Finding the zone of appropriateness when crossing cultures [The Culture Guy Podcast]

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In this first episode of 2016 Christian talks to Andy Molinsky, author of the book “Global Dexterity” and Professor at International Management and Organizational Behavior at Brandeis University.

Andy specializes in cross-cultural interaction in business settings and has created a popular MBA course focused on cross-cultural adaptation. He has published widely on the topic of cultural adaptation; his work has been featured by a range of media outlets including the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, NPR, Voice of America, and Harvard Business Review.

Andy’s book is considered one of the most influential works in the intercultural field in recent years and we frequently use some of his concepts during training and coaching programs at The Culture Mastery. One of the principles Andy teaches is that when crossing cultures there often isn’t a right way to adjust to different behaviors. People typically have a Zone of Appropriateness for our behavioral preferences.

During the interview Andy and Christian mention the Global Dexterity assessment tool for diagnosing cultural gaps. You will find on the HBR website, where you will also see a series of blog posts Andy wrote on the subject – including two articles he co-authored with Christian:

• When Crossing Cultures, Don’t Forget Praise
• Will That Cross-Cultural Coach Really Help Your Team?

You will also be able to find much of Andy’s work on his LinkedIn profile, and he shares valuable bits of information via his Twitter @andymolinsky.

In this episode Christian also talks about:

• Adam Markel’s upcoming book release of PIVOT and how listeners can get a free copy months before it will hit the shelves at international book retailers.
• The winter workshop schedule of the Intercultural Communications Institute, which will be holding classes in Charlotte, NC in March. Details can be found here: http://intercultural.org/wiic.html

We appreciate listener feedback for The Culture Guy Podcast and we encourage you to keep sending us your input for future episodes:

• What are your tips and tricks for cultural adjustment?
• What were some of your most memorable “cultural fool moments”?
• Which topics would you like to hear discussed on future podcast episodes?

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