When Teams Collide: Managing the International Team Successfully by Richard D. Lewis

by Richard D. Lewis

For global enterprises, international teams are becoming more and more common. They are often agile and perceptive, know local markets better than HQ does, lead innovation and exploratory ventures, and are more culturally aware than their parent company. But how much autonomy should they be allowed? How can we get things done with colleagues who have different worldviews? When Teams Collide answers these questions and more. From figuring out how to work through cultural differences to deciding on a team leader, Richard Lewis uses his 30 years of experience in team mediation to provide suggestions for success. Generously illustrated with explanatory diagrams, When Teams Collide analyses profiles of 24 different nationalities and suggests how they should be led for best results. Commenting on vital considerations of leadership, team trust, ethics and humor, the author also evaluates the relationship between teams and HQ When Cultures Collide is a wide-ranging, compelling account of how to handle what is a difficult and sensitive task.

Genres: Leadership, Management

Paperback Bunko

First published April 26, 2012

About the author

Richard Donald Lewis was born at Slack Farm, Billinge, in 1930. The author of several books on educational subjects, he holds a degree in Modern Languages and is one of Britain’s foremost linguists. He founded the Berlitz schools in East Asia, Portugal and Finland and spent several years in Japan, where he was personal tutor to Empress Michiko and five other members of the Japanese Imperial family.

One of his books, When Cultures Collide, has sold over 500,000 copies and won the prestigious US Executive Club Book award in 1997. He currently lectures throughout the world on cross-cultural issues.

In 1997, Mr Lewis was awarded a knighthood in Finland, in view of his 40 years’ experience helping Finland to develop its international links, including assisting Finland in its preparation for EU presidency.

In 2009, he was promoted to the rank of Knight Commander, Order of the Lion of Finland.

Reviews

[Ioana Lily Balas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Richard D. Lewis has outstanding credentials: he speaks 11 languages, was tutor to the Japanese royal family and was knighted by Finland. He is also appreciated for his work on the psychology of different cultures, and in an era where diverse teams the norm, this seemed to be a relevant book to pick up.

To get some context as to what will undoubtedly be a series of complaints, this was published in 2012 and is written by a British author. None of the examples mention women. None of the examples mention Nigeria or Caribbean nations, which are former colonies of the UK and have a huge presence in the country today. When it comes to women, he even excuse himself saying how there aren't many in the industry - what?! In 2012?

If you are looking to apply this information to today, you will also find it very difficult because all the teams discussed here are co-located, not remote. Again, something that I find even in 2012 would be difficult to reconcile. I have no doubt that they wouldn't be as prevalent as today, fair, but many companies would work with a whole team located in a different country, for example. There'd definitely be more async situations that would need to be navigated than this book describes.

'When Teams Collide' falls into the trap of generalisation - which is my last and biggest complaint. It attaches behaviours to countries with fleeting mentions of individuals' personality and background. I was hoping that the Team Profiles section, where there are examples of people with how they work, would save it, but no. This was the time for the book to bring in aspects of this is how this person has been shaped by their culture, these are the individual characteristics. Or this person has lived in multiple countries, this is the kind of impact we are guessing it had on him.

Don't bother, this is an incredibly narrow view.

[gramakri · Rating 3 out of 5]

International teams are now a reality in multinational organizations. In this book, Richard D. Lewis, an internationally known cross-cultural consultant and trainer provides guidelines on how to successfully assemble, manage and strengthen international teams.
This is an an useful guidebook for those working on international teams.
Read my summary and listing of key takeaways from this book in my professional blog - http://www.rgopinath.com/2014/03/31/b...

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. The author does a great job of summarizing cultural characteristics.

[Zablon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful but at times sweeping in judgement/excessively stereotypical. Learned quite a bit though about the different cultures I work with and will try to apply in the knowledge in building the teams’ understandings of each other.

[Dhananjay Suryawanshi]

indeed,good read!

[Bapomat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, I definitely recommend it.