{"id":28728,"date":"2022-09-06T17:59:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T00:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28728"},"modified":"2022-09-06T18:00:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T01:00:37","slug":"jan-maas-is-not-being-rude-he-is-being-dutch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/jan-maas-is-not-being-rude-he-is-being-dutch\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cJan Maas is not being rude. He is being Dutch.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBut I didn\u2019t make any mistakes. Only <\/span>you<\/span><\/i> played poorly.\u201d <\/span>The locker room filled with a chorus of “Oooo” at the remark made by the Dutch soccer player to his teammate. What could have been a locker room brawl was defused by this situation\u2019s cultural interpreter. The Nigerian soccer player explained to his team \u201cJan Maas is not being rude. He\u2019s just being Dutch.\u201d The scene turns to Jan who smiles kindly at the teammate he seemingly insulted. Once again, <\/span>Ted Lasso <\/span><\/i>delivers a profound life lesson through the medium of a feel-good sitcom. <\/span><\/p>\n

In our increasingly globalized, interconnected world, it is not just sports teams that are transformed into multicultural collectives working toward a common goal. With institutions possessing a global impact and creating cross-cultural partnerships, developing multicultural intuition is a nonnegotiable for leading effectively. As Erin Meyer points out,<\/p>\n

When we worked in offices surrounded by others from our own tribe, awareness of basic human psychological needs and motivations, as well as a sensitivity to individual differences was enough. But as globalization transforms the way we work, we now need the ability to decode to cultural differences in order work effectively with clients, suppliers, and colleagues from around the world.<\/span>[1]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Differences in where people land on the culture map can be noticed not just from vastly different cultures, like the Netherlands and Thailand, but also in closely related cultures. For example, the U.S. is low-context in its communication style. The U.K. is also low-context, but not as much. Therefore, even in the slight variation on the culture map, there is a general difference in humor. As an Australian, whose country has deep roots in the U.K., this is also the case. For both the British and the Aussies, sarcasm and dry humor reign supreme. According to Meyer, \u201cMany British people are fond of delivering ironic or sarcastic jokes with a completely deadpan face. Unfortunately, this kind of humor is lost on many Americans; they may suspect the British person is joking but they don\u2019t dare laugh, just in case he is not. As a result, the British often say that Americans \u2018don\u2019t understand irony.\u2019\u201d<\/span>[2]<\/span> Yesterday, as my wife and I were on a walk, I commented on this. My wife, Luara, who grew up in middle America, sometimes misses my dry, deadpan humor. I believe this is because my cultural background is not as low-context as Laura\u2019s upbringing. Either that or my jokes are simply not funny. We often arrive at different conclusions on this one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Working and communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds is a challenge. A challenge worth leaning into, yes, but a challenge nonetheless. This requires humility, curiosity about others, and a willingness to look laugh at oneself when one makes a mistake.<\/span>[3]<\/span> Essentially we, as leaders in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world, must make the effort to meet people where they are at in their culture map, rather than expect them to come to our level. We must not choose speed and efficiency attached to cultural imperialism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meeting people where they are is essential in leadership, and is theologically rooted in the incarnation of Jesus. For in the incarnation, we see that God moved into <\/span>our<\/span><\/i> neighborhood. Yet Jesus drew near to humanity and met us where we were at. <\/span>[4]<\/span> While imprisoned on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela had access to a humble library with books that passed the censorship requirements of the guards. One of the books was Tolstoy’s <\/span>War and Peace<\/span><\/i>. Upon reflecting on the examples of leadership in this classic, Mandela wrote, \u201cto truly lead one’s people one must also truly know them.”<\/span>[5]<\/span> To know people means meeting them where they are rather than expecting them to come to us. It means learning their language, their social norms, and eating their food. Though we cannot do this for everybody (though I am not opposed to trying food from every culture), we ought to not use that as an excuse to be lazy. Developing multicultural competency requires great effort. But it is worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though the strategies for navigating the invisible cultural variations are plentiful, the heart posture of humility, curiosity, and a willingness to make cross-cultural blunders will guide one in navigating the complex waters of communicating and leading in an interconnected, globalized world. Will we experience frustration when team members approach time differently than we who are more linear? Will we miss messages communicated between the lines from high-context cultures?\u00a0 Will we offend people seeking to make a consensual decision when we prefer top-down? Well, I am guilty of all of these already. But Meyer reminds us that there is great joy on the other side of the effort. For \u201cthe range of human cultures can be a source of endless surprise and discovery\u2014a fount of remarkable experiences and continual learning that can never be exhausted.\u201d<\/span>[6]<\/span> We would miss this if we chose the easy route and solely interacted with those within our locale of the culture map.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can all be students of one another\u2019s cultures. And if we have grace for one another, and create an ethos of humility, curiosity, and a willingness to learn through mistakes, our teams will be far more effective in navigating the complex waters of our globalized world. When I picture this, I imagine myself providing feedback to a Dutch colleague, but doing so in a \u201cnice,\u201d indirect way. Hopefully, there would be another cultural translator to say to the Dutch co-worker, \u201cDon\u2019t misunderstand David\u2019s indirect feedback. He is not being rude. He is being American.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/span> Erin Meyer, <\/span>The Culture Map: Breaking through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business<\/span><\/i>, 1st ed. (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014), 253.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/span> Ibid. 44-45.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/span> Ibid. 143.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/span> John 1:1-14, Philippians 2:5-9.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/span> Nelson Mandela, <\/span>Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela<\/span><\/i> (Little, Brown, 2008), 492.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/span> Meyer, <\/span>The Culture Map<\/span><\/i>, 253.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBut I didn\u2019t make any mistakes. Only you played poorly.\u201d The locker room filled with a chorus of “Oooo” at the remark made by the Dutch soccer player to his teammate. What could have been a locker room brawl was defused by this situation\u2019s cultural interpreter. The Nigerian soccer player explained to his team \u201cJan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1431,35,1429,1432,2337],"class_list":["post-28728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-culture-map","tag-leadership","tag-meyer","tag-multicultural-leadership","tag-ted-lasso","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28730,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28728\/revisions\/28730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}