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The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

ahalbert.com

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Re: The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

#31

Post by harimau777 »

jvm___ wrote: post #25
Swizec wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example, locals know not to make eye contact while out and about I believe this is a city thing. We have the same back home in Ljubljana. The social contract in cities seems to be one of politely ignoring each others’ existence.

My theory. The social contract varies in proportion with the available resources. In cities the friendliness is missing because you don't need to rely on others for food/water or anything else, you can just purchase it nearby. When resources run out that's where the social contract becomes more social. Camping trip and need a match to start your campfire? Your neighbor will happily chat with you. Power outage. People…

I sort of interpreted it an inverse way:

In a city, the limited resources are emotional/social energy, sense of privacy, etc. So the social contract is to conserve them by politely not noticing each other; thereby allowing people to maintain the reserves necessary to get through the day.

Re: The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

#32

Post by kelipso »

jojobas wrote: post #29
akg_67 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... if both parties are willing to do just that If only both parties created trust between each other. You grow what you sow.

That's a bullshit take. We had an Australian go there and hire everyone. If it were Australians he hired out the blue (i.e. with just that little trust), he would have heard about the problem as soon as they were discovered.

There has to be an understanding that you won't be penalized for saying it's not the right thing. Which might be obvious in your company culture but not really obvious even for different companies much less broader cultural differences.

Re: The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

#34

Post by motohagiography »

Anecdotally as a non-UK person, when British people complain about something, I think it means they're trying to make friends with you.

As a Canadian, I can reveal that when someone says "I'm sorry," what they tend to mean is, "I'm not going to pay."

Witticisms aside, manifestations of temprament across cultures are ridiculously diverse. If there were such a thing as a type-A-minus personality, I might fall into that category, where one presumes others take responsibility for their own words and actions. The excessive submissiveness in some cultures (calling people sir, inability to decline, etc) is difficult not to interpret as a form of perfidy and passive aggression, where if you aren't taking responsibility for the conversation, it implies I must. By some cultures I mean west of Nevada.

As an anglo, my interactions with people from France are predictably funny, and the effect of the intellectual sparring yields some amazing solutions, but resolving that we have the mutual dignity of peers tends to take a few rounds. If I were to characterize what people interpret as Canadian niceness, it's that we are typically raised to treat malice as an inferior sentiment. Even though it may be real and meaningful, mainly it means you're losing. As a result, we produce some uniquely insufferable pricks, but if you're wondering how someone can seem so oblivious to insult, this detail might provide some useful context.

Re: The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

#37

Post by jccalhoun »

The article has some good examples but the book seems little more than a repackaging of the Hofstede model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensio... These models can be useful but they shouldn't be taken as set in stone, objective descriptions and in a specific situation it is always hard to tell if it is a culture thing or a personality thing.

Re: The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

#38

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Swizec wrote: post #17
zarzavat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realised that “It’s okay” can have three very different meanings: “It’s okay!” => (reassuringly), it’s fine, perhaps even great. “It’s okay” => (honestly), it’s neither good nor bad. “It’s okay ” => (politely) This is terrible. For some reason non-native speakers and the occasional yank have problems with this.

> For some reason non-native speakers Here's where it gets even better as a slavic person – when I say "This is okay, but have you thought about flaws A, B, and C?" it means that your idea is so good that it's worthy of critique. To an American it sounds like I just started a scorched earth campaign against their ego.

Huh. I wouldn't take it that way (depending on tone of voice). I would not quite take it as "it's good enough to criticize", either. I would take it as my idea was neutral, and here are some flaws, which if I could fix them might turn it into a good idea.

Re: The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

#39

Post by lmm »

jojobas wrote: post #29
akg_67 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... if both parties are willing to do just that If only both parties created trust between each other. You grow what you sow.

That's a bullshit take. We had an Australian go there and hire everyone. If it were Australians he hired out the blue (i.e. with just that little trust), he would have heard about the problem as soon as they were discovered.

Guessing those Australians would have had much better labour protections and a better social safety net if they did get fired, giving them the safety to criticise. Not "trust" exactly since it's more about not needing to trust a given employer, but a similar pattern.

Re: The culture map: How to navigate foreign cultures in business

#40

Post by mattlondon »

These things are sometimes dangerous.

I have had Americans use "what the British mean when they say ..." on me and colleagues and it has backfired badly.

If it were a condescending guide for "how women think" (for example) then it would rightly be thrown out as trash.

Turns out that people are individuals and generalisations of "You are X so you are thinking/will do Y" are not useful.

Use with caution.

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