Over the course of the next few weeks we are hosting a round of online learning opportunities. Our Fall/Winter Webinar Series will cover many cross-cultural and communication topics. Here is the Q4 overview. Check back in with this site, as times and dates may change. Once you are registered for one or more sessions, you’ll receive updates and reminders via …
The Mayor who Manages a Multicultural Municipality [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Ted Terry on how a hyper-diverse community becomes inclusive He is in his 30s. He has been called a hipster. And he is the mayor who has been putting a small town just outside of Atlanta on the map. Ted Terry shot to fame via an episode of season 2 of the hugely successful Netflix show Queer Eye. during which …
How To Market Your Business Across The Atlantic
Marketing and selling products and services around the world can be both promising and profitable – it can also be a minefield and full of missed opportunities. No matter whether you are selling Nike in Düsseldorf or Adidas in Dallas. Or if you want consumers in Hanover to spread peanut butter on their toast and people in Houston to dip …
Growing up as a black TCK in Germany [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Trevor Gillies talks about his experience with racism and ethnic inequality as a U.S. third-culture kid in Deutschland Spending your childhood and adolescence abroad and being raised as a third-culture kid (TCK) is a unique experience. As the child of U.S. service members, Trevor Gillies grew up as the only black kid in a Southern Germany town in the ’80s …
How Unmanaged Diversity Will Lead to a Mess in Global Business [The Culture Guy Podcast]
When companies fail abroad, 50% to 70% of the time this is due to cultural differences that have not been addressed, says Sophie Lechner. The CEO of Global Commerce Education and creator of The G2 Experience is dedicated to making her clients aware of the dissimilarities and contrasts between markets and countries. Sophie Lechner about how organizing diversity properly will …
Why knowing Spanish isn’t good enough to be successful in Latin America [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Adjusting to cultural differences between Spain and the Spanish-speaking parts of the Americas Spanish is the world’s second most common language with more than 400 million native speakers. Comparable to English it has been a lingua franca for centuries and you’ll find people on five continents whose first language is Spanish. This linguistic commonality, however, does not translate into cultural …
Are Mexico and the United States really two distant neighbors?
Learn how to remove US-Mexican cultural roadblocks during this webinar 🇲🇽 💥 🇺🇸 With immigration and border security issues unresolved and while NAFTA is undergoing an overhaul with unclear outcome, trade relations between Mexico and the United States remain vital to both countries’ bottom line. The legal and political frameworks of business across North America may experience a reorganization, yet the nature of …
Knowledge about Different Cultures is Shaking the Foundations of Psychology
The academic discipline of psychology was developed largely in North America and Europe. Some would argue it’s been remarkably successful in understanding what drives human behavior and mental processes, which have long been thought to be universal. But in recent decades some researchers have started questioning this approach, arguing that many psychological phenomena are shaped by the culture we live …
Why the Japanese concept of Nemawashi affects leadership in a Western context [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Working with professionals from Japan, Mexico, and the USA For three decades Jack Parsons worked for a Japanese car manufacturer who is building vehicles in the United States. In fact, Honda was the first automaker from Japan which established a production subsidiary in the U.S. In his functions at Honda Jack was responsible for training and supporting his company’s network …
How Learning a New Language Builds Cultural Competence and Tolerance
Why is foreign language study important? There are many benefits to knowing more than one language. For example, it has been shown that aging adults who speak more than one language have less likelihood of developing dementia. Additionally, the bilingual brain becomes better at filtering out distractions, and learning multiple languages improves creativity. Evidence also shows that learning subsequent languages …
Why Cultural Indifference Will Hurt Your Global Branding
When you are taking a brand abroad and start marketing globally, it would be wise to check whether your company name, logo, tag line, and marketing messaging mean something different in the regions into which you are expanding. Cultural differences in branding and marketing will impact your bottom line. Just ask our guest blogger Linda Tietje who is making the business …
Culture, Passion, and Business in the Comm Cafe
In his day to day professional life, Dwayne Richards serves as a financial advisor, finance director, and CPA to his clients in the Toronto area. One of his side projects is his podcast, Comm Cafe, which he uses to spread practical business advice and to share his guests’ informative and inspirational stories. Recently Dwayne invited Christian Höferle to be a …
Combining Czech, Japanese, and U.S. Influences to Boost Global Business [The Culture Guy Podcast]
From Third Culture Kid to International Business Etiquette Expert She lived abroad as a child and as an adult; she studied, worked, and traveled to more than 70 countries on 7 continents; she speaks French and Czech. Today Sharon Schweitzer has built a career around understanding cultural differences and the tremendous role they play in building strong and successful international business …
How a Corporate Hack became a Global HR Leader [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Four countries, four cultures, four MBA universities Throughout his almost 20-year corporate career Matt Burns has had the opportunity of working for companies with operations around the world. Currently, he is in what he describes “the midst of a mid-career renaissance,” as he is completing an International Executive MBA program at four universities in four countries. This academic globe-trotting is serving …
Culture matters NOW for economic developers – just ask Amazon
Global readiness to decide biggest site selection deal of the decade Ever since Amazon announced that the company is looking to build a second headquarter (HQ2) in North America the race is on among site selection professionals and communities in the United States and Canada. Aside from hard economic and infrastructural factors, cities will now experience that cultural readiness isn’t …
How do we respond to hatred and bigotry? [The Culture Guy Podcast]
An attempt to digest the Charlottesville riots and the rise of violent hate groups in the United States This episode begins with a different song, as it covers different terrain. I recorded it on August 13, 2017 under the fresh impression of the white supremacist “protests” in Charlottesville, VA (USA). You’ll notice that I am struggling to find the right words. …
When moving within the U.S. feels like going from Morocco to Finland [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Melissa Hahn shares how the question of identity can shape a relationship between partners from different cultures. She also describes how the geographical distance within one country can equal that of the opposite ends of a continent. Born and raised in Arizona, Melissa has had many opportunities to travel and live abroad and to experience other cultures. However, the first time …
Why creating a habit of hearing is critical for understanding “the other”
Form a custom of listening before distributing opinion You read it on this website before: Many people in “Western” cultures have forgotten or unlearned to listen to each other. This is not only the case when debating politics, it is also true for encounters across cultures. It’s certainly so when politics and culture meet. And John Wykoff will tell you it is best addressed by developing …
The secret of mastering a mixed-culture marriage [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Carmen Ring explains why tolerance will only get you through the first year of an intercultural relationship Born in Ploiești, Romania – at a time when the Iron Curtain was still closed and her country was governed under the dictatorship rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu – Carmen now lives in New York State with her American husband and their toddler son. …
How lawyers can cross cultures with ease [The Culture Guy Podcast]
Why international attorneys need to learn about intercultural communication Jeri Weber is an attorney-at-law and an intercultural consultant for legal professionals. She was born and raised in the U.S. Midwest, spent time in Asia as an exchange student and has lived and worked in China, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. On this episode Jeri highlights the fact that most …