• ISBN: 978-1-6103-9276-1

Summary

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The Culture Map provides a lot of supporting knowledge to deal with humans from different backgrounds. The book introduces a framework for thinking about cultures and how to apply this model in practice. Partially due to the necessary scale of thinking with this model and partially by the examples chosen in the book, this mostly focuses on a business context.

In its first chapter, the book introduces the model explicitly and defines the conditions of when it’s applicable. Throughout the book the specific dimensions used to map cultures are introduced with example stories. Each dimension is also has an exemplary graph of selected cultures’ relative positions on the dimension.

Main Takeaway

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While most of the specific dimensions aren’t relevant to me, the difference of finality in decisions (dubbed “Decision” vs “decision”) between the US and particularly Germany gives good food for thought.

On top of that, the real strength of this book is the general model introduced in the beginning. While the stories and dimensions mostly help building a better understanding of the model.

In short:

• Any statement is made relative. If no reference is given, it’s the background of the speaking person.
• Any difference in culture is probabilistic and while it can help in setting expectations for strangers, individual preferences need not align.