> Finally, make a trip to India and do meet your remote team members.
I'm from Sweden, and a Swedish colleague met a team that visited from India. Half-way through the meeting she had to stop and ask why the Indian team were shaking their heads. It turns out it was a head bobble or Indian head shake.[1]
My colleague thought that they kept signalling "no, no, no" by shaking their heads while she was speaking, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. I'm very happy my colleague stopped and asked, because a lot of people would stay silent and keep their misconceptions.
Good approach when dealing with any unknown cultural nuances.
I always get annoyed when people go with preconceived notions and stereotypes rather than asking/figuring out for themselves. In today's "Yellow-journalism style media" facts and truth are no longer relevant but everything is turned into a caricature. We should know better in this era of "Globalization". "Cultural Sensitivity" is much more important than we realize.
I'm from Sweden, and a Swedish colleague met a team that visited from India. Half-way through the meeting she had to stop and ask why the Indian team were shaking their heads. It turns out it was a head bobble or Indian head shake.[1]
My colleague thought that they kept signalling "no, no, no" by shaking their heads while she was speaking, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. I'm very happy my colleague stopped and asked, because a lot of people would stay silent and keep their misconceptions.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble