Guest Podcast: Reconciling Dilemmas with Fons Trompenaars

Today’s guest, Fons Trompenaars has been recognised as one of the world’s most sought-after culture gurus and his book “Riding the Waves of Culture, Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business” is one of the most popular books on culture.

When organisations see business issues as separate from culture and vice-versa, problems emerge. Fons suggests that every conversation about culture and every initiative to shape culture should always start with the issue at stake. He highlights the importance of asking the following questions:

• What are our key business challenges?
• What are our must-win battles? Our vision?
• What’s the strategy to get there?

In the interview, Fons talks about how cultures can be enriched and evolved by reconciling their most prevalent organisational dilemmas.

Interview highlights

• Early cultural influences that shaped Fons as a person
• Examples of dilemmas that can change the way you look at business and culture
• Conflicting values in organisations and how they can be reconciled for everyone’s benefit
• In what ways can organisations benefit from yin-yang values

If you enjoyed listening to this, you can find more episodes of the CultureLab with Aga Bajer here.