In your respective cultures, in what situations is linking messenger with message persuasive, and when is it persuasive to separate them?
Persuasion
Competence
Choose one critical problem currently facing your respective societies. Describe to each other both the problem and the opportunity imbedded in it. Is it more problem than opportunity, or the other way around?
Systematics
Take one situation in your culture in which getting a message across persuasively is critical. Explain to your colleague how your culture strikes a balance between using analysis (theory, methodology) and using experience (facts, anecdotes).
Reality
Choose a typical presentation, in a typical company, in your culture. The presenter has maximum ten slides. How many slides would be dedicated to explaining the context (past), to the current problem/opportunity (present), and to the solution (future).
Inform vs. Sell
Explain to your colleague how in your business culture one knows when to guide the audience to a logical conclusion versus when one asks the audience to make a choice.