Do your Finnish team members never seem to express emotions? Do your Swedish clients take an eternity to make a decision? Have you ever been frustrated at your American coworkers’ braggadocio? Cultural differences in communications…
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American Optimism, Finnish Sisu and Old Fashioned Grit
I grew up in a small town in western Finland. My family was a typical middle-class Finnish family, except that we come from the small Swedish-speaking minority. Both of my parents grew up on farms….
The Hobbit, Career Creativity, Excellence and Living with Purpose
During the holidays I usually take time to catch up on the year’s movies. This year I decided to take a look at the hype around the Hobbit. I enjoyed the first two Hobbit movies,…
The Joys and Struggles of an Intercultural Couple
Being married to someone from a different cultural background than your own is both exciting and challenging. The differences that brought the two of you together may, over time, become those that cause most friction. …
Finnish SISU
A couple of years ago I gave a presentation on SISU-Resilience the Finnish Way at a conference. Today I’d like to revisit and elaborate on that topic . In Finland we have something called Sisu….
The Constant Gardener
I like to garden. When I am not working or being a mother and wife, I am gardening. It’s become an obsession, I admit. After spending several weeks traveling, either for work…
Transferable Skills-Your Tool Box
We recently had some work done on the house. The carpenter showed up with his van full of tools and toolboxes in various sizes and shapes. Depending on what needed to be done, he selected…
A Familiar but Foreign Game Decoded: My Search for Finnish Baseball or Pesäpallo
By Philip DiDio European vacations inspire dreams of cathedrals, museums, Mediterranean beaches, speedy train rides arriving on schedules defined by 24 hour clocks. It’s the Europe of the Mission Impossible and Bourne movie cycles. My…
Bridging the Culture Gap between you and your American Employer
In my cross-cultural career workshops for expatriates or immigrants to the USA, we have an exercise where we brainstorm and discuss assumptions, biases and fears. The purpose of the exercise is to identify our own…
The Opportunity and Challenge in Moving
One of my workshop participants once said that it feels as she left her best self in her country of origin and that her current version of her self is inferior: less self confident, successful…