The Culture Map - Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business - Erin Meyer

Culture can be a sensitive topic. Speaking about a person's culture often provokes the same type of reaction as speaking about his mother. Most of us have deep protective instinct for the culture we consider our own, and, though we may criticize it bitterly ourselves, we may become easily incensed if someone from outside the culture dares to do so. 

This is indeed an interesting read. My first experience in cross-cultural studies was when I enrolled in a Cross-Culture Management class by Dr. Asma Abdullah at Putra Business School (UPM) back in 2014. So this was a superb revision and a 'deeper-dive'. Covid has brought a halt to international travels, but the connection with international colleagues, cross-border projects and communication with overseas friends had not stopped. 

It was relieve to have had my first overseas business trip last month. It was great to fly after 2.5 years. 

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Erin Meyer is American and currently lives in Paris with her husband and 2 sons. She's got a wealth of experience and knowledge when it comes to explaining culture difference and bias. She is able to cover the traits of major cultures from around the world - American, British, French, Latin American, Northern and Southern European, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Middle East, African, and even Thai and Indonesian. There are many stories and awkward lessons which are shared. 

Meyer breaks down the cultures into 8 main scales:

The key to using the scale is to ALWAYS consider the cultural relativity.

Say for example I am a Malaysian Chinese (no example in the book, but I'll just merge Indonesian + Chinese), and I will most likely be perceived as always prefer to give indirect feedback (#2) when communicating with a German. However, Japanese is likely to be placed to the right on the scale, which means a Japanese may see me has too direct. 

The above scale is able show the differences between the German and French. No wonder, we read lots of misunderstanding. Both are 'confrontational' when there is a disagreement, but the French are 'relationship-based' and adopts 'flexible time', quite opposite to the Germans.