119. Clarity Across Cultures: How to Make Sure People Actually Understand You

In global teams, most misunderstandings don’t come from English mistakes – they come from clarity. You can say something that feels clear to you, but people in other cultures may hear it in a completely different way. In this episode, we look at why this happens, why “yes” doesn’t always mean yes, and why some people expect every detail in writing while others rely on context and tone.

You'll learn four practical tools to make your message easier to understand in any culture: asking better questions, recapping decisions, making your intentions clear, and creating space for honest answers. These simple habits help you avoid rework, mixed messages, and confusion and help you communicate with more confidence at work.

Speak up, be heard, get promoted. Imporve your communication skills with a Talaera coach.

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Transcript

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Welcome to Talaera Talks. This episode is the first one in a new culture series on why working in a multinational environment is way harder than it looks, even when everyone's smart and everyone speaks English. And we're starting with the big one, clarity, or how hard it is to be clear when working in a multicultural environment. But let's talk about why that happens and how to fix it. You know, one thing that still surprises me after all these years working with global professionals is that communication breakdowns don't happen that much because of English or vocabulary or accent. It's often clarity and not just any type of clarity, but the type that gets messy. When you have people from different cultures, everyone thinks they're clear until they're absolutely not, and you can truly sit in. The same meeting, hear the same words, um, thinking, oh yeah, totally. And then somehow everyone leaves thinking completely different things. So let's talk about why this happens, what goes wrong, and I'll share some very specific strategies that can help you overcome this issue. So let's start with that. I think most clarity issues in global teams are really not English issues. They're culture issues. And there's a few things that. Once you notice them, it's very hard to unsee them. So, alright, let's start with the pain, the stuff that actually goes wrong in, in global teams. So, as I mentioned, right, you are in a meeting, you agree on a plan, and people not, and, and someone even says. Yes. So you leave that meeting thinking, okay, cool, we're aligned, but fast forward to the deadline, and suddenly no one did what you thought they would do. Or maybe they did, they did something, but just not the thing you expected. And now you are confused. And they're confused and the project is delayed. So there's a few symptoms that I've seen that. Uh, tell me that there's a clarity breakdown for sure. One is, the most obvious one, is mixed messages. You write one thing, the other person reads a completely different thing. Uh, the other one is guesswork. So everyone leaves a meeting unsure of, um, what's actually happening next, but for some reason, no one wants to be the one asking again. Um, endless rework is huge as well. You build something and then you have to redo it because, well. Different reasons, but sometimes yes, that's fine. Secretly meant, no, that's not at all what I had in mind. And that for me would be the fourth symptom, is that meaning of yes, right. Sometimes yes. Can be very, very confusing. Uh, and, and sometimes it comes with a disclaimer that you don't get to hear until it's too late. So those are the symptoms that you may be going through. Clarity breakdowns. But then my question is, why does this happen so much when teams are made up of people from different parts of the world? And I came to the conclusion that, uh. How much context we need around communication is, is a huge factor. So in some cultures like the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, clarity, being clear means you say everything directly and then repeat it, put it in writing, summarize it again, just in case. Then send the recap. Like the meaning is in the words. If you didn't say it, it doesn't exist. And. These are what we call low context cultures. I don't need context. I don't need to read between the lines. I'll pay attention to your words, and that's what I'll understand. But in other cultures, the meaning is not so much inside the words, but around the words. Things like tone, context, history, the relationship, it's all part of the message, and you can literally say the same sentence and have two completely different interpretations depending on the ER's background. We call these high context cultures like Spain and India, Japan, a lot of Latin America. Of course, there's no black or white, there's no, this culture is a hundred percent low context and. This other culture is a hundred percent high context, but it is a great way to understand how much of the reading between the lines you need to do to actually communicate clearly with the other person. Now, if you take a sentence like following up with the client is a good idea, one person might understand, oh, please follow up with a client versus, um. Another person might understand, well, yeah, that's, that's an idea and we'll figure it out later. So you can see how this situation can get frustrating really quickly. Another reason we have these clarity breakdowns, other than that low context and high context, uh, cultures is the different meanings of yes. I personally find this fascinating and it's, it's wild because yes is probably the most unreliable. Word in global communication. In some cultures, yes, is a commitment, like yes, I will do it. But in others, yes. It's just acknowledgement, like, yes, I heard you. Yes, I'm being polite. Yes. I don't want to embarrass you in front of a group, which. Brings me to the third reason. Clarity suffers. Saving face. This concept of saving face is basically avoiding conflict or avoiding making someone uncomfortable in a group context. So instead of saying no, people use softer versions, like maybe I'll try, let's see. Silence sometimes even, yes, and this is normal in many cultures. It's not really, it's not lying. It's more a way of politeness, but wow. Yeah, it does create chaos if you're expecting that yes. Equals yes. So, okay. Now that we know why clarity falls apart, let's talk about how to fix it. And many of these strategies I'm going to talk about are very, very simple, but they honestly, they completely change how global communication and global teams work. The first big one is stop asking yes, no questions for anything important. Like seriously, things like, does this work for you? Avoid that, and instead ask what do you think about this plan? Also, um, instead of, can you finish this by Monday, see how the answer there would be yes or no. Change that altogether and ask what's a realistic timeline for you? What happens with yes no questions is that you'll always get a polite yes or not always, but you're more likely to get a polite yes, even when they mean no. But with open-ended questions, you're more likely to get the truth. So here are some useful questions you can ask. What's a realistic timeline for you or what parts of this plan might not work, um, in your context. Or how confident do you feel about this deadline? Or if Monday doesn't work, what's a better option? So that's the very big, uh, first tip that I would give anyone working global teams avoid, yes, no questions, because as you said, yes, might be the most unreliable word, um, in global communication. Next thing, recap decisions out loud. Now when you wrap up a meeting, when you finish a conversation. Just say, okay. Um, quick recap so we're all aligned. And then list the decision, the owner, the deadline, and how you'll check in what is, you know, how will you know that that task was completed. It's honestly like 20 seconds and, and that's it. And, and sometimes somehow, um, you'll notice that when you're doing this little exercise, a project has three owners, which means. Zero owners and no deadline. So this type of, uh, strategy helps you clarify again, what's happening next, who is in charge, how this will happen, right? And, and, and when You can expect things by Great third tool, make invisible context visible. This one's not that easy, but once you get, um, used to it, it is, it's not that hard. Now, as you know. Now in high context cultures, people rely on tone. Shared understanding. We talked about this right? Reading between the lines. And in low context cultures, people rely on explicit words. So sometimes when you're working with people from different parts of the world, you literally need to say. Well, here's the intention behind this, or here's the part I want to be super clear about, or just to make sure expectations are aligned, and I understand that first this feels, it might feel like overexplaining, but actually you're just removing ambiguity. And the fourth tool is give people a safe exit ramp. I find this. Uh, strategy. Extremely, extremely helpful. So we talked about saving face, which is people want to keep harmony in the group, and they'd rather say yes, a polite yes than creating some sort of like tension in front of the group, or embarrassment. So this tool is about giving people an easy way to tell you the truth. Without feeling like they're disappointing you or without feeling like they're embarrassing you. So your job is to make it safe for them to be honest. And here's an example, instead of saying, um, is this feasible? You could ask, well, what trade-offs should we expect if we do this? Or what could get in the way of this being ready by Monday? Right. So instead of saying, is this going to be ready by Monday, if you ask them, okay, what could get in the way? It's their way of coming up with potential roadblocks or hurdles so that their actual, yes, maybe it will be ready by Monday, can actually not happen. Um, other questions that you can ask, what obstacles should we expect, or, and I'd love this one, what support do you need to make this deadline doable? So when we talk about clarity, right, in global teams, um, a lot of people think, oh, it's English. There's people from other parts of the world in Spain and India and Germany. English is not their first language and that's why we're not being clear. Their accent is not great. The vocabulary is, is not enough. And honestly, I've realized that a lot of things can be fixed if we follow very specific strategies. There's often a, a culture clash. And with the four tools that we just talked about, you can fix and avoid so many breakdowns. So quick recap of the ways to make sure things are clear. The first one we talked about is start your questions with what, how, when, and avoid yes no questions. Number two is recap important points before the meeting ends. Number three is make context visible. Like, here's the intention behind this. Here's why this matters for us. And the fourth one is to make it safe, to be honest, by giving people exit ramps so they can tell you what's actually realistic without feeling like they're disappointing you. So my, I would say my main takeaway here is that. Well, of course, clarity is it cannot be something you hope for. Messages don't work one way, right? You cannot say, oh, I'll just say my message and, and hope for the best. Um, and you cannot rely on mind reading either. So clarity is something that you co-create by asking better questions, by checking assumptions, by making decisions visible. And um, once you start applying these. Simple strategies, you'll see, oh, okay, now I understand. Now this is getting fixed. Okay, now projects are, are moving forward. So this is it for the Clarity episode. Um, if you enjoyed it, send it to someone who needs it, share it with your team. Uh, I feel like it's, if you work in a multinational company or in an international team, there's a lot you personally can do, but there's also a lot of teamwork and team effort. So share it with them. And, um, in the next episode we'll be talking about relationship mismatches. Why some people seem too cold, why others seem too much, and how to navigate that without losing your mind. Thank you for listening wherever you are in the world today. I'm Paola. This is Talaera Talks and I'll see you in the next episode.