My daughter in New Orleans reminded me over the weekend that the Mardi Gras festivities have begun in that most French of all US-American cities, and it also made me think about the many cultural challenges that I’ve witnessed between French and American colleagues and clients. While linked by history, the French-US relationship has not always been an easy one, interpersonally, in business, and even politically. And underlying every issue are the cultural reasons for the problem. So I thought because everyone in New Orleans over the next week or so will “laissez les bon temps roulez”, it’s a good time to look at the cultural reasons for those sticky Anglo-Franco misunderstandings that pop up over and over again…especially when we try to work with each other!
A few years ago, I had the extreme good luck of having to do some intercultural consulting work in the south of France. Provence, in fact (which has, interestingly, over the last few decades become the Silicon Valley of France). Lucky me, I fantasized: bottles of good Provençal wine, wonderful meals, sunshine, fields of lavender, and, oh yes, the pleasures of working with the French.
I mean that sincerely. Over the years, the French have taught me many things, with both of us taking pleasure and pain from the fact that the Gallic way of thinking is profoundly different from the Anglo-Saxon. Time and again, my experiences with the French have reminded me, the US-American, that two cultures that share so much can still fundamentally be very different. In fact, when it comes to the way that information is processed and digested, there aren’t many cultures more different in this regard than the US and France. And on this particular trip, this fact was brought home to me, in both professional and personal ways.
First, the professional: I was sent to France by my US-based client who had just begun negotiations to acquire a small, family-owned French pharmaceutical company with headquarters and main operations in the south of France. Apparently my client had already experienced some bumps in initial communications between its US-Midwest executives and their French counterparts, and they were hoping that I could help them to better understand what the French were thinking; what drove their negotiation and communication behavior; and get a better picture of what the French would consider a carrot or a stick (as my client expressed it to me). My job was twofold: I was not only to help explain French business behavior, but also to assist in the actual negotiations, whispering helpful suggestions when needed, and doing what I could to help them avoid — and if necessary, successfully get through — any cultural misunderstandings. After some surprisingly smooth and efficient preparations for a first meeting, I suddenly found myself one morning in a sunny office in the south of France, where the key players from both sides were assembling to make their initial presentations to each other as the first exploratory step toward the possibility of a merger (that’s polite business-speak for a takeover by a major US company). Essentially, both sides needed to make the case to each other of the benefits — or not — of the merger, and to convince the other of the way they saw things. The result was a picture-perfect example of the cultural chasm that exists between the way French and US-Americans (and other Anglo-Saxon influenced cultures, as well) process and organize information.
The French “Opening Argument”.
As the host, the French opened the meeting. While key players had already met one time prior, this was the first time that all the members of both teams were meeting one another, and the French began with a detailed introduction of each member of its team, their roles and responsibilities, and their professional backgrounds. Each member was also expected to say a few words about him or herself after having been introduced, and because many of them were older, with limited English skills, they spoke in French; fortunately, an interpreter (French, chosen by the French side) was (intermittently) available to provide English translation from time to time. (Mysteriously, she would often leave the room just at the time she was most needed). These formal introductions took over an hour.
Once the introductions were made, the CEO stood up and began his presentation. While he spoke in English, his powerpoint slides — all filled with myriad details, organization charts, performance statistics and historical information — were in French. None of the US-Americans in the room spoke or read French. While the numbing amount of detail that he was going through challenged the morning coffee to do its job, the really interesting aspect of his presentation — at least for me — was the way he organized and presented his information. This was a meeting intended to highlight the pros and cons of a merger, and for the first half hour of the first, and most important, presentation, the CEO chose to give a history lesson on the chronological development of his company, from its founding almost two centuries ago by his great-great-grandfather, through the challenges of the various decades, walking everyone through the critical events of each momentous epoch in the company’s growth, the family’s relationship to the political and social realities of France and Europe at the time, and providing in-depth explanations about how decisions were made that moved the company onto the next, almost inevitable, step in its journey to the present.
The American team sat like deer in the headlights, wondering why they were being
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