Spread the values that matter

When Hugo started his company in 2005, he had no experience with intercultural teams. One of the first things he did was to sit together with his Indian team to define what values everyone had in common. In a session of several hours and some iterations, we defined 6 core values for Bridge Global. They are still alive today. Throughout the years, we found that 2 values have had the biggest impact on working with distributed teams: openness and entrepreneurship/responsibility. Indian culture is less 'open' than Dutch culture. By making openness a core value, we've always been able to attract people in India who are more open than average. We've created an onboarding program in which existing colleagues share how openness (and other values) has helped them work with colleagues and customers. How it has enabled them to grow personally and create the outcomes the company needs. In collaborations, people share what's on their minds now. They'll ask questions if requirements are not clear. They will discuss openly what bothers them.

Entrepreneurship has led people to feel accountable for the results of their work. People are put in front of customers from day 1 (whereas in many Indian companies they are hidden behind project managers, team leads and other roles). They get direct feedback from customers in the form of monthly ratings. Their salaries are even dependent on that rating. So people deliver and don't hide behind their superiors or colleagues.

By defining what behavior is desired, organizations create clarity. If defined clearly, they work across cultures. These values can then be used to give people feedback on their performance and behavior.

Bert van Hijfte's stukje hier zetten.