Cross-Cultural Virtual Spaces and Teams

Overview

Airplanes gave us the ability to travel across oceans to visit international team members. But virtual spaces are now bringing us together in an instant. New rules have been written, and as work-from-home is on the rise, re-written, and they bring their own unique cross-cultural challenges. We’ll discuss communication differences unique to text-driven spaces like email and instant message as well as the evolving world of video conferencing. We’ll explore unique cultural challenges brought up by this “new office”, such as the blending of private and public spaces, the “virtual water cooler” of informal virtual communication, and the “time zone dance” done by teams sharing virtual work done while one half is asleep. The future is now. Thanks to technological advances, we have an opportunity to show up, share our cultures, and build creative and innovative pathways to successful multinational teams. Let’s build best practices together in this virtual space and then work together to make them go viral!