The author of a column for Entrepreneur reports that managing culturally diverse teams at Jotform requires specific structural interventions to mitigate friction. The author argues that leaders must prioritize open-mindedness during recruitment, facilitate in-person collaboration, and eliminate ambiguity in corporate policy to maintain cohesion.
Operational Strategies for Diverse Teams
- Prioritize open-minded candidates by testing for cognitive flexibility during the interview process.
- Mandate in-person team retreats to bridge the communication gaps created by remote work and time zone dispersion.
- Codify company values and expectations to eliminate ambiguity, specifically regarding off-hours communication and leave policies.
Recruitment Filters for Cognitive Flexibility
The author identifies the hiring phase as the primary control point for organizational culture. Rather than focusing solely on technical qualifications, the author emphasizes the necessity of testing for open-mindedness. Candidates who assume their default perspective is universal often create friction in diverse environments. During the interview, the author specifically asks candidates to describe instances where they were proven wrong. The objective is to identify whether a prospective hire responds with defensiveness or with the flexibility required to integrate into a team with differing cultural norms.
In-Person Integration at Jotform
According to the author, remote workers tend to struggle more with isolation and stress than onsite workers, and experience lower overall well-being, in part because so much is lost when interacting only through screens. At Jotform, which has offices across five countries, the firm utilizes “Jotformers Week” to bring employees together. The author argues that digital interactions often flatten tone and body language, leading to misinterpretations of personality—such as mistaking a subdued, introverted professional for someone who is inherently “rude.” By facilitating face-to-face interaction, the company reports that employees often discover that perceived coldness is merely a cultural difference in communication styles rather than a lack of professional warmth.
| Strategy Component | Primary Objective | Implementation Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring | Open-mindedness | Candidate behavioral response |
| Work Environment | Cohesion | Periodic in-person retreats |
| Policy | Clarity | Explicit off-hours guidelines |
Standardizing Expectations to Reduce Ambiguity
The author contends that in the absence of clearly defined expectations, employees will fill the void with assumptions, which frequently leads to cultural friction. The author advocates for the documentation of core company values and the consistent reinforcement of those values in all-hands meetings and newsletters. Furthermore, the author emphasizes the importance of formalizing boundaries around work-life balance. By explicitly instructing employees to remove communication tools like Slack during their time off, the firm removes the burden of interpretation from the individual. This approach is designed to foster psychological safety, ensuring that the rules remain consistent regardless of an employee’s geographic or cultural background.
Market Context and Cultural Friction
Making time for in-person team building is an expense, to be sure. But having employees feel genuinely connected, even across oceans, is priceless.
