We are still working on it, but here is our start for an example of miscommunication:

http://www.brainhoney.com/lessondetails/4cdd2ba0f7cf4d4fb06af18b30cf310f

I just realized that I had not included Javier's email in the emails I sent out to the group for the entire last month! I know, I know - how could I have missed that? I don't know.

So here is the email that I sent to Diego and Javier today:

Hi Diego and Javier,

I made a big mistake. I just realized that I had not included Javier's email in the communication from the entire last month!
I feel very silly for having made such a big mistake.
No wonder your partnership has not done much!

Well, I suppose just simply do what you can. I know that time is
limited now, so feel free to do whatever your schedules and interests
allow - but please don't feel obligated to do any more than you (1) are
interested in, and (2) have time for.

If nothing else, it might be interesting for you to simply do the "meeting 1" exercise.

I am so sorry again. My brain must have been damaged in all the saunas here or something :)

All the very best,
Clint

Javier and I are working on collecting some of the information from literature about international virtual teams. You can see the google doc here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dcp7kpgd_8dzmd9r&hl=en

Feel free to contribute to it as you will. :)

Hi all once again,

According to my calculations November is only
one week longer. Then basically there are only have two weeks in
December before the semester ends, so we only have about three weeks left where we are formally all together.

As I see none of the three groups have gotten as far as I hoped, I think I
will give you the option of shortening the previous assignment, if you
choose.

You can either decide to do what was previously outlined (in creating
lessons for each other, adjusting them, and trying them out on 3-5
people) or you can simply do the following:

1. Create together a short depiction of an example of cross-cultural miscommunication using some tool you pick ( e.g. BrainHoney, YouTube, Draw a Cartoon, Create a page on the research space, etc.). If
you feel inspired, you could also depict an invention (either tool or
technique) that would help people avoid that kind of miscommunication
in the future. Post what you create to the research space.
2. Answer a short questionnaire that I will send out early next week.

Diego and Javier, - I haven't seen you post your interaction
with each other yet. If you haven't been able to do the first meeting
yet, I highly recommend it. November is not over yet - and I think you
will enjoy it.

Minjuan - would you like to at least do the first activity with
someone? I think because you grew up in rural China, it would be very
interesting to get that data for the paper - and also for someone to
have that experience of interaction with you. I know you are busy, so
just let me know.

Because I wanted to get more data than only the three active
partnerships in our group - I have also assigned a creative problem
solving class here in Joensuu (which is made up of people from 12
different countries, I think) to also do the same activity that we are
doing. I will share that data with you as I get it. They are quite
excited about the assignment - and I think it will give us more to say.

By the first of December I will have an outline of a paper that we can
collaboratively write together using Google docs, and then our main
assignment for the two weeks of December will be in creating at least
one good draft of a paper to submit for publication.

We'll take things from there.

All the very best,
Clint

P.S. Don't forget the overarching questions for the partner activity.

I thought it was a good meeting. We tried to use Connect, then Skype, but Temtim said that the whole country of Ethiopia only had 56MB of bandwidth at the time, so we resorted to communicating through Skype Chat and a couple follow-up emails. I will attach the transcript of our meeting in the first comment to this blog entry.

In preparation for your first meeting activity with your
partner, do your best to guess what life has been like for your partner.

Do your best to
answer these questions:

1. What kinds of things would your partner do for fun as a
child? What kinds of things do you think they do for fun now?

2. List what you think might have been the main topics that
were of concern for their community as they were growing up?

3. In the community that they were raised in, what were the
three most important holidays, and what was the meaning behind these holidays
for their family and community?

4. Who were the most respected and most trusted people in
their community and why?

5. How do you think that the answers to each of these four
questions would be different if your partner was raised in the same community
you were raised in? (Answer each of the questions again, imagining that they
were raised in the same community as you were.)

Decide the best way to communicate with your partner in a
way that you can record your
communication (IM, Skype, Adobe Connect, Google Talk, etc). Share your
answers to the questions with each other, and see how close you were to
guessing correctly.

Post your answers and things you learned from the discussion to the
research space.

Follow-up assignment
- listen to the recording of your discussion some time over the next couple
days and see if you learn anything new from listening to the conversation in
retrospect.

• Is
  there anything your partner said that perhaps you didn’t really understand
  as you listen to your conversation again?
• Is
  there anything that you think maybe your partner didn’t catch from what
  you meant when you said certain things?
• Listening
  to the conversation again and thinking in retrospect, are there any
  addition questions you would have liked to ask?
• Is
  there anything new that you learn from listening to your conversation
  again later?

Post what your answers to these questions and what you learned on the
research space.

From Temtim:

Hi Clint

It is nice to start the virtual global team in new
form.

I will try to answer the two questions>

Question 1 - what type of miscommunication ...

I personally accostomed with more structured project
activities. I am more comfortable with more structured
activities for our Virtual team. I am new to the
research topic, when I joined the team I am expecting
to learn more from you as well as from others.
Unfortunately while we are on the process, I feel that
our team doesnot have very clear direction and
expected outputs. As a result communication among the
team members was limited.

The problem - what I learnt- our expectation to get
from this project can not match with each other -
diversified needs. As a result our effort could not be
channeled to one direction and output. As a result,
commitments are gradually getting fade away.

Question 2 - What tools

I don't think that it is a problem of technology. The
poor communication among the team falls on other
aspects - on social aspects of the team. In this
regard it is good to look at Structuration model of
technology by Orlikwiski (1992). We can design very
nice communication network but it does not bring
effective communicaiton among the team. Whether we use
Skype or Adobe Connect, if we have the real need to
communicate with each other, the available
technologies can satisfy our needs.

Best regards
Temtim

From Clint:

 Hi Temtim,

I realized I never sent you an email with my initial ideas for these
two questions. Here they are - and I will post both of our responses to
the research space.

1. What types of miscommunication can occur within international virtual teams?

Obviously on a basic level people need to be able to share a common language or have some reliable translation source.
I think you are right about the purposes and objectives need to be as
clear as possible - and that can be helpful in reducing
miscommunication.
I put down in the examples that miscommunication might occur when
people do not share common assumptions. By assumptions, I mean the
things that are usually assumed - without us necessarily being
conscious that we even assume them. This can include assumptions about:

• content - (the substance of what is being talked about. With any
  number of topics, people make assumptions about their importance and
  meaning. As an easy example, if I talk about "Benedict Arnold" most
  U.S. citizens would know what I was talking about. Many things related
  to history, culture, business, media, and even education often carry
  assumptions that are not shared throughout the world)
• context - (by this, I mean that even the content can mean
  different things, depending on the context it is framed in. There are
  many subtle and strong assumption tied with context that can easily go
  unrecognized by either the sender or receiver, and so thus engendering
  miscommunication)
• relationships - (I think this is a big one too. Very frequently
  assumptions exist regarding the way people see their relationships with
  others (teachers, students, friends, strangers, colleagues, business
  men, politicians, etc...), and set their expectations accordingly. When
  the reality of the other persons actions does not match your
  expectations (or even if it does, but for different reasons), then it
  is easy to see how miscommunication (by that I mean misunderstanding)
  can occur).
• what establishes trust/credibility - (in Japan, for example, you
  establish credibility in giving a speech by first telling the audience
  that you do not know very much and apologizing for taking their time.
  If you were Japanese and took that same approach in the U.S. or much of
  Europe, you would not get the trust that you expected)
• what grabs attention - (in Chinese web sites there is a lot of
  motion, sounds and moving things. People in the U.S. automatically see
  that as poor design, reminding them of amature earlier websites in the
  US. There is evidence, however, that Chinese users might actually
  prefer these designs - that they are better at grabbing and keeping
  attention, when that probably would not be the case in the U.S.)

2. What (a) techniques and (b) technological tools (both existing
and ones we can imagine) improve collaborations of international
virtual teams?
(e.g. reducing miscommunication by attributing
correct meaning to actions/words of others, establishing trust, even
fostering innovation and inspiration)

• I think that perhaps more time needs to be spent up-front in
  people getting to know and trust each other? There must be some
  understanding that people really care about each other - and are
  willing to put the interests of the other and understanding and
  respecting the other people as priority.
• There are already quite a few existing tools which make
  international collaboration so much easier than it would have been even
  5 or 10 years ago. E-mail, VOIP (voice over IP) tools like Skype, and
  computer sharing platforms (like Adobe Connect) - all increase the
  ability to make contact and communicate with people all over the world.
  The biggest issues with many of the existing tools I think maybe are
  bandwidth and cost (both of which deal with access).
• I would like to see more tools that allow for meta-communication
  - allowing for further questioning, explaining, and talking about the
  meaning behind what has been said by either party in a conversation.
• I think if there was some knowledge base of common
  mis-communication, then perhaps a system could tag information sharing
  in a way that would indicate it needs further discussion.
• I also think that as bandwidth increases, the current mode of
  writing will more easily expand to sharing visual images together, and
  that will stimulate interesting interactions.
• Any time that interactions can be recorded, I think that would
  help people to go back and reflect on their own and others' comments
  and reactions.
• The easier it is for people to take things and adapt them, I
  think the more valuable those tools will be in international contexts.
• Ultimately I don't think any tools will help if people do not
  have any reason to trust or respect others. I consider that a
  pre-requisite for any existing or future tools being of value.

Well, those are some of my initial thoughts of the top of my head. Any comments in reaction to them?

Thanks,
Clint

Hi everyone in the IMPDET Cross-Cultural Research Group,

First, let me share a bit of good news - an editor from a top journal
somehow already found out about our group and specifically requested that we
submit an article about our experience. Two professors at different
universities have also contacted me to request more information about our
project. Those things are always encouraging - and indicate the value in what
we are doing.

Next, I wanted to touch base with the plans for the month of November. An
outline of our interaction is included in this email, although more detailed
instruction/ideas will be given next week. Please read this email carefully,
and email me with any questions or concerns that you might have.

Partners
Each of you will be assigned a partner to collaborate together for the month of
November.
Sabine & Marcus (Sabine - are you OK? - I haven't heard from you and I am
worried about your condition)
Javier & Diego
Clint & Temtim
(and depending on their access/availability either Esko & Adele, if they
can and would like to, or a new student named Patrizia who has also expressed
interest in joining us)
(Minjuan is in Micronesia with very bad Internet access for the next month)

Questions
With your partner you will work together on these specific questions:
1. What types of miscommunication can occur within international virtual teams?

(e.g. not sharing a common language, not sharing common assumptions about:
content, context, relationships, what establishes trust/credibility, what grabs
attention, etc...)
2. What (a) techniques and (b) technological tools (both existing and ones we
can imagine) improve collaborations of international virtual teams?
(e.g. reducing miscommunication by attributing correct meaning to actions/words
of others, establishing trust, even fostering innovation and inspiration)

This week - please email your partner with you initial answers for these
questions (and go to the research space and post a blog entry of your email) .

Collaboration with Partner
Pick which tools work best for you (IM, Skype, Adobe Connect, SecondLife, etc.)
and record all the meetings in some format for future use. You will choose the
days that work best for you during the month to virtually meet with each other,
but I would suggest you plan out the whole month from the begining so you know
what to expect. I encourage you to contact your partner ASAP to get an idea of
their schedule, and what tools would work best in communicating with them.Your
collaboration will look something like this:

1st "meeting" - get to know each other through an activity that
Javier and I developed (record this).
- Follow-up assignment - listen to the recording and see if you learn
anything new from listening to the conversation in retrospect. (Post what you
learn on the research space)

2nd meeting - discuss initial ideas for answers to the assigned
questions
- Follow-up assignment - create a short piece of instruction (~5 minutes
worth) using some tool ( e.g. BrainHoney) that you think will inspire your
partner to be more interested in and capable of doing something to preserve the
environment. (Post what you create on the research space)

3rd meeting - Share your lessons with each other and discuss.
- Follow-up assignment - take your partners lesson and alter it to be
something that you think would be more effective/inspiring for your context,
from your point of view. (Post your adapted lesson and what you learn on the
research space)

4th meeting - Share your revised lessons with each other and discuss.
- Follow-up assignment - take both versions of the lesson and show them
to 3-5 other people in your area, and get their feedback. (Post what you learn
on the research space)

5th meeting - Reflection on your two assigned research questions. How
effective was your communication with each other? What seemed to be difficult?
What tools and/or techniques did you use which seemed to help? What do you wish
you had that would help even more?
- Follow-up assignment - Draft a section of a joint paper that we will
write on this topic. (Post this on the research space)

Conference call
We will have a conference call on this upcoming Thursday (Nov. 8th) to discuss
this assignment in more detail and to answer any questions/concerns etc.

• Finland - 6:00pm
• Addis Ababa - 7:00pm
• Pretoria - 6:00pm
• Utah - 9:00am
• California - 8:00am

Don't worry - I checked World Clock Meeting Planner to make
sure the correct times ( http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?month=11&day=8&year=2007&pa=7&pa=101&pa=269&pa=220&pa=770)
We will use Adobe Connect again, and as a back-up I will also have my Skype and
email open - to try and help answer any problems that might arise.

All the very best,
Clint

Recording from last conference call (although it was a very scattered
conversation and mainly getting to know the tool):

http://connectpro64128288.emea.acrobat.com/p84129603/

I think you will enjoy reading each other's comments. I will add more here after I have a better conversation with two group members - but here are at least some of the initial thoughts I have collected. I am equally interested in the comments where you agree with each other as with the ideas we it seems like you disagree. What are your thoughts/reactions after reading these?

Here are some thought by group members regarding how things are going so far:

"It is quite challenging. As I am reading the psychology of personality
- I need to confront those ideas with the ones about culture. So it is
pushing me more than I thought. That is positive in a way. Maybe need
more collaboration together.
Need to develop more sense of trust. We don't know each other very well, only worked with each other a little bit."

"My experience of the course so far is very good. I have enjoyed the
discussions on skype and on the web site. I have learned a lot
especially from Clint, Sabine and Javier who has been most active in
posting stuff. The articles we have read has been very interesting and
generated interesting discussions. I realize I might not have
contributed that much but guess I have not allocated enough time. But
check almost on daily basis for new posts as I found most comments and
discussions very interesting. Through our skype communications I am
getting a feeling of getting to know other participants and we are kind
of building up a community and would not be surprised if many of us
will keep in touch even after the course."

"Well, I don't know exactly what to say. I have participated more in
discussion, than posting. My challenge is that we are talking about too
many things probably - my perception - that I am kind of lost sometime.
Drupal is not the easiest to work with - and I can not see the big picture - the full integration."

"I see the posting talking about cultural things - but culture is such a
huge thing - so I feel lost. So I am not sure exactly what I should
contribute. Should I just comment, add new information - what is my role?
Should I be doing new research, just comment on others, focus my research on some specific aspect?
I don't feel like I have the rules of the game, and I'm not so good with the tool too.
Maybe it is also just the way we are posting things, maybe just my perspective - I'm not sure how others see it."

"This is my first time trying to do this kind of thing. I like them,
but need to know better how to structure the work using these tools. I don't like as much posting. I prefer a certain kind of structure that
kind guide the work I am doing, with regards to a main problem.

So posting is not enough for me - there should be something more that
forms a consistent structure of doing things in a way that everything
is integrated.

Because I have this situation, I do not feel like I have done as much in achieving what I wanted to do.

The other thing is I don't know if I should start contacting other
members to ask questions about what I am interested in, because I know
they are busy and not sure if they have time..."

"I should be more involved, because it is a learning process, but I
might not handle as well that kind of activity - spending a lot of time
just posting things without enough focus on real research - takes a lot
of time and effort - but prefer something with more continuity that
could be understood as a whole - and not just in parts everywhere."

"These types of teams evolve over time - need to know each other -
the workspace does not accomplish everything simply by enabling
communication. We actually need to connect with others in a certain way
before actually collaborating. By starting with ambiguity first, it made it difficult. We have expanded at first, but now need to narrow."

"I think this experience has been very interesting. Lots of readings on topics I was not aware existed.
More fulfilling than I expected - in discovering very interesting
topics, more than I first expected. In that sense I wish I had more
time to dedicate to it.
One of the reasons I am short on time is that I need to finish course work so that I can start on my dissertation."

"If I am late or incomplete in reading, I get an idea of the topics of
discussion from reading everyone else's posts - and so the blog helps me go faster in the reading, because it
gives me a better idea of what is going on. I am using the group in an
efficient way, I think. I was very interested in Temtim's responses because his context seems to be so different. I
wish Minjuan would have contributed more with her responses. I would really like to hear more from her."

"I feel that goal of trusting each other has already been established -
in that I feel that I can post my thoughts and trust that someone will
respond in a respectful way with their agreement or disagreement.
But now that I think about it, I don't know how much I would value the
comment as much of someone who has posted less frequently. All of us
have a fair amount of knowledge, but I have a feeling that my gut
reaction is to maybe not take a comment of someone who is newly posted
as someone who has been more active.
I think it was a good thing to bring up and think about in a group/community setting."

"In reading things, I wanted to resist being considered French (too many
stereotypes that I did not want to deal with), but in discussing with
others, it helps to put my own culture in perspective (accept certain
aspects of my culture I don't like and also recognize where I do not
line up with the national characteristics)."

Here are some suggestions by group members regarding how we might enrich what we are doing:

• Everyone do a culture inventory test (e.g. a "twenty statement tests") - so we learn more about each other.
• Activity in pairs: Predict something about each other. For example, imagine conditions of (1) where your partner grew up and (2) how that person would be different if they grew up in your home town?
• Do a little literature review to find out four or
  five common mistakes in cross-cultural collaboration and to find out if
  we are able to overcome them or if we also fail miserably.
• Each person shares a few pictures - then someone else writes a story around the pictures by asking questions about them.
• Think it is good to have meetings every now and then. Experiment with having us be able to see each other.
• Find other things that help us get to know the person a little better, not just academically, but who they are as a person.
• We need to have a framework that we can share. A structure that we
  can use in our work. I feel kind of like we are shooting too much
  anywhere. There is the teaching and sharing, but something is implicit that should be more explicit.

• Need to make more clear what is the problem we are trying to solve. If no problem it is more a social activity. At this point I think we need to make more clear what the problem is, what the
  tools are we are using, what the structures and constraints are, some
  potential solutions, show related cases of things working in this kind
  of collaboration work, etc..

• One thing we could do is have an experience of something that we want to work together.

• Culture is too big - but we need to divide into smaller topics, pick
  certain aspects of culture, and assign smaller groups of people to work
  on specific aspects. A need to narrow, a need to create a structure, and then we can
  collaborate on something more concrete - more related to something
  specific.

• How do we connect with each other? Through conversations when working on something
  specific. When assigned on the same topic - talk together about it, and
  discuss issues, understand it, create a basis for communication, and
  then writing can come a little bit later.
• Again - it is important to see the whole - if working as a team need to work
  on a purpose that is visible to everyone. A big picture of the whole as
  well as the specific part that we are assigned. I would suggest for instance to use a concept map to see the whole picture and where we fit into the big project, how we are contributing to the big project.
• I prefer to talk - rather than posting. Probably we can talk more, as we are structuring the paper and everything.
• What is probably missing is blogging more often. If ever would be
  posting, say twice a week - for example, that we would be more
  energized to go in there and read and respond. It happens, but there
  are certain dips in involvement, but I wish it was more consistent.
• I do not want to put a judgment on directed projects - but I like the way
  things are. My creative juices flow better when the project(s) leave me
  a certain level of freedom (for ideas, for discussion, for creation,
  for sharing). I also "feel" that the project respects more our
  individual life (demands and other commitments) as it is.

What are your thoughts/reactions after reading these?

In my experience, it seems like two topics that people avoid in polite discussions are politics and religion.

Perhaps it is because they are two forces that have done so much to shape the world in both positive and negative ways - and unfortunately have been the core source of so much conflict?

I think the increasingly common reaction in the US is for people to either become polarized (focusing way too much on differences in a negative way) or else become apathetic and kind of calloused and condescending to either religion or politics.

When dealing with cross-cultural interactions, however, how much of a role does faith and religion really play in it? It seems like religion has such a big role in how people define themselves and thier relationship with the world and with others in it. But in general, most people in academics seem to avoid addressing the significance of the issue. Even in publications I have written previously, I have classed religion simply as one of many "sub-cultures" - but does maybe it have even a bigger role than national culture? I honestly don't know?

I guess I started thinking about this a lot more because I recently posted an entry to my public blog about "Being a Mormon Christian", which is not something I normally would talk about in a professional setting. My purpose was to try and share my personal experience in growing up in the Mormon Church, which was very different from a lot of the information and representations I have seen in recent media coverage.

But it made me wonder more about what it is exactly about religion that makes it such a sensitive topic?

Why is it difficult to have peaceful, meaningful conversations about any religion? Is it like that everywhere in the world or are there some places that are better than others?

What kinds of environments and circumstances make it easier for people with different beliefs to co-exist in peace, and even understand and respect each other - without feeling either fear, conflict, or a need for coersion?

I know for sure people don't want anything dictated to them, and I like America's concept of the seperation of Church and State, but in cross-cultural communication - how much of an effect do all of these things have?

And how can we create safe enough research environments where we can learn more about them?

I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are in response to these questions and ideas - I think the multiple perspectives from different cultures would be very interesting.

On a more personal note - if you read my blog entry about being a Mormon - what is your honest reaction? I am very curious in a cross-cultural perspective on it. Any initial thoughts and positive or negative reactions to any specific parts are welcome.