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Integrity & Awareness by Paul Burnstein

Friday, February 9, 2007

Cultural Awareness

Last night I was at an international networking event put on by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce (www.boulderchamber.com) and the World Trade Center - Denver (www.wtcdn.com) in Boulder. It seemed to be a smaller turnout than usual, but nonetheless, I made some good contacts.

The point of my blog today is that I realized a lot of people do not take cultural differences into consideration when working with other cultures. This morning I was noticing slight differences in date formats, time zones, work hours, e-mail formality (or lack there of) and even trust issues. There is no one basic rule to cover the entire world. The fact is that we simply need to be aware and accepting that not all countries, regions or cultures do business in the same way.

Personally, I have been very frustrated at times doing international work, but I am learning to be patient and ask the right questions to help move things along. All I ask of you today is that you take some time to be conscious and aware of the differences and do your best to adapt or make compromises as necessary.

Have a great weekend!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen "Babel?" If not, you should check it out! Not only is it a great movie, but it ties in well to your post.