Facilitating International Focus Groups for Success

By William R. Dodson

 

9 September 2002
I was recently talking with a Chinese friend in Beijing. She works for a major American information technology vendor. She told me about a meeting she had a few weeks ago. It was a rather large meeting, with about 30 Chinese and 20 American and Australian staff. They had to come up with a plan to grow the revenue stream of a web-based product recently introduced to the Chinese market. She explained there were two facilitators – both Americans – charged with directing and moderating the two-day session. In general, the Westerners felt the session a success, while the Chinese did not.

 

The crux of Chinese disappointment with the session was that Western facilitators and participants assumed that because the Chinese staff spoke English at some level, they spoke (and understood it) at every level. “They really needed an interpreter or facilitator who spoke English and Chinese very well,” my friend said, “someone who understands Chinese people and the Chinese market.” As it was, the session was an overwhelming Western affair, with little consideration for the linguistic and cultural differences between the Chinese and Westerners.

The Westerners spoke rapidly, naturally, without consideration for the challenges of individuals who speak English as a Second Language (ESL). The facilitators at no point slowed down the Westerners nor admonished them for using slang or for their lack of enunciation.

 
At times, a Taiwanese staff member who had lived in Australia for over ten years translated for Chinese participants. However, since she was not part of the formal structure for moderation of the session, she could only come to the aid of the Chinese when the Westerners delved very deeply and rhapsodically into the technical details of the product they were discussing.
 
The most acute reason my friend felt the session was not successful was that the Chinese were mute for the better part of the meeting, which indicates the facilitation exercise was not effective.

 
The most significant impact of the lack of Chinese input into the discussion was that “the Western people still do not know the Chinese market,” my friend said. “The Chinese know the market, but either could not follow the discussion or could not find the opportunity to make a suggestion while the Westerners were talking,” she added.

Management can make internationalized sessions more valuable by following a few basic cross-cultural facilitation guidelines:

 

The best-case scenario requires one Western and one native facilitator, and a native-language translator. Before the session begins the facilitation team should:

€     practice together;

€     work with knowledge experts to determine the likely context of discussions, detail items likely to be discussed, and to develop a lexicon of specialized vocabulary;

€     translate possible terminology hang-ups into the native language;

€     undertake surveys/interviews ahead of the session to determine personal values/perceptions/concerns/issues.

Formalize translation role instead of hoping for an ad hoc resource. The translator’s responsibility would be to translate the facilitators’ directions, commentaries and teachings to the audience, and to translate audience responses to facilitators.

 

Session architects should assume the session will take at least twice as long with a formal translator than. That would expand the original two-day session into a four, possibly a five-day session. Facilitators should use the morning of the first day of the session to present specialized session guidelines, host ice-breakers and team-building exercises around breaking down communications and cultural barriers.

 

Session participants also need to be exposed to the constraints to communications imposed by speaking English as a Second Language (ESL). Most Chinese are quite shy about speaking English in front of native speakers, and ESL levels vary enormously. Facilitators should present tactics for:

€     Effective Listening

€     Clear Speaking

€     Bridging Cultural differences/interpretations

 

A couple of hours at the end of the session should be devoted to a session debrief so facilitators and participants alike can learn what worked and did not work in the session. The investment in questionnaires and discussions will lower the costs of hosting the next large-scale facilitated session by creating a knowledge base from which other facilitators in the company can draw.

 

It’s of paramount importance that local representatives feel they have a voice and can use it in a culturally integrated setting. After all, it’s they who know their own market best.

 

William R. Dodson is Managing Director of Silk Road Advisors, L.L.C., a management consultancy that develops and positions products and people for success in international markets. He is the contributing editor on international business to the American Management Association’s (AMA) MWorld Journal of Management, and writes the weekly column “The Cultured Business”, found at www.silkrc.com. He is Managing Editor of The China Alert, a publication of The United States-China Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at sradvisors@gmail.com or +1 (847)722-7817.