Of course, you don’t have to cross an ocean to experience cultural differences.  Cultural differences here in the US can even breed culture clash.

I was reading about someone from the Deep South who was communicating with a team member in the northeast part of the country.  The northern team member was offended that the southerner had called her “Ma’am.”  The southerner was completely flabbergasted that this could be considered an offense. 

This resonated strongly with me.  Intrigued, I polled the women in a class I was teaching regarding their thoughts of being called “Ma’am.” 

Two of us remember the first time we were addressed as such, and it was not a fond memory.

One woman was too young, by northern standards, to have been called “Ma’am,” and she was not looking forward to hearing it.

One woman’s response:  ”Don’t you ‘Ma’am’ me!” 

It reminded me of when I was teaching in a southern city.  The discussion came up regarding kids addressing parents as “Ma’am” and “Sir,” a common courtesy and show of respect in much of the country. 

In other parts of the country, it makes us feel old.  Here in Minnesota, it offends our sense of egalitarianism, and would even sound patronizing to many of us  (Don’t you “Ma’am” me!).  Many of us would cringe at being called “Ma’am” or “Sir” by our kids. 

Of course, like any generalization, these don’t hold true for everyone.  But they are interesting in terms of how strongly communications is impacted by culture and how important it is to not take for granted that because our passports look the same we necessarily communicate the same.

Mitigating the problems caused by regional cultural differences within one’s own country requires many of the same things as when working with people on the other side of the planet:

Be Open
Acknowledge differences and and share observations about those differences.  Make it safe.

 Get to Know Each Other
It’s a lot harder to be offended by someone when you know them than when you don’t.  Make time in virtual meetings to get to know each other.  Engage in “electronic courtship,” and start meetings with “small” talk.  That small talk helps mitigate problems in a big way.

I’d love to hear about your experience with regional cultures here in the US and their impact on your projects.

Culture and Communications was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog

1)      Test your technology. If you have never used the software or hardware for your virtual meetings, make sure you practice with a small group first. If you are doing a formal presentation, I suggest you reboot your PC right before you make it. We recently did a product demo where the presenter’s PC froze up right at the start. It took some fancy “tap dancing” to recover and keep the meeting going. Better to reboot first than to recover later.

2)      Presenters: clear your desktop. There is nothing worse than seeing an incoming email notice popping up on the moderator’s screen, or seeing his or her calendar reminder saying “Pick up Amie from soccer practice.” If you are a participant and there’s a chance your screen will be displayed during the session, this applies to you, too.

3)      Participants: minimize your distractions. Don’t text or read emails when you should be participating. Pretend it’s a live meeting. How would you behave? (I know, some of you out there would be on your Blackberries during a meeting. Ha ha.) One method to deal with this issue is to call on participants to ask for their input or thoughts. Some virtual meeting tools provide an “attention” meter. Ours does. It’s very useful to see who has other non-meeting screens in the foreground. It’s also good feedback for the facilitator on how engaging the meeting is going. That can be a bit deflating, I’ll admit, but an impetus to try harder!

4)      Larger meetings: use your name. I was recently in a virtual meeting with people I just met and every one of them sounded the same! I could not distinguish them and I kept asking “Jennifer is that you?” or “Was that Tom who said that?” In retrospect, I should have asked at the beginning for people to announce their name as they commented. Better yet, I think it should be a standard ground rule for virtual meetings.

5)      Take notes as you normally would. Unlike an in-person meeting, though, announce you are pausing to write down your notes. If people can’t see you, the audio pause is disconcerting and vocal people will fill it and try and move the discussion along. If you want to successfully capture an action item or decision, tell people you are writing and ask them to wait a moment. Make sure you write fast, though…virtual participants are more impatient it seems to me than in-person participants.

What other “musts” can you think of? I’d like to compile a top ten list and post it to our site.

Top Fundamentals for Successful Virtual Meetings was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog