Learning Cultural Differences? You're Solving the Wrong Problem

Welcome back to my LinkedIn newsletter where I share tips, ideas, and strategies to help you become more effective in business and life.

To make sure you don't miss an issue, if you haven't subscribed yet, just click the "Subscribe" button in the upper right corner above.

Also download my free guide to 7 Myths to Working Effectively Across Cultures.

Understanding cultural differences has become a cornerstone of global business education.

And for good reason – when you're puzzled by why your Japanese colleague seems reluctant to disagree in meetings, or why your Israeli counterpart's communication style feels uncomfortably direct, learning about cultural differences can provide valuable insight.

But here's the problem: we've become overly focused on cultural differences as a universal solution, when often they're not actually addressing the core challenge at hand.

Consider Sarah, an American executive recently transferred to Singapore. She's well-versed in Asian cultural norms and understands why her team members tend to communicate more indirectly. Yet she still struggles in meetings, feeling inauthentic and uncomfortable when she needs to adapt her typically direct style.

Sarah's real challenge isn't a lack of cultural knowledge – it's the psychological challenge of stepping outside her comfort zone. She needs strategies for expanding her behavioral repertoire while maintaining her sense of authenticity, not another lesson on high-context versus low-context communication.

This pattern repeats across global organizations. We send people to cultural training sessions when what they really need is support in developing psychological agility. We explain cultural frameworks when they actually need practice in managing anxiety around behavioral adaptation.

The key is asking the right question.

Are you struggling to understand why people behave differently? Then yes, cultural insight is valuable.

But if you're having difficulty actually adapting your behavior – even when you understand why you need to – then you need a different solution entirely.

Before jumping to cultural differences as the answer, we need to pause and identify the real challenge.

Are we solving for understanding, or are we solving for adaptation?

The solution depends entirely on which question we're trying to answer.