Written by: Rod Aburto

When companies look to augment their teams, especially with nearshore talent, there’s often a focus on technical expertise and immediate needs. But while skills and capabilities are essential, one critical element often gets overlooked: cultural alignment. From my experience, the long-term benefits of prioritizing cultural compatibility are profound, impacting everything from team morale to project success. Here’s why cultural alignment in team augmentation matters and how it’s led to enhanced collaboration and success in my own career.

Building a Foundation of Trust and Communication

One of the biggest benefits of culturally aligned teams is the ease of communication and trust that naturally develops. When team members share similar values and understand each other’s work and communication styles, they’re better able to communicate openly and effectively. In all these years, we worked closely with US-based clients, integrating our nearshore team with their local developers. When both teams embrace direct communication and transparency, we are able to create a more collaborative environment. This mutual understanding minimizes miscommunication and enables team members to give honest, constructive feedback, fostering a strong foundation of trust.

Enhancing Collaboration and Reducing Bottlenecks in Team Augmentation

Cultural compatibility also helps to reduce bottlenecks in collaboration. For instance, many nearshore teams, like ours, work within similar time zones, allowing for real-time interaction and feedback. But beyond time zone alignment, shared cultural values mean that team members are more likely to be proactive in problem-solving and contribute ideas.

In one project, a developer from our team quickly spotted a potential issue and directly contacted the client’s lead developer to address it. Instead of waiting for a formal review, they resolved the issue immediately, which saved us valuable time and kept the project on track. This kind of direct, proactive approach is much easier when cultural values around ownership and accountability are aligned.

Boosting Engagement and Morale

When team members feel understood and share a common culture, their engagement and job satisfaction increase. Teams that feel connected are more motivated to go the extra mile, even in challenging times.

In one engagement related to nearshore team augmentation, we collaborated on a long-term software development project with a client who highly valued teamwork and knowledge sharing—values our team at Scio also holds dearly. This alignment led to regular “tech talks” within the project team, where members exchanged insights and best practices. As a result, not only did everyone on the team grow their skills, but morale was also consistently high. Team members felt valued and recognized, leading to better engagement and a higher-quality product.

Supporting Long-Term Client Relationships

Cultural compatibility isn’t just beneficial for the immediate project; it’s a key factor in building long-term partnerships. Clients who work with culturally aligned teams are more likely to extend their contracts or re-engage them for future projects because of the seamless integration and reduced friction in collaboration. I’ve seen this firsthand with clients who value our team’s dedication, work ethic, and ability to understand their unique company culture. By prioritizing cultural alignment for team augmentation, we’ve been able to create lasting client relationships that lead to future projects, referrals, and a reputation for being a reliable and compatible nearshore partner. That has enabled us to be partners with multiple clients over more than 10 years and counting.

Conclusion

Cultural alignment in team augmentation is more than a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic advantage that yields long-term benefits. By fostering trust, enhancing collaboration, boosting engagement, and supporting lasting partnerships, culturally compatible teams become a true asset to any company’s growth and success. For companies looking to enhance their development process, investing in culturally aligned nearshore teams can make all the difference, ensuring that projects don’t just meet expectations but exceed them.

Looking back, every successful project in my career has had a component of cultural alignment. It’s a constant reminder that team augmentation is much more than adding skills; it’s about integrating values and visions to create something lasting.

If you’re ready to experience the difference culturally aligned teams can make, explore Scio’s team augmentation services and see how we can help you build a cohesive, effective team that truly fits your company’s culture.

Written by: Yamila Solari

Working in a global company with people from different national cultures is a powerful experience. Not only does diversity enrich our lives, but it’s also an engine for innovation in organizations—provided the organization is open to acknowledging and respecting this diversity. In this article, I will share what I have learned, as a team coach and general manager of Scio, about embracing interculturality in our teams.

Interculturality involves understanding, respecting, and valuing the differences and similarities among cultures. In an organizational setting, acknowledging and reflecting on these differences is crucial if we want to enhance effective communication, creativity, innovation, and conflict resolution.

At Scio, we used the Scrum Framework, which has transparency as one of its key pillars. Transparency refers to the open and honest flow of information among team members and stakeholders. I’ve found that recognizing intercultural differences is essential for developing transparent communication. To achieve this, we focus on educating team members and fostering cultural self-awareness.

Tools for Building Cultural Awareness

A great resource for intercultural education is The Culture Map by Erin Meyer. In her book, Professor Meyer introduces eight scales that describe cultural tendencies based on common workplace behaviors. While some scales are similar to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, many offer fresh insights into other organizational behaviors that may be related to national cultures.

Meyer emphasizes that while every culture falls at a certain point on these scales, individuals may find themselves within a range around that point. This means we should use cultural scales as tools for personal reflection and refrain from defining someone solely by their country’s profile. Each person should identify where they are on the cultural scale through self-analysis or by using online cultural profile tools. You can learn more at Erin Meyer’s website. One free tool for individual cultural profiles is found at Harvard Business Review. A free tool for country profile comparison is found at The Culture Factor website.

One way to further our understanding of the effects of interculturality in a given team is to design a team building session around it. Besides covering topics like individual strengths and weaknesses, team members reflect on their culture profile and share with the rest of the team where they fall in their country scales. To consolidate this learning, the team reflects on the diversity of scales and ponders how these differences benefit teamwork but also how they may become a hindrance to it. In my experience, it’s also important for teams to consider interculturality when drafting their working agreements.

Lessons from Our Journey

Over the years at Scio, we’ve had the pleasure of working with professionals and clients from various countries. However, two decades ago, when the company was young, we didn’t have a

formal structure to coach teams in interculturality. Looking back, I see instances where this kind of coaching would have been invaluable.

For example, I recall a brilliant French team leader working with four Mexican developers. He was dedicated to their professional growth, providing very specific feedback on areas for improvement. However, the team members felt demoralized. We later realized that his feedback style was too direct for them. Relating this to Meyer’s Evaluating Scale, France tends toward direct negative feedback, while Mexico leans toward indirect negative feedback.

In another case, I worked with a team comprising one Spanish developer and three Mexican developers. On the surface, they got along well, but during a coaching session, it emerged that they were unhappy with how conflicts were handled. The Mexican team members felt their colleague was too confrontational. By examining their cultural maps, we noticed that Spain tends to be more comfortable with direct disagreement, while Mexico prefers to avoid confrontation. This understanding allowed us to adjust our team working agreements to address conflict resolution more effectively.

Today, we offer interculturality training to our new employees. Since most of our clients are in the US, this is the culture we cover more extensively. Also, we include this topic in the team building sessions, right before the project kick-off. If conflicts arise later, we make sure to remember the interculturality component for team interventions, whenever the team has different national cultures in it.

Moving Forward Together

Since implementing interculturality training and incorporating it into our team-building sessions, we’ve seen significant improvements in team cohesion and communication. Our teams are better equipped to navigate cultural differences, leading to more innovative solutions and a harmonious work environment.

These experiences have taught me the importance of embracing interculturality within teams. By understanding and appreciating our differences, we can create a more harmonious and productive work environment.

I encourage you all to explore the role of interculturality in your teams. You might be surprised at how much it can improve communication, collaboration, and overall performance.