Can We Agree to Disagree? Exploring the differences at work between Americans and the French: A cross-cultural perspective on the gap between the Hexagon and the U.S., and tips for successful and happy collaborations.
At first, there's this impression that we're alike, that being French or American is kind of the same. We celebrate the same heroes, sing the same tunes, and prefer the same cool looks. But once we start working together, sharing the same office space, and using the same coffee machine, we notice that our ways of working diverge, and that we do not understand each other as much as we thought we did. Soon enough, we become suspicious, embarrassed, judgmental... Working together becomes challenging. All of a sudden, we realize that the ocean that separates us is real!
Sabine Landolt and Agathe Laurent, co-authors of this book, have been through this deep realization themselves.
- Sabine, Swiss-American, has had significant experience living in Italy and in France, arrived with her family in New York in 2008.
- Agathe, spent her early childhood in the US and later had an international professional career, was onboarded to her new job in New York in 2014.
Without a question, both experienced challenging work-related moments, due to cultural misunderstanding and radically different approaches to work. The simplest task became mountainous obstacles to overcome. All basics became such as obstacles.
Deeply inspired by their own journey, they decided to create this very unique book: a compelling collection of stories from French and American professionals about their experiences working together. This book reveals the risks of misjudgments, miscommunications and related emotions. It provides tips to accelerate mutual understanding, with a clear and simple ambition: To help let go of stereotypes, spark curiosity, and encourage professionals to combine the best of both cultures, for happier, easier and more successful professional collaborations.
What makes this book so different? This book introduces a whole new concept with very unique learnings, with an approach that's a bit provocative as well as evocative!
This book shows the severe risk of mutual misjudgment. The authors don't try to reinvent the wheel here nor to dig into the 'why's'. Through doubts, observations, interrogations, experiences, the reader grasps the profundity of the gap, and the deep emotions -i.e. the symptoms- in those moments. This book is about real stories, which we hope will make the readers smile and relate to, whomever they are and wherever they live--in France or in the U.S. It is not about trying to be scientific, nor relying on the Theory-we know there are nuances of all types, based on the regions, the industry, and roles within an organization. And of course, there's a person's unique history. This book speaks about what matters most to people, and where the issues are the most numerous and unexpected. The authors are not trying to be comprehensive-the topics come directly from the 50 interviews-split evenly between Americans and French people, conducted in a semi-directed mode, following the methods of Freud and Piaget, working with associations and spontaneous probes. This book provides tips and tricks on how to get there. Where, you may ask? Again, happier, more effective work collaboration.
Sabine was born on the West Coast as her father, a young chemical engineer, joined the University of California Berkeley. From the San Francisco Bay area, her family transferred to Los Angeles around the UCLA campus. Her family later moved to Lausanne, Switzerland. The Germanophone family had to learn French, including Sabine's Dutch mother. But the American culture had an important presence in the family as her brother decided to move back for his master and for working at Silicon Valley. 'The Polyglot' became Sabine's "personal label." After graduating from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Appliqués, in Switzerland, Sabine transitioned from the creative world to business development. After a first experience in a Swiss German company, Sabine started moving around the world for what she calls "my professional road trip." Working for well-known multinationals, she was fully immersed in different working styles and management environments. Since then, Sabine has been strongly advocating for how cultural differences impact international business development and human relationships. Sabine moved her family from Milan to New York where she created a branding boutique agency, dim3branding Inc., and added Canada on her road map while mentoring at McGill University's Entrepreneurship Program in Montreal. Sabine is on the advisory board of Dispersa Inc, a clean tech startup, and co-founded new3plus Inc., a high-end creative makers platform in New York and Sao Paulo, while joining the NEW INC (New Museum incubator).
Agathe was born in a family with a rich international background, made of stories of immigrations on her maternal side, and on the paternal side, a father who was one of the first in his generation to move to the U.S. for an MBA and start his career there. Only a few months after her birth in Paris, Agathe and her family moved back to the U.S. for a new experience abroad. This became the foundation of her deep aspiration to build herself as a global Citizen of the World and foster her passion for people. Over time, Agathe cultivated her international flair at every occasion, constantly jumping on a plane for a new adventure, catching a work opportunity abroad, or learning a new language. After a year in Chile helping the underserved, Agathe quickly specialized in Market Research: she realized that studying consumer behaviors, no matter the topic, was an opportunity to learn about people and intercultural differences. Since then, Agathe has continued to fulfill her passion for connecting with people, and her curiosity for changing cultures. Propelled by her ability to listen, and to analyze, Agathe quickly climbed the ladder in different organizations before launching her own Marketing Consultancy firm, with offices in Paris and New York, after several years in a leadership role at consultancy firm Kantar. Agathe lives in New York where she raises her three children in a wonderfully bilingual and bi-cultural environment.
