Global Teams

Chapter 9

Culture

Building cultural intelligence

This chapter addresses the invisible challenge of cultural differences. For a global team, this is a three-part challenge:

• Understand the cultural differences within your team
• Bridge the differences within your team
• Build a common set of values across all teams in the firm.

The focus of this chapter is on understanding the cultural differences within your team. We will then briefly explore how you can deal with those differences.

The nature of the cultural challenge

Travel opens the mind to new cultures. The obvious differences assault our major senses. They can be seen, heard, felt, tasted and smelled: clothes and buildings look different; people talk in a different language or accent; ...