Erin Meyer's 'The Culture Map' explores cross-cultural communication and leadership styles, offering tools for effective interaction in multicultural environments. The book categorizes cultures into various dimensions like communication, evaluation, and scheduling, emphasizing the importance of understanding relative cultural norms. Ultimately, it suggests that communication effectiveness is influenced by both individual personalities and overarching cultural contexts.

1. The Culture Map:
What I Learned.
Iqbal Abdullah
2019.04.26 • LearnDay #8

2. ● A book by by Erin Meyer
● A book on the analysis of how people think
and communicate across different cultures
● And also gives tips on how to communicate
and lead better in a multicultural environment
The Culture Map

3. Sample of Maps
Cultural comparison Quadrant maps Culture groupings

4. 8 types of Maps
● Communicating
○ Low or high-context
● Evaluating
○ Direct or indirect negative
feedback
● Persuading
○ Principles or application first
● Leading
○ Egalitarian or hierarchical
● Deciding
○ Consensual or top-down
● Trusting
○ Task or relationship-based
● Disagreeing
○ Confrontational or avoids it
● Scheduling
○ Linear or flexible time

5. How did my country get there…?
By interviewing many people, the writer creates a scale of acceptable
range for a certain culture

6. 01 Communicating: Telling it

7. Our Language
● Low-context and high context languages
a. The United States is the lowest context language with
other anglo saxon languages follow closely
b. Japan has the highest context language
● “Tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, and
tell them what you’ve told them”
● “Read the air”
● This is also influenced by our history as a society

8. Communicating scale
Note: Education tends to move people to the more extreme version of the dominant culture

9. Tips to success
● It’s relative: Being a top communicator in your culture doesn’t
mean the same thing in another culture
● Greatest misunderstanding usually comes from different
high-context cultures.
● If your team is multicultural, the best strategy is to go
low-context

10. 02 Evaluating: Polite or plain rude?

11. Frankly speaking, or not?
● Some cultures give negative feedback in a blunt way, while
others put it in a milder manner
a. Israel, Netherlands, Germany, Russia are most direct
b. Japan, Thailand, Indonesia are most indirect
● Usage of upgraders (absolutely, totally) and downgraders (a bit,
sort of, maybe)

12. Negative feedback maps

13. Tips to success
● Politeness is in the eye of the beholder: You will need time to
understand what “polite” is in the culture you are trying to work
with.
● When working with cultures more direct than you, DON’T try to
be like them: You can over do it. Just put it up a notch.

14. 03 Leading: What is a leader?

15. The concept of power distance
● Geert Hofstede developed the concept of power distance
a. Ex. Netherlands, Australia has different power distances
compared to China (taking the bike to work example)
● The differences in the power distance are influenced by how
history panned out (Roman empire vs Vikings, teachings of
Confucius, or Protestants vs. Catholics)

16. Leading scale

17. Tips to success
● In today’s global business environment, you’ll need to lead in
both egalitarian and hierarchical styles to do well.
● Observe, and follow small symbolic steps your other team
members do (i.e usage of titles at work)
● If you work with a more hierarchical culture, ask for permission
first before going to the source

18. 04 Scheduling: How we look at time

19. 2 types of time: Linear and Flexible
● 2 different cultures, monochronic (M-time) and polychronic
(P-time)
● M-time cultures see time as concrete and tangible, while P-time
cultures see it as flexible
● “Evergreen Tree” in India
● M-time cultures value predictability, P-time cultures value
flexibility

20. Scheduling scale

21. Tips to success
● One culture will look at the other culture and think: “How
inefficient they are!”
● The key is to work flexibly and with an open-mind: Frame
switching
● But if you lead a cross cultural team, you’ll need to create a team
culture that everyone understands and has agreed to.

22. So, what did I learn?
● We all are influenced by our language and culture on how we communicate,
interact and lead
● Personalities are also taken into account, but culture is overarching
● How effective we communicate, lead or schedule is a relative thing: Not
only how you do it, it’s how the other party understands it
● There is no right or wrong when it comes to culture or language
● And I think we should go one step further by defining our own team culture

23. Questions?

24. Thank You !
iqbal@xoxzo.com