Articles

Are you a Holistic or Specific Thinker? It may Depend on Where you Come From.

Originally published in Harvard Business Review, April 2014 It was Friday afternoon in Paris and I had spent the morning teaching a group of Chinese CEOs how to work effectively with Europeans. I asked the class: “What steps should the team leader in this case study take to manage different attitudes towards confrontation on the

Are you a Holistic or Specific Thinker? It may Depend on Where you Come From. Read More »

How To Say “This is Crap” in Different Cultures

Originally published by Harvard Business Review, February 2014 One Thursday in mid-January I had been holed up for six hours in a dark conference room with 12 managers participating in my executive education program. It was a group-coaching day and each executive had 30 minutes to describe in detail a cross-cultural challenge she was experiencing

How To Say “This is Crap” in Different Cultures Read More »

Managing Confrontation in Multi-cultural Teams

Originally published by Harvard Business Review, April 2012 Everyone knows that a little confrontation from time to time is constructive, right? And the classic business literature confirms it. Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team, for example, discusses at length how to achieve the right amount of confrontation for ultimate team effectiveness — and concludes

Managing Confrontation in Multi-cultural Teams Read More »