Check Cultural Stereotypes by Looking Within

You work with remote team members in South America, and you’ve always assumed they log off early—lazily watching late-afternoon telenovelas. Productivity dips in their time zone confirm your bias, right? Not quite.

One month, unable to ignore inconsistent reports, you survey each person on work hours, internet reliability, and morning routines. You learn Maria, Juan, and Carla in Chile use reliable fiber and Skype all evening; they’re killing it on deadlines. Meanwhile, two colleagues in rural Peru struggle with power cuts, so they punch out early to avoid data loss.

Your cultural stereotype—that all remote LatAm workers finish early—crumbles as you see the real spread of habits. Once you segment by infrastructure and personal schedules instead of geography, you match tasks to availability and see a 20% rise in on-time deliverables.

By looking within perceived groups and challenging blanket labels, you uncover hidden differences and cross-group similarities. Your team cheers at more accurate expectations and communication. Data-driven nuance beats broad stereotypes every time.

Next team meeting, ask members to share their local challenges and peak work hours. Collect this data to map availability rather than relying on broad cultural assumptions. Reassign tasks to match real rhythms. You’ll build trust and boost productivity by valuing individual circumstances over stereotypes—give it a try next Monday.