Michele Gelfand: observation

Transcript context

…How can people best learn cultural intelligence? Say they’re a prospective diplomat, politician, or CEO. What’s the path to learning cultural IQ? It’s immersing yourself in different cultures. It’s studying cross-cultural psychology, anthropology, and other disciplines. Part of the problem is that a lot of people get these dos and don’ts — superficial aspects of culture — when they’re being sent on an expatriate assignment. They’re usually selected because of their technical competence, not because they’re culturally competent. You need to see it as a lifelong — at least I do — quest to understand what are the cultural differences and why do they evolve? I’ll close with a few questions about the Michele Gelfand production function, which is that classic thing we do in these chats. What’s your secret to how you’ve been so productive so as to publish so much? Other than just hard work. That’s obvious. What is it you can teach other people about how to be productive?…

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