Everything Korea August 14 Episode, Korean Business—Tempering Intervention

In this final segment in the series on Korean business intervention, as promised, I will provide some proven workarounds—in particular, tempering Korean teams’ pressing for immediate results.  

1. Foremost, to soften the Koreans’ inclination to jump into implementing a plan with hopes of producing immediate results, look to minimize the anxiety for both the local Korean team and the headquarters team.  Show confidence that the challenge can be overcome (I can coach you on specifics).

2. Acknowledge your high engagement and insure the teams that action will be promptly taken.

3. A next step upon receiving a directive from Korea is to have an informal discussion with local Korean teams to brief them on possible action steps that enable the team to work through what needs to be explored more deeply.

4. Follow up with email correspondence confirming what was discussed verbally.  

5. Allow a day or two for the Korean team to review. In many cases the Korean teams are not familiar with local practices and the vocabulary used to describe Western technical nuances.

The local teams may also want to report back to Korea on progress.

HQ leadership are ultimately responsible, so the better informed they are, the more trust they will have in local teams—Korean and Western—that the project will progress.

6. Remember you may not receive any immediate feedback.

7. Conducting informal daily updates to the Korea teams and sharing the steps undertaken with the local Koreans can also be helpful.

8. Even better is reporting any positive accomplishments in your review process.

9. It is particularly important to address the potential trade-offs and risks as action steps leading to solutions and ensuring the team that this step will not impede the project and may, in fact, avoid costly setbacks.

10. Finally, having said all this, maintain trust through strong relationships between the Korean and Western local organizations is essential.

In the next commentary on Korean business, I will discuss turn-around steps when the relationship between Korean and western get rocky…

One more thing….

I’d be happy to discuss and share my suggestion for a Korean business workaround…

Stacey stacey@koreabcw.com, my assistant can schedule us a time to meet or chat by phone.  

For all urgent matters, text me at 310-866-3777

For more information on my work…. www.learnmore.Koreabcw.com