Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures without Losing Yourself in the Process

by Andy Molinsky

“ I wrote this book because I believe that there is a serious gap in what has been written and communicated about cross-cultural management and what people actually struggle with on the ground .”—From the Introduction

What does it mean to be a global worker and a true “citizen of the world” today? It goes beyond merely acknowledging cultural differences. In reality, it means you are able to adapt your behavior to conform to new cultural contexts without losing your authentic self in the process. Not only is this difficult, it’s a frightening prospect for most people and something completely outside their comfort zone.

But managing and communicating with people from other cultures is an essential skill today. Most of us collaborate with teams across borders and cultures on a regular basis, whether we spend our time in the office or out on the road. What’s needed now is a critical new skill, something author Andy Molinsky calls global dexterity .

In this book Molinsky offers the tools needed to simultaneously adapt behavior to new cultural contexts while staying authentic and grounded in your own natural style. Based on more than a decade of research, teaching, and consulting with managers and executives around the world, this book reveals an approach to adapting while feeling comfortable—an essential skill that enables you to switch behaviors and overcome the emotional and psychological challenges of doing so.

From identifying and overcoming challenges to integrating what you learn into your everyday environment, Molinsky provides a guidebook—and mentoring—to raise your confidence and your profile. Practical, engaging, and refreshing, Global Dexterity will help you reach across cultures—and succeed in today’s global business environment.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Psychology, Professional Development, Nonfiction, Cultural

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Island Lover · Rating 2 out of 5]

The amount of times I set down this rather short read is but one indicator of how much I enjoyed it. Did see it to the finish and think if I hadn't read, "Neflix, No Rules," beforehand than it likely would have been 2.3 stars. Hah! Very stiff feeling but I could appreciate how some readers may enjoy the ability to use templates to reflect and make individual plans to become more dexterous.

Good to consider the following characteristics of cultures:
~directness
~assertiveness
~self-promotion
~enthusiasm
~formality
~personal disclosure

Then, to examine where we might be on a continuum versus how a particular culture might be in regards to each characteristic. For example, I may be "not assertive enough," "just about right," or "too assertive," whereas a particular culture does not entirely welcome an employee being "too assertive."

#1 take-away came late in the book. Thought I felt I have learned from experience this point, it nonetheless was nice to hear put into words. "...you are not a prisoner of culture. You are actually a creative, empowered user of culture. Culture is more malleable than you might have thought, and you can adapt and deviate from your ingrained behaviors."

[Jessica Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author offers a few methods to cope with culture differences in a systematic way. A quick read and it's worth the time.

[Chloe Fletcher]

In Global Dexterity, Andy Molinsky begins by providing a realistic and useful overview of why global dexterity, the ability to adapt our behaviors to respond to cultural differences, is necessary in a growing global business environment. In developing our own global dexterity, he suggests a method for understanding cultural differences, or cultural code, and identifying our personal challenges in relation to them. Importantly, he notes that cultural code is not just national, but involves factors such as company or industry norms, regional norms, and individual differences in the backgrounds and experiences of the people you are working with, a point he consistently mentions to acknowledge that national prototypes are not all-encompassing. Once we understand the context and the level of authenticity, competency, and comfortability we experience, we can then customize our perceptions to make cultural adaptation more manageable and suited to us.

The theme that our behaviors are malleable and that we are not prisoners of culture but instead “creative, empowered, users of culture,” shared an open-minded perspective to encourage business leaders to approach global endeavors courageously. However, I did feel that some aspects of the approach were not as practical or realistically easy to mimic, such as the rehearsal and evaluation stage of becoming comfortable with a new cultural situation. It’s rare that you would be able to find these opportunities to replicate a situation for practice in many contexts. I also skipped most of the worksheets as they aren’t personally relevant to me at the moment, but I struggled a bit to see their true practicality and applicability as well.

Overall a solid read with some interesting and illustrative anecdotes from global cosmopolitan professionals around the world. This book is written with a heavy emphasis on the United States, as the author is American; however, I felt he did a fair job including stories from several countries and regions.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grabbed this 10 year old book from the "all you can carry for $5" book sale at my local suburbian library. That means it was either very unpopular, controversial, or just obscelete.

The intro draws you in with the seemingly interesting cultural "prototypes" (NOT stereotypes, prototypes; the average type in a group). The whole book was ~180 pages with a good chunk just being worksheets at the end of each chapter. It was a quick, easy read. Simple even. I did find some points interesting and useful to explicitly think about on paper but there wasnt anything I found particularly insightful. The simplicity and the redundancy in the writing helps you move through the book quickly. Seems like it'd be a bird MBA course.

You definitely need to take all the generalizations (the protoypes) with a grain of salt. As a Chinese American, I kind of hated that all his anecdotes of Chinese professionals failing to adapt to American corporate culture fell into the stereotype of Asians being too quiet and shy which I don't disagree with, it just rubs me the wrong way noticing that most of the Chinese stories ended in an ultimate failure. I can't help but think there are many ignorances of the (pardon my language) privileged white man at play.

I also wish there was more discussion about navigating gender discrimination but I only recall one story in the last chapter mentioning a male client making advances onto a female professional which ended in the woman playing along/giving into the male client for the sake of the company. I don't agree with this move but I suppose it's not a completely useless addition to the book. At least the author isn't trying to hide his biases.

SJW of today would not approve.

[Camila Cossio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was assigned this book for my Business Fundamentals class in my MIB program, and I genuinely enjoyed it. The book isn’t just another textbook—it’s a thorough guide on how to adapt and even tweak your behavior when you're navigating different cultural settings.

Throughout the semester, I found myself highlighting, annotating, and underlining key passages for our weekly
Quizzes and I’m glad to say that I aced them all !

What I found most interesting was how we often assume that culture is fixed or too complicated to grasp—especially when doing business in a foreign country. Sure, being an outsider and not immediately getting a local norm can be frustrating, but this book shows there’s always a way to bridge that gap.

It offers clear guidelines on how, in many circumstances, you can adjust your behavior to better fit in and achieve your goals without losing who you are. For anyone stepping into the global arena, I’d say it’s an invaluable resource that proves adaptation doesn’t mean losing your personality—it means enhancing it.

I found this book to have so many similarities with acting books I’ve read in the past and even suggests “an acting approach” for one of the solutions to adapting your behavior

I did find the book to be somewhat repetitive and don’t really see myself re-reading except when I actually live in a foreign country and I want to adapt to the culture.

[Alicia Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molinsky gives a helpful framework for adapting your behavior when working across cultures, but it so high level that it left me wanting more examples and tips from him. It felt a bit “easier said than done,” though I am sure his other resources dive into *how* to change your behavior in a practical way.

That said, any professionals working in cross-cultural collaboration should read this book to add to your knowledge base - it’s a very quick read and provides advice that is different from other books in the field.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. frankly I was unimpressed, this was a series of vignettes that essentially just perpetuate stereotypes though the author specifically states in the preface that's not what the book is about. read this for a class and think it will be interesting to hear my classmates opinions but other than that I wasn't feeling it.

[Banikoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short Book. Interesting if you are skeptic about cultural dimensions. This would be a good complement to those theories. He writes about methods to cope with cultural differences in a systematic way. “You can decide if and how to adapt to a different culture”

[Vidushi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read for individuals who work internationally. Very relevant in today’s world.

[Moo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only read this because it was required reading to class. As far as class books go it wasn’t terrible but it’s very niche so not for everyone.

[Michael Kriess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The missing link between cultural differences and cultural adaptation. A must read!

[Lacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another read for my MBA class. It was an interesting read, but not as helpful as The Culture Map.