{"id":28701,"date":"2022-09-08T15:50:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T22:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28701"},"modified":"2022-09-08T15:50:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T22:50:23","slug":"time-listen-observe-and-discover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/time-listen-observe-and-discover\/","title":{"rendered":"Time, Listen, Observe, and Discover"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Culture, the lens through which we all interpret life. It colors everything from communication styles, decision making, to resolving conflict and trust. Yet, we are seldom aware of it in ourselves. It is just the way things are done. This status quo remains until that moment we are confronted by a different culture. Erin Meyer, in The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global\u00a0<\/em>Business [<\/i>1]<\/a>, tackles the daunting task of making sense of cultural differences for the purpose of building a bridge of business cooperation.<\/p>\r\n

Erin Meyer is an award-winning author and professor at INSEAD international business school.[2]<\/a> Her experience living and working abroad has contributed to the rich insight into how people from various cultures live, work, and communicate. This self-help business, and leadership book explores eight cultural traits on a spectrum. Where a particular culture is on the spectrum provides insight into how individuals from a different culture can better understand and work collaboratively within that culture. This research based and experienced tested resource provides the reader with tools to navigate the realities of cross-cultural interactions these \u201care not hard and fast rules.\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\r\n

The Culture Map <\/em>was a fascinating read for me. I found myself reliving a long list of cross-cultural errors made by me or other Americans that had traveled before me. That is not to say that other cultures do not make a mess of things. There is no doubt that I could have greatly benefited from this book thirty plus years ago.<\/p>\r\n

Every culture trait and element that Meyer described evoked a story of some sort of culture clash. I remember attending a neighborhood discussion about maintenance of the building. Throughout the conversation I became very aware that this was not like any other neighborhood meeting. That one event opened the door to a treasure trove of insight. I learned that Poles do not trust [4]<\/a> people who will not drink alcohol with them. My Evangelical American culture that looks down on the consumption of alcohol, particularly in public was uncomfortable. That was the day I learned to drink beer. The relationship and trust were more important that my personal cultural expectations. For my neighbors, the relational aspect of sharing alcohol was significant to deepening our relationship. I was grateful that Polish discussions are full of words without making much progress toward the end goal. It gave me lots of time to formulate my input in Polish. In this case, it was due to the fact that no one had the authority [5]<\/a> to make the decision.<\/p>\r\n

I often found myself in conversations that were highly confrontational.[6]<\/a> These made feel uncomfortable as a person striving to be a Christian who walked in peace, and grace. One time, the young woman Polish woman who was living with was yelling in my face. When I responded to her with a calm, \u201cWhen you have calmed down than we can talk about this rationally.\u201d She responded, \u201cYou do not fight fair!\u201d That response never would have crossed my mind.<\/p>\r\n

Throughout these many years I have had the opportunity to gain experience from many cultures and people. Most of them were European, but also Asian, and South American. There were a number of lessons I learned that help me manage my discomfort and they are between the lines in our reading.<\/p>\r\n