{"id":28757,"date":"2022-09-08T14:23:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T21:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28757"},"modified":"2022-09-08T14:23:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T21:23:31","slug":"build-beyond-cultural-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/build-beyond-cultural-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"Build beyond cultural differences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erin Meyer, the author of The Culture Map<\/em>, is a professor at INSEAD business school and focuses on helping business leaders and organizations navigate through the complexities of cultural differences in communication. The Culture Map was her first book and it presents her research on how people communicate in different global and cultural settings. She analyzes and illustrates eight scales that play a critical role in how different people communicate, think, lead, and make decisions \u2013 the eight scales are Communicating: low-context vs. high-context, Evaluating: direct negative feedback vs. indirect negative feedback, Persuading: principles-first vs. applications-first, Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical, Deciding: consensual vs. top-down, Trusting: task-based vs. relationship-based, Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoids confrontation, and Scheduling: linear-time vs. flexible-time. She recommends utilizing the culture map and the scales to \u201cdecode how culture influences your own international collaboration and avoid painful situations.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Erin Meyer did a wonderful job of presenting her vast research findings into a practical model of understanding cultural differences in communications. This type of need to understand the cultural context and perspectives is on the rise in every organization and leadership as the world is becoming more closely connected and multicultural. For example, she illustrated the differences in communication style between the east and the west. She wrote that good communication in the west is \u201call about clarity and explicitness, and accountability for accurate transmission of the message is placed firmly on the communicator,\u201d[2]<\/a> while in the east, communication and messages are \u201coften conveyed implicitly, requiring the listeners to read between the line.\u201d[3]<\/a> \u00a0In Korean, the word \u201cNoon-Chi\u201d is used to refer to the ability to read between the lines and in order to be successful in society and work, one has to grow in having \u201cNoon-Chi.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also mentioned a great point that communication is not just about speaking, but it is also about listening. In many cultures, learning to \u201clisten to what is meant instead of what it is said\u201d[4]<\/a> is a learned knowledge throughout years of communication that is linked to its cultural values and standards. When a person isn\u2019t familiar with its dominant culture, one has to give extra attention to pick up what is reflected through what is said and pick up many different hidden body language cues. She goes further in her research to explain that the art of persuasion goes even deeper in communications in a multicultural setting. She explained using real-life examples to demonstrate that \u201cthe ways you seek to persuade others and the kinds of arguments you find persuasive are deeply rooted in your culture\u2019s philosophical, religious, and educational assumptions and attitudes.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

One other helpful way to intake Erin\u2019s eight scales is to apply them to our own personal ways of speaking, listening, persuading, and making decisions. The common thread of any global leadership involves thinking through challenging circumstances to move the organizations to a better place of unity and community. Many times, the decisions that are made and implemented roll out and affect many people and the relational dynamics of the organization. The complexities of eight scales and the history of different groups of people and countries make a multi-cultural global team to work and get along together. I believe the two pillars to building a great and strong foundation for a united team are openness and proximity. When there is an atmosphere of openness to accept and respect one another\u2019s differences, it will push the team to communicate better. And bridging the practical communication proximity closer brings better communications to build a better and more adaptable solution that everyone in the team can own and facilitate together.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Erin Meyer, The Culture Map<\/em> (New York: PublicAffairs, 2016), 16.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 31.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 31.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 50.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid, 89.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erin Meyer, the author of The Culture Map, is a professor at INSEAD business school and focuses on helping business leaders and organizations navigate through the complexities of cultural differences in communication. The Culture Map was her first book and it presents her research on how people communicate in different global and cultural settings. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"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":[1429],"class_list":["post-28757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-meyer","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28757","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\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28758,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28757\/revisions\/28758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}