The Culture Lens

21/09/2022

Just loved this story about the queen..

A funny and true story about the Queen:

Around 2005, the Queen and her Personal Protection Officer, Dick Griffin, were walking alone one afternoon in the hills near the Scottish royal castle, Balmoral.
Two tourists approached them, and engaged in conversation. Griffin recalls:
"There were two hikers coming towards us, and the Queen would always stop and say hello.
Follow 👉 Royal Family Page
"They were two Americans on a walking holiday.
"It was clear from the moment we stopped that they hadn't recognized the Queen, which was fine.
"The American gentleman was telling the Queen where they came from, where they were going next, and where they'd been in Britain.
"I could see it coming, and sure enough, he said to Her Majesty: 'And where do you live?'
"She replied: 'Well I live in London, but I've got a holiday home just the other side of the hills.'
"He said: 'How long have you been coming up here?'
"She replied: 'I've been coming up here ever since I was a little girl, so over 80 years.'
"You could see the cogs whirring, so he said: 'Well, if you've been coming up here for over 80 years, you must have met the Queen.'
"Quick as a flash, she said: 'I haven't, but Dick here meets her regularly.'
The hiker then asked Griffin what the monarch was like in person.
"Because I was with her a long time, and I knew I could pull her leg, I said: 'Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she's got a lovely sense of humour.'
The next thing I knew, this guy comes round, puts his arm around my shoulder, and before I could see what was happening, he gets his camera, GIVES IT TO THE QUEEN, and says: 'Can you take a picture of the two of us?'
"Then we swapped places, and I TOOK A PICTURE OF THEM WITH THE QUEEN.
"And we never let on, and we waved goodbye.
"Afterwards, Her Majesty said to me: 'I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to his friends in America, and hopefully someone tells him who I am'."
Rest in Peace Your Majesty ❤️👑🇬🇧

09/03/2021

A Diverse Team Does Not Automatically Deliver Superior Results …But It Can!

There is a lot of focus today on building diverse teams driven by both an agenda of inclusivity and a desire for superior business results.

But getting the diverse team in the room is just the start of the process…it’s the ingredients for the cake …businesses still need to find the recipe for successfully transitioning diversity into superior differentiated business growth.

As early as 1992 Prof Carol Kovach identified that multicultural teams sit at the two ends of the performance extreme …either the BEST performing team…or the WORST.
click here for full article
http://www.wix.com/website/builder?storyId=59f22dea-b5ca-476f-90fc-e2688502504d&editorSessionId=3410382b-73b9-45ce-a209-d4c89eb5211a&referralInfo=dashboard #!/builder/story/59f22dea-b5ca-476f-90fc-e2688502504d:220e9c32-bbf2-4170-899b-afd49c9829fc/edit/1.158//

08/01/2021

Are you surprised to learn that if you were to lose your wallet your chances of seeing it again would be best in Mumbai?

Love to hear your thoughts on the latest from a Readers Digest experiment....does the result in your country fit with your expectations?....any other countries surprise you?

30/11/2020

Intercultural Communication Discussion
''I always believe that people should say what they mean and mean what they say - if they don't ...well I don't trust them''
How much do you agree with this statement? Which country are you from?

20/11/2020

A little bit of intercultural humour to wish you all a happy weekend. Here in the UK we are in our middle weekend of 2nd lockdown so every little bit of fun helps to get us through these dark winter days. Enjoy !

25/09/2020

How do you motivate people in different countries? Does the metric that works in one country demotivate elsewhere? What is more likely to drive behaviour national culture or local culture?
If you are interested in any of these topics then this article by one of my Hofstede-Insight colleagues is worth a read. Grab a cup of tea and take a 5 minute inspiration break

How can we help organisations to reflect on the "people matter, results count" statement across the globe, in a way that makes sense locally? Egbert Schram.

24/09/2020

What do we all think? Are Britons too 'freedom loving' to follow Covid Rules? This is an excellent article that really gets to the heart of the dilemma of being an 'individualistic' nation. We behave and make decisions based on what is in our interests ...so when we face a global pandemic the government needs to appeal to the individual to act in the common interest ...for thier own good ! Tough one eh?!
Love to hear your views

Boris Johnson’s explanation doesn’t chime with polls or the opinion of experts, who say people in UK prefer to follow rules

23/06/2020

LET'S TALK ABOUT TIME
Tonight at 20.20 and 20s it will be 20 : 20 : 20 : 20 20

Pretty cool huh? Never to be repeated!

This got me thinking about time …and how different cultures deal with time.

Last summer when I was in Italy (ah yes the fond and distant memories of travel ….) I was in a butchers shop and it was pretty busy.

The lady at the front ordered fresh ham…then the butcher looked up and asked ‘anyone else for ham?’ …of course as a British person I was shocked …as people in the back of the shop put their hands up and the butcher happily took their orders.

‘Tut Tut queue jumping’ ….it is an affront to us on these isles. The whole shop seemed like it was in chaos with people shouting orders from every corner. Where was the queue, where was the orderly line, I settled in resigned to a longer time than expected.

Then as I watched the whole thing play out I got to thinking …maybe that was a pretty smart move. A few minute later the shop was nearly half empty? ….several customers just wanted ham. So when the butcher had gone to the effort of getting the ham out of the back room…unwrapping it, cleaning the slicer and cutting one order of ham it took seconds to do another five. Those only wanting ham got served super quick and in the end it was quicker than the approach we are used to here in the UK when the butcher would have spent a lot longer wrapping and unwrapping this ham for multiple customers!

What we are seeing in action here is a very different approach to time. Many of us don’t realize how much of the what we think is ‘normal’ is actually learnt behavior. We see the world through our own ‘cultural lens’ and attitudes to time are very much culturally programmed.

In Northern Europe our view of time is largely what is termed ‘sequential’. We tend to organize things in a straight line going from A to B with a series of events. We finish one thing then move on to another. Time is precise and our schedules are tightly managed, keeping to time can be more important than the task. Being late for a meeting is seen as rude, as you are wasting another persons time, and we all know time is money in business!

In many Southern European countries, by contrast, many people have a ‘synchronic’ relationship with time. They are not committed to a timeline but are constantly adjusting their schedule according to their emerging needs. Relationships are the focus for business, so time will always be adjusted to ‘give time’ to people who are important now or in the future. Being ten minutes late for a meeting to take a call from an important customer is seen as good business sense and asking to call him / her back would be a signal to them that they were not seen by you as important.

So we are beginning to unravel that the simple concept of time has big implications for how we run business across cultures. As you work across borders you will find that the tried and tested ways of working that work for you at home don’t always translate. Like many cultural ‘AHA’ moments, we see that our way is not the only way and not always the best way.

I coach, train and consult with international leaders and their teams to help them build their cultural intelligence to help them improve international business success.

If you would like to get to know how your cultural lens makes you see the world, and how to build your cultural intelligence to build your international business success, then get in touch.

[email protected]. +44 07949 328911

The Culture Lens helps international managers who have responsibility across borders to adapt their working methods to different cultures. By helping managers build the cultural intelligence they need to adapt their working style we build business effectiveness and sucess.

16/06/2020

Quarantine Measures : What Can We Adopt From Other Nations?
Quarantine is a HOT TOPIC in the UK at the moment ...I am curious to hear how other countries are handling it ....e.g. in Hong Kong all passengers have to have a COVID-19 test at the airport and cannot leave until the results come through...they then need to wear a wristband which ensures they adhere to the 14 day quarantine rule.
What's your view ?
An imposition on human liberties?
or
A restriction on the few to liberate the many?
We face the same pandemic but how transferrable are measures between countries? & Why?

Passengers arriving in Hong Kong must wear a bracelet and download a smartphone app, as the city tries to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.