The Culture Map - decoding how people think, lead, and get things done across cultures (Erin Meyer)

Erin Meyer - a professor at INSEAD. 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. 

Summary - whether your work in a home office or abroad, business success in our ever more globalized and virtual world requires the skills to navigate through cultural differences. Renowned expert Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain where people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. Even with English as a global language, it's easy to fall into cultural traps that endanger careers and sink deals. The Culture Map provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business. Erin Meyer combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice for succeeding in a global world. 

< Take-Aways>

: Chinese behavior lines up with a familiar cultural stereotype. Westerners often assume that Asians, in general, are quite, reserved or shy. Yet the cultural stereotype does not reflect the actual reason behind Chinese behavior. 

: Cultural patterns of behavior and belief frequently impact on our perceptions (what we see), cognitions (what we think), and actions (what we do)  

: Eight scales for culture mapping ; 

(1) Communicating (low context vs high context) - communication between high-context person communicating with someone from another high-context culture will make the greatest likelihood of misunderstanding. US, Australia, Canada and UK is at low-context whereas Japan, China, Korea and Indonesia is at high-context. 

(2) Evaluating (direct or in-direct negative feedback) - getting negative feedback right can motivate your employees and strengthen your reputation as a fair and professional collages. Getting it wrong can demoralize an entire tam and earn you an undeserved reputation as an unfeeling tyrant or a hopelessly incompetent manager. Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and African nations are with indirect negative feedback whereas Russia, Israel, Netherlands, France are with direct negative feedback.  

(3) Persuading (principle or application first) - Chinese people think from macro to micro whereas Western people think from micro to macro. Chinese are going all around the key points without addressing them deliberately, while Westerns as trying to make a decision by isolating a single factor and ignoring significant interdependencies. European is with principles-first whereas US, Canada, Australia and UK are with applications-first. Most Asian is with applications-first. 

(4) Leading (egalitarian vs hierarchical) - Egalitarian is where the ideal distance between a boss and a subordinate is low. best boss is facilitator. Hierarchical is the distance is high. best boss is strong director who leads from the front. Japan, Korea, India, China is very hierarchical whereas Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden is very egalitarian. 

(5) Deciding (consensual vs top-down) - Nigeria, China, India an Russia are with top-down decision making whereas Japan, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany is with consensual. 

(6) Trusting (task or relationship based) - task-based is where trust is built through business-related activities, i.e. US, Netherland, Denmark whereas relationship-based is where trust is built through sharing meals, evening drink etc, i.e. India Saudi Arabia, China, Nigeria etc. 

(7) Disagreeing (confrontational vs avoids confrontation) - Confrontational is where disagreement and debate are positive for the team or organization, i.e. Israel, France, Germany, Russia, and other European countries whereas Avoid confrontation is disagreement and debate are negative for team or organization, i.e. Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Ghana, China etc. 

(8) Scheduling (linear or flexible time) - linear-time is where project steps are approached in a sequential fashion, completing one task before beginning next whereas flexible time is where project steps are approached in a fluid manner, changing tasks as opportunities arise. Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Swden, US, UK are at linear-time whereas Saudi Arabia, India, Nigeria, Kenya China are at flexible-time. 

: when interacting with someone from another culture, try to watch more, listen more, and speak less. Listen before you speak and learn before you act. 

: the art of persuasion is one of the most crucial business skills. Without the ability to persuade others to support your ideas, you won't be able to attract the support you need to turn those ideas into realities. the ways you seek to persuade others and the kinds of arguments you find persuasive are deeply rooted in your culture's philosophical, religious and educational assumptions an attitudes. Far from being universal, then, the art of persuasion is one that is profoundly culture-based. 

: Asian feel Western decision are hasty and often ignore the surrounding impact as Asian think Western tendency to make decisions without considering how their decisions are impacting various business units, clients and suppliers. Two simple tips that can help you realize the benefits of such collaboration while avoiding the dangers - one is to save time by having few people in the group work across cultures as possible while asking others to work in the local way, the second is to think carefully about your larger objectives before mixing up cultures. innovation/creativity - more cultural diversity better. simple speed/efficiency - monocultural is better. 

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