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The Eagle and the Phoenix: Poland and Central Europe
The Mystery of Multiple-Mindset Cultures, Part I
Encountering cultures of multiple mindsets reminds us of the power that culture has in forming the remarkably complex tapestry of what makes us all human.
It’s hard enough working with individuals from a different culture; it’s harder still working with many people from many different cultures, as happens with global teams. But if any of the cultures involved are what I refer to as multiple-mindset cultures, it gets super-complicated, because a multiple mindset culture presents cultural elements that contradict each other, making it difficult for a non-native to reliably anticipate consistently predictable behaviors.
A Cultural Caveat
When I speak of multiple-mindset cultures, I don’t mean the common observation that all cultures embody some inherent contradictions — some more, some less. We accept that different cultures represent different “norms”, with individuals varying around that norm, some more, some less. While individual variances can be the result of different individual personalities, some of these individual variances are also the result of sub-cultures: for example…
