You’ve made sure that all the decision-makers are in the room. You sent an outline of the agenda in advance. You’ve found a slot that works across three time zones. So why is it that no one seems to understand what you’re talking about? Welcome to collaboration across boundaries – cultural, cognitive, geographic. If you’re not doing it now, you will be soon. And if we really want to harness the huge potential of a diverse workforce, we need to get much better at it.

“I think of an organisation as a bit like a box of Lego,” says Dr Julija Mell, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at RSM. “There are lots of different pieces and they represent different knowledge, experiences, perspectives and skills. There are many opportunities to combine the pieces and create new insights, ideas and solutions. But first, you need to know the pieces you have. In other words, you need to understand the people around you.”

And those people could be anywhere – because in 2024, it’s completely normal to work closely with people who you may never meet in person. A 2018 global study of executives found that 89 per cent worked on at least one global virtual team – and the pandemic has supercharged the trend. Many organisations now have employees, contractors and collaborators dispersed all over the world. There are significant benefits: a wider talent pool, a geographically diverse team offering fresh perspectives, new ideas and greater opportunity for innovation. But there are also big challenges.

Yu Fen (Ellen) Li (MBA, 2004) is very familiar with those challenges: she’s a Global CFO for a US multinational based in Singapore and manages a global, and therefore, virtual team. “I have always worked in multinational companies, which means a lot of diversity and people from different countries and cultures,” she says. “When we embrace diverse cultures, there is more variety, and it leads to more innovation. But if we don’t understand, or are not mindful of each other’s cultures, it can be a challenge to work as a team. For example, in terms of the decision-making processes, in some cultures everyone is involved and it’s a consensus. In others, it’s more a top-down, hierarchical process. Also with time management, for some people, it is normal to be ten or 15 minutes late, whereas in other cultures, people are very punctual.”

Communication styles can also vary enormously, Li adds. “I’ve found that Americans tend to be direct and to the point, whereas the British try and accommodate everyone’s opinions and don’t express things so explicitly, and that’s even more true for people in Asia. In that case, I need to be more mindful and encourage people to share their opinions. The most valuable thing for team collaboration is that everyone contributes to the team.”

Raising awareness

Andrés Moreno Mera (MBA, 2015) has worked in many different countries, including the Netherlands, Mexico, Canada and Spain – and is now based in New York as an information management officer for the United Nations. “The United Nations in itself is a microcosm of the world,” he says. Consequently, it’s more important than ever to be aware of different backgrounds. “You don’t want a whole team from one region telling people what to do in another country. On the other hand, someone with a personal connection to a region might be too close to the problem.”

So how do we overcome these boundaries? Just a little awareness can help, says Moreno Mera. Much of the time, he points out, we simply cannot understand how someone else sees the world. “If you have the luxury of time and can create that connection and ask questions you can at least understand a little bit more about where they’re coming from.” He’s not only working with people from different cultures and backgrounds, either, but with varying levels of experience and expertise. “I try to explain things as simply as possible,” he says. “I avoid jargon and use clear language to improve communication.” One of the most important lessons he’s learnt is “not to assume what is acceptable or what is normal in your culture or country is acceptable and normal everywhere else. You need to understand where people are coming from. I try all the time to assume best intentions from everybody unless it’s proven otherwise.”

To collaborate better we need to connect better, but remote working offers less opportunity for that. There are no watercooler conversations, shared lunches or catch-ups by the coffee machine — those casual moments that allow us to understand each other better. “Staring at our screens makes us focus on the agenda,” says Mell. “It’s great for efficiency, because no one likes to spend longer on Zoom calls than they need to, but it’s just not helping us to get to know each other beyond the immediate task requirements.”

One solution is to purposefully build those moments back in by facilitating space for people to develop casual connections. Learning more about someone’s background, values and motivation can help break down the barriers that prevent effective collaboration. “Trust involves vulnerability,” says Li. “When we only talk about work and what needs to be done, that trust isn’t solid enough.” Her answer: add ten to 15 minutes to the end of a meeting for people to talk more informally, whether that’s updates on what’s been happening in their market or what they did at the weekend. “Often, people who speak less during the meeting itself start to share things that have happened in their life.”

But for all the drawbacks of video calls compared to face-to-face meetings, advances in technology have helped more than hindered, Li says. “In the past we used a telecom system, so when I had meetings with teams in other regions, I could not see their faces, which made the understanding of cultural differences challenging. Sometimes it’s not only about what people say but the facial expressions and gestures, which also tell you a lot.”

Mell’s research has found that having individuals who act as ‘connectors’ or ‘brokers’ in a global team can help bridge different boundaries within teams. Knowledge brokers are people who have a good understanding of their teams, who “know what the Lego pieces are”, says Mell, and they can help to mobilise the entire team’s knowledge. Meanwhile, “temporal brokers” can help an organisation navigate different time zones. “In a team that is distributed across the world, you might have a situation where you can’t find an overlap unless you go outside the acceptable times of work,” says Mell. In these instances, for example, a team member in Europe might provide a link for those in the United States and Asia.

Across the divide

Or consider identifying “cultural brokers” – often people with extensive multicultural experience themselves – who can help others in the team work across cultural divides. Brokers can help better enable global collaboration but must be given the time and resources to do so. “Sometimes, their own productivity can suffer because they have to do so much on behalf of the team, so you need to recognise the role that they play and make space for that,” says Mell. “You also want to consider who you put in those positions and who has the right skills for these connecting roles.”

And while unique perspectives and individual insights are vital for effective global collaboration, organisations also need to make everyone feel that they are striving towards the same goal. Mell and her team researched collaboration between teams in the pursuit of larger overarching goals. “Where two teams both saw themselves primarily as part of a bigger whole, the way that they worked together was indistinguishable from how people would work together on a single team.” However, she says, when people thought of themselves as on a sub-team first and part of a wider mission second, information sharing dropped. “As a team leader you need to find the sweet spot between appreciating diversity and individual identities, but at the same time somehow bringing them together under one roof.”

It requires a proactive approach and may take dedicated time and resources – but the rewards are worth it, not only in terms of productivity and creativity, but in the psychological outcomes too. “If I feel that my expertise is utilised, I feel more included in the team,” says Mell. “That experience of inclusion is important for all kind of things, such as a willingness to stay in the organisation, and emotional and physical health. There are so many positives to making collaboration better.”