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hi so let's
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start this is actually all about
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um standing in someone else's
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shoes I believe that if we can
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understand understand the values behind
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culture we can understand people better
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we can accept them for who they are for
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what they stand for where they're coming
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from and then we'll have more
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productivity we'll have less
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violence and we can live uh in
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peace now when I say culture I mean the
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set of Unwritten Norms that guide
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people's behavior and gives them a sense
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of what is right and what is wrong what
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is appropriate and what is
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not today we can measure
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culture we use tools developed by
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Professor her hofstead that allow us to
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measure culture based on
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statistics and how people react to
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different
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situations what Hof identified was that
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all communities basically have five
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dilemas five dilemmas that they have to
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cope with one way or
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another these are hierarchy
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versus
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equality individualism versus
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collectivism performance orientation
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versus caring for others or quality of
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life uncertainty avoid or not worrying
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about
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uncertainty and flexibility versus
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discipline now the research of hoffstead
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is not new but these dilemas they are
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still valid they have been with us for
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centuries and they continue to be valid
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today let's look at uh some of these
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dilemmas the guy in white is the the
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prime minister of
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Thailand so how come he's sitting on the
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floor because the guy behind the desk is
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the king of
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Thailand Thailand is a very hierarchical
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culture it has what we call a big Power
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distance in high power distance
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societies like Thailand it's very
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important to show the power distance
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among the different rungs in the
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hierarchy even among the two most
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powerful people in that
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Society
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now this guy over here is the prime
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minister of
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Sweden but he's standing in line to use
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the ATM like everyone
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else Sweden is a low power distance
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culture in a low power distance culture
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there is also hierarchy there is also
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power distance but it's much more
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subtle it's not so
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evident now
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this is the princess of
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Denmark and Denmark is also uh an
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egalitarian culture low power distance
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so how come she's getting the red carpet
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treated and uh people are throwing
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petals at her
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feet because she's not in Denmark she is
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visiting
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Thailand this is how people this is how
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people in Thailand treat
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royalty even if it's not their own
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royalty if it's somebody coming from
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abroad and maybe this is why the
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princess of Denmark enjoys visiting
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Thailand so much because she would never
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get this treatment in
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Denmark now this is very important
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because
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it is the people at the bottom of the so
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social pyramid that determine whether
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the societ is high power distance
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hierarchical or not it's not the
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dictator who determines the dictatorship
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it's the people at the bottom who accept
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a dictator or do not accept a
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dictator they are the ones who determine
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if a society is hierarchical or
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egalitarian
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and it all begins in
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childhood when we are less than 10 years
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old that's when we all learn what is
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right and what is wrong what is
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appropriate and what is not appropriate
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in our community that's when we learn in
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which way of those dilemmas is our
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community
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going let me give
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you a couple of examples
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when I was a young kid in Brazil Brazil
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is a very hierarchical society and I
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would come into the living room with my
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sister playing and my parents were
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entertaining guests and they would tell
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us go play outside we're having an adult
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conversation and of course we would go
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outside and we learned that in this
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world there are some people who have
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more power the adults and some people
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have less power the
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children but now I live in Holland when
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I go to my next door neighbor and his
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kids come playing running into the
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living room he stops talking to me he
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includes the children in the
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conversation he treats the children as
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adults so his children learned that in
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this world people have more or less the
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same amount of
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power when we moved to the Netherlands
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years ago there was a knock on my
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door a guy identified himself as being
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from the mayor's office and he said
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we're going to refurbish the playground
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there's a playground down the street and
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we're going to refurbish it we're going
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to put in new toys but we want to make
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sure that the toys that we're going to
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put in are the toys that people prefer
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that the children prefer in this
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neighborhood so do you have children at
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home and I said yeah cool I do have I
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have two daughters they're very young
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they're four and five and they like the
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slide they like the Seesaw and said no
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sir are they home I want to speak to
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them my jaw dropped to the floor rolled
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on the
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sidewalk this would never happen in
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Brazil
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he didn't want to speak to me he wanted
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to speak directly to my kids now that's
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a
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difference can you imagine how Dutch
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children grow up learning that they are
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treated like
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people
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so individualism is the other dilemma
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between individualism and
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collectivism in individualism it is more
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important the individual is more
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important than the group and it's
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important to be independent and to
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express your own opinion even if you
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don't please other
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people while in collectivism the most
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important thing is to belong to a group
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remain loyal to that group as long as
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you are loyal to that group the group
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will take care of you and it's most
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important to maintain Harmony in the
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group so you don't express disent
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opinions mind you in collectivistic
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societies there are many groups and
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these groups sometimes fight with each
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other but within the same group you try
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to maintain
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Harmony the third dilemma is about
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performance versus caring in a
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performance-oriented culture it's
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important to achieve to perform and
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people who do that are rewarded by
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Society in financial Cal terms or in
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status terms this is where pay for
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performance comes from performance is
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more important while in caring cultures
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quality of life is more
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important it doesn't mean that people in
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caring cultures do not perform they also
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perform they also have to work but in
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these cultures work is a necessary evil
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you work so that you may enjoy life in
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performance oriented
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cultures work is your
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life work is the meaning of
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life the fourth dilemma is uncertainty
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avoidance or just letting it
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be there are some societies that have
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all kinds of mechanisms to avoid
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uncertainty some of these mechanisms are
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for instance planning organizing
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structur ing things yeah checking if
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everything is
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okay if a society scores high on
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uncertainty avoidance another mechanism
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is also religion
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Superstition because if you pray you
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will pass the
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exam it avoids
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uncertainty while in other societies
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there is less religion or less planning
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they don't wor so much about uncertainty
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avoidance they think okay let's worry
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about crossing the river when we get to
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the river it's no use worrying about
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that before we get
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there last but not
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least the fifth uh dilemma is between
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flexibility and discipline flexibility
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means that if you have a objective far
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away in the distance there are many
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different paths that you can take
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to reach your exact your objective so
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it's important to be flexible go one way
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or go the other according to the
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situation it all
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depends but when a a society scores High
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sorry low on this the most important
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thing is discipline and the idea is you
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have one true path that you must follow
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all other paths are
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wrong so this discipline is much more
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important and the law is applied in all
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situations exactly the same way there's
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no room for
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exceptions no room for exceptions while
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in high flexibility cultures there's a
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lot of exceptions because everything
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depends on each
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situation
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now let's look at Bulgaria the USA and
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Holland
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this is a study carried out in Bulgaria
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so you can see that Bulgaria
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scores
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high on power distance it's hierarchical
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it's more collectivistic than
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individualistic it scores somewhere in
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the middle in terms of performance
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orientation but uncertainty avoidance is
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very high we don't have a score for
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flexibility in Bulgaria it hasn't been
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it hasn't been researched maybe we can
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talk about it later yeah now let's
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compare
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with the
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States you can see that it's much more
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egalitarian less hierarchical than
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Bulgaria it's much more
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individualistic it's the most indiv
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individualistic Society on Earth the
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highest
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score it scores higher also in
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performance orientation and it's lower
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in uncertainty avoidance and if you
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compare it to Holland just to uh have a
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different frame of reference you see
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that Holland is very similar to the
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states in terms of hierarchy
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individualism but it's much lower in
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terms of performance
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orientation and it's similar again in
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terms of uncertainty avoidance now if
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you look at the gaps between Bulgaria
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you can see that there's a big
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difference in terms of hierarchy
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big difference in terms of individualism
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and an interesting situation in terms of
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performance orientation because Bulgaria
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scores higher than Holland but less than
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the
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us but what does this
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mean in real
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life things are not bar charts so there
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are combinations
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these these different dimensions they're
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always combined in a situation and we
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have some names for these different
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combinations for instance the Americans
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are part of what we call a contest
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culture the Dutch are part of what we
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call a network culture and Bulgaria is
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what we call a pyramid
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culture what does this mean in
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practice what are the implications at
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work for instance suppose that you are
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applying for a job you finished College
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you're applying for a job if you're
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doing that in a contest culture what is
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a good candidate in a contest culture
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good
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candidate is somebody who has a glowing
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CV it's somebody who in the interview is
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confident assertive and shows a can do
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attitude but it's different in other
00:14:52
cultures for instance in pyramid
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cultures it's important to have a more
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detailed resume
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you should show
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loyalty you need to ask polite questions
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to avoid
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confrontation and you indic you you
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should indicate who you know because you
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might make some relationship links with
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people who are already in the
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company in contest cultures the task
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comes first what needs to be done and
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when this is what you need to do
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but in pyramid cultures relationship
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comes first how can you do business with
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people that you don't
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know first build a relationship then you
00:15:43
can get down to
00:15:46
business now which culture is
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best actually there is no best culture
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there is no right culture no wrong
00:15:56
culture we always think that our culture
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is the right one and everybody else is
00:16:02
wrong we always think that the culture
00:16:05
that fits our own personal values that's
00:16:08
good the culture that doesn't fit our
00:16:11
own personal values that's
00:16:14
bad but in
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practice nobody is right and nobody is
00:16:22
wrong the problem that we have is that
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65% of management books in the whole
00:16:30
world are published in the US the UK and
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Canada and these principles of
00:16:37
management are taught by universities
00:16:40
all over the world as being the way to
00:16:44
manage which is fine when you do it in
00:16:47
America because it's consistent with
00:16:50
American values or in the UK or Canada
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but when you use it in other cultures
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you need to have some kind of adaptation
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or else it might not work it might
00:17:03
backfire if it clashes with the
00:17:07
values for
00:17:09
instance in contest cultures you have
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direct
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communication people tell it like it is
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they speak it to your
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face but in pyramid cultures you have
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more indirect communication if you want
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to talk to somebody who is over here you
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don't go
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direct what you usually do is you talk
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to someone who can talk to someone else
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will talk to the person that you want
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the message to get to to avoid
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embarrassment to avoid
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confrontation meetings meetings are very
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different from one culture to another in
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a contest culture meetings are short and
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they're action oriented you make
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decisions in meetings and you decide who
00:18:00
is going to do
00:18:01
what in pyramid
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cultures meetings are a platform for the
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boss the boss decides before the meeting
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Consulting with one or two trusted
00:18:13
advisers and at the meeting the boss
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announces the decision and then checks
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if everybody is still
00:18:20
loyal so if you want to influence a
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decision in a pyramid culture talk to
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the boss before the meeting
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don't wait for the
00:18:33
meeting feedback feedback is a very
00:18:36
American
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concept you tell somebody how you feel
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about what that person has done you can
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give feedback to your boss your boss can
00:18:46
give feedback to you it works very fine
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in a contest culture but in a pyramid
00:18:53
culture it could be very
00:18:55
different if your boss gives feedback
00:19:00
it's probably because he didn't like
00:19:01
something you did you better watch out
00:19:04
and you never give feedback to your boss
00:19:07
because if he doesn't like the feedback
00:19:09
you might get
00:19:11
fired feedback is often interpreted as
00:19:14
personal criticism so it's
00:19:20
avoided why is all this
00:19:22
important because it affects the way we
00:19:25
look at
00:19:26
problems we might be looking in the
00:19:28
wrong
00:19:29
Direction
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unless unless we consider the values and
00:19:38
culture so if we want to address for
00:19:41
instance the matter of corruption it's a
00:19:43
big problem in Brazil where I come
00:19:45
from you have to realize that corruption
00:19:48
is linked to power distance and
00:19:50
flexibility the higher the power
00:19:52
distance the more favorable the
00:19:55
atmosphere for corruption the higher the
00:19:57
flexibility the more tolerance for
00:19:59
corruption so if you want to reduce
00:20:01
corruption you have to do something
00:20:03
about the power distance and the
00:20:05
flexibility otherwise you won't get very
00:20:08
far or for instance
00:20:11
nepotism if you want to change a culture
00:20:14
where there is too much nepotism where
00:20:16
people are always favoring their
00:20:17
relatives or their friends you need to
00:20:21
understand that this is typical of
00:20:23
collectivism so you need to do something
00:20:25
about the culture otherwise you won't be
00:20:28
able to change change
00:20:31
nepotism what can you do then first you
00:20:36
need to understand the
00:20:38
culture then you can choose what do you
00:20:40
want to change what do you want to keep
00:20:43
but you need to understand the culture
00:20:45
as a starting point and in the
00:20:49
meantime realize that changing a culture
00:20:53
is very difficult change requires
00:20:56
re-educating adults
00:20:59
about values that they learned as
00:21:01
children not easy to
00:21:03
change it also requires that you change
00:21:07
the way children are being
00:21:09
educated if you want to reduce hierarchy
00:21:13
you cannot continue to educate children
00:21:16
in an authoritarian way because they
00:21:19
will grow up to form a hierarchical
00:21:23
society if you want to change that you
00:21:25
need to change the way children are
00:21:26
being educated
00:21:29
what you can do personally in the
00:21:31
meantime is realize your own
00:21:35
bias what are your
00:21:38
values how do your values affect the way
00:21:41
you judge other
00:21:43
people how can you learn about other
00:21:45
people's values and judge them according
00:21:47
to their values instead of your own and
00:21:52
last but not
00:21:54
least never lose your curiosity
00:21:59
never lose your interest in learning
00:22:01
about other
00:22:02
cultures when you find something in
00:22:05
another culture that is puzzling or
00:22:07
annoying don't be furious be
00:22:12
curious thank you very much
