Cross Cultural Teams

Hello Friends, its not quite summer yet. Join us for a chill Saturday evening talking about working with other people.

For this event we have the always great Chad Kohalyk give us a crash course in cross cultural teams:

Communication is the lifeblood of an organization. As an international in Japan, it is highly likely you are working in Not only a multilingual but a cross-cultural work environment. You may be in a local office with Japanese coworkers, or working remotely with development teams overseas, or managing multi-timezone teams within a giant multinational.

We will get a short overview of Erin Meyer’s excellent book The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business which lays out an 8-scale framework for analyzing business culture and developing strategies for an effective team. We will dig into a couple of key factors so that you can go to work the next day with some new perspective and even some tips.

This in an interactive session. Come prepared to contribute as we will ask everyone to sit in groups that maximize diversity of country and culture. You will get the opportunity to work through each of the scales in small groups. All you need to bring are: your own experiences as a cross-cultural person; an open mind; and a pen/pencil.

NOTE: Although we will be discussing research on different cultural contexts, we will handle this topic with sensitivity. The point is not putting people in boxes, but to appreciate the different ways people can operate across a spectrum relative to you, and to one another other.

(Link to the discord thread)