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Making the Most of a Heavenly Team |
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I was in charge of a school in Asia. It was the first day. The former leader, an Asian brother, came to lend a hand. I asked his advice on running the school. He said, "You'll learn." That was it. He went home, I stayed back, an e-mail arrived: he sent my leader a list of my administrative sins. I felt a stab of pain. Why hadn't he told me his concerns directly? Why had he complained to my leader? That felt like betrayal. I wondered, what caused such behavior? Was it sin? Was it culture? Was it personality? I didn't know. Later on, I realized that my Asian brother probably had my best interest at heart. He didn't want to embarrass me by confronting me directly. He didn't want me to lose face. Instead, he entrusted his concerns to my leader. He trusted my leader to consider his recommendations and either leave the situation alone or talk to me in an appropriate way about improvements I could make. It took a while, though, for me to see the light. In the mean time, I suffered some mental distress. Multicultural team confusion is like that. It stems from a person's need first to come to terms with the baffling behavior of another team member, then to respond in a healthy way. The Glory Team Glorify God's Diversity. My wife is Chinese. Chinese tend to be practical-minded while Americans like me tend to be theoretical-minded. Both reflect different aspects of the glory of God and both have important functions in life. When combined, they make each of us more complete and expand our views of the world. The unique giftings of each nationality on a team enriches each team member. The Glory-Sin Mix-up Multicultural team confusion flows in large part from the mixture of man's sin and God's glory in culture. This glory-sin mix-up acknowledges two realities: God has set His glory into the world's cultures for the good of man, but man has distorted that glory into harmful cultural sin. Reality #1: The glory of God in the cultures of men Consider just two examples: Power Distance – Small and Large. Different cultures produce different leaders. My Asian professor from the Asian seminary gently warned me, "Most Asian professors don't like to be questioned." Contrast that with the Landa Copes and Steve Aherns who invite a good fight in the DTS ring. The technical term for this is power distance—some large, some small. Asian cultures enthrone the leader, emphasizing respect for elders and giving face to leaders. Western cultures dethrone the leader, emphasizing equality and fairness. Reality #2: The sin of man sewn into the fabric of culture Culture as a whole is not neutral. Some aspects are, like eating food with chopsticks or fingers; some are not, like head-hunting and cannibalism. Specific sins abide in specific cultures. The Apostle Paul speaks of this when he quotes the Cretan prophet, "Cretans are always liars, evil bests, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12b). Worse still, Paul agrees, "This testimony is true" (1:13)! Paul, a racist? Hardly. Paul, a realist? Definitely. Cretans shared a common culture and a common sin. "I have been immunized to American promises," said one Asian YWAMer. Anti-American statement? No. A reality check. Americans are infamous for making many promises with little action. I'm guilty of it, colleagues are guilty of it, and many Americans are guilty of it. It is a cultural sin. Sin in culture distorts the glory of God in culture. That mix-up of man's sin and God's glory in culture causes many confusing moments in multicultural teams. The reason is simple: the missionary knows that God has set His glory in another culture, but that culture is warped by sin. The Path to Healing How then does the member of the multicultural team sort out how to get through the sometimes-painful confusion? By walking the path I myself have begun to walk. Come, follow me on this path to healing, a path marked by four encounters. The Interpersonal Encounter. The confusion I've been referring to usually begins with a difficult interaction with a specific person. For me, those encounters have often come with leaders. Prior to moving here to Asia, I only served under Americans. After moving here, I only served under Asians. I observed that my Asian leaders placed greater stress on hierarchy, withheld more information from subordinates, and emphasized directives over consultation. My former leaders, by and large, were not like that. It did not take long for this to become a source of persistent personal stress in my life. The Cultural Encounter. Was this culture or sin? My confusion led me to take the first step in resolving my distress. I needed to study more about the culture behind my leaders' behavior. My graduate program in intercultural studies had exposed me to the research of Geert Hofstede, who noted that in some countries, "the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally." I could see this in Asian culture. Learning that fact helped me understand my leaders better. The God Encounter. But how could I evaluate that culture? I took another step toward clarity as I sought out biblical principles that applied to my situation. Didn't leadership experts like J. Oswald Sanders and Tom Marshall decry authoritarian leadership styles? Yes…but…God gave directives, demanded respect, and honored hierarchy. So this Asian leadership style could not be all bad, could it? No. A healthy intercultural relationship is the work of an adult, one who accepts the presence both of good and evil. My confusion started to dissolve only as I searched Scripture and Christian literature on team leadership and discerned where leaders either upheld or violated leadership principles. The Choice. But the healing was not complete. God confronted me with a decision. Accept? Confront? Move on? God will confront you, too. One leader has wisely encouraged short-term teams to distinguish between preference and principle. If multicultural team distress relates to preference, like certain leadership styles that do not harm followers, it can be cured through acceptance. Multicultural team problems related to principle, though, often require creative cross-cultural confrontation. I recommend two books on this subject, David Augstburger's Caring Enough to Confront and Cross-Cultural Conflict by Duane Elmer. Creative confrontation is the attitude that sees confrontation as a creative, rather than destructive, force, and that says, "I care about the issue and the relationship." Team members from different cultural backgrounds must learn to "hear" and to "speak" the language of confrontation spoken by one another, confronting in humility. For example, westerners might need to learn to "hear" indirect rebukes by Asians, which are often couched in speech designed to help the listener to save face, and Asians might need to learn to "speak" direct rebukes to westerners, who more often than not will not understand indirect rebukes. Moving On In spite of my struggle with "high power distance" in Asian culture, I count it a privilege to have served under Asian leaders. I respect and value their leadership. Through them, I have learned a lot, and grown a lot. I have gained tremendously from my experience with multicultural teams. I wouldn't trade it for anything, even if it has cost me a little confusion along the way. --by Joshua Snyder. Joshua lives with his wife and two children in Malaysia. He works with Streams in the Desert, a YWAM relief and development ministry. For more information visit www.streams.mysite.com or contact streams7@juno.com. 'International YWAMer Magazine', February - May 2007 __________________________________________________________________________ Multicultural Team Resources Books
Article "Wise Doves and Innocent Serpents? Doing Conflict Resolution Better," by Kelly O'Donnell in the January 2007 issue of Evangelical Missions Quarterly 'International YWAMer Magazine', February - May 2007 |
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