Pay close attention to culture and adapt yourself quickly. With increased outsourcing percentages across several industries, it is pertinent to know about the culture on the other side. Bringing in experts to talk to teams and sensitize the broader segment of the team that interfaces regularly with offshore resources is a good idea. Almost all of the outsourcing companies, more so the bigger India pure play firms have their own experts who routine put resources thru this grind. The higher your levels greater the emphasis and training on cultural sensitivities. This is part of training curriculam and performance appraisals.

India based call centers for examples have thrust forced watching of baseball, basketball, hockey, football, rugby to know the teams and its more high profile team members. They are encourage to talk about them besides ofcourse daily dose of weather which everyone loves to relate. Dos and don’ts are common practice and circulated widely. Special training is provided to those that are getting ready to fly into a client location.

There is no doubt both sides pay great attention and take pride in their culture and hence the need to ensure appropriate respect and attention is paid. If there are questions it is best addressed with those in the know. There is no dearth of resources to reach out to or using the ever popular internet to Google it outright.

More often it is easy to adapt with some adjustment and accommodation. This is connected to the moral and motivation of team as well. There are lots of examples that I can share ranging from respecting the dressing sense, etiquette, eating habits, punctuality, pronounciation, efficiency, timeliness, discipline, language, behavior just to name a few.