Today's CultureQuiz: DOING BUSINESS WITH MEXICO.
What would you do in the situation below? Choose your best answer, A, B, C or D?
Thanks for joining me on Substack! As you may already know, I posted my CultureQuiz on Doing Business with Mexico a few days ago as a sample of the kind of deep cultural content you’ll be able to access now that I am posting on Substack. But things get busy, I know, and if you missed the sample, I thought you might appreciate getting it hand-delivered in a post this week. So here it is, below, this week’s Culture Quiz on “Doing Business with Mexico”! What’s your best answer, A, B, C or D? Please let me know, and would love to hear your thoughts in the Comment section at the end of the post!
"Having recently returned to the Chicago global HQ offices from a long week training staff and managers in the Mexico City office on new HQ procedures and policies, you were feeling comfortable that the Mexico office was finally aligned with global policies and procedures. In many follow-up emails and virtual meetings, local managers assured you that everyone was very pleased with the trainings and meetings, and were well-equipped now to put all new requirements in place. However, your Chicago team has started complaining to you that they’ve been getting information that indicates that policies and procedures have not been put in place, and that perhaps the Mexico team doesn’t, in fact, either know what to do after all, or are simply choosing to disregard HQ and do things as they choose. After all your time and effort, and their reassurances, you feel confused as to why the team in Mexico is behaving this way. What should you do?”
A. Express your frustration directly in a private virtual meeting with the Mexican Director, and ask them why, after being reassured that everything you reviewed with them at the meetings you had in Mexico was understood and implementable, this was not happening. Further, you demand to know what IS, in fact, happening, in order to get the new policies and procedures in place as soon as possible.
B. Arrange for a virtual meeting with the managers in Mexico as a follow-up to your visit, where they can review with you any difficulties or challenges they envision implementing the new policies and procedures, and what kind of support they will need in order to do so.
C. Go to your boss, explain the situation, ask them to discuss the problem with their counterpart in the Mexico office, and ask your boss to ask their contact to please report back to you directly.
D. Go to your managers and ask them to arrange a virtual meeting with their team counterparts in Mexico as a follow-up to your visit, where they can review how things are going and what can be done to get things back on track.
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