Transatlantic Integration
United States. Germany.
Largest and third-largest economies.
Linked via trade, investment, cooperation.
Shared cultural roots.
Critical relationships.
Do Germans and Americans understand each other?
Communication
Germans believe in saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
Wharheit is truth. Lüge is lie.
Communication
Americans believe in choosing carefully what you say and how.
Communication
Germans often find Americans to be unclear, politically correct, evasive.
Communication
Americans often find Germans to be argumentative and confrontational.
Agreements
A hard-won German "yes" is higly reliable.
Agreements
An instinctive American "yes" is usually conditional.
Agreements
Americans can be perceived as overpromisers.
Agreements
Germans can be perceived as nay-sayers.
Persuasion
Germans separate message from messenger. "Arguments should speak for themselves."
Georg W.F. Hegel (1770-1831). German philosopher.
Dialectics: thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
Persuasion
Americans link message and messenger. "Sell yourself first, then your product or service."
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955). American writer and lecturer on salesmanship.
Persuasion
From German perspective Americans sell, they don't inform.
Persuasion
From the American perspective Germans inform, they don't sell.
Decision Making
Germans think systematically, seeking to understand interconnections, interdependancies, and their ramifications.
Otto von Bismarcks complex system of treaties between Imperial Germany and the Great Powers of Europe.
Decision Making
Americans think pragmaticallly, breaking down complexity into its component parts, in order to focus and act on what is important.
George Washington, in his Farewell Address (1796), warned against entering into entangling alliances.
Decision Making
For Germans, Americans often "dont't look beyond the rim of their plate", thus acting hastily and "going through the wall with their head."
Decision Making
For Americans, Germans can unduly overcomplicate decisions, leading to "paralysis by analysis."
Leadership
Germans lead by general, mission-oriented tasks, addressing the what, not the how.
Führen durch Auftrag, the foundational leadership principle on the German military since the early 19th century, is considered to have been the key to German military prowess.
Leadership
Americans lead by specific, command-oriented tasks, stating the what, and addressing the how.
General George S. Patton.
Leadership
Germans often experience American leadership as top-down, heirarchical, command-and-control.
Leadership
Americans often experience German leadership as ill-defined, disengaged, not up to the task.
Feedback
Germans separate the personal from the professional. Feedback is inherently impersonal.
Feedback
Americans link the personal with the professional. Feedback is inherently personal.
Feedback
Germans can find American feedback too subjective. Too much therapist, too little demanding teacher.
Feedback
Americans can find German feedback cold. Too much stern teacher, too little inspiring coach.
Conflict Resolution
In Germany, escalating conflict to the next management level is an option of last resort.
Conflict Resolution
In the U.S., escalating conflict to the next management level is a fundamental right.
Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: trial by jury, confrontation clause, speedy trial, public trial, right to counsel.
Conflict Resolution
From the German perspective, escalation "giesst Öl ins Feuer" (adds oil to the fire.)
Conflict Resolution
From the American perspective, conflicts among/with German colleagues go unresolved, or unresolved for too long.
Product
Quality is the mightiest of gods in the German pantheon of product characteristics, and not to be insulted by price.
Product
In the U.S., quality is one product characteristic among others, and is always relative to price.
Product
Germans typically deem American products to be of poor quality.
Product
Americans typically deem German products to be overpriced.
Process
Germans view the goal and the path as indistinguishable. Output and process are two sides of the same coin.
Process
Americans view processes as tools, a means to an end. Processes cannot not replace human judgement.
Process
Germans see in American processes no more than a series of to-do lists. The purpose and potential of processes is misunderstood.
Process
Americans see in German processes the attempt to solve too many problems. The limits to their added value is misunderstood.
Customer
Germans strongly prefer to consult than serve, seeking a balanced relationship in terms of power and respect.
Konrad Adenauer, 1949, newly elected West German Chancellor, "steps on the carpet", signalling to the Allied High Commissioners that his highest priority was achieving full national sovereignty.
Customer
Americans will serve or consult, as long as the compensation is commensurate.
Customer
Germans believe Americans too often accept imbalance. Autonomy is prerequisite to advising the customer.
Customer
Americans believe Germans are not customer-oriented, instead aiming to orient customer towards their ways.
Obama. McChrystal. Critical Loyalty.
McChrystal, his staff, their comments in Rolling Stone. Obama dismisses McChrystal. Few of us are experts, can pass judgement. However, three issues were involved.
First. Maintaining team-cohesion. McChrystal was a member of a team, including Secretary of Defense Gates, Secretary of State Clinton, National Security Advisor Jones, Ambassador Eikenberry, and Special Envoy Holbrooke, and more than [...]
In the Bookstore: A German-American Intercultural Interaction
It was a Monday. Six in the evening. Early June. I had a few minutes before going across the street to the university to teach. Sitting in one of the comfortable armchairs in a multi-level bookstore here in Bonn, I check emails. Germans have an intimate relationship with books, the written, the learned word. Gutenberg. [...]