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Two Chaps - Many Cultures
Global Business Excellence Through Cultural and Emotional Intelligence (ICE-Q)
Welcome to ๐๐ฌ๐ค ๐พ๐๐๐ฅ๐จ โ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฎ ๐พ๐ช๐ก๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐๐จ. We help you navigate the business of culture and the culture of business. Christian Hรถferle and Brett Parry ponder many topics related to culture through a combination of short bursts and deep dives.
We feature guests from the world of business and personal development, speaking about their experiences developing a combination of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and Emotional Intelligence (EQ), as well as it's vital importance to successful global organizations.
It's not only about culture. There are also tips and strategies for creating abundance in your professional and personal life.
Level up your ICE-Q by hitting the SUBSCRIBE button. Add your questions and comments related to culture, business, and personal growth.
Two Chaps - Many Cultures
The Art of Blending Cross Cultural Manufacturing Business Success with guest Michael Lehmann
In this episode, Michael lays bare the intricate dance of building a company culture that transcends geographical boundaries. We discuss the impact of cultural training on nurturing a sense of identity and loyalty among employees, a stark contrast to the typically transactional nature of such relationships in North America. Listen as Michael shares how respect and open communication serve as the cornerstone for attracting and retaining talent across all cultures, and how living the company values rather than simply preaching them can shape a robust organizational culture. His story is a masterclass for anyone looking to foster a workplace environment that celebrates diversity and unity, and how he is now expanding that to another facility in Mexico. Join us to uncover the blueprint for fostering a culturally-aware workplace that stands as a testament to the transformative power of cultural intelligence.
๐๐ฌ๐ค ๐พ๐๐๐ฅ๐จ โ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฎ ๐พ๐ช๐ก๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐๐จ is the worldโs #1 show on the business of culture and the culture of business. Christian Hรถferle and Brett Parry ponder culture in short bursts and deep dives, featuring your questions and comments related to culture, business, and personal growth.
Be sure to check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel for even more great content: https://www.youtube.com/@TwoChapsManyCultures
Visit https://theculturemastery.com/ for more information about the skills for working in a global context.
The music on this episode is provided courtesy of Sepalot.
โDuum Diipโ - Artist: Sepalot - Label: Eskapaden - Copyright control
What is the actual monetary value of cultural training? Do you really make a measurable impact? Well, how would $85 million that was in danger, with or without cultural intelligence training? Let's find out how that worked.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Two Chaps Many Cultures. In an increasingly globally connected world, it is vital to possess the essential skills of cultural intelligence. Listen along as we present the topics, tips and strategies you can use to develop the power of cultural understanding in your personal and professional life. Here are your hosts Christian Hufferler and Brett Parry.
Speaker 3:Yes, we are talking about impact today, impact of the possibility of not building cultural competence into your teams. And this is Two Chaps. Many Cultures Welcome back another episode and, of course, in this new iteration, a new season of the Two Chaps. We are really honored to welcome our first guest, aren't we mate?
Speaker 1:We are, and we're glad to have somebody from the field with us, our friend Micha E Lehmann, or Michael, or Mike, or I don't know what they call you in the office, but he's here to tell us about that very 85 million that were on the line to a certain degree. So, micha, you're welcome to Two Chaps, many Cultures. Tell our audience what do you do and what am I talking about?
Speaker 4:Hey Christian, hey Brett, I mean, first of all, thank you for having me. I mean cultural is very, very important to me and yeah, christian, we know each other now since probably a couple of years. Right, I want to say, and we reached out to you because we needed some help to bridge the cultural bridge, or to bridge the culture in our new 85 million dollar plant in Dalton, georgia. And, yeah, without your help, without bringing the Two Cultures together for sure, it would have been very difficult to make the Two Cultures talk. And I'm very, very thankful that we know each other, that we found each other, that you helped us with, with that.
Speaker 1:So two cultures needed to talk. So those were the US culture and the German culture, and then everything in between a little bit, because it wasn't just two. So for those who don't know who your company is, it says they're. On your shirt it says Gidea. What does that mean and what do you do?
Speaker 4:I'm, since this week actually, I'm the CEO of Gidea in this region. I took over also the Mexican plant beginning of this week and therefore this cultural aspect of bringing now three of these cultures together the German, the Mexican and the culture here in the US is getting more and more important. Gidea Gebrรผder Dinger Kostadendorren is a 114 year old company, a German company, and we started our venture in the United States in 2016 with a facility in Michigan and that's where I'm currently sitting, and we built up a brand new plant in Georgia in 2020 and putting a plant in even within COVID. I mean, we did it. The plant is now there and we are producing parts, but bringing the people together and making this a success was not that easy at the beginning, because we are from the Sauerland region. I don't know. You probably know where that is, Brett. I know you are from Australia. I don't know if you ever heard about the Sauerland region. It can be a little stubborn, and then people can turn sour on you in a heartbeat.
Speaker 4:Bringing these people together was for sure a challenge, but from both ends. I mean culture doesn't work in one end, it needs to work in both ends. Our people had to understand a little bit how the US works, and especially the Georgians, I mean. This is also sometimes a little bit special and also, from the other side, making the US folks a little bit more understanding how Germans think, and I think you helped us with that.
Speaker 3:So these are obviously professional people, and this is always the question, right, is that how? These are people who know their craft, they know the buttons to push. It might be different equipment, but it is still bringing people together. Then how did that go? How did you open up that conversation about having to layer over these extra skills that they may have thought they didn't actually need?
Speaker 4:Maybe let me speak a little bit about me. I came over here in 2005, so I'm here quite some time. I still cannot get rid of my accent, but I hope that is okay. Everybody will understand me.
Speaker 4:Brett cannot get rid of his accent either, that's right, and in my first venture in the US I was here in Michigan, but I traveled to Kentucky quite a bit. My previous company had a facility down there. Therefore I already got a little bit the taste of the Southern culture and with the Michigan culture. And then coming here as a German with very broken English was not easy for me. Therefore I understood from the get-go. I didn't understand anything from the get-go, to be honest, and I really had to learn it, really the hard way. First of all, the language barrier was there and then also, at one point of time, my English got better. But I really had to understand the people.
Speaker 4:And I mean as long as you are open, as long as you talk openly to the people and you are open to learn and you are okay with sometimes being the dumbest person in the room not even the smartest girl, but also the dumbest person in the room and you are willing to learn.
Speaker 4:I think this is the first step you have to take to be open for new cultures and to understand new cultures. And I'm not saying that our people, when we started this adventure and wrote about an open, it was just making them understand how different cultures can be and how people think, and I think with your help, christian, I think that was very good, that you helped us or helped our people in Georgia to make them aware that the view you have on a certain task depends on what side you stand on the table. You can have a different view on the things and I think you did a very good job in helping us, or helping the team to understand that the German view might be different than the view from the Georgians or from the US, but you still want to accomplish the same goal and I'm happy to hear that our work in fact did help, and I think your example is one of many that people in our field have had throughout their careers.
Speaker 1:Brett, myself and others in our arena can tell similar stories. What stood out to me with your team was that they were quite open to the subject matter, expertise in the field, which in your case is building parts for automobiles and they may have had different technical approaches to the work. The technical questions were quickly sorted out how we communicate these things. That seemed to be the issue in the beginning, that your German team was a bit abrupt or very. Some of them were a bit very direct and brash in the way they communicated and the team in Georgia was maybe not as to the point as your German team wished and they were maybe a little bit easily irritated about the German leadership style.
Speaker 4:So I think the typical friction points that we see in international projects was not surprising at all, but it was surprising at that point to either side of your team, right the one example I think Christian, you brought it up in one of your sessions with the team If you live on Mars or if you live from the moon and you look from out there to Germany and over here to Georgia, you see a green field which is almost the same size.
Speaker 4:You see a certain amount of players and they have a ball in their hand or a ball on their foot and they play a game. And from the sky, from 10 miles high or 100 miles high, it looks kind of the same. And then you dial in and dial in and dial in and then you see, at the end of the day, in Germany they play soccer and the US they play football, which has nothing in common, and I think this is a very good way to describe how difficult and different the countries are. With this little example and I really like this, and I think you didn't even tell me this. Somebody who was in training with you told me this and I think this opened my eyes really as well. From the outside, looking in, everything looks kind of the same, but if you dial in a little bit further, then you can see that there's many things that look really the same but they are not.
Speaker 1:I think what's really helpful, at least in my experience. Other trainers may have different approaches, but using sports, no matter what they are, as metaphors to explain human behavior. It could be football or American football, it could be Aussie rules, it could be cricket, it could be tennis, it could be basketball, it could be motor racing, I don't know, it could be track and field. Whatever metaphor works in order to explain phenomena of human behavior.
Speaker 1:How do you and this is something that I've been wondering for many, many years how do you become attractive to potential new team members as an employer? Because your product is not visible to the consumer's eye. Most people will never know which cars have your equipment inside of them. So how do you position yourself, especially as a company from overseas? You come here, you build a plant on the green field in an area that is not necessarily known to have an automotive history. Dalton, georgia, for those who are familiar with that area, is for decades been the center of the flooring industry in North America. So potential job seekers, how do they know what you stand for? How do you position yourself to be attractive for future?
Speaker 4:employees. This is exactly the point you said. It's really known since decades for the carpet industry. Dalton Georgia is really every company around us except our neighbors to one side. They do products for the carpet industry and I think the workforce, particularly in Dalton Georgia and maybe in the Dalton Whitfield County, they would like to do something new. The this park, where we are at the supplier park, was specifically built up for companies outside of the carpet industry because Dalton Georgia wanted to bring companies in which had nothing to do with with carpets and we are one of one of them and I mean for sure this is this is one of the big things why people want to work for us, because it says nothing to do with with the carpet industry.
Speaker 4:And I mean, as you can see today, I usually wear this Gidea swag. I usually put my name on it so people know who I am, and the Gidea logo. And when I go to Georgia, when I used to go to Georgia more often it's the beginning Our name was all over the news $85 million you mentioned it before putting a new plan up and when I walked into the restaurants then I mean, people saw us and people recognized us from the logo. They didn't know what Gidea stands for, right, I mean, they didn't even know we are German, sounds like a Japanese company, yeah. But when people recognize us and that we are bringing in a new product into the town and a new kind of industry, they were very thankful. Therefore, they were just happy that there's an alternative to the centuries not centuries old, but to many decades old carpet industry. Therefore, this was helping us, for sure, a lot. This was helping us a lot that we were able to bring in something new.
Speaker 3:So you really represented something that we talk about all the time. It's the culture is based in tradition, whether it be a country culture or a regional culture or even a functional culture, like you say. You've got certain industries that embed themselves in areas and they draw on a set of people that have skills and maybe inherit them from their parents and so on and so forth. So what you've done is literally not only had to build something in a new place, but also build it in a place that's not traditionally of your market, and so I guess that kind of helps the people understand that they get an interest in you as a company, the interest in the difference of what you bring. But also, if you introduce the idea of culture, then to say we're a German company and we're not trying to turn everybody into a German person, but understand the DNA of the company might inform how you see get here as an employer. Absolutely. You say that's something that they had to look at.
Speaker 4:There's a little bit more pride, I think, or easier to see in this industry. When you drive on the streets and say we are producing parts for Mercedes, so we are producing parts for a Ford vehicle, you can tell your kids or your parents or whatever I actually work for a company who is producing parts for this car or for that kind.
Speaker 1:I think this gives them also a little bit better understanding and more pride in what they are doing and to me that sounds like that is part of the employment philosophy that you try to instill a sense of pride and a sense of loyalty with the organization, something that I've seen a big gap between Central European employers and North American employers that the loyalty to the employer very often is much, much stronger in Europe because many, especially production type employees see themselves as part of almost like an organism and they want to be part of something that is bigger than the individual or bigger than a group of individuals, and the company treats the employees well. The employee sees the company as this almost paternal protector, and in the US we don't often see it that way. We see it as an exchange for time, labor and money, and if that equation does not give us the result we want, then we might change employers. So do you think you were able to install a little bit of that German style relationship between employer and employees?
Speaker 4:I think so. I think so and I can give you an example from that. Our global CEO, helmut Inkel, who is my boss one of my bosses, I report to the board came to Dalton and we had a meeting with the managers and with the sub-supervisors. We had a full room of people, which is probably 15, 20 people sitting there, and we gave a little presentation about the status of the plant and everybody introduced themselves. And then I asked one question. I said and please keep in mind, we started to break ground in 2020. Therefore, we started to hire people basically in 2021. And my question was who is here since 2021? And half of the room stood up.
Speaker 4:The majority of the supervisor and manager staff are there since they get going, and this is not usual. This is not really normal, and I think we, as Kedia, can be very proud of that. And again, christian, I can just say that you helped with this as well. Right, as I said, everything starts with culture. If people don't feel well where they work, they go somewhere, and the people stay, usually with us now, which is very good, and I know that people will leave. But what I would like at the end of the day, that if everybody retires at one point of time and you sit, let's say, person A left our facility or will leave our facility or our plant over the next years, and he's 80 years old by then and then he looks back in his career and then he tells his grandchildren the best job I had was with the guy Sung-Gadir.
Speaker 4:I had five jobs after that because I was not really finding what I was looking for, but I was always treated with dignity and respect. I had a great job, I had a great product I had to work on and this is what I want. But again, dignity and respect goes far with me, goes really far, and I really hope that we, and not our hope. I know for a fact that our team members in Georgia, starting with the plant management down to the supervisors and I hope for everybody else working with the team that they are treating everybody like that and I'm trying to live it. I'm not trying. I mean, this is what I am.
Speaker 1:Good point. I'm living it and not telling people. I think this is how culture manifests itself. It's not because we put a poster on the wall with our values I call them wall tattoos right, they could mean nothing. It's living the values daily, and living it from a leadership level down is what models these behaviors for everybody else in the organization.
Speaker 4:That's how culture gets created, I guess Right and, I know, faced with a completely new challenge when it comes to culture. I mean, starting this week, I took over responsibility for our Mexican facility and after our trip to Georgia, my boss and I, we flew to Mexico and yeah, this is a relatively big facility there.
Speaker 4:We have 500 people 550 people I think down there and we had three big town hall meetings. We had to kind of do it in the morning for the administrative staffs and the afternoon for the first shift and then for the second shift. And I have a whole lot of respect for this new task because I'm going to Mexico since 2006. I know Mexico, I've been there many times, but I was never responsible for something. I was more in a sales job and I was dealing with customers, with Volkswagen, with others, and all these things have changed. Now I'm responsible there for a plant and I have to learn a whole lot right now, you know, and I'm trying always to make the people feel good.
Speaker 4:Also, in the town hall meetings we had, and I kind of made a couple jokes, and one joke I made is which I always say I don't like Mexican food, but I like the people. It's better than the other way, actually around, right? If I would like the food and not the people. And they were laughing about it and I hope they laugh for the right reason, because it's really what I mean I really don't like Mexican food, but I really like these people. I really like these people and I hope because in the far left corner there was also the cook of our cantina. I hope he's not mad at me.
Speaker 1:He will now prove to you that you will like it. He will find a way to make you like Mexican food.
Speaker 4:No, but this is fine, and maybe this culture is also, you have to eat this culture, you have to live it, you have to be there. You know, over the next few months I'm probably going to spend a lot of time down there, but I have a whole lot of respect. I know Mexican people from coming there, visiting them, being in the country, but never let a team down there, and therefore this is something where I probably also need some professional help at one point in time, if I cannot figure it out by myself.
Speaker 1:And I think this is. I was going to ask you what advice you would give to a leader in a similar position as yours, or somebody who will grow into a position like yours, who does this for the first time go abroad and lead a team in a different culture but you just gave the answer without me asking the question. You said you have the humility to say I don't know, and there is things that I want to learn. That is the key ingredient is the curiosity to accept new information that you don't have yet. So I had to use that.
Speaker 4:Thank you. I think every culture I mean I cannot really say that because I don't know all the cultures in this world, nobody does but I want to say what every culture has in common that everybody wants to be treated with dignity and respect. I think this is a common thing, that everybody it doesn't matter if you go to Afghanistan or to Mexico, or to US or Germany or wherever I think people generally want to be treated fairly, with dignity and respect. I think if you bring this to the table and this is where you start, okay, that you're not talking down to people in other cultures, that you, that you accept them as equals, but which which they are I mean there's no way wrongly they're equal, they're not different, they're not better or worse than you are. And once you accept this and once you, once you live it, I think then this is already in good start and this is what advice I would give my young self and also everybody who takes over responsibility in a different country. Final question for you, brett.
Speaker 3:No, I, I really love those values You've just expressed, michael. These are things that I guess me is doing this work there's this work of culture has taught me that right. I I kind of think I hope I embodied it when I had my own business and I and I employed people. I Kind of I'm sure I made mistakes. I sure I'm sure in many circumstances I didn't, but I've certainly learned it doing this work. You know, working With people similar to yourself, where they have said what's worked for me also always as being humble, having respect, both expecting and giving respect, but also understanding there are some differences we need to bridge and that openness, to be able to be humble enough to say, yes, I work differently to you, but in that is the magic of connection and the magic of diversity, and Couldn't have said it better. That's great.
Speaker 1:Thank you, miguel, thank you for taking time and sharing your story, your Global leadership story Fantastic. I love we, brett and I, we love doing the work we do because we love seeing the outcomes that you described me and that that, to me, is one of the biggest rewards seeing teams Improving they the way they collaborate, finding a way out of the friction and towards more effortless and and and elegant ways to collaborate. That is a huge takeaway and Good luck to your. Now. All of Good luck to, to to the North American endeavors, to the all-incorporating North American endeavors you're supervising. So what's the Spanish phrase for good luck? We a hit-oh when a sweater or something like that. See, my Spanish is.
Speaker 4:I'm, I make sure, already the dumbest guy in this room.
Speaker 1:I don't know but I'm gonna learn it.
Speaker 3:We'll make sure of it. All right, thank you very much. All right, thank you to chaps many cultures. Another great episode. And thank you, miguel, for just Gracing you with your presence here and giving us your wisdom. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell for the next episode that might come up it's every week and don't forget also to check out a new podcast. We are turning these into podcasts too, so if you're sick of just seeing these ugly mugs and you don't want to watch us, you can just listen to us quietly in your car. And so thank you again for joining two chaps many cultures. We'll see you again next week. Thanks, thank you very much, guys. Bye, bye.
Speaker 4:Bye, bye oh.