The knowledge about culture and cultural dimensions is certainly an important starting point, but it is not sufficient. To be truly effective in foreign cultures, you need to develop the skills to transfer your knowledge into effective behavior. And practice! Andy Molinsky provides a set of very helpful strategies step by step in his book “Global Dexterity”. By Global Dexterity he refers to “the capacity…
Expatriation can be one of the most exciting periods of your life, but also one the most challenging. Have you heard of the expat curve or the stages of acculturation? Did you experience culture shock after moving abroad or re-entry shock when you returned back home? Take a look at the following graphic that depicts the different stages of acculturation. I also recommend this…
Our choices “What makes a good sailboat captain?”, I asked my husband while we were sailing last week. “Good assessment of the circumstances and making the right choices.” How strong is the wind? How high are the waves? How fit is the crew? How reliable is the boat? Safety first. He has always had very good judgement and I trust him 100% when it comes…
I would like to invite you to follow me through the notes and conclusions I have drawn from the book “Basic forms of anxiety” by Fritz Riemann. First published in the 60s, it is considered standard psychology literature in Germany (I hear you think… ‘yeah, no wonder the “German Angst” is such a thing!’). It was recommended to us in our coaching course so I…
My first post about resilience on LinkedIn attracted over 1500 readers from all over the world. It seems that many of us are in need of good strategies to ride out the current global crisis. I felt encouraged to keep posting about the topic and to write this blog article as a compilation of my posts. Again, I hope that my thoughts and tips will…
In addition to my earlier article “Six essential cultural dimensions that will change how you view the world”, I would like to write about four other important dimensions that are worth considering when crossing cultures. The initial motivation was a colleague of mine who has asked me to design three more graphics as she would like to use them for her trainings. Very happy that…
Sharing our personal stories and learning from each other is the most powerful way to find inspiration, community and growth. Gain a fresh perspective and expand your horizon! Silke from Germany shares with us how her husband’s sudden death abruptly ended her expat life in Mexico and what helped her and her four daughters overcome this tragedy. Silke is a very esteemed intercultural trainer colleague…
Nancy from Mexico shares 3 secrets that made her bicultural marriage a big love story Sharing our personal stories and learning from each other is the most powerful way to find inspiration, community and growth. Gain a fresh perspective and expand your horizon! (versión original en español más abajo) Nancy, tell us where you are from and what motivated you to emigrate to Germany. I…
This model has proven to be very insightful during my intercultural trainings and I would like to share it with you. Originating from Aristotle’s virtue ethics, the model has been developed by Nicolai Hartmann/Paul Helwig and then became more popular though Friedemann Schulz von Thun, a well-known German psychologist and expert in interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. Where can it be applied? The value square model…
Introduction In July 2019, I shared a selection of what I consider the most insightful cultural dimensions on my Instagram account. I felt that before looking deeper into a specific cross-cultural situation, it is important to learn about the main cultural differences that can be found across the globe. The so-called dimensions are exactly that, dimensions, a range, no absolute figures, no fixed point on…
