C U LT U R A L M A P

• Daniela Valencia (1049016)

• Panagotis Koudoumas (1062085)
• Rik van Oers (1057045)
• Tea Ursino (1054355)
• Vignesh Selvaraj (1044824)
Portfolio Block 2: working with your team you will complete your Culture Map and show
that you understand the different dynamics at play within your team. You will also reflect
on your own role in the team and how to find the best ways to cooperate.
1. Differences based on Culture Map:
Vignesh: Disagreeing is something important in a teamwork, I am from a culture where the decision is made
based on hierarchy and its not common thing to have a disagreement within team to avoid confrontation but as
a team if we don’t do it, even after knowing the decision made will lead to wrong guidance then it will put whole
team under the risk of achieving the common goal. We overcome this by having healthy discussion and get buy
in from all the team members before the decision is being made.
2. Team Reflection:
Vignesh:
1)What key goals that are feasible, measurable, and time-bound did you agree on as a team? – everyone
made sure to complete the task as per the agreed deadline.
2)What strengths and assets did you identify in your team? – Being empathetic and support each order
whenever required.
3)What weaknesses did you identify in your team and what obstacles did you come across? – Initially there
were quite some differences of opinion which leads to argument, later we changed the arguments
more as team discussion which benefitted us in terms of making quick decision.
3. Individual Reflection
Vignesh:
To have effective team collaboration, I always observe people completely before I make some comment. I actively listen to
people and try to empathize their situation and made sure not to interrupt people when they speak. Incase If I have point
to say during the discussion I would wait for my turn and try to raise hand, point out (using body language) and self-
controlled my emotions irrespective of the discussion or the circumstance. This has helped me a lot to have a proper
communication within the team and ensure people understand the point which I try to communicate in right perspective.
Being from a culture where I used to share and communicate with lot of data points and relevant information based on
what I have heard and experienced but while communicating in a team I should try to make it clear and concise. Though I
feel I am good at communicating with people, still I can make it better while working in team. As a team, with people from
5 different culture I initially thought it would be important for me to understand individual team members culture and
behavior but later I felt the most important thing is to understand our own culture. This will help me to streamline my
communication in such a way as what to say and what not to say while working as a team.
Team reflection
Rik:
What key goals that are feasible, measurable, and time-bound did you agree on as a team?
The first key goal we made was after we finished the first block. We noticed that our meetings were
very long, sometimes taking up to three hours to complete. The main reason for this was that we did not
manage our time strictly. We did not have clear agreements on who would be on charge of the time and
how long we would talk about every subject, which made it hard to know when we were spending too
much time on a specific subject.
As such, we wanted to become more efficient with our time during our IP project. To make
measureable, we wanted to keep our meetings within one hour. If the issue could not be solved after
this time, then it would probably mean that we just had to research more or ask for clarification. In which
case, it would be inefficient to try to solve the issue at that moment. Another thing we agreed upon is to
prepare ourselves before the meeting. If it was about covering feedback, we made sure to have all read
it beforehand, rather than doing everything together in the meeting. And rather than giving one person
the task to keep track of time, we would all take up the responsibility to speak up if we felt like we were
going on too long. As a result, our meetings became much more efficient, being better prepared and
mostly covering the essentials.
Another goal of our team was to create a comfortable atmosphere by giving everybody the time and
space to state their view to a subject. Thus, after and during our meetings, we asked each other how
we felt about a certain decision. We all have a different background and we wanted to use that to our
advantage. When everyone states their views on the matter, it was also a valuable learning experience
for everyone. This also complements the final result. So, whenever a big decision had to be made, we
gave everybody a turn to have their say. We all had a couple minutes to say what to think to make sure
Team reflection
Rik:
What strengths and assets did you identify in your team?
As mentioned before, the degree of knowledge that we all had about the industry was very helpful in
our project. It made creating links between cause and effect much easier and allowed us to have a
more holistic perspective on things. We all have different backgrounds. As such, we could bring useful
information to the table from which everyone could learn. I believe this also contributed to attaining a
good result, as multiple mind-sets were used to have a complete picture of transport routes and all the
factors that influence them.
As a skill, I think we all were very open to learn from each other, both regarding theory and other
cultures. We were curious to learn about each other’s background and the customs that we have in our
home country. Not only was it interesting to learn about the situation in other parts of the world, it also
made us connect on a more personal level. It made it much easier to understand each other. The way
we think and act is influenced by our background, so knowing this information helped to make our
group work smoother. As such, I think everyone’s openness to learn from other people and respecting
our differences made a big positive impact in the group.
Lastly, our communication skills were very helpful in this project. We were very clear in communicating
our thoughts about the projects and were not afraid to give feedback to each other. Whenever someone
could not finish their part in time or if updates from the company supervisor came in, we were quick to
notify all the group members of these developments. Again, this made our group work much smoother
and saved us a lot of stress in the long term.
Team reflection
Rik:
What weaknesses did you identify in your team and what obstacles did you come across?
The style in which we held our meetings had some pitfalls. While it was very good to give everyone the
space to say what’s on their mind, it tended to slow our meetings down as a result. Everyone wanted to
give their input, but at times we tended to get lost in the details. When people disagreed on the layout of
something, for instance, it would take quite some time to come to a decision. As a result, during block 1
we made the decision to become more time efficient with our meetings to prevent us from dragging on.
Another challenge we met in the beginning was the way we communicated. In different countries,
certain tones of the voice could mean different things. We have energetic as well as more quiet people
in our group, and sometimes this caused some confusing. To some members, raising their voice was a
sign of anger, while to other members it was just a way to express their excitement. And the reverse
also happened, where one member thought someone was shy, the other member thought they would
offend someone if they raised their voice to speak up. This was the case due to the differences in
culture that we experienced. However, after talking about this together as a group, this confusion was
quickly resolved. Communication went much smoother as a result, because we could understand how
and why each member talked in the way they did.
Furthermore, sometimes we tended to wait a while before taking action. This mainly happened when
emailing our supervisor and had to wait for their response. Sometimes we waited a week or more
before we would call the person, which was not very efficient. As such, we lost some time that could
have otherwise been used to progress with the project. We did improve upon this though, as we
changed our attitude and waited for a maximum of 4 days before calling a person in question. We
realized that a quick phone call was much easier than waiting for the answers per email, so we
3. Individual Reflection
Rik:
During this project, I could use my communication skills quite effectively. I took the role of being the
spokesperson for our group to the company supervisor, which meant that it was my job to connect with her
whenever we had troubles with the assignment. I find it quite easy to call or approach people in both a personal
and business setting, which made our collaboration quite smooth. Additionally, it made it quite easy for me to
break the ice in the beginning of the project. I like to laugh together, so joking around made it (I believe) easier for
people to approach me.

Furthermore, my relator skill tended to be useful for me as well. As I find it quite easy to imagine myself in other
people’s shoes, it made it much easier to understand the different cultures of the group members. The differences
in our way of communicating was one example, where I could imagine how that person feels and why they would
act in a certain way. As such, it did not take long before I was familiar with everyone’s background and felt
comfortable working together with these different cultures.

That said, I would like to improve my decisiveness. Things like waiting for emails or sometimes waiting too long to
speak up during group meetings is something I want to change, since I think it is vital to hone these skills.
Normally I do not have troubles with speaking out, but I sometimes hesitate too much when it comes to negative
feedback. I believe that companies value the people who are not afraid of taking decisions and being honest and
authentic. So, during the remainder for this master, I want to increase my decisiveness by calling faster (in the
case of waiting for emails), which would be within 4 to 5 days after having sent an email. Additionally, I want to be
less afraid to express negative feedback. Whenever I want to express this, I could take the person or people in
Tea
1. Give examples of what the differences mean for you and your team. What would be challenges and possible risks? In your experience in the project group, how did you or can you
overcome those challenges?
In my dream team there was many differences regarding the comunication, evaluation, persuasion and so on. Some of the group members were comunicating high-context, while others low-
context. I communicate more in low-context, dipending on the situation, but come from a culture that is used to communicate in a high context way. During this project I learned to better
understand people that communicate in a way different than mine. It is totally different to just talk and actually to collaborate with somebody. To collaborate and make everybody
satisfied, its really needed to have a proper understanding of what the colluagues want to say. I learned to listen more carefully, in between lines and to adpat my listening to the mode
of comunication, but also to the person as an individual.
While for evaluation, I like to give direct feedbacks, others do not. I realized that people are afraid to offend you while giving direct feedback. After realazing it, I started really to encouarge
people to give feedbacks and also I would really thank a person for an honest negative or positive feedback. In that way the members of my team became more comfortable with that
and that resulted to faster decision making and running the whole project more effeciently, Sometimes when I think I am too direct, I ask that person separetely if everything is okay, but
fortunately since we made that atmosphere where nobody feel offended and take a feedback by heart, everybody felt free to giv e the opinion and never offended.

When talking about persuading, I got the feeling that people usually listen more to the people who use application-first, because it attracts more attention. However, since in the team we had
more the flat type of organization, everybody would actually listen to everybody’s opinion and at the end we would all togeth er vote for the best option. We never favorised anybody’s
opinion, so everybody would feel encouraged to persuae others. And this also explain the type of leadirship I took in this project. I was very strict when coming to deadlines and
feedbacks, but in the other hand we all made decisions together. I believe that it is the right way to approach this team where the leader does not have better knowledge than the
others. In that way everybody felt part of the team management as their role were and felt more happy to be part of the team, even though I was very strict.
In Serbia, people are used have relationship-based trusting, however I really tried not to do that. When people do that usually the workers that are not the favorised ones feel like their hard
working is worthless and eventually lose their motivation, That is why I did not do that and for example when one individual did a bad job I would tell that diectly and honestly 100%, but
I would also do the same if the feedback was positive. Even more when was positive because in that way you encourage your tea m members. Even if the task they did was not big and
so important you have to cheer and thank your team members always, so they feel even more motivated and happy. I was also doing that in public to show my apprieciation while
saying we are the best team every time to make a deeper sense of a team and to make them want to work even harder, without pu shing them too much or scream at them. They
wanted to do it by themselves. That resulted to make our mentor say to us that we were the *Front runners of the class* and in that way actually the best team. You really have to make
people believe in something, so they also work on make that comes true and feel more confident.
While for disagreeing, I saw that in our group some are more comfortable to confront others while others are not. It is important to listen to everybody and not attack people, but to give a
feedback with arguments. It is important to give the time to each member to express his/her opinion and always be thankful fo r every feedback and also make the example on how to
give a proper feedback. I believe that I still have to work on it, sometimes I think I was a little bit too direct. Our team at the beginning was less open to confrontation, but that eventually
changed, when everybody was sure nobody will feel offended. And actually thankful for the given feedback. Somebody gave more or less direct feedback, but the message was clear.
While giving feedbacks everybody felt they were helping each other and that is what made the team comfortable about giving them.
We had a linear-time scheduling, since most of the group members prefer that. We also had deadlines for the project given by the professor and not so much time, so I belive that deadlines
were needed. Some people do things last minute, just because they have a deadline, otherwise they would not even do that then , I am also that kind of person and I know some other
members of my team are like that, so deadlines were essential. Sometimes we prolongated the deadline for one day or two, but not often. Some people needed to be a little bit pushed
and sometimes did not meet the deadlines, but that diassapered after a while.
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2. Team Reflection For your team reflection you must use your insights from your International Project group.
You should then answer the following questions: 1) What key goals that are feasible, measurable, and time-
bound did you agree on as a team? 2) What strengths and assets did you identify in your team? 3) What
weaknesses did you identify in your team and what obstacles did you come across?
When we talk about the key goals that were feasible, measurable, and time-bound in our team I could mention
the tasks that each of us had to do before the next meeting. They were not goals, but were small tasks taken to
achieve the final goal- finilize the project on time. We really respected the deadlines. We also agreed to make
the meetings shorter and we succed in that.
What strengths and assets did you identify in your team? I believe that being comfortable on taking and giving
a feedback really helped us a lot, but also being aware of the culture that person comes from helped us to know
the way to approach that person. Also during the time we got to know each other more, so it was easier. The
lesson where we compared different indicators and countries helped me to be more aware of the differences
between us, but also to know how to overpass them. There was no tension and the atmosphere was relaxed
even before the deadlines. There was no need to make any pressure, because everyone was aware of the
deadline and tasks that had to be done. We tried to help and understand each other and I think everybody made
efforts for this project to be done on time and in the best way.
As I mentioned in the previous question, at the beginning people were afraid to give feedbacks and it needed
time to make people say their opinion freely, that wouldlead to the second problem.The second problem was the
length of the meetings that would durate for hours and were not so efficient.
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3. Individual Reflection Each individual member of a team writes a 200 words reflection in which
you answer the following questions: 1) Which own strengths could you use in order to contribute
to effective team collaboration? 2) Which personal skills do you think would be useful to develop
more?
I believe that I have good leading skills. I encourage my team all the time and put more time on
positive feedbacks rather than negative. I value each opinion equally and listen to all of them.
When some member has a problem we try to help him/her all together. I try to make the
atmosphere as relaxed as possible, sometimes also by talking about something that does not
has to do with the project and making jokes (For a short time). I need to be less direct and count
to 10 and back when somebody does not meet the deadline or does just a part of the given task.
I do not show how much that irritates me, but it really does. Sometimes when the meeting are live
and somebody did not just send me a message saying that he/she did not meet the deadline, I
cannot hide how irritated I am and the way I make comments in that moment. That does not give
any benefits to the team and its environment. Even though I did not show fully how I was, I
should have more self-control and be also in those moments a stable leader.