Working Across Cultures: Adapting to New Environments with Kristina Roppelt

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In this in-between episode of Working With Us, I’m joined by Kristina Roppelt, an expert in intercultural communication and cross-cultural business training. Kristina has visited 63 countries and lived in places like South Korea, the USA, and Denmark, gaining deep insights into how cultures influence communication, teamwork, and leadership.

We discuss practical strategies for adapting to new cultural environments, overcoming communication barriers in multicultural teams, and the importance of curiosity and preparation when working internationally. Kristina also shares her thoughts on common cultural misconceptions and tips for leaders managing global teams.

If you’re navigating a cross-cultural workplace, preparing to work abroad, or simply interested in how cultures shape our work experiences, this episode is packed with valuable advice and insights.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Kristina’s global experiences shaped her approach to intercultural communication.
• Practical tips for adapting to new cultural environments.
• How to address communication challenges in multicultural teams.
• Why curiosity and preparation are key to thriving in international work settings.
• Insights for leaders managing diverse teams.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Now, did you hear it saidRecording in progress?
Okay, so we are starting recording.Great.
Let me see if everything's ready.
Okay, I'm going to just count downfrom three and then we start, okay?
Super.Three, two, one.
Hey, Christina.
Welcome to the Working With Us podcast.How are you today?

(00:24):
Thank you, Paul.
I'm doing just great because I'm also veryexcited about our episode, and I
I trust that you're excited, too.I'm very excited.
I like this for the listeners, this inbetween episodes of the Working With Us
podcast where we dive deeperinto cross-cultural topics.
And today, I'm veryexcited to talk to you.
Obviously, you have a lot of experience asyou could hear in the intro, working in

(00:48):
different cultures, living abroad,in many, many different places.
So I'm very excited toask you some questions and see
where this conversation leads us.
Thanks, Paul.
I'm also very I'm really grateful foryou bringing me into this podcast.
As I told you, there are not too manypieces of content, especially in the
podcast format, about cross-culturalissues that are so practical and

(01:10):
at the same time so applicable.
I know some of my clients have alreadyheard some of your episodes with my
recommendation, so I'm reallylooking forward to contributing.
That's great.I'm very happy to hear that.
Well, hopefully this one alsobrings equally as much value.
I'm pretty sure it will do that.
So, Christina, you recently movedto Denmark, one and a half year ago.

(01:34):
I'm curious.I'm Scandinavian.
Obviously, I'm from Norway, not Denmark,but I have a lot of Danish family,
so I've spent a lot of time there.
What's some experiences that you had sinceyou moved there that you can maybe tell
the listeners about some cross-culturalissues or problems or fascinations
that you've seen so far?
Well, I probably should start by sayingthat a lot of my personal values align

(01:58):
very much with the valuesthat the Danish people share.
I do understand that before I movedto Denmark, I've been here already.
It's not been something like a dramaticcultural shock to me compared to my
experience of when I movedto Korea or to the US.
But I would like to share one story whichdeals with the business environment, since

(02:21):
this is specifically the focusof our today's conversation.
This happened to one of my East Europeanpartners who has asked me if I could
possibly help him set up event inCopenhagen, a networking meeting.
I gladly accepted this proposal becauseI thought it would be really helpful.
He runs a great entrepreneurial and ITcommunity, and I definitely offered him

(02:43):
some formats that I can assist with, andwe ended up discussing a potential date.
Since the conversation happened inFebruary, my suggestions were all rolling
around May or maybe June, considering thatit would be important for us to be
well-prepared for the meeting and givethem, local people, enough time to

(03:04):
save the date in their calendars.
My East European partner looked at me withcrazy eyes and asked, What
are you talking about?
I'm not ready to plananything beyond 30 days.
So this is the max that I can do.
Are you sure you really need toplan two, three, four months ahead?
And in response to that, I gave him anidea that sometimes when you call to a

(03:27):
Danish restaurant or a bar and you want tobook a table, do you know, Paul, how long
is the period that you can book atable at a beer place in Copenhagen?
What's your assumption?
Well, it's been many years since I wasin Copenhagen and I had to book anything.
I don't know, maybe a week,10 days in advance?

(03:49):
It's said you can book any time startingfrom tomorrow for up to
three months in advance.
That's the range of planning.
That's a beautiful example of how I Itried to show to my partner that you
really, really need to be a little bitmore in advance with the local public,
considering how long it takes for thelocal people to build trust and how far in

(04:11):
advance they plan, considering the amazingwork-life balance that
these people have achieved.
So I think this is a beautiful examplethat tracks the start of our
intercultural conversation today.Yeah.
And I also want to add, obviously, thatthe Danish people in general is not happy.
They're not thatcomfortable with surprises.
So that's also a reason why it's easierfor them to have something planned out in

(04:33):
advance so they know what they can expect.
That's the cultural aspect.
I have an episode where I talk toan expert from Denmark about these things,
and we actually go into depth about thatsurprise element, which is super
fascinating when it comes to Danishculture, even in a professional
setting, but also in a personal setting.That's true.
Just knocking on someone's door and askingthem to go out for a beer,

(04:55):
it's almost like you shouldn't do that.
You should always prepare in advance.Exactly.
Usually, the guests that you already haveinvited would come something like five
minutes prior to the time that youpromised to come, which is fine as long
as you are aware of this specificity.
I think we're going to talk about this,about how we can be better prepared to

(05:16):
some unexpected situations when you moveto a different country or you move into a
different team, even virtually sometimes.
That's a big issue for those people whowork remotely for a multicultural team.
Absolutely.Yeah.
So obviously, as I mentioned in theintroduction, the topic is
moving to work in a foreign team.
If you're a foreigner, you come into anew country, you're going to work there.

(05:39):
Maybe you're the only onewho's not from that culture.
It's going to be some issues.
So, Christina, I'm actually interestedbecause you obviously
have that experience.
As you mentioned earlier, you have beenSouth Korea to
Silicon Valley, now in Denmark.
What are some strategies that have helpedyou integrate and move into new cultures
as you moved along in your lifetime?

(06:00):
Right.
Considering that I am an entrepreneurmyself, and in many cases, I'm the one
responsible for building my own contextand environment, we have to make a little
disclaimer that once you're moving to adifferent country as a part of some formal
institution, organization, or company,that definitely sets a certain context.

(06:22):
Because when you're joining awell-established institution or just a
newly built team or startup, for example,there is Certainly a big organizational
context around it, and the localorganizations culture
plays an important role.
But I'll start by speaking about myself,how when I moved abroad,
what strategies actually helped me bebetter prepared and better equipped.

(06:46):
I should say that we'll probably splitthem into three broader categories, and
I'm sure a lot of our listeners will beable to add more of the examples
into each of that category.
The first thing that I would usuallyadvise to anybody who is moving to a
foreign place, that be for studies, forwork, or even for personal reasons, is, of

(07:07):
course, to explore more about the cultureand the country, but not in a
sense how we might assume that.
It's not all about opening a Wikipediapage and reading more about which are the
biggest city in this country or which arethe most popular languages
spoken around that.
But being a bit more curious and going alittle deeper into the details, which are

(07:28):
usually socioeconomic and cultural detailsthat can help you set a better
understanding of the local culture.
That includes, for example, learning a bitmore about local educational system, about
local medical system, about how thefamilies are structured, how big or small
they are, what's the average age whenpeople marry or have kids, what's the

(07:49):
attitude towards ethnic minorities,racial minorities, sexual minorities,
what's the attitude towardsthese or that values?
In this regard, there are multiple amazingsources, from World Values survey with its
Ingleheart map to some more practical andmore easy to digest resources

(08:10):
such as Cultural Atlas.
So exploring more details and And dig in alittle deeper than just learning some
superficial facts about who's the king ofthis country and when the Prime Minister
is going to be out of officeis extremely helpful in this regard.
So that's my very firstbig piece of advice.
I don't know if you want to add.

(08:32):
I wanted to add becausethis is super interesting.
And it's so true becauselearning about the socioeconomic
facets of a country tells a lot about howthe people are, how the people behave,
how they react, because you can compare itvery easily to your own culture
because you have been born and raisedinto a socioeconomic structure yourself.
And then you can start to have someawareness of why you react

(08:54):
to the things you do.
Say, for example, as you mentioned,how people just get along in terms of
religion, in terms of business meetings,in terms of salary
expectations, these things.
And then what's yourexperience from your country?
Put that into one bracket and then say,okay, and then learn about what's on the

(09:16):
outset, what you can expect when you comeinto that new culture before you go there.
Because when you're there, these things,they are not necessarily
what people talk about.
This is written down, and then youwill experience as you go along.
So this is a very good tip.Absolutely.
Thank you, Christine.Yeah, of course.
I would love to give you multiple examplesof how just even learning more about those

(09:39):
socio-demographic factors opens the eyesof my clients or my colleagues of myself
into the completely newphenomena, but it will take ages.
I'll better skip that to maybe anotherconversation we might have, and we'll move
on to the second factor or thesecond strategy, I would say.
This is more about touching abit more real-time, modern

(10:03):
representation and manifestation of alocal culture, which is all about
modern content and modern media.
What I mean under this is, obviously, youcan read a lot about the life
expectancy and the average salary.
But what do people really see as beautifuland interesting, as curious and important?

(10:23):
What do people see as an importantagenda for their society?
It's all about their movies, their music,their media, their social networks,
their newspapers and journals.
So what is actually the local contentthat people consume and find interesting?
You may start anywhere from most popularblogs in India 2024 up to top

(10:46):
TikTok performers in Mexico 2023.
So any content that is available to youwill be good for you in this regard, even
if you're not particularly a bigfan of this or that social network.
This is something that shows youwhat what people are curious about.
This is something that is paving andinteresting,
let's say, background for your furtherconversations with the locals, because

(11:09):
suddenly it will turn out that cricket isthe most important sports in India or as
they call it, one of their three religionstogether with Hinduism and cinema.
This is just an example that will openyour eyes towards something that
was completely on your blind spot.
Of course, you may ask me, Well,Christina, of course, that's easy if

(11:30):
that's an English-speaking country or thecountry that speaks the
same language as you do.
How do I go around, let's say, Mexicanexample from my story if I do
not speak Spanish, for instance?
Well, in this regard, of course, it isbecoming much more challenging, but
automated translation in this regardcan easily help you make a quick search.

(11:51):
This is something that can be nicely doneeven without the knowing the
intricacies of the language.
At the same time, this opens It turns youto a whole world of consumable content.
For instance, music.
You don't really need to understandSpanish to enjoy the most trendy melodies,
or you don't really need to know Spanishin order to watch the most popular movies

(12:13):
because most likely they've beentranslated and dubbed
already into other languages.
So just don't be afraid to facethe world of a different language.
Of course, it's much easier when it comesto languages of your language family.
For example, if you speak German, it'smuch easier for you to do automatic
translation from, let's say, Swedish.

(12:34):
And it's much harder if you speak Hebrewand you want to learn something
about Korean language.
But I assure you, more than simpletechnologies, well, simple, that's hard to
call them simple, but anyway, verywidespread,
more than technologies, starting fromChatGPT to Google Translate, will
certainly help you at least makeyour first step in this research.

(12:54):
Absolutely, Anna.
I also want to mention something that yousaid there, which I always advise to
people when they move to new countries totake a dive into the popular culture,
and especially if it comes tothings like watching movies and
series from a specific country.
Because this is an example, if you'regoing to watch one Italian movie,

(13:16):
you're going to see one Italian movie, butItaly is very different
from the north to the south.
If you see, and then you can make thewrong assumption about the culture,
because that movie might be set in Sicily,which is south, or Napoli.
Then all of a sudden, you think that's theentirety of the culture,
which is not true, because in thenorth, it's a very different culture.
That goes for all cultures that are verybig and widespread, that inside of a

(13:43):
country, the thing is very differentdepending on where you live and
where you come from locally.
So always look at movies and think that itcould be a representation of real life,
but also put it into the context wherethey actually is set, which
city is set in and everything.
Because if you use movies, popularculture, to get an impression of a

(14:04):
country, you have to know where it's from.
Also, just want to mention about music.
You can learn a lot from listening to themusic, the emotions in
music about the people.
Like in Portugal, they have the Fado.
The Fado is very emotional.
It says a lot about the culture, thegeneration that grew up in
that atmosphere.
It gives you an impressionof how the country feels.

(14:24):
You have the music from Mexico or SouthAmerica, a lot of rhythms and all that.
It sets the tone.
I think it's a very fascinating tips.
Again, Cristina, thank you.
Of course.
I think you're giving us a great take thatcould easily be related to people as well.
Some of my clients come to me and say,Well, I'm about to take

(14:47):
a position in Brazil.
I earlier worked a lot with the Brazilianmedical professionals, for example,
doctors in their 50s,and they were all males.
But I'm going to join a new companywhich is all about trade and commerce.
This time I'm going to work with amixed-gender team, and they're all going
to come from different generations.

(15:09):
I always warn my clients that you shoulddefinitely not rely on the experience, on
the homogeneous experience that you've hadwithin your previous encounters
with the colleagues from this country,especially considering that now
it's going to be a mixed team.
It's the same thing.
Do not rely on the experience of onespecific person or two specific people if

(15:30):
you want to build a picture ofa very multifaceted culture.
And pretty much everyculture is multifaceted.
If we talk about monoethnic cultures,which are very rare, actually.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think just to top it on to that, onemore little hint is
it's a great icebreaker.
It's a great start for theconversation with a new team.

(15:50):
If you're, for example, moving to, let'ssay, Canada, and you would like to learn
more about this country and you want towatch Canadian movies, listen to Canadian
music, watch Canadian TV shows and youdon't know where to start, or the research
on the internet gives you very numerousoptions and you're lost between them.
It's a great option to ask your colleaguesfrom your future team to say, What

(16:13):
are your best recommendations?
Where do you suggest that I start?
Or go to an expat group on Facebook, forexample, and say, What did you guys watch
and what did you listen to when you came?
What was your favorite pick?
And this can also help you starta It's a good conversation, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I also do that sometimes,especially for being Norwegian.

(16:36):
There's a lot of Norwegianseries and movies you can watch.
I say, You should not watch thatone because it's completely wrong.
Well, definitely watch that one.
It's cheesy for me because What you knowis all of that, but still, it's a very
good cultural representationof the country.
So we, locals, we know what to watch.
Thesocial media and the streaming platform,

(16:57):
they will push some content to you in inlocal language and you watch it
and you think you know the culture.
But maybe if you ask a local about thatmovie or that series, it might say,
It's really not the way we are.
So, yeah, that's a good tip.It'll be helpful.
And of course, if you keep feeding yournet, let's say, social network or
a platform, that be YouTube or TikTok,with the specific likes that you place

(17:22):
over some reels or episodes or featuredvideos, then you'll getting
more of the recommendations.
It's just hard to start, but thefurther you go, the easier it gets.
This tip about asking your future teammembers about what they can recommend is
another nice bridge towards my thirdrecommendation, third strategy.

(17:45):
It's all aboutcommunicating to the people.
I personally find it the easiest.
I like interviews a bit morethan just cabinet research.
My favorite strategy is go talk to people,talk to the locals, talk to the expats who
live in this country, and talk to therepresentatives of your culture who
already have experience or hadexperience of living in this culture.

(18:08):
Imagine you're a Norwegian, Paul, and youdon't need to imagine that because you're
a Norwegian, you go to live in Italy.
So my best guess would be that it'sa great idea to talk to the Italians.
It's also good to talk to the Americanswho live in Italy, as well as the
Nepalese people who live in Italy orArgentian people who live in Italy, as

(18:29):
well as speak to the Norwegians whohave had experience of living in Italy.
And by doing so, you're gatheringvery diverse perspectives.
The local's perspective, the perspectiveof external expat who also perceive the
new culture with the different lens, andthe perception of your fellow
compatriots, the people of your culture.
And it's great if these are people somehowconnected to you, maybe someone you relate

(18:54):
yourself to, maybe same gender, samegeneration, maybe same
level of qualification.
So That also gives you a littlebit of a better perspective.
So combining all these three categoriestogether can give you, I'd say, a
pretty balanced, well-weighted picture.
Yeah.
And I think the last point you made thereabout talking to someone who is local to

(19:17):
you, living in thecountry you're moving to.
I see that quite a lot on theseexpats groups, especially on Facebook,
especially when you move to a new country,that sometimes I used to join them,
the local whole Norwegian community.
And they ask questions about, Oh, I'mthinking about moving here
to Italy, for example.
And then I can give the perspective thatis related to what they have an

(19:40):
expectation of that they don't understand.
And sometimes, because we make fantasiesin our head, based on what we talked about
earlier, movies, series, holidaysyou've been to, that is not the reality.
So talking to someone who already livesthere or have moved there many years ago
doesn't have to be from your culture, butjust anyone who is not born and raised
there, they will tell you with thehonesty, this is what you have to expect.

(20:04):
And then you can put it intoa different perspective.
And so you don't get that cultural shockimmediately, which I guarantee you a lot
of people will get a cultureshock because- I'd say all will.
Yeah.Yeah.
So that doesn't matter.
You can travel like youhave for many years.
I've been traveling andlived in many countries.
But every time I move to a new country,there's always something that surprises
me and sets me back a little bit.

(20:27):
I go like, Okay, this I really need tounderstand because this is
Confusing or frustrating.
That's the beauty of it, right?Absolutely.
That's why we learnand that's how we grow.
We can't even think about that.Sure.
Just out of respect to the listeners ofours who may be familiar with some
platforms that can helpfacilitate these connections.
There are also listeners who are notvery familiar with some of the platforms.

(20:52):
In some countries, LinkedInis not very popular.
In some countries, Facebook is notthe main means of communication.
In some countries, people are not veryfamiliar with such platforms
as random coffee, for example.
I'd suggest that we justgive a quick mention to all of those
places where you can connect to the peoplefrom a different culture or with your

(21:14):
compatriots who have already moved.
So don't hesitate to reach out to thepeople that you meet on the social
platforms that you use, on thesocial networks that you use.
Could be, again, for the Chinese, it couldbe WeChat, for the Koreans,
it could be cacao talk.
You don't needto Immediately rush into all these new
platforms because it might befrustrating and might be overwhelming.

(21:36):
But use slowly and steadily theones that you're familiar with.
Find people who could be relatable to youin your issue, in your quest of searching
new information, and then proceedslowly to other platforms.
But don't forget that there are multiplefree tools that you can use to connect to
the people who will be superhappy to share their experience.
You don't need to thinklike, Oh, I'm just on my own.

(21:58):
I'm moving to a new country.
I know nobody from there.Hold on a second.
Are we sure you have zeroconnections to this country?
Could you be that,let's say, maybe you have an alumni
community from your pastworking experience, and some of your
alumni members might be living there.
Could it be that your alumni fromuniversity, mates that you studied with,

(22:18):
maybe they moved in the same country.
Maybe you have a passionate hobby and youare a part of a global fan club or a
global community that sharesthe same passion or hobby.
Could they be a source for searching andfinding the people who are
already in this country?
So there are actually dozens and dozens ofway to connect to the people that could

(22:41):
be your supporters in this journey.
Don't hesitate, don't be shy, andjust always reach out for help.
The world is so muchmore open than we think.
Yeah, absolutely.
And also, I just want to mention on thetopic, a lot of countries have some
economic interest in many countries Sothey might have some commercial entity

(23:03):
that is set up there that do events.
The consulats or the embassies might haveinformation that you can reach out to.
Some of them are very nice.You can call them.
Some of them are very small.So they're very open to talk to you.
Totally.
Trade missions, chamber of commerces,cultural centers, all of those things.
Yeah.
Absolutely.

(23:24):
Perfect.
That's some very insightful tips there.
You mentioned a littlebit about communication.
From your experience, do you have anyexamples
of, I don't know, it has to be examples,but in your training or working with any
communication barriers that you haveobserved or something that you need to

(23:44):
overcome when it comes tomulticultural teams?
Yeah, that's a very good question.
It leads usmore to, let's say, narrow discussion over
communication issues thatwe encounter at a workplace.
That's a good time to transition there.

(24:05):
Let me just say that I'm very happythroughout the recent years through the
work of such creators as yourself, forexample, with the podcast,
through the work of researchers andgeneral speakers and bloggers who are
writing more about cross-cultural issues.

(24:26):
We have, let's say, certain consensusaround global workers, global trotters,
that there are certain barriers that youare inevitably going to encounter when you
start working for a foreign company in aforeign country or for a
foreign team, even if it's a remote work.
These issues usually include suchthings as feedback style, for example.

(24:49):
We have heard multiple times that this isone of the most challenging issues
for people from a different culture.
If somebody is giving you feedback in adifferent format, in a different presence,
with a differentapproach, or even if the feedback comes
from a different person, maybe not fromyour boss that you're used
to, but from your peers, et cetera.

(25:10):
There are also multiple things thathave been said about the direct and Direct
communication style, highcontext and low context.
There are multiple things that are beingsaid about different managerial styles,
hierarchical and more egalitarian,and I don't want to repeat that.
But my point here wouldbe a bit more overarching.
What I want to say is it's important foryour psychological safety to be prepared

(25:35):
that once you enter a realm of a foreignteam or a foreign company in a new country
or remotely,you have to be prepared, simply have to be
prepared, that pretty much anything thatyou perceive as normal or basic or
something that goes without sayingcan be done differently.

(25:56):
Again, I applaud to the people who haveraised the point about feedback,
managerial styles, and hierarchical oregalitarian cultures of decision making.
There are so many otherissues that can go wrong.
The safest thing to do would be to justget mentally prepared for the fact that
anything can go wrong, starting from theway you expect your colleagues to

(26:19):
congratulate you on your birthday.
That has been one of the issueswith a close people of mine.
When they came to Scandinavia for work,they received a very symbolic gift for
their birthday, which was just a tinylittle shopping card or a gift voucher
for the nearby shopping center.
They got solost, confused, and I would even say,

(26:41):
inserted because back in their workculture, It used to be a proper
celebration with a cake and a properlittle birthday party at work with, I
would say, expensive giftand things like that.
Even such a tiny little detail can put youback, set you back, and make you think,

(27:02):
Oh, I'm probably a bad colleague ifsomebody doesn't congratulate me
on my day in the way I deserve it.
Up to the things, for example, aspersonal time and boundaries.
We know very well that in many cultures,such as America or China, you would be
expected to work extra hourswithout even prior notification.

(27:24):
Whilst in the majority of places acrossEurope, crossing over your working hours
limit is considered veryintrusive into your personal life.
A lot of people love tokeep work-life balance.
There are multiple, multiple, multiplethings that people do not even think about
as something that couldpresent itself as a barrier.

(27:45):
But it's just safe to know that anythingthat you consider normal
can be done differently.
And that's just verycalming to understand this.
Absolutely.
I think it's also important to mentionhere for the listeners, because some
people here might be leaders ofmulticultural teams as well.
So this cultural awareness that we aretalking about now, that understanding that

(28:08):
there are different practices around theworld, it's also important for a leader to
understand when they have a team membercoming in from a different culture because
they might have expectationsas you talk about.
Like the expectations of,on my birthday, I want to have some...
You need to give them some special, notspecial treatment, but some token of
acknowledgement or even nameday in some culture is very big.

(28:31):
Oh, you didn't remembermy name day yesterday.
What does that mean?
This doesn't mean anythingfor other cultures.
It's like the cultural awareness is alwaysshould be reciprocal, should be mutual.
But of course,if you're a foreigner coming into a team
that is very monocultural,yes, the expectation is more on you to

(28:54):
have that understanding because theleader might not even consider that.
They just consider you as someonewho's coming in to work for them.
But it's also important for the leader totake a notice of this when you
have someone from a different...This is all about curiosity.
In the end, it's all about being curious.
Exactly.
I'd like to highlight and maybe, again,calm down the people who are now worrying

(29:15):
and panicking on the other side of theline listening to us and thinking, Oh, no,
that probably means that it's goingto be too stressful, too frustrating.
Why on Earth leaving your comfort zone andgoing to another country where anything
can be different as Christina and Paulhave just said, I'd like to just give a
little story to illustrate the idea thatcuriosity can really save the day and

(29:39):
explain that, in fact, it's very, veryimportant not only to not set
expectations about the normality.
But it's also very, very important tospeak, ask, be curious, clarify, and raise
the points about the thingsthat don't seem normal to you.
Not in a It means that you aredemanding things to be different.

(30:02):
Hey, you should give me a gift on mybirthday, no matter how long you know me
and no matter how close weare in a business environment.
But it's more like, Hey, and what's yourtradition of celebrating
your colleague's birthday?
How do you usually do that?
Can I learn more about this?
The story goes as follows.
There was a friend's colleague, not mypersonal acquaintance, but I trust the

(30:25):
source, who came from Belarus and workedfor a German company
under an American manager.
Again, here comes thisvery popular issue of feedback.
They got a feedback onto their quarterlyresult sheet that said, solid work done.
The Belarus coder got a bit confused aboutthat feedback because they have read about

(30:51):
the feedback style thatthe Americans usually have.
They clarified that and came to a managerspecifically and asked,
Hey, I just wanted to clarify what exactlycan be improved and what exactly are the
things that you think mightbe done better next time?
Because I assume there are certain thingsthat I can improve, judging by this little
phrase that I have received on my sheet.

(31:13):
The American manager was so surprised tounderstand that the person came up to them
that, put a long story short, the personwas promoted while de facto, at that point
of time, the resignation contractwas being repaired for them.
The person was almost onthe verge of being fired.
But their curiosity and the furtherconversation that has opened up, and the

(31:38):
conversation that has opened up and beenelevated to their HR, and the whole
discussion that has been opened abouttheir methods of work, the work has been
done, et cetera, has come to the pointthat the methods of work from this
specific Belarus person were reassessed,reevaluated, the value has been
recognized, and the personhas actually been promoted.

(31:59):
So As a matter of fact, as I told you,there is never right or wrong method of
doing that unless it's specifically statedin your communication policies or in your
organizational, let's say,foundation papers or any specific policies
and guidelines in your organization.

(32:19):
If that's not there, then it'salways important to come and speak.
Again, with the perspective of curiosityand with the perspective of
how do you You usually do that here.
What's the best way?
Can you recommend me?
May I clarify a littlebit more about this?
I'm completely new to this.
This disclaimers are extremely helpful.

(32:41):
If you use this wording, it canactually bring you a world of good.
So don't just sit there suffering in thecorner about not being appreciated enough
by your peers who just gave you a tinylittle gift voucher for your birthday.
Instead, come up and speak about or writeabout that or clarify in any

(33:03):
way that is convenient to you.
I understand that sometimes it's verychallenging to stand up and say, Hey, I
noticed you guys are doingthat a little differently.
What's your way of doing this?
If that'schallenging, Start with a tiny message in
a messenger to your colleaguethat you trust the most.
Talk to your HR, talk to your businesspartner, speak to your mentors, maybe

(33:25):
initiate a little conversation over lunch.
But don't just sit there accumulatingfrustration and annoyance
about the whole situation.
That's not good for your health.No.
I think it's important what you mentionedthere about guidelines and handbooks about
how the organization is working becauseCross-cultural management practices is

(33:47):
really not part ofa handbook for an organization, but we can
put it maybe under diversity and inclusionor something, equity and inclusion.
It might be something in there.
But if you are looking up this informationin their handbook, you
might never find anything.
But you can try to look on the DEIsegment if they have something like that.

(34:09):
That's coming more and more now.
It's becoming more and more normal,but that's not cross-cultural practice.
That is more just generalequality in the workplace and
diversity, appreciation in that sense.
Just want to mention that.
I was also thinking now we talked aboutthis
expectations, and sometimes expectationscan lead to misconceptions, because

(34:30):
misconception is something thatI've realized many times.
I talk to a lot of people aboutexpecting something and then realizing
that's not the realitywhen you come to a new culture.
For example, you might feel that everyGerman is very serious at work and they
never smile and they never do anythingfor fun, which is obviously not true.

(34:52):
But you might feel that just because youdon't know the culture well enough or that
the American, all of them are verycompetitive and
you're just going to be beaten down onunless you deliver on
the results all the time.
It's not true for everyone.
Obviously, some cultureshave a lot of things that is really true
to them, but they're alsosometimes not that true.
Do you have any specific misconceptionsthat you heard about?

(35:15):
Maybe we canlook into some misconception that is
really not true, or maybe there's somemisconceptions that are true or
experiences, expectations that are true.
In your words, what do you say?
Sure.That's a very good question.
I love it.
I would suggest that it'sextremely important to understand that

(35:36):
there are multiple layers that influence acertain organizational culture or a
certain team's culture ora certain person's culture.
I think it'sa topic for a whole different separate
episode to speak about all those layers ofyour country culture, of your local areas
culture, of your ethnic culture, of yourreligious culture, of your multiple,

(35:59):
multiple, multiple other cultures,including even your professional culture.
Lawyers all over the world have certaincharacteristics that teachers
all over the world don't share.
Putting that aside, I should say thatthere are several misconceptions that I
commonly encounter when it comes to thework with multicultural
teams that I conduct.

(36:20):
Speaking of the challenges that are foundin the guidelines in the handbooks of a
company under the DEI section, I commonlyrecommend to my clients, and we work on
that together with them, to put certaincommunication tips and recommendations and
expectations into their communicationpolicies, which can also help you

(36:42):
a lot in a multicultural team.
If you specify what's the way to providefeedback, what's the way to approach your
manager, what's the way to give feedbackto a peer, what's the way to consult
upon a certain specific challenge?
That can be also done there.
Do not give up on that.
If it's not there, you can always initiatethe inclusion of this points,
clauses into a handbook.

(37:02):
Speaking of the misconceptions,let me approach this question
from a little unusual perspective.
But being a woman, I very often hear aquestion from my female clients
about their travels, business travels, ortheir work proposals from some countries
that are known to be not very gender-equalcountries, let's put it this way.

(37:24):
I have some clients when the ladies,business leaders, go to China, when they
go to Saudi Arabia, when they go to theUnited Arab Emirates, sometimes even when
they go to India or Sri Lanka,they ask me questions like,
Am I going to be respected?
Am I going to be treated equally?
Am I going to face some discrimination?
Am I going to do this and that?
In many instances, they are extremelyworried about their situation,

(37:49):
so worried that very often as aconsultant, I receive a question, Should I
bring my subordinate instead ofgoing myself?
Because they are an older male and thatprobably will be more
efficient if a male representative fromour company comes and does
this project for us, et cetera.

(38:12):
I should say that it is extremelyimportant to note, over weight
the perception of genderinequality in such countries.
First and foremost, let's refer ourlisteners to the part number one of our
podcast episode and learn a little bitmore about the actual data and statistics.

(38:33):
Very often, the data and themisconceptions that you
have are really outdated.
What you know about China is probably whatyou have read about China somehow,
I don't know, 20, 15 years ago.
There's a fantastic book by a Swedishprofessor, Hans Rossling,
called Factfulness.
If you haven't come across thatbook, I highly recommend it.

(38:54):
It's all about how our misconceptionsabout different cultures and
societies are based on old data.
I recommend you to update your dataanytime you go on to such
an multicultural journey.
I'd like to say that in many differentinstances, the experience that the women
get in these cultures, we can actuallycall them in many in many cases,

(39:15):
patriarchal cultures,and we wouldn't be wrong to say so.
In many cases, their experienceis actually quite positive.
We have to say that there are certain tipsand certain recommendations that women
are expected to follow in these cultures.
But Because they come as a foreigner,it is very often happening that they are
perceived out of the local social norm.

(39:37):
It's my recommendation to all women wholisten to this podcast, do not take it
very easily and do not perceive that allover the world, women's rights are treated
in the same fashion as perhaps in yourcountry, but do not over-scare
yourself about the potential opportunitiesfor you in the other culture.

(39:59):
Another Another very typical misconceptionthat I also perceive is about lack of
punctuality and the so-called flexibletiming in multiple countries of Asia
or South America or Northern Africa.
A lot of my clients also come with thequestion like, What should I do if my
Moroccan colleague comes 2hours later to a meeting?
Or what if my Indonesian partners or myIndonesian leaders are going to be coming

(40:22):
90 minutes later forthe calls or something?
Is that going to be true?
Is that something that really happens?
In many In different instances, it's againnot exactly the case because the
industries that we're talking aboutare usually progressive industries.
We're not talking about some, let's say,rural areas, governmental institutions

(40:43):
somewhere far away in the middle of Java.
We're very often talking startups.
We're very often talking aboutIT, progressive companies.
We're very often talking aboutinternationally influenced organizations.
It is not as bad as you think.
It's probably not going to be Germanpunctuality because we started
with the German misconceptions.

(41:03):
But very often, the global norms ofmeeting, conduction, or the global norms
of respecting each other's times havealready influenced different
cultures more than you expect.
So be cautious, beware of that, butdon't over-scare yourself

(41:23):
with such misconceptions.
No.
The last example with time issomething I have experienced a lot.
And I know from Italy that a lot ofpeople, especially in professional
settings, they like to be on time.
They want to be perceived as professionaland being on time is professional,
but maybe personally, it's not the same.
So it's also important to distinguish whatpeople do outside of work and what they do

(41:46):
at work, because as you said, there's aglobal norm of what is good
business ethics and practicesthat is very different from...
So you can have a friend who is alwayslate to party, but when it comes
to work, they're always in time.
So there's It's always importantto understand those things.
And also I want to add a little tip herethat actually I used a lot when I'm

(42:08):
assisting people in recruitment processes.
I've done quite a lot, is thatit actually helps sometimes to understand
a business and a specific culture by goingto their website or LinkedIn and look at
the people that work there to have anunderstanding of the setup of the team.
Is it like you mentioned, maybe alarge majority of men that work there?

(42:28):
Is there a good mix of peoplefrom different backgrounds.
You can see that in the picture of thepeople that work there, but also the way
they dress,especially if you go to a website about us
page, look at the picturesthey have on their profile.
You can tell you a lot abouthow they want to be perceived.
You can have an understanding before youmove there or go for a meeting to
see this is a very formal company.

(42:48):
All the pictures are with a tie, so youmight want to dress up
formally if you go there.
If they're more relaxed,you can dress more relaxed.
You can do a lot of these preparations.
If your conception is that you're going togo to a meeting in a culture, say
in Italy, where fashion, you have a bellafigura with a good dress all the time, and

(43:09):
you look at their website and they alllook like they're like, typical- Hoodies.
Yeah, hoodies, right?
Of course, you'll be the weirdone coming, looking like a...
Coming to the Oscar gala, right?
So this is something that I thinkis very important that you can...
The same as we talked, there ispreparation, reading up, understanding.

(43:29):
Look at the company's website.
If they have a picture of the people thatwork there, you can get a good
understanding of how they are.So true.
One other very good tip, and happy tofreely share that with our listeners, is
when you are prepping for an internationalinterview, it's extremely helpful if you
already know who's going to be yourinterviewer, your potential boss, for
instance, to also look through the videoson YouTube or on the other

(43:52):
sources with this specific person.
This has actually helped several of myclients immensely because knowing what
exactly is the style of the communicationfor this specific person, what are the
business agendas that they're caringabout, that they're worried about, that
they raise during their businessinterviews is extremely helpful.

(44:13):
I understand that that may not be the casewith a small startup, but if you're
applying to a bigger organization, if youplan to work in a big corporate
organization, that can be enormouslyhelpful, especially if this specific
person is not exactly a perfectstereotypical example from this specific
nation or ethnic group or whatever.

(44:34):
You might think that this specific Chineseperson will be very, let's say, reserved
and shy and veryconservative in a sense, but they might
end up being a Chinese person who wereraised in America, very relaxed,
very indulgent, very easygoing.
They probably would expecta maybe similar attitude from you if

(44:59):
they want to recruit you into your team.
Just to give a quick disclaimer to all ofthose who were touched by this tuxedo gala
style of dressing that Paul give in theexample, I want to say that knowing about
the expectations in a specific team or ina specific company or in a specific
culture doesn't mean that youneed to change yourself to fit in.

(45:22):
That is extremely important.
This is what I hear a lot as criticism tointercultural consultants as if they are
trying to break their clients, to changetheir personality, to make them adjust
100%, 150% to the new team that they'regoing to join, that they should dress
differently, speak differently, approachtime management differently,

(45:44):
et cetera, et cetera.
That's actually not the case.
I have a fantastic example of my Russianfriend who went to Denmark to work here,
and he's always wearing a formal tuxetall the time, no matter where he goes.
He just loves a bow very formal attire,and he looks very, very different from the

(46:05):
majority of the Danes who are wearinghoodies and ripped jeans, as you
say, very relaxed style of dressing.
Nobody values him less for that.
Nobody appreciates him less for that.
Nobody sees him as a weird, or at leastthis was my understanding
and the communication when I saw him.
It's just his particularpersonality feature.

(46:25):
This is what makes him stand out.
But what I'm talking about isnot changing changing yourself.
What I'm talking about is being prepared,and this is important.
It's extremely,let's say, it's critically important for
both your business success and yourmental stability, I would put it this way.
Knowing things doesn't mean that you willbe putting them onto you immediately and

(46:51):
in the way you see copypasting from the people around.
It's just being better prepared.That's all I want to say.
And that's what's yourtip number one earlier.
To prepare yourself becauseit puts you in a mental mode.
If you see someone dressed in a specificway, you can just think that, Okay, this
is a little bit moreformal than I had expected.
And then you're prepared for that.
You don't have to dress a specific way.

(47:13):
And I think it's also important tomention, there are very
generational differences now.
We are not living in the '60s and'70s and even the '80s anymore.
So people are more open for a little bitof flair and flexibility, and it's
fun to be a little bit different.
So that's But that's age, again, that'sanother thing just to prepare about.
Are the person you're talking tovery young or are they a senior?

(47:38):
It's always the same thing.
Preparation is the thing we want to talk.
We have to take into consideration.
Sure.
For those of our listeners who are worriedif they have prepared well enough, there's
probably never enough of preparation.
When it comes to interculturalcommunication, at some certain point of

(47:59):
time, you just need to put a hard stopon that and say, Well, I am who I am.
I appreciate myself.
The most important thing isthat I respect the other people.
I have curiosity towards whatthey do and who they are.
And as long as I'm stayingrespective, open-minded, curious, and
flexible, that's probably a good of astarting pack

(48:20):
for any international traveler or anyinternational worker to
join a new environment.
So don't, again, overchargeyourself too much.
I think my motto for thispodcast would be relax and enjoy.
That's the biggest recommendationI can make into many of my clients.
And my personal opinion is that it'smuch more fun to learning by doing.

(48:45):
So when you go to a new culture, you'regoing to learn so much more than
you will ever read in any textbook.That's the thing.
You can read about a lot of stuff, whichis probably true, but sometimes your
experience of coming to a new culture willbe very different from
what you had expected.
So it's It's just about takingtime and enjoying the process.
Sure.
And leaving some space for this adaptationperiod, because I know unfortunate cases

(49:12):
when people were even well-prepared oreven coming to a country that they've
already visited, not a complete newbies,some experienced professionals who came to
a new country, immediately signed up forlanguage courses, joined a theatrical
studio, adopted a dog, made threedifferent to networking meetings with the
fellow expat professionals and overloadedthemselves so much with all sorts of very

(49:37):
natural things that are fine andgreat to do to relax in the evening.
But forgetting that this adaptation, theflexibility and the observation of the
new practices takes a lot of mental space.
It actually takes a lot of yourenergy, even if it's not very visible.
But being cautious and listening to otherpeople, fine-tuning Getting to the new

(50:00):
practices, understanding the way lead andfollow, and learning how to adjust,
especially in time-flexible cultures, as Isaid, especially when the cultures were
overworking, is probablya typical situation.
This is something that takes muchmore time and energy than you expect.
So give yourself some rest.

(50:22):
We could all leave this time a littlebit less busy and less occupied.
So give yourself a chanceto accommodate it nicely.
And we're not talking about weeks,we're probably talking about months.
So, yeah, don't overchargeyourself too much.
We've been addressing a lot of,say, we can call them the potential

(50:43):
employees that are moving around.
What tips or strategies would you give?
We don't have totalk too much about this, but to leaders,
facilitatinginternational teams or integrating
international people into a teams.
Any specific tips and strategiesyou will recommend to them?
Sure.
Let's make it short, as you say,to not go deeply into details.

(51:06):
They will also be very interconnected withthe other thing because it's very similar.
Absolutely.
But on top of that, I would say it'scritically important to understand whether
this is a new team that you are creatingfrom the scratch, and you are there in the
position to establish thenew norms, as we said.
Certain protocols, certain expectations,communication policies, may Maybe

(51:30):
onboarding policies for your HR that youare specifically writing for this new team
that you're creating or for thisnew startup, for this new business.
Or you're in the position when youinherited a team from somebody or a
department from somebody and you alreadyhave a certain mixed team or people are
joining the existing team, thatbecomes a little bit more tricky.

(51:52):
I would say, evaluate the context, and ifthere is a starting point for your
international team journey, this is areally great place to establish certain
expectations that concerns with, again,the things that we've mentioned, decision
making,feedback providing, time management

(52:13):
expectations, informal/informalcommunications, working hours, and many
other things that are important and couldbe easily addressed in certain
recommendations and policies.
When it comes to already existing teams orthe ones that are incorporating new people
on the go, I would suggest it's never abad idea to align the values of the people

(52:36):
who work in the same space,which can be done in different ways.
It could be done as a nice team event asa part of your informal communication.
That can be done as a formal educationalevent, educational plus
entertainment event.
This can be done as a part of teambuilding, and there are many different
strategies and formats and games to do inin order to understand what your

(53:02):
colleagues appreciate, what they value,what they don't like, what they literally
hate, what they find as their priority.
It will be a marvelous journey, believeme, for all the teams that I've been
working with when they decided to aligntheir values in this fashion that has
always been extremely eye-opening.

(53:23):
For instance, it turned out that a part ofthe team extremely appreciated quality
time after work with their colleagues.
For instance, Asian people are verycommonly known for spending Friday
evenings out together in a bar after workand stuff like that, whilst another part
of the team found that it was extremelyimportant to leave work immediately after

(53:45):
the end of the business dayand rush to see their families.
There was obviously a misalignment inthe values and in the expectations.
I'm not saying that you shouldquickly and dramatically start
implementing to follow the expectationsof one side of the team or the other.
But it's at least good to know thestarting point where the

(54:08):
misalignment happens.
From that moment on, after doing thislittle audit, you can move on and further
on solve if this is the issue thatprevents you from working
efficiently, or maybe it doesn't.
Maybe it's not something thatbothers the team too much.
So that's the thing.
Another important tip is, of course,whenever there is an issue or a conflict,

(54:30):
I believe that a leader should alwayscreate space for a safe
conversation about that.
So it is critically important to givepeople an opportunity and a hint that
whenever there is a challenge, discomfort,misunderstanding, or even a conflict,
there is always a certain safe space.It doesn't matter.

(54:50):
It can be in a form of a red button, aspecial link, anonymous poll, or
a quarterly meeting with your HR.
There is safe space to talk about itbecause I know some team even here in
Scandinavia, where leaders say,Intercultural is bullshit, pardon my
French here, and this is nothing to dowith people's past cultural experiences.

(55:11):
This is all about your performance.
If you're unhappy with something That'sprobably the issue of your performance
or the performance of your colleagues.
Let's say, Shut up and let's keep working.
That's what the approach is.
I say it's critically important to havesome space, specifically designed or some
time or some opportunity to raise theissues that bother you in a safe,

(55:35):
anonymous, and non-judgmental way.Let's put it this way.
Third is, as a leader, I just say youalways lead by doing,
set an example by not,let's say, again, breaking people's
typical patterns ofcommunicating, working, leading, providing

(55:57):
feedback, but rather by suggestingmore inclusion inclusive patterns.
If somebody finds it very hard to hearfeedback about their work
in an open room with other people aroundthem, is that going to be less valuable
if, for instance, we exchangefeedback in the written form?
If that's something more inclusive foreverybody, is that going

(56:18):
to hurt the processes?
Or maybe it's going to be equally fine ifwe are just
switching to another format that'sacceptable for everybody and
makes everybody more comfortable.
Maybe it's not, but it's just suggestion.
So whenever you as a leader have a chanceto respect other expectations, to respect
other cultural patterns,there is always a way to go.

(56:39):
But of course, it's important to notforget about your business perspective.
We're all here to do some work.
It's important for us to prioritizethe success of our business processes.
However, sometimes it's just literallyimpossible if your people are
unhappy or feel frustrated.
I also want to add on that.
One of the things that as a leader, youhave to do, and that's true for any

(57:03):
monocultural or multiculturalteam, is conversations.
You need to start a relationship byspeaking to people because you can learn.
You should throw all the misconceptionsout the door from the beginning and then
try to start with the person from scratchand try to understand what they really
want and how they feel andhow they react to things.
And be curious.Again, we talk about curiosity a lot.
It's all about the awareness.
And because there are people coming in towork for you, they're all

(57:26):
nervous, they're all insecure.
It doesn't matter if you're30 years of experience.
If you're The other one who's the senior,they still want to either
impress you or do good with you.
It doesn't matter if they'refrom a egalitarian culture.
If you think they're American, they'regoing to be really gung-ho salespeople.
They're still nervous.They still have feelings and emotions.
So empathy is really the key here as well.

(57:48):
And so I think thatif you don't talk to them and you just
push your way forward, that this is theway we do it here,
that's where the conflicts will happen.
So you can start Start therelationship with a small conversation.
Let's talk about you.
Let's talk about me, and you setsome expectations from the beginning.
And that's going to make therelationship much easier.

(58:09):
That's easy to, let's say, recommend that.
But I also want to recognize that it'sreally hard for many people, for the
majority of the people toconduct these conversations.
It's very hard to initiatethose conversations.
And I just want to send my support to allthose who have tried and maybe failed, who
have tried and it didn'tyield any results.

(58:33):
I just want to, let's say, motivatepeople to try and do it again.
Maybe second time, thirdtime is going to be easier.
Very likely that it's going to be easierbecause as any skill, this is all a
matter of practice, and it makes perfect.
Unless you practice these conversations,you're never going to learn

(58:54):
how to make them nice and easy.
Of course, with some cultures, it's goingto be a bit easier than with the others.
Maybe personally for you, some culturesare going to be more approachable than the
others, but that's not the reasonto leave the other cultures behind.
So yeah, thank you forbringing the word empathy.
This has beendefinitely not mentioned many times enough

(59:14):
on my speech, and I would definitelylike to put it on top of everything.
Yeah, being empathic and being open forthese challenging conversations,
never easy, but kudos to thosewho try, fail, and try again.
Yeah, I can give you a littleexample of how it actually works in

(59:34):
companies that do just to have anunderstanding how difficult it is as well,
because companies that want to hire adiverse workforce, for example, can
be International people can just be thatthey want to have more women in certain
roles and all that, or people withdisabilities in certain roles.
Usually what happens is thatI've been working on project where we are

(59:58):
basically the person, one of the personsin an interview will be coached a little
bit in advance to learn about it, tohave an open mind and understanding.
This is also a little bit aboutgenerational aspects of things.
So as a leader, it's also helpful to havesomeone sitting next to you if you are in
a conversation where you're maybe not usedto having that conversation with someone,

(01:00:20):
that you have someone who is more familiarwith talking to someone and understanding.
And on the opposite side, ifyou're the employee sitting in the other
side the table, you will be nervous.
But if you can go in there with, I say,try to have an open mind and say that this
is just a conversation where we'rejust going to talk about myself.
It's like if you already signed a contractand you have the job, at least they can

(01:00:43):
fire you for what youtalk about in that call.
Hopefully, that's not going to happen.
So it's all about thecompanies that do this well, they
recognize that there is atwo sides of this story.
There's the leader who is seen as thesenior and will have some power distance.
That's true for all culture, even thoughsome have more higher

(01:01:06):
power distance than others.
And there's a person on the other side whois an employee who just want
to impress and be accepted.
So this is where empathyreally has to come in.
And companies that do that well, theyhave a program for this.
They try to facilitate this, and you canlearn from those and say, Okay, if I can't
do this alone because I don't have theexperience, who can I bring on with me in
that meeting that can help meto be more curious?

(01:01:29):
And then you can learn from that.Definitely.
And very often, thissecond or third person in the room is an
HR or someone responsible for recruitment.
But at the same time, a very commonpractice is bringing an external
facilitator or a mediator, even, dependingon the approach that you're choosing.
That happens sometimes that with anexternal person in the room, a lot of

(01:01:52):
challenges are being smoothed out becausein order for an external person to
understand the situation, both sides ofthe conversation to
explain from the start.
This is where a lot of clarity comes in.
But I think we can totally speak a lotabout the facilitation and mediation
techniques throughoutmany minutes and hours.

(01:02:15):
But let's just highlight that thereis also an option and a possibility.
You shouldn't be there alone in thisjourney, especially if you don't have huge
experience of working in thismulticultural environment.
That can be definitely a challenge, Ishould say amongst many of my clients, I
have top executives, I have veryrecognized professionals, and many of them
share that across their corporate journey,managing an international team or an

(01:02:39):
intercultural team, these are differentthings, by the way, has always been one of
the biggest issues, one of the biggest,let's say, challenges, yes, I can
put it this way, on their path.
Let's not underestimate how difficult itcan be even for very experienced leaders.
Yeah, no, absolutely.I've I've seen it.

(01:03:00):
I talk to people that have 40 years ofwork experience, but they have no
experience in doing interviews withsomeone from a different culture.
So this happens all the time.
It's always good to havesomeone to help you.
You're never alone.
There's a lot of resources out therethat is happy to help, even externally.
So I think it's good to mention that.

(01:03:21):
Anyway, I don't really have any otherquestions on my list here
for today, Christina.
Do you have anything you want to say,anything you want to add before we end?
Anything on your mind you wantto mention to the listeners?
Yeah, I just want to highlight that afterhaving listened to our podcast, a lot of

(01:03:42):
our audience might think that, wow, that'sreally amazing, exciting, but at
the same time, very challenging.
Should we really risk it?
Is it really worth it investing a lot ofenergy, investing a lot of time into
trying to apply into a foreign team?
Or should I try to lead a foreign team?
Should I recruit somebodyfrom a foreign team?
Is that going to bring memore pain than advantages?

(01:04:06):
Well, I'm a big advocate of whateverinternational experience you might get.
I'm a big advocate ofintercultural teams myself.
And of course, I'm very biased becausethis is my passion, this is my curiosity,
and I'll always be there toadvocate for mixed teams.
However, there's a very clear,academically proven statement that the

(01:04:27):
more diverse the teams are, the morecreative powerful they become, especially
if it's not all aboutroutine operational tasks.
Their monocultural teamswork definitely much better.
But if we're speaking about somechallenging, some demanding, some creative
jobs or projects to be completed, then amixed team is definitely much more
agile and much more resilient.

(01:04:49):
In general, it's just like having pencilsof different color on your palette
to create a certain picture.
It's probably very It's very convenient ifyou know 50 Shades of Gray, pardon my
joke, or 50 Shades of Green or 50Shades of Blue, doesn't matter.
But it becomes so much more colorful andinteresting if you add more

(01:05:11):
colors to your palette.
It feels like people who are closing upthemselves from working with the
representatives of a different cultureand just sticking to one color.
Let's try to explore.
There are so many colors in the palette,and you can definitely benefit from either
drawing this picture or being a part ofthis beautiful carpet

(01:05:34):
with multiple threads.
For those who are still in doubts, I woulddefinitely recommend giving it a try.
Absolutely.
I think that today we are living in such aglobal world where there's global movement
of people and we can work remotely, we canmove easily around, we can go on
expat missions for three months, we cango for day trips to work in different...

(01:05:57):
You can go on an airplane andone hour in a different
countries, especially in Europe.
It's just thetoday companies and people that want to
explore the world through work, there'sa lot of more opportunities today.
I think that newer companies today, I seea lot of startups,
they're not afraid of hiring people fromdifferent cultures,
and so you shouldn't be afraid either.

(01:06:18):
So they have a better understanding nowthat this is something that is just the
reality of the world we are moving into.
We are developing a bettercultural understanding.
We are more acceptance of each So althoughwe talked about the strategies and tips
and tricks and maybe some risks,but there's a lot of opportunities here.
And I think that that's the most importantthing that we want you to be left with

(01:06:41):
when you listen to this, thatdon't be worried There's a lot of
people like Christina out there.She's helping the companies.
She's talking to people that arein this industry and different
industries and interest.
So people are getting educated every day.
And so there's a lotof opportunities there.
Just to recognize the challenges thatpeople meet when they come from the

(01:07:02):
countries with, let's callthem weaker passports.
For them, it might be more challenging toget a visa and get a position abroad
because we know many employers arereluctant to hire people who might
experience challenge in getting a workvisa or a work permit,
unlike the European passports or theAmerican Canadian passports, which

(01:07:23):
allow you to travel relatively free.
I still want to say that there aremultiple digital nomad
visas available these days.
Look, even Japan has launchedone, which is incredible.
The most ethnic country in the world hasfinally come to the conclusion
that they also need this practice.
It's true that the world is getting moreand more open despite the fact that some

(01:07:44):
countries might beexperiencing certain closures.
Still, twice kudos to the people fromthese countries who still give it a try,
venture to something bigger,and overcome those difficulties.
Let's not forget that as well and seebeyond the box, let's say.

(01:08:05):
Seek other opportunities.
Maybe that's not a workvisa at the moment.
Maybe that's your freelance contract froma different country that gives you an
opportunity for a digital nomad visa.
Or something like that.
So explore and hope that theintercultural luck will be on your side.
Yeah.Thank you very much.
In the end, stay curious and justbe out there and have an interest.

(01:08:29):
And you never know what company eventuallywill hire you, or you never know if you're
a manager or an owner of a startup whowill join your team that could be an
exceptional asset from a country you neverwould imagine hiring from because you
might think, Okay, I'm just goingto hire from my own country.
But you never know what that'sgoing to bring like we talked about.
This color palette, people andjust experiences.

(01:08:52):
Well, thank you, Christina.That was it.
I think that we have so muchknowledge, so much valuable content.
I'm very We're happyfor this conversation.
What's the plan for yourrest of the day now?
Anything fun in Denmark?
For the moment, well, I have a plan tocontinue working and finish my

(01:09:14):
day maybe with a swimming pool.
But Tomorrow, I'm starting my secondlevel course on theatrical improvisation.
It's called Improvisation Comedy.
This is a fantastic interculturalexperience I'm actually getting because I
have a very mixed group of students,which who all study together.
We do this theatrical improvisationin a super mixed group.

(01:09:36):
Mostly, they're expats,not just the Danes.
We all speak English.
For the majority of us,it's a foreign language.
The beauty of improvisation is that it'splaying around the things, concepts,
let's say, reactions and associationsthat come first to your mind.

(01:09:57):
You can easily see how differentassociations come to mind of
people from different backgrounds.
This is a fantastic research field for me.
I can't stop making notes afterI come back from every class.
Yeah, it's just a great experience.I love I'm looking forward to.
I love that.
An introvert like me will probably notlike it at first, but I'll get used to it.

(01:10:19):
Yeah.
A lot of introverts are actuallyfinding that extremely helpful.
Exactly.Yeah.
If we're done with the recording, I justthink we can stop the
recording Are we ready here?
Yes, we are finished.
Thank you very much,everyone, for listening in.
And I hope you find this episode valuable.
Just a quick note, if you're stilllistening, the episode will

(01:10:41):
be on my website, paularns.Com.
Christina is also going to share iteventually on her channel,
so make sure that you follow.
Just before we end, Christina, where canpeople reach you, get in touch with you?
What's your favorite placefor them to contact you?
Sure.
The first way to contactme would be LinkedIn.
As Paul mentioned, the episode is alsogoing to be available on my YouTube

(01:11:04):
channel, and we're currentlyupdating my website.
So hopefully by the time the episode islive, we're also going to have my
newly refreshed, three-branded website.
These are the three mainareas where you can find me.
Of course, email me andtext me as also an option.
But again, many, many thanks, Paul, forgiving me this opportunity for your

(01:11:27):
fantastically crafted questions and forthe work that you have already done.
I appreciate that.
Thank you very much, Christina.
All the notes you will find in the shownotes of the episode, the email and
everything, contact detailsto Christina, you'll find it.
So thank you very much, Christina.
Enjoy the rest of your day in Denmark.
Thank you.Bye-bye.