Global Technical Workforce Seminar and Ghana Experience
An experience where I learned about cross-cultural teams and traveled to Ghana.
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What the Experience Involved
For the Global Technical Workforce class, we studied cross-cultural communication, learned about cultural differences and intelligence, and learned how to collaborate in global technical teams. We worked with French students from The University of Lorraine to produce a paper on how one becomes an engineer in France and the United States and a presentation on alternatives to traditional combustion engines. I also had the opportunity to go to Ghana, see what technical positions in Ghana are like, and meet fellow engineering students.
What I Learned
I learned that I like learning and experiencing other cultures; I like working in cross-cultural teams. I learned that adaptability is integral to the success of cross-cultural teams (as elaborated upon below) and I learned tools that will help me to be a successful member of the global technical workforce.
Impact on Me
I cannot overemphasize the impact this experience had on me. I've formed friendships that transcend country borders and I hope will last a lifetime. I learned about cultures that I was unfamiliar with. I will be a better engineer and employee in the future as a result of this experience. The internet has made global teams more prevalent than ever and it is our job to know how to navigate these teams successfully, which this class has taught me how to do.
A Sample of My Work: My Reflection
When I signed up for this class, I was open to learning more about the global technical workforce and how to be effective in it, but I had no idea what the course would really be about. In actuality it turned out to be mainly about culture and communication rather than the technical aspects of the global technical workforce. I have been fortunate enough to have cross cultural communication before my involvement in this class but am ecstatic to apply what I’ve learned and be a more effective employee, communicator, and team member.
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My most significant takeaway from this course is the importance of adaptability and how significant the topic is in contributing to an effective global team. As I mentioned above, I’ve interacted with people from different cultures through my involvement with Engineers Without Borders and my own travel. I’ve sometimes found these relationships frustrating as we don’t seem to get each other. I see now that issue lies with me as I had never consciously adapted my behavior to improve these relationships. I have done research on cultural topics in the past, but always found them overwhelming to implement; thereby, failing to adapt my behavior to accommodate for what I’d learned. In this class however, I got to practice the cultural course content with my French team and got to consciously and preemptively adapt my behavior to improve cultural understanding. Learning how to adapt your communication, behaviors, and expectations is integral to success in a global team. You can know everything on paper about a topic, but if you are unwilling to adapt your communication, behavior, and expectations, you will just be left frustrated like I was. This understanding of adaptability and purposeful execution of it allowed me to see misunderstandings as opportunities to grow, learn, and apply my knowledge.
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When I implemented this adaptability in my projects, I found much more success and less frustration than in the past. I entered my project meetings focused on being open to conflict and understanding that my idea of perfection may not apply to this project. I really had to let my idea of what’s best go during these project meetings and accept that difference isn’t bad. Specifically, there were different requirements on the Project 2 format and presentation for our French counterparts than for us. Although scary, they weren’t big enough changes to question/ potentially cause miscommunications over so, I often found myself having to let go of things for the greater good (knowing when to pick my battles). I also had to practice wording things differently when there were misunderstandings. There were a couple of times during these projects that I used words or concepts that my French teammates did not understand. I found it difficult explaining these topics in ways different from what I had already said and was thankful to have other American group members who reshaped my thinking on explaining said topics.
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The biggest challenge I faced in completing the projects was differentiating between cultural differences and things that might affect the quality of our work. As I mentioned above, there were times when differences weren’t bad, just different. There were also times when the French student’s perspective made our overall project better. However, there were some topics where I wasn’t sure if I should have questioned the differences proposed. One thing I found myself struggling with was the use of A.I. Our French group mates decided to use A.I. for their first draft, which it seemed like was fine for them and their course. But here, A.I. is generally frowned upon and any technical data coming from A.I is scrutinized and must be properly cited. In this case, I did mention the need for citations and added a note to the final draft about the use of A.I. in their portions, but I don’t know if that was the best/ right thing to do in the situation. I also struggled when there were differences in opinions.
Honestly, I really enjoyed this course. I enjoyed getting to work with the French students and apply the course content. I found the course content easily applicable and believe that I will apply the knowledge I learned in this class in my future career. It might have been helpful to have a more explicit rubric for the grading of projects, but I also understand this may stifle creativity. I also believe that the conflict in global teams module may have been more useful earlier on in the course.
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Due to this class, I can now confidently tell interviewers that I have experience working with individuals from another country. I would explain that I had the opportunity to work with French engineering students in a class I took focused on global communication and virtual teams. The skills that I bring to a global team are that I’m adaptable, open-minded, a good communicator, and curious about cultures and cross-cultural communication. I learned through the course and work I did with these French students that effective cross-cultural communication is important in our increasingly global economy as employees and consumers are no longer centralized and the only way to have effective cross-cultural communication is to be open-minded, curious, and adaptable.