How do you bridge the gap to adapt changes for each team?

Bridging the gap in teams

A globe."How can we bridge the gap to adapt changes to each team?" From my experience, I know there's mainly a geographical gap,as I've worked for years in this Asian-founded company.

So we have the first gap, which is geographical, and then there is a cultural gap, a gap in terms of differences.

From experience, I know you can't impose something diverse, a working method,a retail approach, therefore, to the shop's reality,that may work in Europe, in Italy, but probably not in China.

And in fact, that happened recently during a visit to our headquarters in China, to visit the stores,which is actually part of a future project, the project that will reach here with the opening of new stores.

I've been asked for feedback.Xiaomi produces a huge range of products, and I think the most important thing is to create a common thread among those products,almost like a catalogue.

How is that done?We need to create an experience, mainly, inside the store.

And that's why, in my opinion, to close this gap we must start by listening and observing. Then, in my work, I always try to balance and coordinate what I see and what I feel regarding the store's overall experience, what we actually bring to sales.

And to do that, you need to understand the local reality, accept it,customers' needs, what local customers look for, while clearly following the corporate strategy, which in this case comes from a bit further away,specifically from Asia, so it can be localized on a large scale,emphasizing and promoting even more local specialities and characteristics.

Then there's a discussion, an aspect of adaptation, and I repeat,we start with a discussion about listening to and respecting local traditions. In my work, I deal every day with colleagues across Europe who are very different from one another,because, perhaps this is a bit extreme, Portugal is not like Germany.

Also, in this case, my task is to listen and assess what I find in the place I go to.

On my business trips, I often take care of several things,from the store's commercial reality to retail sales,I make sure to visit Xiaomi stores, shops, and spaces.

That's where the contact point with the customer is, and therefore,where we can learn more, highlight, or perhaps detect criticisms or aspects that don't work, which drive us to innovate and change in the future.

I tend to be very receptive, for me, teamwork is not about a very marked hierarchy, I'm part of the team.

In fact, when I visit the country and work with my team,I give them space, they become the stars, the ones who show their local reality, their success, or what they've built.

For example, recently, we launched one of the new products,it feels odd to talk about it. But we're talking about an electric car,and we held an event in Paris.

In this case, the team member, the member of my team, usually works a lot by following his own guidelines.

We had some trouble getting him involved in the team,especially from the point of view of sharing best practices which could later be critical.

I approached this case in the completely opposite way,I broke a bit the traditional schemes, in order to be the leader and head of the team.

In fact, I completely gave him the space., because he still had to follow certain guidelines and,without a doubt, be coherent and adhere to the company's strategy.

But I let him be the leader of the project, the owner of the activity, one very important, because in this case it had a global-level response.

And then, I said nothing, "Okay, I'll be here, I'll be your support,I'll be a member of your team." I'd say it worked very well because here too I tried to understand, I studied the person's strengths,even any criticism, so I tried to emphasize, to please,so to speak, even if that's not the right word,but to go along with his rhythm, and thus follow the activity with him, that's it.