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Why Decisions Don’t Stick in International Teams
One thing I’ve noticed repeatedly when working with international teams: meetings can feel productive without actually producing committed decisions. Here’s why — and what to do about it.
One thing I’ve noticed repeatedly when working with international teams is that meetings can feel productive without actually producing committed decisions. People leave the room — or the video call — apparently aligned. And then, a week later, it becomes clear that different team members had completely different understandings of what was decided, who was responsible, and whether the decision was even final.
This is not carelessness or poor communication in the ordinary sense. It is cultural friction operating at the level of decision-making itself — at the point where different cultural assumptions about what decisions are, how they get made, and when they become binding all collide without anyone noticing.
The Decision-Making Spectrum
Every culture sits somewhere on the spectrum between consensual and top-down decision-making. Consensual cultures — the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Japan — build decisions slowly, with broad buy-in from stakeholders. The process is long but the implementation is fast, because everyone has been part of making the decision and is genuinely committed to it.
Top-down cultures — the UK, the US, France — make decisions faster, often by whoever holds authority in the room. The speed is a feature. But the implementation can be slower, because the people who will carry the decision out were not part of making it and may not be fully committed to it.
When these two systems meet in the same team, the top-down culture makes a decision in a meeting that the consensual culture hasn’t finished processing. The top-down person believes it’s settled. The consensual person is still building their view. Both are operating correctly within their own framework. The decision doesn’t stick — because it was never fully made in one framework while it felt completely made in the other.
Three Things That Make Decisions Not Stick
In consensual cultures, a decision made without adequate consultation is not felt as binding — even if it came from a senior person with clear authority. The people who weren’t consulted will often delay or quietly redirect, not out of defiance, but because the decision doesn’t feel legitimately made. The fix is not to give everyone a veto, but to build genuine consultation into the process before the decision is formally made.
In many cultures, a decision stated in a meeting is understood to be open for revision as new information arrives. In others, a decision stated in a meeting is binding. When both cultures are in the same team, the person who thinks it’s open keeps bringing new information that shifts the direction. The person who thinks it’s settled is baffled and frustrated. Explicitly stating “this decision is now closed” — and meaning it — removes the ambiguity.
A decision with no clear owner is an intention, not a commitment. “We’ll move forward with X” needs to become “Sarah owns X, with a first update by Thursday.” The specificity is not bureaucratic overhead — it is the mechanism through which the decision connects to actual behaviour change.
For teams where decision-making friction is recurring, leading multicultural teams covers the full framework. For leaders wanting direct support navigating specific decision-making challenges, cross-cultural coaching and advisory provides tailored help from Barcelona.
Are decisions in your team not sticking?
If your international team keeps relitigating the same decisions, let’s spend 30 minutes on what’s actually going on.
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