The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures

by Erin Meyer

“The best advice I can give,” Díaz says, “is to learn to listen to what is meant instead of what is said. This means reflecting more, asking more clarifying questions, and making an effort to be more receptive to body language cues.” By

Low and high context communication

“This is our team culture, which we have explicitly agreed on and all feel comfortable with.”

Create own team culture

I sat down next to a stranger on the airplane for a nine-hour flight to New York. This American began asking me very personal questions: did I have any children, was it my first trip to the U.S., what was I leaving behind in Russia? And he began to also share very personal information about himself. He showed me pictures of his children, told me he was a bass player, and talked about how difficult his frequent traveling was for his wife, who was with his newborn child right now in Florida. In response, Agapova started to do something that was unnatural for him and unusual in Russian culture—he shared his personal story quite openly with this friendly stranger, thinking they had built an unusually deep friendship in a short period of time. The sequel was quite disappointing: I thought that after this type of connection, we would be friends for a very long time. When the airplane landed, imagine my surprise when, as I reached for a piece of paper in order to write down my phone number, my new friend stood up and with a friendly wave of his hand said, “Nice to meet you! Have a great trip!” And that was it.

Americans behavior

There’s a wise Bahamian proverb: “To engage in conflict, one does not need to bring a knife that cuts, but a needle that sews.” As

Bahamian say

“You asked us to prepare three things that are strange or surprising about our culture to share with the group on Monday evening,” she said. “But I’ve thought a lot about it, and I can’t think of anything unusual or strange about where I come from.” “Why don’t you talk about putting your babies outside to nap on cold winter afternoons?” I suggested “Would someone think that is strange?” she asked me, sounding utterly shocked. “Don’t people do that in every country?”

Babies in Denmark

It is only when you start to identify what makes your culture different from others that you can begin to open a dialogue of sharing, learning, and ultimately understanding.

Identify what makes my culture different