Curious About Culture


Book Description

Whether you are on a journey of self-reflection or wish to influence others, this definitive guide to cross-cultural engagement will help you to understand your own cultural narrative and better connect with people of other cultural backgrounds.Curious about Culture by Gaiti Rabbani invites readers on a journey of introspection to discover the multitude of cultural influences that shape their view of the world.Culture is not geographically bound. It is about more than just where you were born and where you live. Gender, generation and language, among other factors, all contribute to your cultural lens and how well you can connect with others.Improving cross-cultural engagement starts with understanding yourself. You will uncover your own cultural drivers that will help you cultivate meaningful cross-cultural conversations. We all have multiple facets to our identities and some of them are likely to be stigmatised. The author encourages readers to be curious and dive beyond the apparent cues when engaging across cultures, highlighting the pitfalls of drawing upon assumptions and defaulting to stereotypes.Anecdotes from the leading cultural intelligence specialist, Gaiti Rabbani's rich personal and professional experiences along with research-based insights, create a relatable, insightful and thought-provoking read. Whether you are on a journey of self-reflection or wish to influence others, this book will help you to understand your own cultural narrative and better connect with people of other cultural backgrounds.Curious about Culture is a practical reference for the enterprising and curious professional.




The Culture Code


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Talent Code unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides tomorrow’s leaders with the tools to build a cohesive, motivated culture. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG AND LIBRARY JOURNAL Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing? In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind. Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture. Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded. Culture is not something you are—it’s something you do. The Culture Code puts the power in your hands. No matter the size of your group or your goal, this book can teach you the principles of cultural chemistry that transform individuals into teams that can accomplish amazing things together. Praise for The Culture Code “I’ve been waiting years for someone to write this book—I’ve built it up in my mind into something extraordinary. But it is even better than I imagined. Daniel Coyle has produced a truly brilliant, mesmerizing read that demystifies the magic of great groups. It blows all other books on culture right out of the water.”—Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Option B, Originals, and Give and Take “If you want to understand how successful groups work—the signals they transmit, the language they speak, the cues that foster creativity—you won’t find a more essential guide than The Culture Code.”—Charles Duhigg, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better




The Culture We Deserve


Book Description

The essence of culture is interpenetration. From any part of it the searching eye will discover connections with another part seemingly remote. If from my descriptions the reader finds this wide-angled view sharpened or expanded, my purpose in publishing these pages will have been served.




This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things


Book Description

Internet trolls live to upset as many people as possible, using all the technical and psychological tools at their disposal. They gleefully whip the media into a frenzy over a fake teen drug crisis; they post offensive messages on Facebook memorial pages, traumatizing grief-stricken friends and family; they use unabashedly racist language and images. They take pleasure in ruining a complete stranger's day and find amusement in their victim's anguish. In short, trolling is the obstacle to a kinder, gentler Internet. To quote a famous Internet meme, trolling is why we can't have nice things online. Or at least that's what we have been led to believe. In this provocative book, Whitney Phillips argues that trolling, widely condemned as obscene and deviant, actually fits comfortably within the contemporary media landscape. Trolling may be obscene, but, Phillips argues, it isn't all that deviant. Trolls' actions are born of and fueled by culturally sanctioned impulses -- which are just as damaging as the trolls' most disruptive behaviors. Phillips describes, for example, the relationship between trolling and sensationalist corporate media -- pointing out that for trolls, exploitation is a leisure activity; for media, it's a business strategy. She shows how trolls, "the grimacing poster children for a socially networked world," align with social media. And she documents how trolls, in addition to parroting media tropes, also offer a grotesque pantomime of dominant cultural tropes, including gendered notions of dominance and success and an ideology of entitlement. We don't just have a trolling problem, Phillips argues; we have a culture problem. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things isn't only about trolls; it's about a culture in which trolls thrive.




The Culture Map


Book Description

An international business expert helps you understand and navigate cultural differences in this insightful and practical guide, perfect for both your work and personal life. Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It's no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out. In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. She provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business, and combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice.




Interface Culture


Book Description

Drawing on his own expertise in the humanities and on the Web, Steven Johnson not only demonstrates how interfaces - those buttons, graphics, and words on the computer screen through which we control information - influence our daily lives, but also tracks their roots back to Victorian novels, early cinema, and even medieval urban planning. The result is a lush cultural and historical tableau in which today's interfaces take their rightful place in the lineage of artistic innovation. With a distinctively accessible style, Interface Culture brings new intellectual depth to the vital discussion of how technology has transformed society, and is sure to provoke wide debate in both literary and technological circles.




We Culture


Book Description

Today's global, complex, and disruptive business environment demands companies to make their organizations more adaptive and agile. It's imperative that organizations upskill their personnel and set their culture intentionally. The companies that develop this culture right will have an incredible, competitive advantage. Leading change is everybody's job; nobody can do it alone. A systemic and collaborative approach is needed: a we culture mentality. The We Culture book will help you create a culture in the future of work to increase employee engagement, agility, quality and innovation through the 12-skills CARE model for hybrid workplaces. You will find: Real-life examples and interviews with company leaders Hands-on exercises in every chapter Opportunities for blended learning with the We Culture platform including videos, blogs, and audio content We Culture is an invitation to co-create a culture of conscious teamwork, where we can bring our whole selves to work, while simultaneously producing more cost-effective products and services to become more customer-oriented.




Culture's Software


Book Description

When Geert Hofstede famously defined culture as collective programming of the mind, the definition broadly referred to culture as such, including all the layers in his “onion” model. The title of this volume, Culture’s Software, represents a development of this original idea and was inspired by none other than Professor Hofstede himself. He used this phrase over thirty years later when lecturing to an international group of scholars gathered in Poland to debate the idea of cultural communication styles, which has, in recent years, been fruitfully discussed from a fresh perspective by scholars working within cognitive and cultural linguistics. The debate has given rise to this book, which will inspire further research into this fascinating subject.




Strategic Management


Book Description

Studies have shown that coming up with strategies and executing them with success requires specific strategic competencies. It is no longer just about the big idea. Moving beyond a broad, fuzzy picture, however, requires strategic thinking and understanding the management matrix. This guidebook can help you - identify critical functions of strategy, such as the alignment of operations, the continual improvement and innovation of systems design, and the allocation of effective recourses; - learn the six required competencies for strategic genius along with methods how to excel at each one; - reinvent thought processes so you can achieve organizational goals; - successfully navigate your way through office politics; - and answer many other questions tied to strategic management. Take a trip with author Reinier Geel as he shares a detailed study of the make-or-break factors of planning and execution. This guidebook sets a new paradigm for the strategic arena and is backed up with the essential knowledge so you can empower yourself and your organization.




A Franz Boas Reader


Book Description

"The Shaping of American Anthropology is a book which is outstanding in many respects. Stocking is probably the leading authority on Franz Boas; he understands Boas's contributions to American anthropology, as well as anthropology in general, very well. . . . He is, in a word, the foremost historian of anthropology in the world today. . . . The reader is both a collection of Boas's papers and a solid 23-page introduction to giving the background and basic assumptions of Boasian anthropology."—David Schneider, University of Chicago "While Stocking has not attempted to present a person biography, nevertheless Boas's personal characteristics emerge not only in his scholarly essays, but perhaps more vividly in his personal correspondence. . . . Stocking is to be commended for collecting this material together in a most interesting and enjoyable reader."—Gustav Thaiss, American Anthropologist