Do you remember, as a child, feeling something strange when you smelled food cooking in your neighbours’ homes?
I used to believe that all the dishes my mother cooked were the best, and her cooking became my standard for taste. When I smelled food from other households, it somehow seemed less appealing to me.
The Challenge of Global Teams
Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked with people from various nationalities and diverse cultural backgrounds—it is something like encountering a multitude of different flavours and cooking styles.
Team members differ not only in nationality and age, but also in their experiences, track records, skills, language proficiency, and organizational roles and positions.
To work effectively with such diverse individuals, I sometimes need to adapt—like adjusting a recipe by adding more spices or changing the cooking method entirely.
However, this is incredibly challenging work, because everyone has their own preferences and familiar tastes.
When trying to establish common standards in a global team, there inevitably comes a point where someone must compromise or accept ways of working that go against their preferences.
What is Ethnocentism?
The easiest way to resolve such coordination challenges?
Simply force others to follow your own preferences and familiar methods.
It’s like telling your global colleagues:
“Your cooking is strange and tastes bad.”
“ My food is the best in the world, and you should adopt my recipes.”
This attitude is called “ethnocentrism“—the belief that one’s own country or ethnic group is superior to others.
In other words, ethnocentric people believe their own culture, lifestyle, work practices, and values are “the best” and “absolutely right.”
They look down on others and dismiss different values as “wrong” or “inferior.”
This ethnocentric attitude creates significant barriers when working with global team members and building relationships with them.
A Real-World Example
Some time ago, when I had Japanese colleagues on my global team, I regularly heard their frustrations about working with local staff:
- “Local staff don’t follow plans and schedules properly.”
- “Local staff won’t work unless you give them detailed instructions.”
- “Local staff are unreliable—they frequently miss work for family matters and lack responsibility.”
- “Local staff leave exactly at closing time, even when others are still busy.”
Eventually, they would conclude: “That’s why they’re no good.”
My Japanese colleagues would then contrast this with Japanese work culture:
- “We carefully develop plans in advance and stick to schedules, which leads to effective results.”
- “We read between the lines and understand our superiors’ intentions without explicit instruction, making our work highly efficient.”
- “We sometimes sacrifice family time to fulfill work responsibilities, which builds trust with colleagues and partners.”
- “We help busy team members even after hours, which strengthens team cohesion.”
“This is how Japan achieved economic growth,” they would say.
“This is what makes Japanese people exceptional.”
Consequently, these Japanese colleagues became reluctant to entrust work to local staff and made decisions without consulting local team members.
Imagine someone who insists their familiar recipes are the only authentic ones and refuses to acknowledge other cuisines.
Someone who believes their cooking methods are superior and all other approaches are inferior.
Who would want to cook alongside such a person?
Curiosity Over Judgment
It’s natural and admirable to take pride in one’s country and culture. However, when this pride becomes excessive, it leads to viewing other countries as inferior and fostering negative feelings toward people from different backgrounds.
When working with global teams, what’s essential is curiosity:
- What ingredients do others use in their “recipes”?
- What are their unique approaches and techniques?
- How do these different methods contribute to success?
By asking these questions with genuine interest, you’ll often find common ground and discover new, creative solutions.
