Reach across cultures

Communication is an important part of personnel management, and it’s even more key when a superintendent is working across cultures on the same team. At the Syngenta Business Institute, the seminar for working with multi-ethnic teams started with a card game.

"We were broken into groups of players and were handed cards and a rule sheet. The rule sheet stated ‘No talking.’ After playing a while, we stopped and the person with the most points moved to another group," Ryan Bourne, superintendent at Terradyne Country Club in Andover, Kan. explains. "Play became even harder to understand and people seemed to be cheating to gain more points and move on. You could tell guys were getting frustrated. After about six frustrating rounds of silence and funny looks the game was stopped. Little did everyone know that each group were handed different sets of rules. Had we been able to communicate, we could have asked other players what they were doing or thinking, but the breakdown in communication became very evident."

Bourne realizes now that "Some things seem “natural” to me, and I figured that everyone knows exactly what I am thinking or trying to explain. But everyone sees or thinks of tasks differently due to their culture or beliefs."

With this sort of a narrow focus, it’s easy to lose sight of the people the superintendent is working with Both the superintendent and the employee can see different goals for the same job, and they might not use the same routes to get good results. "I would become frustrated because I wanted it done a certain way," Bourne says. "If it wasn’t, I didn’t really let it bother me, but in the back of my mind I always thought, 'Now why didn’t he do it like I told him?'"

Since SBI, Bourne has worked on his communication techniques. "I definitely work to explain tasks in greater detail, as well as letting the team member decide a more efficient way of handling the job. It's just not my way only, somewhere in the middle is probably our best option."

Bourne believes that superintendents need to appreciate cultural differences because it is important to appreciate staff members' behavior, beliefs, values, and thoughts. "More than likely, their ideas are different from ours. A lot of times there is a wide array of cultural differences and the way an employee carries out his or her work can be completely different from another team member."

Bourne credits SBI for giving him another perspective on daily assignments. "It helps to match the right employee to each task. I also now understand that some team members don’t like to lead, while others enjoy taking charge. You need to find the happy medium. Everyone is going to make mistakes; letting the emotions go and allowing that person to grow from the mistakes is key."

Employee morale is a critical to a well-run golf course. "A happy crew is a productive crew," says Bourne. "The way I manage, I would like the crew to be a team. Everyone works better together and less conflicts arise."

Bourne tries by example, joining in to help out with some of the manual labor on the course when he’s able.

"I try to work with the guys as much as possible; I don't mind weedeating, working in the bunkers and other field work occasionally," he notes. "I think you can gain a lot of respect from your crew by doing the same tasks that they have to do." 

At the same time, a golf course superintendent needs to take the helm and set the course for the work day and beyond. "I really believe that you provide the goals and allow the team to follow through. A good leader in a cultural world has to adapt, communicate and respect differences in the team.”