The
author of Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures Without
Losing Yourself in the Process draws on his years of field research, teaching,
and consulting to advise managers who must learn to adapt to a new culture.
Molinsky focuses on how people practice new behaviors in actual situations,
such as speaking up in a meeting or giving performance feedback, rather than on
the differences between cultures. He suggests an approach that consists of
three stages: (1) Figure out what the cultural norms are and how they differ
from the home culture in directness, enthusiasm, formality, assertiveness,
self-promotion, and self-disclosure. (2) Figure out what the “zone of
appropriateness” is in the new culture for each of those six dimensions. (3) Once
you know what adaptations you can (and are willing to) make, practice them to
develop “muscle memory.” Certain psychological barriers may arise in the
process. People get anxious about whether they’re being authentic, or they feel
incompetent and worry that others see them that way, or they become resentful
of the hard and stressful work of adapting. But they often learn something
interesting about themselves, Molinsky says, and that can be exciting.
[ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]