Teamwork in a multicultural work environment faces many challenges that go beyond the interpretation of languages or the workload of the project to be carried out. It requires a mutual desire and a relationship of trust to share the unique skills and knowledge that each of the individual team members have with the rest of their colleagues.

It is a must to have an open and fluid environment that supports a spontaneous and natural communication between the team members.

Knowing our cultural and social differences is the key to understand and respect the different ways of communicating and relating to each other.

In 2012, when MGM decided to open its office in New York, we became aware of the immense multicultural richness that the US possesses. Its population is a spectacular melting pot of cultures involving a plethora of religious beliefs, nationalities, ethnic customs, and habits that all deserve respect.

This expansion into the United States brought with it new opportunities. It also presented us with one of the biggest challenges we have faced as a company to date.

We realized we had an exciting opportunity to integrate these cultural and social differences with our company ideals so that we could understand and harness the uniqueness of the multicultural elements to make our company a better and stronger service provider to all our customers.

The last barrier

At the work level, our project teams consist of members who have not worked together before. As they quickly begin to collaborate following the project objectives set by Project Manager, we notice small nuances appear that build up a barrier around us that we all need to break down.

The barrier that prevents us from strengthening bonds within and beyond the workplace is our inability to acceptance and respect the cultural diversity and differences from each other. We must gain understanding and knowledge of the cultural heritages, the customs and beliefs, the different ways of thinking of our co-workers all bring a wealth of powerful resources to the team.

To know where we come from in order to know where we are going
Understanding the origins of our cultural differences can help us promote an environment conducive for everyone to feel comfortable and accepted. This understanding must be created from within each and every one of us.

For all these reasons, MGM promotes working environments of open thinking in which all participants feel free to share ideas, concerns, and doubts with the rest of the team. A healthy environment in which we all understand that:

1. Any question does not offend; it is just a question to help improve learning.
2. Shared knowledge makes us great and makes the team great.
3. Our cultural heritage is personal wealth to be shared

Understanding the different and diverse ways of relating to each other has helped us to eliminate the last barrier, the cultural and social barrier. The barrier that sometimes comes to the forefront in a work team and does not allow personal relationships within the group to extend beyond the different tasks to be shared in a project. The one that does not allow us to enjoy the success achieved, the value of teamwork.