The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business

Product Information

Linear schedules – Linear styles focus on one task before they move to the next one and prefer to adhere to deadlines. Moreover, such cultures find it impolite to shift attention from one task to the other without finishing the first task. min read ⌚ Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business: How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done The book is also filled with engaging, real-life stories and anecdotes from around the world that impart important lessons about global teamwork and international collaboration, including: High-context cultures have layered and subtle communication styles, where one requires to employ a lot of reading between the lines. Countries such as Japan and Korea are high-context cultures mainly due to the homogeneity in population. These countries have a long history, giving them more time to develop nuances. For example, in Japanese ‘kuuki yomenai’ translates to ‘ someone who cannot read the air’, essentially meaning a person who doesn’t understand the ‘between-the-lines’. Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It's no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out.

Regardless that we are interacting with someone from a low-context culture or with someone used to communicating by leaving cues all the time, being a better listener can help us anyway. Low-context: Good communication is precise and straight to the point. Key messages are repeated several times, and the goal of communicating is explicitly expressed. (for example the USA) Disagreements are natural and inevitable in a social construct. However, different cultures perceive disagreements in different ways. Based on cultures, disagreements can be confrontational or they endeavour to avoid confrontations.If you’ve happened upon the Anglo-Dutch translation guide so far, you probably know that what the Dutch hear when the British say “That is an original point of view” is “They like my idea!” even though what the British actually mean is “Your idea is stupid!” Meyer divides disagreement styles across two extremes: “confrontational,” which we’ll call open disagreement, and “avoids confrontation,” which we’ll call disagreement-avoidant. Bo Chen – who has something urgent to say – waits patiently to be called on while his American colleagues jump in one after the other. His opportunity never comes. Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, one of the world's leading international business schools. Her work focuses on how the world's most successful global leaders navigate the complexities of cultural differences in a multicultural environment. Living and working in Africa, Europe, and the United States prompted Meyer's study of the communication patterns and business systems of different parts of the world. Her framework allows international executives to pinpoint their leadership preferences, and compare their methods to the management styles of other cultures.

Communication Styles, Ways to evaluate employees, Leadership styles, Decision making approaches, Trust-based systems, Disagreeing through confrontation, Scheduling and flexibility of time, and Persuading conversations. 1. Communicating: Low vs. High Context Shortform note: So which one is better? Most people think that they'll prefer egalitarian leadership styles. But in actuality, one Stanford study suggests that people prefer hierarchical leadership styles because the familiarity of hierarchical relationships makes them easier to understand. Whereas egalitarian relationships can be confusing to navigate, in a hierarchy, everyone’s roles and level of authority are clear.) The Ringi-system in Japan is an interesting mix of the consensual and top-down decision scales. In this system, a ringisho– a proposal document is passed between the mid-management to edit. The document is then passed on to the next management level. This process is repeated until the document reaches the topmost level. Erin Meyer’ “ The Culture Map” is your guide to effortlessly transcend the cultural barriers and acquire the much-needed skills to “decode cultures foreign to your own.” Who Should Read “The Culture Map”? And Why? Leadership: Meyer contends that you can divide leadership styles into two extremes: egalitarian and hierarchical. In egalitarian cultures, everybody is equal​​—even in the workplace. Companies tend to have flat organizational structures, and people treat each other the same regardless of rank. Conversely, rank matters in hierarchical cultures. Companies have strict levels, which employees follow by deferring to the higher-ranking individual. In exchange for obedience, the boss protects and cares for her employees—especially in Asian cultures.Confrontational: Debate and confrontation are necessities to make a good decision. Open confrontation and appropriate debate are encouraged (for example Israel). Chapter 6 – Trusting: This is the most important scale and it’s also one of the most complex. Building trust across cultures is a delicate task and it requires a lot of cultural knowledge. The author describes the trust continuum as task-based on one end and Relationship-based on the other. task-based cultures are those where “Trust is built through business-related activities”, compared to relationship-based cultures that are “built through sharing meals, evening drinks, and visits at the coffee machine.” This is a very wide gap and failure to understand these differences can lead to difficulties in building fruitful relationships. The eight scales in question – and the two extremes between which Erin Meyer scatters many of the world’s countries – are the following:

Cultural differences in leading styles, according to Professor André Lauren, are hugely affected by the history of the country/region. For example, the history of France shows the influences of the Roman Empire’s hierarchical structures and central political standing. On the other hand, hierarchical structures leading in countries such as Sweden are seen due to the impact of the Vikings. Mostly, hierarchical countries decide individually, and egalitarian countries decide by consensus. (Shortform note: Meyer also discusses some notable exceptions, like Germany and Japan, whose decision-making styles may have influenced the industries they dominate.) Strategies for Making Decisions Across CulturesHierarchical structures such as Nigeria and China have gaps between levels that are clearly visible. In such culture styles, communication, as well as decision-making, follows a clear hierarchical structure. Or as Erin Meyer puts it: "In an egalitarian culture, for example, an aura of authority is more likely to come from acting like one of the team, while in a hierarchical culture, an aura of authority tends to come from setting yourself clearly apart." 6. Are you a friend or a coworker? Hierarchical: The ideal distance between the manager and subordinate is high. The leader has authority and a strong position clearly distinguishing her/him from his colleagues (for example Russia).