Global Dexterity

A Balance of Cultures and Yourself

At the beginning of his book, Global Dexterity, Molinsky Molinsky gives the tough situation that Eric Rivers, who had been an experienced and successful manager in the U.S., was confronted with in an Indian company due to cultural inadaptation. The vivid example then is followed by the concept of global dexterity and its importance. Afterwards, he lists 4 key steps of developing your own global dexterity. The rest chapters enumerate some helpful tips when adapting your behavior to new cultures. Finally, Molinsky concludes 5 takeaways to show the difference between the business world reality and conventional wisdom. He raises Eric’s example again to explain how Eric’s plight could be defused by the views and methods mentioned in the book.

The first part briefly introduces the concept of global dexterity with 2 chapters. Global dexterity, from what I understand, is the ability to both keep yourself and change some behavior in a new environment, that is, to fit in some new cultural rules within your comfort zone. We can see the difficulty of develop this quality according to Eric’s example: his practical management in the States with open and equal

The aim of the author of writing this book is not to draw a big picture of cultural diversity, which is actually very well-known by readers, but to provide severe directions for those who are struggling with new cultural environments. I take cognizance of a truth in the book that is eventually suitable for most of the realistic problems in life: you can never find the solution directly, and you may even never get it correctly, but step by step, through trial and error, you are on your way closing to the