How Cultures Think

Making the Case in France

Here’s the first part of a chapter from my next book, titled “How the World Thinks.”

A few years ago, I had the extreme good luck of having to do some intercultural consulting work in the south of France. Provence, in fact (which has, interestingly, over the last decade become the Silicon Valley of France). Lucky me, I fantasized: bottles of good Provençal wine, wonderful meals, sunshine, fields of lavender, and, oh yes, the pleasures of working with the French.

I mean that sincerely. Over the years, the French have taught me many things, with both of us taking both pleasure and pain from the fact that the Gallic way of thinking is profoundly different from the Anglo-Saxon. Time and again, my experiences with the French have reminded me, the US-American, that two cultures that share so much can still fundamentally be so very different. In fact, when it comes to the way that information is processed and digested, there aren’t many cultures more different in this regard than the US and France. And on this particular trip, this fact was brought home to me, in both professional and personal ways.

First, the professional: I was sent to France by my US-based client who had just begun negotiations to acquire a small, family-owned French…