A cross-cultural problem seems to have arisen in one of a client's project. Apparently, their Bratislavan counterparts are finding it difficult to communicate with them, and it has gotten to the point that email coming from Bratislava is questioning the competence of the Filipinos. It has become that serious.

I was then called in, sometime September, to learn what the situation was, and make possible recommendations - I became involved because one of the courses I handle happens to be on Effective Cross-Cultural Communication. Apparently I was seen as an expert - of which I can really relate to, give the seeming nature of the problem.

As part of my first telecon with both our client's representative and his Bratislavan counterpart, I looked up additional subjects regarding cross-culture problems, specifying (if possible) the Philippine setting.

I can say that the net - with all its resources, gave a limited view of refferences. Either that or I searched the wrong search engine. In comes Marimel (both friend and colleague) who had a book to recommend to me - 'Working with Filipinos - A Cross-Cultural Encounter' by F. Landa Jocano. A narrow paperback (if you could call a 100 page book narrow, that is), clearly explaining why Filipinos behave the way they do. This was exactly what I needed, and armed with this, I could definitely see what needed to be emphasized on both sides - from both sides.

After our first telecon - where I mentioned that we (meaning, me representing the company i worked with) could help, was where I also recommended the same book to my client, who naturally expressed the need to read up on it first and see if the book's discussions fit their situation, and did not put Filipinos into bad light (though why would a book by a Filipino put Filipinos to bad light is a question I thought about - but hey, my client was just being careful not to add possible ammunition to an already exasperated Bratislavan).

Well after sourcing the book in our local bookstore myself, and our actually having purchased several copies to possibly send to Bratislava (and possibly Germany), we're ready to further discuss how things are going to proceed... thus a second telecon is happening this afternoon to discuss just that.

Now, aside from this book, we do have a cross-cultural training that shows just these problems; I'm just wondering if things could have been avoided had people gone through the training first - and been able to apply the lessons learned. I mean, it is there - if they simply knew about it... and since its an official client-related training, it is determined to be a needed training for them all to attend and learn from - not just locally, but globally.

I recommended the possibility for Bratislava to somehow send us a counterpart of their culture, so I can emphasize this during a stylized conduct of their very own cross-culture issues and answers.

Man... I knew I had been equipped with seeming diplomatic capabilities (a topic for another time) and through this, my ability to address cross-cultural needs.

Oh yeah... if you do find similar difficulties, i do suggest gettign Jocano's book. In In case you're all wondering, the ISBN 971-622-009-x. Get the book, its proving to be very uselful in conducting said cross-cultural needs.