Lost in Translation: Building Trust in a Multicultural Environment

At Rocket Software, building a strong, multicultural community is incredibly important to our success as a company and as people. The bedrock of any community is trust—something we all live by and that is a part of our core Rocket Software values. But when you’re in an environment filled with people from all kinds of backgrounds with myriad life experiences, sometimes you can get lost in translation.

Recently, the Rocket Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (RIDE) team held a roundtable conversation with several Rocketeers to discuss how cultural differences can impact the way we communicate, make decisions, and build relationships in the workplace. Whether that’s with a colleague, manager, or someone from another department, trust is at the heart of what makes those relationships grow over time.

The conversation brought together 6 Rocketeers to share their experience and delve into everything from language barriers and idioms to tone or eye contact during interpersonal interactions. Throughout our conversation, it was clear just how important it is to consider others’ perspectives and try to adapt communication styles in a way that is considerate of cultural differences and preferences.

Dealing with Miscommunications

In any setting, whether it’s personal or professional, miscommunications can—and likely will—happen at one point or another. But in these moments, it’s important to try and learn why these miscommunications happen and how we can improve for the future. During the roundtable, one factor that came up centered around authority. Whether it’s different departments, different countries, or just different working environments, the way we respond to positions of authority in the workplace can differ.

As one of our participants, Hernando Borda, noted different cultures view authority differently. In some, it’s a much more top-down structure whereas others may be more collaborative. Whenever we enter a new situation it’s crucial that we consider those differences and be respectful of how things are managed.

Bring Understanding to Misunderstandings

Being in a position where someone else is misunderstanding something you’re trying to communicate can be frustrating. But one consideration that our panelists discussed was approaching those from a position of understanding that the other person is likely not doing so intentionally to cause harm. As one of our participants, Mugdha Bapat, mentions, it’s important to come at these challenges from a place of sensitivity and trust. Maybe it’s just a matter of explaining yourself more clearly because of cultural differences in how they might approach that situation.

This is just a short snapshot of what we learned during the roundtable. Dive deeper and check out the full conversation here.

Now, let’s hear a bit from our participants and learn what they found to be some of the most impactful takeaways from this event.

Hernando Borda: “Situational awareness – foster an environment where people’s opinions are valued and learn how to get the job done without making people do things that go against

their nature.”

Michelle Mack: “To understand cultural differences, even within my own country, I had to first learn more about myself and how I was communicating with others.”

Mugdha Bapat: “Be authentic in what you are doing and celebrate your whole self wherever you are. It’s a good thing to have interactions with different accents.”

Norm Parker: “Be willing to be uncomfortable – when learning a new language, you might sound weird to yourself but to others, you sound perfectly normal. Learn to be okay with that.”

Theresa Parker: “If I’m having a difficult situation in a foreign country/culture, maybe I need to be not-so-quick to judge others.”

Learn more about RIDE and how Rocket Software is committed to fostering a multicultural and inclusive working environment.