I think I am finally recovering from the marathon class sessions over the last week. I have worked internationally for 14 years and thought I was pretty sensitive to different cultures and differing styles. The various exercises we did over the weekend and again on Tuesday, made me realize that there is always work to do in the area of cultural sensitivity. I have spent numerous hours this week with my extended team in EMEA working through some budget exercises. On Monday, I started to approach the discussions and issues as I always have (which has worked for me, but I recognize this could be offputting to others), but decided to take a step back and really listen to how the rest of the team was approaching the discussions. I took out my communication styles handout (figuratively, not literally) and tried to identify what style each person was exhibiting. I was able to recognize the participants who struggled with ambiguity, which participants were circular, which were linear, which were low context and so on. It was facinating. Taking the time to listen for the verbal cues in the discussion (I don't have the luxury of seeing their physical reactions), helped me to better communicate our goals & objectives. The folks that are uncomfortable with ambiguity and high-level thinking may never really be comfortable with these instances, but I hope that by recognizing their struggles, I can frame expectations and coach them so they can be successful.