How to Build Stronger Remote Teams with Intercultural Expert, Maria Garaitonandia [Podcast]

While remote work continues to shape the global workforce, providing both work-life balance and cost-effectiveness, businesses face new communication and collaboration challenges across cultures and time zones. 
 
In this episode of The Berlitz Language & Culture Podcast, host Louisa Ajami interviews intercultural coach and trainer Maria Garaitonandia on effectively managing diverse remote teams. With years of experience in global team-building, Maria shares best practices for improving virtual teamwork and conflict resolution for remote workplaces. 

Transcription Episode 1

Louisa: Hello and welcome to the Berlitz culture podcast! On today's episode, we are delighted to have intercultural expert Coach and Trainer Maria Garaitonandia. Maria has worked extensively with major companies and organizations across the world on intercultural communication, team building, leadership training, conflict management and more. Maria is currently working on a book called, Untangling Communication: Interpersonal Intelligence for Leaders of Thriving Teams, which is set to be released in 2025. Welcome, Maria! 

María: Hi, Louisa! Thank you so much for having me. It's so much fun to be here! 

Louisa: It's great to have you, and we've been delighted to have worked with you many times in the past. Now you've been in the cross-cultural training and cultural competence space for years —  as an expert in intercultural communication, what are some trends you're seeing in today's workplaces? 

María: I would say, when it comes to intercultural management or intercultural interaction, since we have so many more teams that are working remotely, it's become a lot more common than we had, say, even 10 years ago, because of the accelerated pace with which we have taken up virtual everything, right? So, for example, one of the most recent interventions that I had was with a team that was located in about five different places all across the globe. So you have a little bit of the challenge of getting a good time for everybody to work. But even if it's just an hour or two – doing some kind of team building, getting to know each other, establishing trust – that's what I find that some trends are pointing towards, because a lot of times people don't even know each other and they're working with each other all the time, and sometimes they don't even turn their cameras on, so it's just either emails and back and forth written communication, whereas being able to see somebody's face and interact with them – maybe find out a little bit more about them, that is something that I've noticed is being requested a lot more, and probably makes a lot of sense if you are working with it, you know, cross cultural teams all over the world. 

Louisa: So you're talking about concerted, intentional efforts that team leaders, perhaps, and team members as well, need to engage in, in order to overcome the lack of casual communication in an office space if we were going to be working face to fase. 

María: Yes, because whereas before 2020 – and I think we now measure time before 2020 and after 2020 – you had the benefit of these spaces where you might meet somebody in the employee cafeteria and have a chat with them. And of course, there were people who had co-located teams, but you still had the people that were around you that you could talk to in a more informal basis, where you could break the ice, talk about what's going on, and create those links of trust, which are a little harder to replicate when you are working completely virtually, even with teams that are in your same city. So I find that it makes a lot of sense for a lot of leaders to create some kind of space where you can break the ice, establish what the “rules of the game” are going to be before you embark on a project or something. And we know, of course, when we talk about team success, that there's this forming stage, and then a storming stage where you have to figure out what the “rules of the game” are going to be, and then the norming stage, when, okay, ‘now I know where I stand’, ‘what's expected’, and then we can get onto the performing. So when you talk about intercultural, it even makes even more sense, because we know that intercultural teams have a little bit more of a challenge when it comes to that storming stage, because on top of the fact that you have to deal with different personalities, you have to figure out all of the noise that might come along with the different cultural dimensions or preferences and whatnot. So it makes a lot of sense for leaders to make sure that they are starting off on the right foot. 

Louisa: Now you've mentioned “intercultural” several times, including people who are within the same country but they are on teams in different offices, or perhaps there's a mix of remote and in person. But then there's also the national level as well – many of us are on numerous teams at our jobs, some with people who are in the same sort of general region as us, and some with people who are even abroad. Do you see any differences in communication needs for people who are sort of in the same general region, but working remotely, and people who are in different regions across the globe? 

María: I usually recommend to my clients that if you have the possibility of meeting in person with your local team or national team, it always helps to break the ice and create that sense of solidarity first, so that at least you know the human being that you're dealing with, and then moving on to whatever you need to do remotely. Because it makes a huge difference. Even I can't tell you how many times I've done like a physical team building, and I'll hear a conversation go like this, ‘Oh, you're Anna? We work on the same Project!’ and it's like, wait a minute. You don't even know what the person looks like, and you've been working on the same project? And then I hear the leaders say, ‘Oh, you know, I think we really need a team building’, because a lot of times I find that these people don't know each other so their team members are a concept. They seem like an abstract concept and not a real human being. And it's not until they actually have that connection – there's a moral obligation to answer the emails or answer whatever their questions are, because it's too easy to be like, ‘Ah, you know, this name that's just coming across is asking me something, but I really don't have to give it a priority.’ So it does shift the way that people perceive each other. So I would think that that would be very important if there's a possibility to – even if it's just the beginning of a project – make sure people actually get to know each other. 

Louisa: And you did mention turning on the camera at some point – so putting a face to the name. Now, aside from possible internet connectivity issues in general and bandwidth issues, would you suggest camera on for interactions with international teams or just simply virtual teams working within the same country? Do you believe that, that makes a difference?  

Maria: Absolutely. I can tell you that, as somebody who does coaching, facilitating and training, I always give people the heads up, maybe before we get together, but I will tell them – and I start with the “why” so that they don't think I'm just being bossy and telling them to turn on the camera – but I'll tell them, you know, the purpose of our get-together is perhaps to work on interpersonal intelligence, or we're going to be working on some kind of soft skill or power skill. So it's very important that we have the benefit of the non-verbal as well as the tone and the words. So I usually say, ‘Listen, it's really important when we get together tomorrow, we need the cameras on’, if you let people know in advance, there's no excuse. And I always tell them, the hair combing is completely optional. Pajama bottoms are okay. It's really important that you connect. And I'll tell you something, Louisa, I don't know about you, but when I see somebody's name pop up, and then all of a sudden, the camera, and I see the person for the first time, I get a little shot of dopamine because of that anticipation, and I feel connected with the person. So it's like, oh, you know, what a pleasant surprise! So why not create and foster that connection that comes with seeing somebody's face. So, absolutely. I mean, not every single interaction needs to have a camera on. I mean, we used to use our phones to talk to people, and sometimes you can have a quick call, or you just use audio, but it's important to be able to make that determination of when it's important to. Actually, if you're going to have a meeting, normally, you would have a meeting face-to-face, then turn the camera on. It makes a big difference, especially if you're dealing with complex issues or sensitive issues where you need to have absolute buy in, etc, absolutely. 

Louisa: Now you also mentioned that when you are explaining that you want people to have their camera on, you did say that you need to mention the “why” – why is the camera on? Now I do think that, that's very important, and we often talk about that when we're doing our coaching and our programs here at Berlitz, the difference in the way people learn, and so we always tell people and team leaders and people managers, what is the importance of explaining why something needs to be done, rather than just saying that something needs to be done? Could you elaborate on that a little bit? 

Maria: Yes, and I think that we've seen it a lot, especially in the famous book by Simon Sinek that says, Start With Why, and he talks about the importance in leadership, and he talks about the importance in sales. But ultimately, when it comes to persuasion, if you just tell somebody what you want and how you want it done, you're gonna you're gonna have a little bit of pushback. Because ultimately, the question is, why do I have to do this. So if you start by telling the person your objective, your vision, the need behind the request in the beginning, then it'll be so much easier to get the alignment and the buy in. And this works in your family environment as well. It makes things so much easier with your spouse, with your kids, with your friends, right? It's a way that you can persuade in a gentle way, because you're bringing the person into your reasoning. You're giving them the courtesy of giving a little bit of context before you ask them for something. And so even if they might have a little difference in their perception of how to do something, at least you get them already in a collaborative mode, because they're like, ‘Oh, you want to do this, and this is what you're asking me for, and this is how you want me to do it. Well, how about if we do this other thing?’ But they're already aligned with you to make sure that the objective that you have expressed can be achieved 

Louisa: Absolutely, and now when it comes to communicating with people who might not all have the same first language, for example, here in the US and in many parts of the world, English is the language of communication. But for a lot of us, English could be the second or even third language. Do you have any tips for overcoming communication barriers when we might all be speaking the same language, but we might not all have the same in-depth understanding of certain phrases, certain ways of speaking, certain ways of using your tone, etc. 

María:  Yes, I usually recommend intercultural groups to start off any new project with what I call the disclaimer method, which is basically talking about, hey, you know what? We're all coming from different cultural perspectives. Let's agree to attribute any difficulties or any moment that we get stuck to maybe a cultural difference and not a personal difference, let's have a safe space where we can ask each other, right? So, for example, I know that some people come from more safe face-saving cultures where they're a little embarrassed to question or to say, ‘I'm sorry I didn't understand that. Can you repeat it?’ But sometimes a small misunderstanding, can become a bigger problem if you don't address it when you have to address it. So I always recommend in the very beginning addressing that, like address the elephant in the room. Not everybody has English as a first language. We have to make sure there's going to be people who might accidentally speak with slang or with sports analogies. There might be people that have accents from one part of the world versus the other. Let's agree right now that we need to say, ‘Can you say that again?’ or ‘Can you give me a synonym?’ or ‘Can you write it down so that I make sure that I'm understanding you’ and be okay with paraphrasing saying, ‘I think I'm understanding this. Am I correct?’ And that way you can clarify without anybody losing face or feeling bad because you're insinuating that the other person can't speak properly. 

Louisa: Now, along the same lines with that, what would you say about the best way to handle conflict at work? And that has a lot to do with communication. There's an awful lot of opportunities for people to misunderstand someone's tone or the idioms they are using, especially if it's not a fase-to-face conversation. What are some of the differences, or some of the different ways that we can approach conflict at work and resolve it in a way that's as painless as possible for everyone involved. 

Maria: Well, that's a good question, and I guess conflict, regardless of whether it's people from a homogeneous culture or from heterogeneous culture, the first thing is to take a quick look internally, do a quick emotional intelligence check, and be like, ‘Okay, wait a minute. What's really annoying me about this pattern or whatever is happening? Am I feeling like I'm being ignored? Am I feeling like I'm being disdained? What is it that's bothering me about this?’, right? And then think that this is probably not anything personal. So changing the narrative a little bit in our head helps, because as soon as you think, ‘Okay, what could be the rational reason why X person is behaving in this way?’ And as soon as you are willing and able – and that's another element of emotional intelligence, right? That self awareness, self control, and then being able to have that empathy or changing the narrative, or thinking along the lines of what the other person could be thinking – then you automatically, kind of like, you rest a little bit, and then you can think of, ‘Okay, maybe it's not that they're just being difficult and incompetent. Maybe it's this other thing, and they're not trying to make my life more difficult. Maybe they're not understanding me. Maybe they don't know how to say no. Maybe it's this, maybe it's that,’ – and then you're able to manage the relationship in a more, I don't know, flowing kind of way, and you can give them the benefit of the doubt. And then at that point, I usually recommend that when you need to give any kind of feedback or you need to get to the bottom of things, you can start out by first describing what happened, but without adjectives, and say, maybe, you know, ‘I haven't received an answer to my last three emails.’ Okay, so you describe only, and then you go into maybe your interpretation, but not just your interpretation. You're not going to say, ‘I think you're ignoring me.’ because you're not giving them the benefit of the doubt. You might say, ‘Perhaps you might be a little busy.’ right? Maybe you're a little busy. That's a little bit of the empathy. And then at the end, you say what you know, then you can evaluate be more subjective, you know, ‘But I'm worried that we're not going to be able to move on to the next piece of the process. I really need to make sure that we are hearing each other. I need to make sure that we work together.’ whatever it is, it has to start off, first objectively. Then you can get into the subjective piece, and then you get into what it is that you need – and that can usually work regardless of what culture you're talking about. It's just taking a more emotionally intelligent approach to whatever conflict it is. And you might be in conflicto, the other person might not be. That's another thing we have to remember, that conflict doesn't manifest itself in the same way or same intensity among the different parties, right? 

Louisa: Absolutely. Now I also get the sense that it's important here to do something like the disclaimer you were talking about early, sort of at the beginning of a team's work together, or as the team is forming itself, to establish some ground rules as well about what to do if there is a conflict, how to approach it, when to call management, for example, and also introducing some techniques like what you just described: describe, interpret, evaluate, as well at the beginning of a team's relationship or at the beginning of any type of business relationship between parties, to sort of set the tone and establish a little bit of guidance around different things that might come up, or different problems we may have, so that we can continue moving forward productively and respectfully. 

Maria: Yes, and as a matter of fact, sometimes I'll put together, like, if I know that there's a team, I tell them, look, you can do this as informally as you'd like. You can start off by just having, like a round robin and people just sharing, perhaps the way that works better for them to communicate, or something you should know about me, or you could put together a small questionnaire and share it with everybody. Like, ‘These are the technologies that work best for me if we get stuck. This is how I'd like to proceed. This is how I like to get feedback.’ Whatever. You can make your own list and share it and maybe even you can come back to it and have a discussion about it, so that you're promoting this kind of honest, authentic conversation among team members. First of all, so people don't make assumptions that everybody solves things in the same way. Because a lot of times, you'll have people from more indirect, high context cultures that'll be thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, the way this person just gave me feedback is just so rude. Didn't their mother teach them better manners?’ right? They might be thinking that. And on the other hand, you might have people from more direct, low context cultures thinking. ‘What is this person hiding from me that they just can't come out and give me the bad news?’ right? So that kind of answers the questions beforehand as to what are the rules going to be of the game and, of course, the leader usually has some influence in what the culture is going to be, so it's very important for the leader to be aware of that kind of responsibility, so that, if they want things to move ahead and for things to flow easily, to make sure that they are establishing that space so that you can foster trust. I mean, and we know when we talk about dysfunctional teams versus functional teams with Lencioni’s model, he talks about this importance. Trust is the cornerstone for any team that's going to be synergistic and high functioning, you need to have that trust first so that you can manage conflict in a positive way. And if you don't have conflict in your team, you're doing something wrong. There has to be differences of opinion, and you're just kind of sweeping everything under the rug. There has to be trust so that conflict –  and by conflict, I don't mean, you know, fighting or anything – just differences of opinion, you know, being able to brainstorm openly, etc, and only then can you get to the point where you have the sense of commitment and accountability so that you can achieve those results. Otherwise, it's going to be a lot harder. 

Louisa: Now, one of your areas of interest is intergenerational communication. And in today's workplaces, there are often employees from four different generations. So there's the so-called Baby Boomers, Generation X, millennials and now Gen Z, the oldest of whom are in their 20s. So what are some of the ways that generation impacts the way people communicate and collaborate at work? 

Maria: A lot, and I would say that in the last two generations, we've seen the biggest change, because baby boomers and even the generations before them up to Gen X, things were done pretty much in similar ways, we had pretty much the same technology for about 100 years before that, all of a Sudden, with the advent of internet and cell phone technology, smartphone technology, all of that stuff, the way that we communicated changed so much so, whereas in the 80s and 90s, people were still faxing and sending in our office memos, all of a sudden, you now had technology that was affordable, and as soon as we moved into texting or asynchronous communication, you could start multitasking, so you could be talking to somebody here on your phone and at the same time be doing something else. And all of this now what really happened was, starting with millennials, that comfort level with being able to just send a quick text and not have to deal with something right then and there, caused a certain degree of habits that now we have all adopted to the point where millennials and Gen Z started feeling a little uncomfortable with having to solve problems real time on the phone with people they didn't know. I can give you so many examples, so you'll usually find that when something came up, it's like, ‘Oh, I gotta solve this bureaucratic problem. If I can't solve it online, or I can't solve it over the text, I'd rather just go in person’, but you might be wasting a lot of time and effort because you feel uncomfortable having some stranger on the phone you have to solve something with real-time. So I would say that even though nowadays we've got tons of platforms and technological breakthroughs, sometimes we're not being as efficient as we could if we're not discriminating or discerning when to use which technology. And according to a Harris poll done late 2023, it was discovered that around eight hours a week per employee gets wasted on inefficient communication, because most people do more written communication than real time communication. So if you are going back and forth, emailing, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, when you could actually solve something with a 10 minute conversation in real-time, it's time to maybe make sure that you're not falling into this vicious circle because you're wasting time, energy and money. So I would say that, that's one of the little vestiges that we've found from this asynchronous communication that even though it can be very convenient at times, it can also put us in a bit of quandary, 

Louisa: Absolutely, and especially if there's, you know, international teams, for example, and there might be a difference in bandwidth among people on the same team, in terms of their ability also to access certain apps, but also time zones, language differences, etc. so those add all onto the barriers to effective communication we might face while texting, for example, or sending quick messages over whichever platform your team uses. There's also the loss of high context communication, meaning verbal fluctuations in tone, non verbal cues, using gestures, using silence purposefully as a way to communicate a message. So some of that might get lost in more text based or email based communication, as you said, when it could be solved much more easily, either on the phone or on a face-to-face video call,  

Maria: Exactly being able to “feel” the person, right? And sometimes, again, if English is not your first language, the way that you write might come across as maybe less than fluid or maybe a little choppy, or a word might be used which you might misinterpret, etc. So I would say, especially when you're talking about cross cultural teams that have a little bit of that barrier, I would always follow up a verbal communication with a written follow-up email. And if you are on a platform like Teams or Zoom and you're having difficulty, make sure you put in the chat. Like, ‘Okay, am I understanding this? Because, you know, I'm not understanding this word that you said. Can you put it in the chat?’ To be able to have the confidence to say, ‘Don't take this wrong way. I just want to make sure I'm understanding you. So is this what you're saying?’ ‘Yes.’ And so you can use both when you have something like Teams or Zoom, you can use both, you can use the chat and you can use the the visual to be able to make sure that you are understanding each other. 

Louisa: Absolutely. Right! Well, Maria, this has been such an interesting conversation, and I'd like to thank you for bringing your expertise to the Berlitz culture podcast. Everyone, please look out for Maria's book, Untangling Communication: Interpersonal Intelligence for Leaders of Thriving Teams, which should be coming out later this year! Thanks again, Maria. Thank you everyone for listening, and please join us on our next episode of The Berlitz culture podcast.  

Maria: Thank you, Louisa