How to Prepare for a Cross-Cultural Meeting

Even before you begin to plan your first cross-cultural meeting, you should ask yourself the following questions: 

1. What is the intended purpose of the meeting? (Preliminary, fact finding, actual negotiation, or social?)

2. Which is the best venue?

3. Who will attend? (Level, number, technicians?)

4. How long will the meeting last? (Hours, days, weeks?)

5. Are the physical arrangements suitable? (Room size, seating, temperature, equipment, transport, accommodations for visitors?)

6. What entertainment arrangements are appropriate? (Meals, excursions, theater?)

7. How much protocol does the other side expect? (Formality, dress, agendas?)

8. Which debating style are they likely to adopt? (Deductive, inductive, freewheeling, aggressive, courteous?)

9. Who on their side is the decision maker? (One person, several, or only consensus?)

10. How much flexibility can be expected during negotiation? (Give and take, moderation, fixed positions?)

11. How sensitive is the other side? (National, personal?)

12. How much posturing and body language can be expected? (Facial expressions, impassivity, gestures, emotion?)

13. What are the likely priorities of the other side? (Profit, long-term relationship, victory, harmony?)

14. How wide is the cultural gap between the two sides? (Logic, religion, political, emotional?)

15. How acceptable are their ethics to us? (Observance of contracts, timescale?)

16. Will there be a language problem? (Common language, interpreters?)

17. What mechanisms exist for breaking deadlock or smoothing over difficulties?

18. To what extent may such factors as humor, sarcasm, wit, wisecracking and impatience be allowed to spice up the proceedings?

Good answers to the questions in the above checklist will help to clear the decks for a meeting that will have a reasonable chance of a smooth passage. It is to be hoped that the other side has made an attempt to clarify the same issues. For example, the French often hold a preliminary meeting to do just this – to establish the framework and background for discussion, which can be very sensible.

When event organizers plan conferences where large numbers of people and multiple nationalities are involved, the guidelines above inevitably become more complex. It is advisable to have two or three individuals with considerable international experience on hand to balance priorities and preferences. A big nationality mix, however, often produces a genial, more relaxed conference atmosphere. 

The following diagrams reflect the different preferences of the different cultural communication types — linear-active, multi-active, and reactive:

These attendees need relatively little preamble or small talk before getting down to business. They like to introduce bullet points that can serve as an agenda. Tasks or issues are segmented, discussed, and dealt with one after the other. Solutions reached are summarized in the minutes.

These members are not happy with the bullet-point approach, which they see as premature conclusions reached by their linear colleagues. They prefer to take points in random order (or in order of importance) and discuss them for hours before listing bullet points as conclusions. When they see them at the beginning they feel they have been manipulated.

Do not have the linear obsession with agendas, neither are they wooed by multi-active arguments. In Japanese eyes, for instance, things are not black and white, possible or impossible, right or wrong. They see arguments and ideas as points converging and ultimately merging. An emotional coming together is considered more important then an intellectual approach.