Local market knowledge is often the one thing that would have stopped a bad decision — and it is often the one thing that never reaches the people deciding. This article looks at why the local team knew the deal wouldn’t work, why nobody at head office heard it, and what to do about the
The Local Team Knew the Deal Wouldn’t Work Read More »
Retaining international hires is one of the hardest and most expensive problems in a global team, and it is rarely about pay. This article looks at why your best regional hire leaves sooner than you expect, just as they get good — the hidden load they carry and the belonging signals that never reached them
Why Your Best Regional Hire Leaves Sooner Than You Think Read More »
Post-merger integration stalls more often than it fails outright — and the usual cause isn’t strategy or systems, but a cultural faultline the two companies split along. This article looks at why “we’re one company now” doesn’t dissolve that divide, and what actually weakens it — a common and fixable source of cultural friction for
Post-Merger Integration: Why Two Cultures Don’t Merge Read More »
Cross-cultural feedback is where good intentions quietly go wrong: the same sentence can read as honest and helpful to one colleague and rude to another, and usually neither person realises there is a gap. This article explains why direct feedback lands as rudeness in some cultures while indirect feedback vanishes unheard in others, and how
When “Direct” Means “Rude”: Getting Cross-Cultural Feedback Right Read More »
Cultural stereotypes at work rarely arrive as prejudice — they usually arrive as preparation. This article looks at why country guides and cultural frameworks describe averages rather than people, why well-prepared leaders get individuals wrong, and how to use cultural knowledge without letting it harden into assumption. Explore more in the Cultural Friction newsletter. Cultural
You Read the Culture Guide. Then You Met the Actual Person. Read More »
Cultural Friction · Team Dynamics Half Your Team Follows the Process.The Other Half Treats It as a Suggestion. It looks like a professionalism problem. It’s actually a norms problem — and you can’t fix it by repeating the rules more loudly. Brendan Thomas Quinn · 6 min read · Team Dynamics You built the process
Half Your Team Follows the Process. The Other Half Treats It as a Suggestion. Read More »
