Avoid Being a Cultural Knucklehead in HR

In Human Resources we often deal with people from other nations, whether employing them locally or dealing with them in International operations. Sometimes we travel internationally for business or pleasure. As we do so we find that there are many cultural differences (stating the obvious), however, often we apply our language, references and ways of doing things. As a result we look like a "cultural knucklehead." Well here is an blog article on How Not to be a Cultural Knucklehead in Global Business, written by Pamela Slim.

In this blog you get some great advice and tips on dealing with a world different than your own, like:

• Don't use baseball analogies when talking to a global audience.
• Stay away from "country insider" metaphors and analogies.
• Plan for a level of interaction appropriate for the culture of your audience.

These are just a few tips, there are more, and even more in the comments section.

I found this very informative and made me think of a conversation I had with a native French speaker and how many colloquial terms I used in my explanation of a subject. I wish I had read this first.