members, particularly from places like Asia or Latin America, find
brainstorming challenging because it goes against their cultural norms of harmony and
conformity. Brainstorming is largely predicated upon an individualist perspective where
everyone is encouraged to contribute, and the more divergent the ideas the better. So when
you're asking participants from more collectivist cultures to speak up with a unique idea, you
may be asking them to do something that is very counter-intuitive.
Big picture vs. detailed analysis: Teams can also face cultural collisions in the ways they
approach brainstorming. North Americans typically prefer to focus on the big picture and
blue sky ideas while many Germans place more value on highly detailed analyses. This can also
vary from one personality and business unit to the next. For example, sales professionals may
be more apt to contribute macro perspectives and see details as a distraction, whereas the
reverse is often true for engineers.
There's no question that diverse teams offer a much richer repository of ideas than groups in
which members come from the same background and think alike. But our research
finds that diverse teams with low levels of cultural intelligence (CQ)—a measurement of one's capability to work and relate effectively in culturally diverse situations—come up with less innovative ideas in a brainstorming session than homogeneous teams do.
This research included multiple studies that included several hundred participants from both
university and workplace contexts. Some subjects were placed on diverse teams (teammates
from nationally diverse backgrounds) and others on homogenous teams (everyone from the same
national background). Each team was assigned a complex, three-month project. The individuals
with low CQ were less likely to speak up on a diverse team compared to those on a homogenous
team. However, the team members with high CQ spoke up as much or more on a diverse team,
just as they did on a homogenous one. Their CQ attenuated the potential risks of voicing their
input among a group of culturally diverse peers.
The most important thing a leader can do to tap the diverse range of ideas from a global team is to
help participants improve their cultural intelligence. In addition, here are a few simple strategies
to use when brainstorming with a global team:
Clearly define the objective. Any brainstorming session should clearly define the purpose and
desired outcome, and leaders should devote additional time for this for global teams. Most
intercultural challenges begin with clashing expectations. To address this, ask each team
member to come to the brainstorming session having written down his/her understanding of
the objective, and in the meeting, briefly go over what people wrote. Pay attention to subtle
differences, and don't move on until everyone is aligned in their understanding of the
objective. You can check for understanding by asking participants how they