Teams in some locations have to work harder at their teamworking skills, and I don’t think there are many places where it is more applicable than the UAE. And I know this from the past 8 years I have spent helping companies build teams in the Middle East region where I live.

Before I get into why this is the case, I’d like to quickly qualify what good teamwork looks like. It involves:

• Developing trusting relationships within your team and the teams around you;
• Having genuine commitment to the future and goals of your team;
• Having tolerance, understanding and good communication with the people in the team

With these fundamentals in place, individuals are far more likely to commit to a higher level of contribution and therefore team success, and the reverse is true if they are missing.

Let’s get back to that ‘why’ question – what makes this harder to achieve in the UAE?

The Non-Permanent Way of Life

80% of the UAE’s population are non-native people who come here for their own reasons, and who will leave at some point. This creates a lack of commitment to a long term life here, and a lack of deep roots culturally and socially. This transfers to your work, where people know they are going to move on and are less likely to make strong commitment to their employer. ‘Why should I bother investing the time required to build relationships when people are likely to move on?’ is probably a question a lot of people would ask.

The Coming and Going of the Expatriate Workforce

Not only are most people not going to retire in the UAE, but most come for a short period of time. Companies all over the world are experiencing higher rates of staff turnover, but if you work in the UAE it is very common for people to be leaving and new people arriving. It’s just a part of the fabric of life here. Not only are they not invested in a long term life, but quite often people come for a couple of years only and are moving on before you know it.

The Multinational and Multicultural Population

The UAE is a melting pot, a crossroads between East and West and a transport hub at the centre of the world. Nearly every nationality is represented here, every religion, every culture, every language. It is not uncommon for businesses with approximately 40 to 50 employees to have people from 10 or more different countries working together.

When I work with teams in the UAE and I watch what happens during breaks in the programs I am running, 90% of the time when people are left to decide who to sit with, they choose to self-segregate into their national groups. We are all more comfortable with people like us. So when you try to make people from widely different backgrounds work together, it is going to be harder to get to that state of cohesive, trusting familiarity that is a necessary part of teamwork.

A 2015 survey in the UAE’s National newspaper highlighted that:

• There are over 200 nationalities represented in the UAE
• 7 out of 10 respondents think residents from certain nationalities self-segregate
• 6 out of 10 respondents believe residents from certain religions self-segregate

What Does This Mean?

Humans are predisposed towards people that are similar to them. This is an ancient, instinctive trait, going back to the tribal nature of existence when a high level of threat came from people that looked different, talked differently, dressed differently and behave differently to how we did. No wonder we subconsciously drift into our cultural groups socially or on business lunch breaks.

The building of social capital, or even just a base level of comfort and familiarity, is going to be easier if you share common ground in the first place. So when you have so many people who are different, most of whom are not invested in a long term future here, and many who are here for a very short period of time, you face a harder challenge to building a cohesive team.