Why (Jacques / Elena / Greta / Jun / Carlos / Dean / Paulo / Ahmed / Raj….) Don’t Behave Like Their Culture.

…And What You Can Do About it.

“But Greta in Germany acts nothing like what I’ve heard about Germans in general.” — US-American manager, based in Frankfurt.

“Ahmed grew up in Riyadh, sure, but he went to Oxford, and spent summers with his Dad in France, and is nothing like other Saudis I know” — British team lead, based in Riyadh.

“Carlos and I know know each other well, so Mexican culture doesn’t affect how we work together” — French supervisor on-site in Oaxaca plant.

I’ve heard these kinds of comments so many times when consulting with global managers and teams that I’ve come to think it reveals a deeper underlying expectation of how to manage cultural differences that needs to be explored. Why? Well, for one thing, if we sort out how individuals may be different from their culture, we can manage cultural differences more successfully, as opposed to dismissing their importance, as these statements above do, simply because an individual doesnt “fit” with the general description of their culture. If we do this, we’ll discover that while culture may not be the only factor to consider when working with individuals, it’s SUPER important when working with…(drum roll, please): the organization.

It’s important to remember that understanding a culture is not the same thing as being able to predict an individual’s behavior. Every…