Following some major recent investments by Israeli companies in Ireland, Yanky Fachler, an Israeli businessman, author and corporate trainer who has lived and worked in Ireland for over 20 years, shares his thoughts on the differences between Irish and Israeli business cultures
Irish vs. Israeli business cultures: the importance of cultural intelligence
Cultural Intelligence is the ability to appreciate the different cultural values and customs of another culture. In terms of international business, Cultural Intelligence is the ability to handle international business with more respect, more sensitivity, and more effective cross-cultural understanding. As many companies have discovered to their cost, it’s easy getting it wrong. Walmart failed in Germany. Tesco failed in Japan. Marks & Spencer failed in Canada. McDonalds failed in the Caribbean. Starbucks has over 23,000 branches in 72 countries, yet Israel is the only country where Starbucks went in, opened up shop, and left – never to return. Not because Starbucks didn’t know how to run a business, but because Starbucks did not understand the Israeli culture.
For Irish businesses doing business with their Israeli counterparts, Cultural Intelligence is the ability to tune into to the Israeli cultural wavelength, to avoid cultural missteps, and to prevent cultural confusion. For example, the Irish tend to be more monochronic – rule-oriented, while Israelis tend to be more polychronic – relationship oriented. In practice, this means that the monochronic Irish prefer to do one thing at a time, and tend to regard time itself as something discrete, divided into fixed time elements of minutes and hours. The more polychronic Israelis prefer to do multiple things at the same time, and regard time as a never-ending river, flowing from the infinite past, through the present, into the infinite future.
The Irish like to plan in detail, make lists, monitor their activities, and organise their time into a daily routine. Israelis often prefer to keep their time unstructured, changing from one activity to another as the mood takes them. The monochronic Irish do not value interruptions, and often regard the Israeli tendency to switch back and forth from one activity to another as wasteful and distracting. The Irish cannot understand why the polychronic Israelis allow themselves to be constantly interrupted by phone calls and by people stopping by.
The clash of high and low context cultures
High or low context cultures refer to the degree to which cultures rely on things other than words to convey meaning. The lower-context Israelis place more focus on the literal meanings of words. Messages are conveyed more by words than by nonverbal means. Israelis are poorer at decoding the sort of unspoken messages and indirect communication that can characterise the Irish way of doing things. Israeli verbal communication is direct, candid, explicit, in-your-face, which is why for Israelis, even heated arguments are strictly non-personal. Israelis often find their higher context Irish colleagues bafflingly unforthcoming with information. There is no Hebrew equivalent to “Whatever you say, say nothing.” Irish communicators assume a certain commonality of knowledge. Communication is more implicit, less spelled out, and with a tendency to talk around the point and to use jargon and idiomatic language.
Even though the Irish rate themselves as great communicators, their fear of being seen as too opinionated can result in mixed messages. For the Irish, disagreement is personalised. The Irish wish for harmony and consensus contrasts starkly with the blunt manner in which Israelis express their opinions. The more direct Israeli culture tends to use upgrading words with negative feedback to make it feel stronger: “This is absolutely inappropriate,” “This is totally unacceptable.” The more indirect Irish culture tends to use downgrading words that soften the criticism: kind of, I guess, sort of, a little, a bit, maybe, and slightly.
Israelis often behave like a big, opinionated, loud and expressive Greek family. There is lots of touching and shouting. When you regard others as being in your family, you express yourself in a direct, immediate and honest fashion. Looking in from the outside, this is often interpreted as being rude, impolite, arrogant and pushy. Israelis let off steam verbally. They can yell at a colleague one moment and be best buddies a minute later. Israelis are quick to share information that Irish people would rarely discuss. Israelis freely tell you exactly how much they earn, the size of their mortgage and the size of their overdraft. This interconnectedness of Israeli society is partly due to the fact that practically every male Israeli business colleague you are likely to meet, as well as many female colleagues, have completed their compulsory military service. Some of them held very senior ranks, and may still serve in the reserves.
Israelis love to argue. Jewish culture as it has evolved over thousands of years, is based on questioning and challenging. Passionate debate is in the Israeli DNA, and non-Israelis are sometimes taken aback by the tone or loudness of the discussion. Many Israelis speak too loudly even in confined spaces. Irish people need to remember that Israeli decisiveness should not be mistaken for pushiness, Israeli passion should not be mistaken for rudeness, and Israeli loudness should not be mistaken for anger. When it comes to negotiation dynamics, Israelis often prefer to socialize after completing negotiations, while Irish people tend to want to socialize as a prelude to negotiations.
The Irish work culture can seem lax compared to the Israel model. Irish people can come across as circumspect. Compliments seem to make many Irish people feel extremely uncomfortable, confused and suspicious. While the Irish claim to welcome feedback, they often find it threatening. The Irish don’t like to be rushed, and they may not be too punctual for business and social meetings. The Irish seem to prefer short-term to long-term planning. For their part, Israelis can come across as too blunt. Impatient Israelis do not share the Irish fondness for long meetings, while Irish people can be frustrated at Israeli insistence on getting answers yesterday. Israelis are not great at small talk. They do not appreciate meaningless polite chat, much preferring honest feedback.
With good will, patience and an appreciation of the need for cultural sensitivity, there is every reason to believe that Irish-Israeli business will continue to expand and thrive.
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