The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures
“Cultural differences affect our impact”
My college English professor, Dr. De Rosset, would say that the only things that are “impacted” are crashed cars and teeth. But I follow Erin and agree with her quote above regardless.
It is book 47 of 52 in the Tim Challies 2020 reading challenge, and I was recommended The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures by Erin Meyer.
In her own summary, Erin states: “In this book, I provide a systematic, step-by-step approach to understanding the most common business communication challenges that arise from cultural differences, and offer steps for dealing with them more effectively” (p. 6).
Do not wrongly assume by her cooperate definition that this is a typical business book with coldly calculated steps for success. Erin has immersed herself in multicultural settings, and her writing clearly intends to reach a multicultural audience.
Every chapter is soaked with explicit definitions that appease the American and British minds, and yet, are immediately followed by a string of examples and illustrations that appeal to her implicit styled readers.
While this book is a goldmine for anyone working in multicultural teams, I found her comments on persuasion and leadership to be the most intriguing.
1. Why Versus How
“The art of persuasion is one of the most crucial business skills” (p. 89)
Know your audience.
I remember sitting in a chapel session in disbelief as a Pastor guest speaker started to explain rudimentary theological concepts yet acting as if this was our first time ever hearing them. He was speaking at the Moody Bible Institute, where students had come from all over the world to give all their full attention to study theology and enter full-time ministry! While his ignorance was baffling to me, after reading Erin’s book, I realized that I often approach multicultural settings with the same ignorance of my audience’s style of communication.
There are two classic styles of reasoning and one hybrid of the two. The first is deductive reasoning, sometimes called principle-first reasoning. Erin explains how deductive reasoning “derives conclusions or facts from general principles or concepts” (p. 93).
Now, I assumed that Americans would be deductive reasoners, mainly, because I am a deductive reasoner. However, I was shocked to discover that Americans are primarily inductive reasoners, which when I give it two hard minutes of existential thought, makes absolute sense.
Inductive reasoning, or applications-first, is primarily where “individuals are trained to begin with a fact, statement, or opinion and later add concepts to back up or explain the conclusion as necessary” (p. 96). Communicating in this vein involves normally starting with an executive summary before launching into how that summary occurred.
Understanding the way people naturally tend to reason will significantly help you in presenting an argument you wish to persuade someone into either accepting or acting upon.
2. How Much Respect Do You Want?
“In more egalitarian cultures, it is often acceptable for communication to skip organizational levels” (p. 134).
To ensure we are all on the same page, Erin Meyer is not making any statements about the theological categories of Complementarian and Egalitarian viewpoints surrounding gender roles in the church and home. Rather, she is talking about styles of leadership.
Egalitarian leadership cultures have minimal distance between the boss and their subordinates. Normally, this looks like first names, flat organizational structures, and frank conversation at all levels.
The counter position is Hierarchical leadership cultures, where the distance between boss and subordinate is high and exceptionally professional. Titles are used, the organizational structure is clear and defined, and communication is determined upon the rank of the individual being addressed.
I found this most interesting because my personal experience has taught me that there is sometimes a blend of both within the same organization. For example, the formal structure of an organization may be exceptionally hierarchical, however, individual leaders in their sub-section categories may choose to lead their sections as functionally egalitarian. What is this effect upon an organization? I believe it detrimental since it can create an internal identity crisis and waring realms of allegiance.
Overall, an excellent and insightful book for anyone engaging in multicultural teams at any capacity.
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John Owen came from Welsh descent, was educated at Queens College, and became a renowned Puritan theologian, Oxford professor, and passionate pastor who lived from 1616 to 1683. In 1647, he wrote the exhaustive treatise The Death of Death defending Limited or Definite Atonement against the Arminian view of Universal Atonement or Unlimited Atonement.