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The Culture Map Summary
About The Culture Map Book
An international business expert helps you understand and navigate cultural differences in this insightful and practical guide, perfect for both your work and personal life.
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.
In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. She provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business, and combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice.
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4.9/5 (2594 reviews)
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“The way we are conditioned to see the world in our own culture seems so completely obvious and commonplace that it is difficult to image that another culture might do things differently. It is only when you start to identify what is typical in your culture but different from others, that you can begin to open a dialogue of sharing, learning, and ultimately understanding.”
ERIN MEYER
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The invisible boundaries that divide our world
The majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding of how culture is impacting their work. This is especially true as more and more of us communicate daily with people in other countries over virtual media.
When you live extensively in a foreign country, you pick up a lot of contextual cues that help you understand the culture of the people living there, and you decode communication and adapt accordingly. But when you exchange emails with an international counterpart in a country you haven’t spent time in, it is much easier to miss the cultural subtleties impacting the communication.
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“Leaders have always needed to understand human nature and personality differences to be successful in business--that's nothing new. What's new is the requirement for twenty-first century leaders to be prepared to understand a wider, richer array of work styles than ever before and to be able to determine what aspects of an interaction are simply a result of personality and which are a result of differences in cultural perspective.”
ERIN MEYER
139
A book for leaders on how to succeed in managing across international and diverse cultural contexts of today’s workplace
Silent Bo - Jumping In On Discussions Across Cultures
In China, people often feel that westerners speak up so much in meetings that it feels like they are showing off and are poor listeners.
- Chinese people tend to leave a few more seconds of silence before jumping in, compared to westerners.
- If a more senior person is in the room, it is polite to wait for them to call on you before jumping into the discussion. While waiting one should show to be a good listener by keeping one’s voice and body quiet.
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Deaf Dulac - Feedback Across The US And France
Americans tend to be more explicit and direct than the french in most situations. When it comes to giving feedback however, this pattern seems to be reversed.
- In a french setting, managers tend to give positive feedback implicitly and negative feedback more directly.
- In the US, managers tend to give positive feedback more directly, while trying to couch negative messages in a positive, encouraging language.
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Half Shake - Half Nod
A characteristic behavior unique to India is the half shake half nod of the head. In India this behavior is not a display of disagreement, uncertainty or lack of support as it would be in most other cultures.
- It suggests interest, enthusiasm or sometimes respectful listening.
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Trust is like insurance — it’s an investment you need to make up front, before the need arises.
ERIN MEYER
6
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