“Indian people said always yes to everything, even though they did not understand what I was saying. To change that, I decided to ask questions that the answer could not be yes or no. I put real examples in order to make them thinking and try to see if they understood the requirement or topic that we were discussing.”
“In India, my experience is that they usually say yes to most of the request before assessing feasibility, because they will do all they can to achieve it.”
“People from India don’t use the same body language to ‘say’ ‘Yes’ (head’s movement). So the first time I had a conversation with the team we have in there, I was not sure if they were agreeing or not, So I had to keep on asking if they were following / agreeing with me, even they were already providing this information by their body language. ”
“Some time ago I had an Indian intern on my team…..Arun Raja. Arun is very clever young man, hard working and diligent. His English was not brilliant but has improved. The one thing I continually struggle with in my communications with Arun is head movement. In the UK we move our head up and down to signify Yes and sideways to indicate No. In India – it’s the opposite!”
“Indian people have a very strong hierarchy feeling. Engineers can’t travel in the same bus as supervisors or technicians.”
“In India there is a strong hierarchy system in place where subordinate engineers are not permitted to contribute in dialogue, rather the chief engineer must cascade all information.”
“One and a half years ago, I started working with a team based in India. I knew little about their varied culture, believes, languages, traditions, and how to interact efficiently with them. I have learned a lot since then, and still learning, and believe I have adapted how I interact with them (…) I also encouraged them to challenge me and provide their opinion, as otherwise they would not typically challenge me.”
“Working with Indian guys: they never told that they can’t do it even they have to spend time more than deadline date.”
“In India, you ask something and they always say yes they will do it although they know they won’t do it.”
“Off shore team typically accept and commit easily for any requirement but in reality they do not understand it so you need to be very detailed with them.”