S8E1: Reflecting on Critical Incidents to Build Better Teams

Author Ian McMaster talks about common challenges international teams often face and how taking time to reflect on critical incidents can improve teamwork. This episode is helpful whether you work as part of an international teaching team or seek ways to develop this skill set with your teenage or adult language learners.

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Key talking points

Common Challenges in International Teams

Language, culture, and remoteness are often perceived as major challenges. Ian emphasises that these factors might be overrated and explores deeper dimensions.

Reflection on Personal Attitudes

Ian suggests that individuals should reflect on their attitudes, assumptions, and adaptability—the importance of not jumping to conclusions and being flexible in communication styles.

Introduction to Critical Incidents

Critical incidents are situations where interpersonal reactions, conflicts, or misunderstandings occur. Ian clarifies that "critical" refers to the need for critical thinking to reflect on the situation.

Example 1: Trust in Team Dynamics

A project leader constantly checks in on a team member's progress. Ian highlights how this situation could lead to misunderstandings and the importance of discussing work preferences and expectations.

Example 2: Prioritising Quality vs. Deadlines

A team member tasked with a marketing proposal faces a conflict with the team leader's deadline priorities. Communication and expectation-setting are crucial in avoiding blame and unexpected conflicts.

References

Dignen, B. and McMaster, I. (2023) Trainingsbuch Business English: Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit in Internationalen Team. Freiburg: Haufe Group. Available in English.

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About Ian

Ian McMaster is a business communications consultant, journalist and author. Originally from England, Ian has lived in Munich for 35 years and is a regular participant and speaker at international language-learning conferences.

Ian was editor-in-chief of the English-language magazine “Spotlight” in the 1990s and then editor-in-chief of the business communication magazine “Business Spotlight” from 2001 to 2021. Both magazines are published by ZEIT SPRACHEN, part of the ZEIT publishing group.

Ian’s latest book, with co-author Bob Dignen, is “Trainingsbuch Business English: Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit in internationalen Teams”, published by Haufe. Despite its German title, the book is completely in English and looks at how people of all languages can communicate and work together better in international teams. Follow Ian's work on LinkedIn here.

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Watch the video with closed captions or refer to the transcript below.

Transcript

00:00:00:09 - 00:00:23:15

Laura

TESOL Pop Season eight Episode one. Hello and welcome to TESOL Pop, the mini podcast for busy teachers. My name is Laura and my guest today is author Ian McMaster. Ian is talking about his latest book, co-authored with Bob Dignen It's called “Trainingbuch Business English”. Now, in spite of the German title, the book is in English. And thank you, Haufe for sending me a copy of this in the post.

00:00:23:17 - 00:00:46:19

Laura

Now, if you work as part of an international team or you're training your students to do so, then this episode is for you. We're going to be talking about how reflecting on critical incidents can build better relationships, better collaboration and resolve potential challenges. I started by asking Ian what are some common challenges that people often assume go hand in hand when working as part of an international team?

00:00:46:21 - 00:01:09:18

Ian

What they think are the biggest challenges of working in international teams? The answer they come up with may not be actually the factors that are the most important or the most significant. So what I like to do is to actually just break down the look at the words in the questions. We're talking about communicating. Working together in teams.

00:01:09:18 - 00:01:32:14

Ian

And those teams are international. So if we take it bit by bit. Communication is the first thing and we know that communication can be problematic for all sorts of reasons. Whoever you're talking to, whether it's at work or at home. So that's the first thing. Working can be a problem, but more seriously, working together obviously can be difficult, and working in teams can be difficult.

00:01:32:16 - 00:01:57:24

Ian

And in a sense, the international bit is just an extra element that's added on top of it. So the fundamentals are the problems of communication, the problems of working together and the problems of being in teams where you have goals. Now what people typically say, if you ask them, they'll come up with three or four typical answers. They'll say, “Well, in international teams, the problem is language.”

00:01:58:01 - 00:02:17:22

Ian

And then they'll say the problem is differences of culture. And then probably the third point they'll come up with is something to do with problems related to the remoteness, which could be to do with time zones and just the fact that people are not in the same room as you.

00:02:17:24 - 00:02:43:07

Ian

But actually we could look at all three of those things and sort of challenge that a bit. If language was the main cause of all misunderstandings, then we wouldn't see possibly so many understandings between people who share the same language. So often language is overrated as a problem. There's something else going on. It's not simply the fact that people don't have the same first language.

00:02:43:09 - 00:03:09:03

Ian

Culture is possibly overrated because people have a very simplistic view of culture often. They think of it in purely in terms of country culture. Whereas when we dig a bit deeper, culture is a very personal thing with lots of dimensions. So it's not just the country we’re brought up in. It could be the region, the town, it could be our age, it could be issues of, of gender, of political views, of religious views, of personality.

00:03:09:03 - 00:03:32:12

Ian

So, you know, the country culture element is often overrated. And when we think about remoteness, we often underestimate the extent to which we work remotely, even if we're in the same office as people, theoretically, because they're in another room, we're not sitting on each other's laps the whole time when we're working, we're not able to communicate face to face the whole time.

00:03:32:14 - 00:03:52:24

Ian

So in a sense, international teams or the international element can magnify some of these challenges. But actually it doesn't, it's a matter of degree rather than a matter of form. So what I'm basically saying is that maybe we're looking at the wrong place when we're looking at the problems.

00:03:53:01 - 00:04:01:00

Laura

If it's not those things, what is then the bigger issues that we're perhaps ignoring or not noticing as much?

00:04:01:02 - 00:04:23:06

Ian

Well, I should possibly step back and say, of course, I'm not saying that we're not we're not saying in the book what language, language issues don't arise. Clearly, if you don't have any competence in a language, you're going to you're going to struggle. There are all sorts of issues, misunderstandings that arise because of language issues. That's true.

00:04:23:08 - 00:05:01:13

Ian

But the kind of slightly irritating answer that we we give in the book ultimately is the problem might be looking at you in the mirror. And that's, of course, something that none of us really want to hear, that we are potentially the biggest problem when it comes down to communicating and working together, other people in international teams. Now that sounds both annoying and also quite trite when you say that, but if we try to put a little bit more flesh on that, what we're saying is we're encouraging people to reflect on their attitudes.

00:05:01:15 - 00:05:30:02

Ian

To what extent do they or do we all judge other people too quickly, make assumptions on the basis of limited information, are inflexible in our approaches, for example, to people who have different communication styles to the way we speak. So some people might think I'm now speaking too quickly, others might find I'm speaking too slowly. For some people, I'm giving too much information for others, possibly not enough.

00:05:30:02 - 00:05:42:24

Ian

So we're asking people to reflect in the book on their own preferences and to think about how adaptable, how flexible they are, and also how judgemental they are.

00:05:43:05 - 00:06:04:09

Laura

So in your book, I wanted to explore critical incidents because this is a feature that flows throughout your book where you use critical incidents to help the reader to reflect and gain a better understanding why there may be breakdowns in communication in an international team setting. To get started, could you just briefly explain what a critical incident is?

00:06:04:11 - 00:06:35:04

Ian

Yeah, this is quite important actually, because if you type the term critical incident into Google, you'll get a whole range of different answers depending on the context. So it could sound like something, you know, a dangerous situation where something has gone dreadfully wrong and, you know, an emergency services need to react to it. That's one kind of critical incident in this sense in terms of the use of critical incidents in training, intercultural and interpersonal training, we mean something different.

00:06:35:04 - 00:07:04:14

Ian

The critical bit is not in the sense of something dangerous, but in the sense of bringing your critical thinking skills to reflect on a situation. And so a critical incident is typically a brief, a relatively brief description of a situation in which there's some interpersonal reaction and there's either conflict, the misunderstanding, there's a problem, something seems to be going wrong, and it's not a,

00:07:04:18 - 00:07:33:17

Ian

it shouldn't be a hugely detailed thing that gives people so much information. They don't know where to start, but it should give them enough information about the people involved in this discussion to be able to start to think about what could be the potential causes of the misunderstanding of, well, first, what seems to be the problem here? What seems to be the communication or collaboration problem and potentially what could be the causes?

00:07:33:19 - 00:07:46:12

Ian

Though it's important to say this is not about finding the right answer. I mean, often we don't ever know ultimately what the cause of communication breakdown is. It's it's the process of reflection.

00:07:46:14 - 00:07:53:20

Laura

Now, I know you have examples in your book of critical incidents that you explore. Would you mind sharing an example with us for this podcast?

00:07:53:22 - 00:08:18:20

Ian

Yeah, I can look at a couple very quickly. I mean, we, as you say, each chapter of the book and the chapter of the book look at different aspects of teamwork, from team building to leading teams to, you know, dealing with challenges. And so individual topics are things like how do we make decisions in teams, how do we build trust in teams, how do we set priorities and so on.

00:08:18:22 - 00:08:44:16

Ian

So a couple of examples of very and I'm just presenting them very simply without even less detail than we would we would have in the book. But I mean, we can imagine on a project, a project leader and a member of a team and the project leader, you know, might be somebody who regularly contacts the team member to ask how how the project's going or how their part of the project's going.

00:08:44:16 - 00:09:18:16

Ian

It could be a report they're preparing, could be a presentation, and the team member might be very experienced and slightly irritated by the fact that the team leader is in his or her view constantly, you know, which may only be once a week or three times a week asking how things are going. So a situation like this can lead to potential communication problems and problems of collaborating because the team member might feel there's an issue of trust, here.

00:09:18:17 - 00:09:42:24

Ian

Why is the team leader constantly on my case, constantly asking “What's going on?” Don't they know that I've been, you know, successful in the past that can let me get on and do this? I know when the deadline is kind of leave me alone. I know what the brief is. I'll deliver on time. Now that of course, that might not be the motivation of the of the project leader at all.

00:09:42:24 - 00:10:10:24

Ian

In fact, that the other there are various possibilities what it might be. But if we go to the other extreme, it actually might be a very positive thing that the project leader is wanting to show a sense of care for the other person. Interests, support, wanting to, you know, make sure make clear I'm available if you need me, you know, if you need more information, are there issues you want to talk about.

00:10:11:01 - 00:10:16:20

Ian

And so it could be completely the opposite to the way that the team member perceives it.

00:10:16:22 - 00:10:39:09

Laura

What's really stands out about that particular example is how when you were talking about the potential solution going forward to help eradicate these type of misunderstandings is to communicate more clearly about how we work and how the best situations for is like almost like our own personal work manuals. And I think often in workspaces we often dive very quickly into the work itself.

00:10:39:09 - 00:10:54:12

Laura

The task itself and what needs to be done. And we don't normally spend much time talking about how we best perform and what sort of support we need and what that support looks like. So that's a really interesting layer that seems so obvious, but it's so often missed.

00:10:54:14 - 00:11:12:19

Ian

Yeah, we tend to I mean, often we're doing repair work after a problem has already arisen. In fact, there's even a stage before that where we don't even realise there's been a misunderstanding or a problem. We're unaware of the fact. But then if we become aware of it, then we might want to repair it. And again, it it's, it's easier said than done.

00:11:12:19 - 00:11:59:01

Ian

I'm well aware of this. I'm well aware when, when writing the book of all the things that I fail to do in my own working life or communication generally, So it's easier said than done. But communicating earlier and in this case it could be a team discussing how they're going to work together. So rather than maybe focusing on, let's say, the country cultural backgrounds of the different members of the team, if they have them, focus more on what joint culture is the team going to build for itself about how they're going to work together, how they're going to communicate, how they're going to, you know, create trust, how they're going to take decisions, attitudes to

00:11:59:01 - 00:12:09:24

Ian

deadlines and this kind of thing. So it's it's more about creating culture rather than sort of seeing culture as a a cause of problems.

00:12:10:01 - 00:12:22:00

Laura

Now, I know you have perhaps one more critical incident to share, that trust one was absolutely fantastic. I thought we could just talk about that for the rest of the episode. But would you mind just sharing one more with us as a contrast?

00:12:22:02 - 00:12:52:16

Ian

Well, well, another one that we have in the book is about, again, the team situation Room, where a team member is given the task of producing a marketing campaign for a client and the team leader wants the market, wants the campaign proposal to be communicated to the client by, let's say, the end of tomorrow, because that was the deadline that was agreed.

00:12:52:16 - 00:13:21:14

Ian

The team leader is aware possibly that the team member doesn't think that the proposal is as good as it could be, is not yet complete, but the team leader wants to present it nevertheless. Now, in a case like this, there's a potential conflict because a team member producing this proposal wants to do it. If not perfectly as near as they can to perfect may be.

00:13:21:16 - 00:13:55:15

Ian

So then that could be the priority of the team member. The team leader's priority or bigger priority might be keeping absolutely to the deadline that that had been agreed to the client. Now, obviously, in some cases there may not be any conflict between these two, but if there are if there is a conflict, then again, you don't want to get into a blame situation where the team member thinks are the leader doesn't care about quality and the the team leader thinks the team member doesn't care about deadlines.

00:13:55:17 - 00:14:19:05

Ian

So and this is, you know, again about prioritising and I think you can see what actually should happen here or what should have happened. Obviously in earlier discussions about how are we going to do this, what level of quality is required, how sacrosanct is the deadline, And then also potentially, obviously discussions with the client themselves as to, you know, is there room for an extension of the deadline?

00:14:19:05 - 00:14:42:07

Ian

Often there is actually if you if you approach people, you know, in the right way, sometimes there isn’t, as I discovered with the book, but sometimes there is. And you know, and again, so more communication and a lot of this is about expectations and it's about, again, team culture, how are we going to work? And of course, they'll still be differences in people's personal attitudes.

00:14:42:07 - 00:14:57:19

Ian

But then at least by communicating that we've brought them to the surface and in doing so have possibly reduced their potential to cause unexpected conflict.

00:15:00:15 - 00:15:20:07

Laura

Thank you so much Ian, so for our listeners, the link to Ian and Bob Dignen’s book is in the show notes, and I've also included links to their LinkedIn profiles so you can follow up with questions and continue the conversation. If you have a question or an idea that you'd like to pitch for TESOL Pop, you can contact us via Instagram, Facebook or the website tesolpop.com

00:15:20:09 - 00:15:33:13

Laura

Finally, you can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast by sharing today's episode with your community or by even buying a coffee at ko-fi.com/tesolpop

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