Hierarchy at the workplace

Hierarchy is not a new concept for those working with Africans (and not only). It is one of those aspects that one needs to accept, however difficult it may seem from one's own cultural perspective. It has many consequences on work relationships and cross-cultural teams might experience many misunderstandings stemming from this one aspect. I'll analyse hierarchy and suggest some ways of integrating it into intercultural teams.

African societies are very hierarchical. Traditionally, they are organised around the family and the tribe. In both places, people move upwards in the hierarchy with age. Decisions are usually made by the eldest and nobody can really challenge them. These age layers can even be seen with the very young children: the one who is 5 must listen to the one who is 7. Even conflict resolution goes with the help of the "wise old": if there's a conflict between two parties, they mutually go to the wise (the head of the family, the chief) and let him decide of the outcome. They would not go to a younger one, even if that person were more suited for the conflict resolution or had more expertise in a certain field.

This hierarchy is omnipresent in the corporate world as well. Bosses are considered to be the Chiefs whose decisions are unquestionable. They are considered to be the wise who know everything (or at least more than their subordinates) and from whom one can only learn, certainly not bring new information. There is a one-way information flow that is presupposed between the boss and the subordinate. 

This aspect has many consequences on the day-to-day work relationships. First, there is hardly any feedback for bosses coming from subordinates. If the boss asks for something or orders something to be done in a certain way, subordinates accept it even if they don't agree or have alternative solutions. They obey. Although this can be positive due to the seemingly smooth workflow and the lack of explicit rebellion coming from subordinates, I also consider it suboptimal, since the subordinates' ideas and skills are not really used. Two minds are always better than one alone, but this kind of thinking doesn't leave room for collective brainstorming or solution-seeking.

The solution I found to involve people was, once again, calm questioning. What do you think of this way of doing? Do you see any obstacles in it? Do you think you can do it all by yourself? What do you need to get it done? How else could we do it? Once confidence is established, people open up, because they don't feel anymore that they might lose face by coming up with a new idea. 

Another dramatic consequence of the one-direction communication model is that subordinates hardly ever ask for help. They get the job, try to do it by themselves, but when they encounter a difficulty or need extra resources, they are shy to tell that to their boss. Once I had a coworker who was assigned to a new department where she was the only person working. It was obvious to me that the workload was far too much for just one person. When I questioned her about her views, she first said that she would manage, this is what she needs to so, so it will be ok. When results showed clearly that she couldn't handle all by herself, I gently asked her if she needed maybe more resources and after a while she acknowledged it. So I suggested that she go and talk to our boss asking for an extra person. She just couldn't do it. This was not something possible according to her internal rules. She saw it as losing face in front of her boss, acknowledging that she might not be capable to run the department alone. It took many one-to-one and group discussions with other coworkers to reassure her that it was normal to ask for help and mainly, it was in the best interest of the whole company. Finally she did it and she got two extra people. But it was a very tough time for her.

Second, there is a general presupposition that the boss knows everything, thus subordinates are not meant to find solutions themselves. They tend to be passive, waiting for the boss to come up with alternatives and then order the others to execute. Once I asked my assistant to have some documents stamped with the company stamp. She went to the office where the stamp was kept, then she came back, handed over the unstamped documents and while sitting down, she told me that it was not possible because the ink pad ran dry. For her, the assignment was done. Deep inside, I was shocked by the level of passivity and the one-task focus that this behaviour represented for me. So I looked at her, handed back the documents and asked her: "So, what's next? How will you go about having stamped these documents?". It was her turn to be shocked and I could see on her face a mixture of astonishment, embarrassment and irritation. She was thinking that I was mocking at her! How could I ask such an irritating question whereas I obviously knew the answer, since I was the Boss!

I had to explain to her that I don't know how to go about it, but I asked her to do the job, so I'd like her to come up with alternative solutions. What can she do/whom can she ask/what options are there to get a proper inkpad? She replied to me with several solutions, but her voice was still telling me that she was feeling tested. I had to do the same exercise several times so that she can understand that she was the one to come up with solutions, not her Boss.

I think it is important to establish a "What are the solutions then?" communication with one's colleagues. Being the boss and on top of it, the white person, put me on a very high level of the hierarchy where people didn't really feel the need to sort out problems by themselves. It is very difficult at the beginning, since this is a new thinking habit to set up, but practice, repetition and perseverance bear their fruit.

Understanding and Getting understood

Asking questions can be a challenging issue for some of our Africa colleagues. But then, let's just not forget about ourselves: do WE ask enough questions?

First of all, why should we? Our logic is, after all, clean and limpid. We were taught to express ourselves in a way to get understood, to rationalize, to bring up facts, figures, to convince. All this is based on logical thinking. How come then that we can encounter these communication challenges? It must be the other one who has some logic issues!

As it turns out, people don't communicate in the same way. There are visuals, auditories, kinesthetics, just to enumerate the most common classifications. Then some of us see things globally, some of us focus more on details. All these features are logical in their way. Why should then Africans not think in a logical way?

Besides using different logic, we all communicate differently and most importantly, we don't say all the presuppositions, beliefs and rules underlying our thoughts. It's like an iceberg where our day-to-day communication, even just one sentence, is only the visible part of what we think.

Here's a great representation of the iceberg theory, took from the Language and Culture Worldwide homepage:

Each culture has its own set of values and thus interpretations of the world. Even in Europe there can be huge differences among cultures, let alone any European culture and an African one. And of course, each African nation, even ethnic group, has its own mindset. 

So if the world is such a complicated place, how do we go about understanding and getting understood? There's no quick miracle for that, although I think that someone who is ready to not understand what's going on around and just watch is better placed than someone who wants to find meaning in a seemingly strange new environment. If we want to understand quickly, we'll just interpret everything through our own culture's values and practices, giving birth to "this is good/ this is bad" judgments. The point is, things are different in Africa and it's neither good nor bad. It is just like that.

As for me, living in Africa is a really good lesson of reality perception. I always knew (somewhere deep down) that ways of thinking, reasoning, constructing and imagining are different from one person to the other. But in a cross-cultural environment the number of misunderstandings is even higher, because people work based on different cultural perceptions. It is of utmost importance to clarify even fundamental concepts and mainly, to adopt a more descriptive language, since I cannot really know what the other person understands of my speech.

So how to go about it when I'm at the workplace, figuring out how to make sure that I communicate clearly enough the goals, my views and expectations, and that I understand my other coworkers' views? I usually ask a great deal of questions to make sure that I what I have said has been understood and that I see more the hidden part of the iceberg. The tool is called "the language compass" and has been developed by Françoise Kourilsky, a French coach. 

It consists of asking questions on 4 different aspects:

• Facts, experiences
• descriptive, sensory language (what do you see? what do you hear? what do you feel?)
• who? when? how? what? how much?

• Rules
• Is this possible / impossible / easy / difficult? Why?
• What stops us from doing this/that?
• What should we do?

• Judgments
• Why is this good / bad / difficult / unacceptable?
• How would you take it if this/that happened?

• Presuppositions, interpretations
• What do you expect from me/him/her?
• How do you know that x causes y?
• How do you know that this/that would happen?
• Why we couldn't do this/that?

These kinds of questions explore the hidden parts of someone's thinking and can shed more light on the internal (person-specific) challenges and possibilities when working together. This is also a great tool to keep in mind when communicating my own ideas, since I have already learnt that I cannot reasonably expect people around me (African or not) to know every aspect of my logic.

I tried it and it worked. I learnt a lot about how my coworkers think, what their values are. It also helped me to get myself better understood, because I know now where to focus my attention when expressing myself. Asking questions is a wonderful tool that we don't use enough. 

Any questions?

Asking questions

One of the first things that astonished me while working in African companies is the lack of questioning. I have already written about small-talk and other personal questions, but the phenomenon persists in day-to-day professional work as well.

Once a French friend came to Ghana to hold a week-long presentation on his company's electricity solutions to targeted and interested West African prospects. He always left half an hour for Q&A sessions at the end of his presentations. He was very frustrated because nobody ever asked a question!

Now one can argue about his presentational skills and the level of interest of the content, but let's just not focus on that right now. The point is, asking questions is a difficult exercise for Africans.

I also encountered the same problem at the beginning of my work here in Ghana. Some of my colleagues would rather spend hours on trying to do something, trying to figure out how a software works, how to draw an Excel chart, where they could have just asked some questions around, could have gotten the answers and could have spared all this time (time perception is another great topic, I'll leave that bit for later).

So I asked my Ghanaian colleague about this issue. He said that yes, it's difficult for them to ask questions. They were never tought to do so. In school, when they ask a question, teachers are not very welcoming and there is this strong belief that if you ask a question, it means that you haven't understood, hence, that you are stupid. And this goes on from kindergarten to university, right to the workplace. So I said to him, ok, but don't people see how important it is to ask for more information? And he said, yes, sure they do, but they would rather do without the answer (or information) than to expose themselves and be treated as unprofessionals who don't know what they are doing. The key point is confidence: if they have confidence in a person, they will go and ask questions, they will not be ashamed, not afraid of being considered stupid. 

I recalled some of my frustrating experiences with one of my very young and shy colleagues. I was having very difficult times and I kept thinking about possible solutions, one-to-one coaching, having a big chat, whatever. Suddenly I realized that I was asking the impossible from her. She was just not confident in me and I was not behaving in a way that could have reconforted her. Every time she didn't understand me, she would rather say Ok, I'll do it, then go back, figure it out someway and then get back to me with what obviously wasn't what I was expecting. I felt quite upset about it and I communicated this to her, sometimes in a nice way, sometimes not. How could she possibly have confidence in someone who keeps telling her that she didn't do well her job? On top of that, every time I asked her something new, I saw the discomfort on her face.

I then changed my behaviour. Instead of being angry with her, I put up my calm, patient and objective approach, explaining to her what was ok and what wasn't and why. I also made sure that every time I asked her someting new, she would fully understand the assignment. This is not an easy task because we all tend to believe that our way of thinking (the truly logical one, of course) is so clear that everyone gets it. So I got the habit of explaining even basic (basic for me at least) bits of my logic and, on top of all, to ask open questions at her place. This way I wouldn't get just a yes/no answer, but the reformulation of what I have just said, in her own way of thinking. I could also bring more precision, because I understood what she interpreted of my talk. 

 I also made sure to tell her each and every time that if she didn't understand something, she was free to ask from anyone, including me. And then, most importantly, I also made sure that I kept my calm, patient and objective + welcoming approach every time she did so. 

It helped a lot. Confidence started to settle in. Our communication grew in quality and her tense feelings soon dissipated. Now she comes and asks as soon as she has an issue and our workflow has speeded up dramatically. I am also happy not to have remained in the "These people really don't get it, how difficult it is for me!" self-complaint but have acted upon this relationship. It was worth the effort!

First days at work - Oh so lonely...

Ok, so here I was in my Abidjan office for my first day at work. My boss was busy, so he couldn't spend more time with me than just to take me through the office, introduce me to the 5 people around and show me my desk.

I was sitting in an office with two young Ivorian guys: a financial analyst and a trainee. They were very polite, they asked me how I was, how my family was, then they got back to their work.

At 10 o'clock I asked if anyone was up for a coffee. No thank you, I don't drink coffee. Great. I recalled with nostalgy the coffee-breaks at my Paris office where we used to have so much fun. That was crossed. And that was all for the conversation going on until lunchtime as well. Hmm, people are really absorbed in what they are doing here, I was thinking.

At lunchtime I was waiting for someone to ask me out for lunch. I was so keen on getting to know all these small restaurants around in the business center. When I finally asked someone where he takes lunch, I got another unexpected reply: "Well, haven't you brought your own food? We all bring our food and eat in the kitchen." No, I hadn't thought about that. My second plan to build a social life at the office was slowly dissipating and I foresaw some tough, lonely months...

At the end of the day I started wondering what was wrong with me: nobody had said a word to me all day long. My mind-reading process came up with scenarios like I'm the only white person and they don't appreciate working with one; they must know I earn more than them and they don't appreciate it.

Next day I made sure I bring luch and eat with the others in the kitchen. I was expecting some nice time, discussing about work, personal life. But instead, everyone was reading a newspaper, in complete, monk-style silence.

I felt really lonely. Not only did I have to abandon my French time-out activities, but I didn't even have the usual small-talk among colleagues while at our desk. No questions were asked about me, how I got to Abidjan, where I was before, etc. It was difficult for me and I kept asking myself questions about it.

Then I decided to be more proactive: if they don't ask, I will. Finally, what could I lose? Being seen as pushy? How would that change to the current no-talk relations? So I almost forced them not to read the newspaper during luch. Where did you go to school? How do you come to the office? Where do you live? What do you do on week-ends? At first, it was one question-one answer, then back to the newspaper. After a couple of weeks, it was 3-4 minute discussions, until finally my colleagues got over their barriers and started asking questions about me. I was so happy! I finally felt more included in this group, more accepted.

Some weeks after one of my colleague went to a meeting. When he came back, he told us: "Oh, I'm sure you missed me a lot!" and we all laughed. I felt so happy because for me, this was a clear sign of established informal relationship, opening up and connecting among colleagues. I also felt it as a perconal success, where my efforts of connection yielded a positive result.

It really turned out that what I initially thought as coldness from my Ivorian colleagues wasn't more than shyness and respect. Africans don't just jump on you in a quest to temper their curiosity. Whatever they think, they keep it for themselves and don't "bother" you with all their naive questions. It was up to me to go into their life,find connections and give them the permission to do the same.

Sometimes this can be perceived as a kind of non-interest or apathic neutrality, because we are so not used to that. But, as with many other things, I had to carve out my place in this group by being open and curious about them.

By the way, my first day in my Ghanaian company wasn't the same. Some people came right to me asking questions, inviting me out for lunch, talking to me in Twi (the local language) and encouraging me to learn it. Some people were as shy as my first two Ivorian colleagues, but now, after the first experience, I handled it quickly and got through the initial barriers. 

Have a nice, curious day all.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello to everyone!

I'd like to introduce myself before I jump into the mission statement of my blog.

My name is Anna, I am Hungarian, married to a Frenchman and I have been living in West Africa since March 2010. I lived in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire for 9 months up to December 2010 when, in the wake of the political unrest, we moved to Accra, Ghana. 

I am a finance person, a quick one. I like when things go quickly, efficiently, when we don't waste time with unnecessary talks, meetings, I like when deadlines are respected, I like when people update me on their work and I don't have to paster them all the time. I am not this patient type.

And then, I have this African work experience: several months in Abidjan as a securitization project manager, then several months in Accra as VP Investment Management. Both jobs in local, small-scale, start-up companies where I have always been the only non-local. 

My other passion is human relationships. I am a certified coach and I have been exploring cultural differences, as well as different tools in cross-cultural working ever since I moved to Africa. I've been trying to deconstruct the negative image of Africans and to find the optimal way of blending two different cultures together to bring out the best, together.

All these personal and professional features combined have given me very good and very tough times at my workplaces. I am the person who would love to communicate what needs to be done and then just sit back comfortably and wait for the results. This is not what's always happening in Europe, but definitely, even less here in Africa! Many situations trained my patience and my out-of-my-comfort-zone muscles, to put it in a mild way.

I have also been actively observing other expats' behaviour in a quest to find some common ground and mainly, common solutions, but to my great astonishment, not many think deeply about what's happening with them. "Thre's nothing to do about it, just accept that things are different here" is a very common answer I hear from others. This is not enough for me, because it is just the reflection of this seemingly inherent fatalism that we accuse Africans to have. Are we better then? Do we at least try to make a difference?

I'm not the giving-up type either and I'm surely not going to sink in this fatalist, passive acceptance of non-understanding. I really believe that with a good deal of observation, non-judgement, experimentation and some local knowledge, it is possible to understand and then to build upon the African way of doing. And it's definitely worth trying!

I decided to start this blog to tell my stories of trial, of failure and of success. To show that with some effort, things can be changed. I strongly believe that there's this way between our way and the African way of doing, which is the synergy of the constructive parts of both. It lies on mutual understanding and respect above all. 

I'd like to contribute to the cross-cultural learning process with my stories and my tips and I would LOVE to hear yours. I believe that together we can show the world that change is possible, that people are capable of learning from each other and that it's just a question of attitude and awareness.

Join me!

Anna