Who’s the Smartest Guy at BYU this Year?

I found this fun parody of the new and wildly successful Old Spice spokesman, a promotional piece for the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young Univisity on adfreak.com last week.  While it should have been a simple, pithy post, I’ve obsessed for seven days about whether or not to post it. Why?  Because my…

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When Bias Turns Deadly

I always remember the scene from Sex, Lies and Videotape when Andy MacDowell is talking to her therapist about how hard it is to live her daily life when she reads about so much pain and suffering in the Newspaper everyday. That’s how I feel after reading about Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, 18, a freshman…

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“I” vs “You” Orientation

In fair fighting, the rule was always to use “I” statements, as in “I feel this” or “I did this,” as opposed to “You” statements, as in “You always do this,” or “You make me feel this,” (“I feel YOU are an a——” doesn’t count.) In intercultural communications, in the framework of Geert Hoftstede, it’s…

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Intercultural Conflict: How Jobs and Titles are Like Cultural Fiefdoms

Lessons in intercultural communications abound every day, everywhere.  Over the past few days, “my friend” learned how orientation to different jobs/careers fields can yield the same intercultural snafus found in cross cultural communications. Whether it’s Jargon (think SEO, CEO, B-Hag, NGO, HACE), written communication styles (think Engineer vs. School Teacher) or simply the anticipated protocol…

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