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About This Weeks Guest
Karen Smits is an international expert on Organizational Anthropology. She finished her Ph.D. in Social Sciences on cross-cultural collaboration in mega projects, for which she had the opportunity to gather data in the Panama Canal Expansion Program. Her Ph.D. thesis titled Cross Culture Work receives a lot of attention in the project management community, and beyond. Based in São Paulo, Brazil, Karen is active as a Business Culture Consultant in the Latin America region. She supports companies and employees in developing cross-cultural collaboration, organizational change, and growth initiatives. She is often invited to speak about her research outcomes and facilitates workshops on culture and collaboration in the workplace.
Her 3 tips for becoming more culturally competent are:
- Have an Open Mind; Know your own culture and be able to understand the “other” culture.
- Adapt & Adjust; Or go with the flow. If someone is late for a meeting don’t get (too) upset.
- Language; be aware that not everyone can express themselves in a foreign language as well as you might be able to do.
Interview Links
Links that are mentioned in this episode:
- Email: karen@crossculturework.com
- Website: http://crossculturework.com
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/Karen_Smits
- LinkedIn: br.linkedin.com/in/ksmits
- Karen’s Book (Cross Culture Work: Practices of Collaboration in the Panama Canal Expansion Program) is available here: www.exedrabooks.com/libro/
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Build Your Cultural Competence
In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes, Click here.
How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters
I’d love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this:
- Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail
- Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com
- Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit
Build Your Cultural Competence
In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes, Click here.
How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters
I’d love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this:
- Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail
- Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com
- Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit
Finally
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!
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His education is in Organisational Psychology and he has lived in the USA, the Netherlands, and currently lives in Belgium.
Chris Smit
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