Perception slants in intercultural contacts

A thought about inter-cultural experiences (inspired by a comment on Superfrenchie, very interesting blog by a French living in the USA):

Part of the experience US people traveling to France is –first & foremost– the experience of someone coming from a small city (let’s say: Boise, Idaho) to a big city (let’s say: Paris, France).

Now my contention is we have a typical Laffitte’s Law at work here: many of the things that strike them as French are probably more ‘big city’;maybe they would have the same experiences in –say– New York, New York.

Hence the following diagram :

Laffitte’s law

The XIX^th century French banker Laffitte is renowned –between other things—for saying: “a rich idiot is a rich; a poor idiot is an idiot”.

I suggest we call this structure “Laffitte’s law”.

Examples: for a French, a disciplined French is disciplined; a disciplined German is German… right?

Or: for an American, an American idiot is an idiot, a French idiot is a French—no?

This kind of “contamination” we do all the time, unknowingly.

An example of intercultural ‘misunderstanding’

A Japanese manager is complaining about her French boss “What I expect from him is to be an example, guide me, inspire me in my job life”. My reaction to her “Well, I for one don’t expect any of these from a boss… and it seems to me you have Japanese expectations towards a French boss, which might explain a lot of your mishaps!”

Among other things, a culture deals a lot about expectations. Maybe we should introduce this as a cultural awareness tool: what do I expect from this or that situations? What do I deem normal?

When do I think “I shouldn’t have to explain this in the first place”?

Leadership & cannibalism ?

I used to think with Robert Dilts that “leadership is a commitment to create a world to which people want to belong”.

After some experiences with certain clients of mine I have to update this.

It certainly is “a commitment to create a world to which people want to belong” but it also implies going on taking care of people when they have joined & giving them a chance to grow; instead of munching them alive when they join & spitting them out when you’re quite finished with them.