Working across cultures: Done right, it works

By AMY NARISHKIN, Ph.D.

Miscommunication is expensive. It slows execution, erodes trust, and quietly drives turnover.

I was reminded of that while planning my daughter’s wedding at a small resort in Cozumel, Mexico.

I had lived in central Mexico for four years, so you’d think I would have remembered that experience when we arrived to begin preparations.

The staff knew about the wedding. There was warmth, energy, and a sense that something special was coming.

Then the surprises started.

Meetings appeared or did not. Details we thought were confirmed were not. And things we did not even know to ask about suddenly mattered. It felt like we were supposed to just know.

From my perspective, it felt evasive. Unclear. Still, in the moment, I was reacting as a leader used to clarity and control.

If you have ever thought, “Why won’t they just tell me what is going on?” or “Why is this so unclear?” you have been in the same trap I was.

Here is what I forgot. I was operating from a low context culture, like the United States, where clarity is verbal, direct, and explicit. In that environment, we say it, document it, and confirm it.

Cultural intelligence is the ability to understand how others’ experiences and contexts shape how they communicate, decide, and act and to adjust your behavior accordingly.

What I needed to remember was that in Mexico, like many traditional cultures, communication is high context. Meaning is shared through relationships, timing, and what is not said. You read between the lines. You pick up on cues. You infer meaning.

Neither approach is wrong. They are simply different systems. It’s helpful to remember that within the U.S., though predominantly a low context culture, we are often working with people who are originally from both low and high context cultures.

The problem happens when we do not recognize the difference in cultures.

I had inadvertently assumed our wedding planner, Rita, was being disorganized. She was not. She was operating within a different communication norm. Meetings did not need to be over explained. Timing was more fluid. Relationships carried more weight than documentation.

In business, when leaders misread difference as dysfunction, they create unnecessary blame. And blame has real costs. It slows execution, erodes trust, and drives people to disengage or leave.

In a quiet moment, I caught myself though. I realized I was making assumptions about her intent without considering her cultural context. I shifted one thing. I stopped assuming I understood and started checking.

Instead of waiting for clarity, I began asking for it.

• “What should I expect next?”
• “Who else is involved?”
• “When will this happen?”
• “What am I not thinking about?”

The wedding turned out beautifully. That outcome happened because of both approaches. Rita and her team brought care, creativity, and deep relational awareness. We brought clarity, questions, and follow through. This is cultural intelligence in action.

In your organization, this shows up more often than you think. You may believe your team is unclear. That a partner is dropping the ball. That leaders are not aligned.

But in many cases, you are not dealing with incompetence. You are dealing with different communication norms shaped by culture, function, generation, or power dynamics.

What looks like avoidance, silence, or lack of ownership might actually be respect, deference, or a different way of signaling agreement. If you label that too quickly as a performance issue, you introduce friction you do not need. That friction affects speed, trust, and retention.

The move is simple, but not always easy. Replace assumption with verification. For example, instead of asking, “Why didn’t they tell me?” ask, “How does communication typically happen here?” Instead of concluding, ask, “What might be true from their perspective?”

This is appreciation in practice. Not praise, but the discipline of recognizing another person’s perspective as valid, vital, and valuable, even when it differs from your own.

In business, the cost of getting this wrong is high. Before you label something as poor communication, ask yourself one question: Am I seeing a problem, or a difference that I do not yet understand?

This is how leaders reduce blame, build appreciation, and create cultures where people stay and perform.

 

Dr. Amy Narishkin is a cultural intelligence strategist helping results-oriented CEOs turn workplace friction into retention, productivity, and trust. She can be reached at [email protected].