You manage people in three time zones across four cultures. Everyone is technically aligned. Nobody is actually working together.
Part of
Cross-Cultural Intelligence →
From navigating silence in a Japanese boardroom to managing a team across four time zones — practice reading cultural signals that most professionals miss entirely. The skill that unlocks global relationships.
Skills you'll build
What happens in this story4 scenarios
Your Berlin engineer thinks your Mumbai designer is being evasive. Your Mumbai designer thinks your Berlin engineer is being rude. Both are doing exactly what their culture taught them — and the project is stalling.
In one culture, questioning the boss is initiative. In another, it's insubordination. Your team has both — and you just asked 'does anyone disagree?' to absolute silence from half the room.
Your direct, no-nonsense communication style works great in New York. In Bangkok, it just made your best engineer shut down for the rest of the week. Time to learn a different frequency.
Three time zones. Four communication styles. Zero shared norms. You need to build something everyone can work within — not by erasing differences, but by making them visible and navigable.
More stories in this course
View all →The First Impression
You are meeting partners from Japan. You have 30 minutes to build trust across a cultural gap that took generations to form.
4 scenarios →Lost in Translation
Something went wrong in the meeting and you are not sure what. Learn to read indirect signals, handle face-saving moments, and repair cultural misreads.
4 scenarios →The Negotiation Table
A deal worth everything is on the table. The other party negotiates nothing like you do. Learn to find the deal that works in their framework.
4 scenarios →The Global Team
You manage people in three time zones across four cultures. Everyone is technically aligned. Nobody is actually working together.
Start free →4 scenarios · 25 min · No account required to try