How to Moderate a Meeting with International Collaborators

There are many challenges that come with working across cultural lines. You may be worried about what you’re saying is getting “lost in translation.” You may also be concerned over inadvertently stumbling over social etiquette, of saying or doing something that’s perfectly normal in your culture but may be frowned upon elsewhere.

But let me tell you the biggest problem that I see with leaders working across cultural lines: They talk too much. They’re eager to get their point across, to make it clear that they have done their homework — so eager that they effectively shut out their international collaborators.

Erin Meyer, writing for Fast Company, has a fascinating theory as to why this is such a common occurrence among American business leaders working with international peers. The reason, she says, “is the U.S. school system, among the only ones in the world where students are graded largely on how much they speak up and contribute, even if what they say isn’t particularly insightful. Compare that to China, where students learn in school only to speak if they’ve carefully prepared their contribution.”

How to Keep from Talking Too Much

Meyer goes on to offer some tips for overcoming this problem, and for truly being a good collaborator with…