Do you think that managing projects in a language that is not your native language is complicated? What strategies do you use so that there is much clearer communication and that there are no misunde

Carlos, gusto en saludarte. Te contesto en Español porque es mas comodo. En mi caso, he trabajado durante muchos años en proyectos con equipos altamente distribuidos a lo largo del mundo donde todos "intentabamos" hablar Ingles. Digo intentabamos porque por mejor ingles que tengas, entender a gente de India o Rusia o incluso algunas partes de USA tales como Texas no es facil. Pero como comunicarte (y sobre todo que te presten atencion) es importante hasta estudié Portugues para poder comonicarme mejor con gente del Brasil. Al final del dia, lo importante es escuchar y validar aquellos puntos clave con cosas como "entiendo que me dijiste esto. es correcto?, Pero mucho mas importante es entender la dinamica de comunicacion de cada pais o cultura. Los latinos somos de hablar bastante, los de asia son de ir al punto, y asi siguiendo. Para mi, entender esto ultimo es lo que hace la diferencia.

Gracias Sergio por compartir tu experiencia en este tema, muy valiosa y útil en este mundo globalizado.

Carlos -

While I haven't had to lead projects in a different language, I've had many projects where I had team members for whom English was a second or even third language.

In such cases, greater attention to clarity of communication and thoughtfulness around the use of specific communication methods is needed to avoid misunderstanding.

Team working agreements which explicitly address how we will overcome such communication challenges and a team glossary or lexicon which can create a common understanding of specific terms will help.

Kiron

Carlos,
I agree with Sergio.

I worked with Indians, Japanese, Russians, Brazilians and many Europeans. It is important to agree on a common project language and many times the majority are people with English as second or third language. I had problems to understand some Englsih slang and for example Texan speaking.

But more challenging was the cultural mix, the different perceptions, behaviours, rites etc. Once a Indian ate in a German canteen with her hands, she was not used to spoon or fork.

Different language skills require everyone to listen, repeat, understand and trust, which is good for teaming. Japanese often mean no if they say yes (yes, I understand, which does not mean I agree).