Do You Have A Cultural "No" Story For Business?

The power of "No!"?

The article"Want Trust and Respect. . .?garnered some comments, a slew of emails, and a serious question from my close friend, Eric the Swede:

"Isn't a negative response experienced and delivered very differently depending upon one's culture?"

Culture, No, and Global Business

We got started on this because Eric reads the blog regularly (he's a professional musician, which means even when he is working he has time to read the blog). Eric the Swede was actually raised in China. He has performed regularly on every continent (except those with penguins or Eskimos) for the past 20 years. I've lived and worked in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and South America since 1979. So, we started talking about our experiences as well as those of our colleagues. Here are just a few:

• American Bob works for a German company. Whenever he makes a request for something he has learned that if the answer is "No," he actually receivesnoanswer. The issue is allowed to melt away over time.

• While working across the Middle East for a couple of years, I realized that the word "No" was never uttered in any meeting I attended.

• I watched a client's sales presentation in Portugal. Suddenly the room filled with palpable tension. What happened? He responded with a simple, direct, "No" to a request from the client.

The world is shrinking and our experiences are expanding. If we're going to "do business" across oceans and borders--and a "meeting of the minds" requires a yes or no--then it would be a good idea to understand how people view those responses. BTW: "Yes" doesn't always mean "yes," either.

Tell Your Cultural "NO" Story Now!

This is a terrific place to research the "yes/no" global phenomenon. Statistics show that on any given day our readers come from at least 40-60 different countries. Everyone who has ever traveled knows about the yes/no distinctions. Yet none of my research sources have turned up a good treatise on this aspect of interactions.

So we'll do the research.

Take a minute to share your experience, your culture's predisposition (and why), or what people should know when they do business with you.

If we can generate a significant number of responses I'll publish them (with attribution) in a special post.

What's your story?

Adorable attribution to:craigandtanya.com/images/