cultural effectiveness Archives

Valuing time across cultures

by Anna Ridgway | May 8, 2016 | Adapting to change, blog, Developing trust, Global dexterity, Managing across cultures, Social commentary

In Australia, and other industrialised countries with strong shared cultural traits, there’s a consensus that these cultures have world’s best practice on how to ‘manage’ time. So why has time anxiety increased exponentially and why is feeding the time...

Lack of cultural effectiveness may bring your business undone and what you can do about it

by Anna Ridgway | Apr 14, 2016 | Adapting to change, blog, Business goals, Communicating across cultures, Developing trust, Managing across cultures

I had an opportunity to access a top-notch IT service provider for my business. If I hadn’t navigated successfully through some cultural differences, I might have lost it. It’s a common but avoidable occurrence: businesses torpedoing opportunities and...

Cultural Dexterity metaphors – changing people’s minds

by Anna Ridgway | Apr 11, 2016 | Adapting to change, blog, Communicating across cultures, Global dexterity, Global teams, international business, Managing across cultures

After reading Lakoff and Johnson’s classic Metaphors We Live By, which describes how we use metaphors from our everyday experience to understand existing and new ideas and help flex and shape our thinking, I’ve been thinking of metaphors to describe...

Adjusting cultural behaviours is like getting fit

by Anna Ridgway | Apr 7, 2016 | Adapting to change, blog, Developing trust, Global dexterity, Global teams, international business, Managing across cultures

Owww-w-w I’m so sore. Last night I had my first swim stroke correction classes and today I’m creaking around like a rusted-up sofa bed on legs. But only four more weeks of this mild torment and I’ll be over the magic divide. I’ll be one of...

A cautionary expat tale

by Anna Ridgway | Jan 8, 2016 | Adapting to change, blog, Coaching Case Studies, Communicating across cultures, international business

This is the story of a professional dream gone bad overseas in a country with a known yet poorly understood cultural environment. It has parallels with the stories of countless professionals gifted with expertise, experience and cultural knowledge but lack of cultural...