The Culture Map

Tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them

The United States is the lowest-context culture in the world, and all Anglo-Saxon cultures fall on the left-hand side of the scale, with the United Kingdom as the highest-context culture of the Anglo-Saxon cluster. All the countries that speak Romance languages, including European countries like Italy, Spain, and France, and Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, fall to the middle right of the scale. Brazil is the lowest-context culture in this cluster. Many African and Asian countries fall even further right. Japan has the distinction of being the highest-context culture in the world.

In Hindi the word “kal” means both tomorrow and yesterday.

The more low-context the culture, the more people have a tendency to put everything in writing.

when you work with higher-context colleagues, practice listening more carefully. “The best advice I can give,” Díaz says, “is to learn to listen to what is meant instead of what is said. This means reflecting more, asking more clarifying questions, and making an effort to be more receptive to body language cues.” By searching for implicit cues, you can begin to “read the air” a little more accurately.

Multicultural teams need low-context processes.

By contrast, many high-context cultures—particularly those of Asia and Africa—have a strong oral tradition in which written documentation is considered less necessary

Mom used to coach us in active listening: You speak to me as clearly and explicitly as possible. Then I’ll repeat what I understood you to say as clearly and explicitly as I can.

In Chinese culture, children are taught not to just hear the explicit words but also to focus on how something is said, and on what is not said.

So when you work with higher-context colleagues, practice listening more carefully. “The best advice I can give,” Díaz says, “is to learn to listen to what is meant instead of what is said. This means reflecting more, asking more clarifying questions, and making an effort to be more receptive to body language cues.” By searching for implicit cues, you can begin to “read the air” a little more accurately.