Interview with Ann Caton: Culture and Session Design

Listen to my conversation with Ann Caton, consultant in organization development and partner at Potomac Group, talking about culture and session design.

As many of you know, Ann and I lead Potomac Group together. This day she was busy working in her office on the second floor of our house overlooking the backyard and a school playground. I interrupted her to ask what new ideas were on her mind. I’m glad I did. In this interview, Ann shares her thinking on how culture impacts session design and implementation. She suggests that those interested in learning more on cultural dimensions and how they impact our work and lives read Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner’s book “Riding the Waves of Culture.” Ann goes a step further in talking not just about cultural dimensions between countries, but also how to apply this thinking to understand cultural differences within and between organizations we work with everyday.

Cultural Dimensions…

In their book Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner outline six dimensions that assist individuals and organizations of any size to understand and appreciate conflicting values. Each of these could easily be placed on a Polarity Map to clearly demonstrate that each dimension, when pursued to the neglect of the other, leads to the downside of that pole. Here are a few of those dimensions:

Universalism & Particularism
Is there a focus more on rules/laws (universalism) or exceptions and special circumstances (particularism)?

Individualism & Communitarianism
Is the bias more toward personal freedoms/human rights (individualism) or social responsibility and cooperation (communitarianism)?

Achieved Status & Ascribed Status
Is it more important what you’ve done, your track record (achieved status) or who you are, your potential and connections (ascribed status)?