Page 104 – understand-culture

Positive Feedback Generosity

Brazilians are generous with positive feedback. When something is good, they say so warmly, enthusiastically, and often publicly.

This is not empty flattery—it is genuine appreciation expressed in culturally appropriate ways. Achievements are celebrated, effort is recognized, good work is acknowledged openly. For Brazilians, restrained or measured praise feels cold, even negative—if you can not find more to say, maybe there is a problem.

When working with Brazilian colleagues, be more generous with positive feedback than you might be elsewhere. Recognize what is working, acknowledge contributions, celebrate successes.

When you receive abundant positive feedback from Brazilians, receive it as genuine warmth. And if positive feedback is not flowing, understand that something may be wrong—the absence of praise is itself a signal.

Negative Feedback Privatization

Critical feedback in Brazil happens in private. If you need to tell a Brazilian colleague that something is not working, you do not do it in a meeting, in an email copied to others, or anywhere their performance issues become visible to the group. You find a private moment—a one-on-one conversation, a quiet word after a meeting, a coffee away from others. Public criticism causes vergonha—a deep shame that damages the person’s standing and damages your relationship with them, potentially permanently.

The content of the feedback can be just as direct and substantive in private; it is the public exposure that must be avoided. Brazilians extend this same courtesy to you: if they have difficult feedback, they will look for private moments to deliver it. Watch for invitations to talk one-on-one; that may be when the real evaluation arrives.

Relationship as Feedback Foundation

In Brazil, feedback works through relationship. Before you can give someone meaningful feedback, you need to have a real connection with them.

This is not about being nice first to soften what comes later—it is about establishing standing to give feedback at all. A colleague who has not invested in knowing you, who has not built any connection, does not have the standing to evaluate your work. Their feedback will feel presumptuous, out of place, like they are overstepping.

But someone who has taken time to build a relationship, who knows you and your situation, can give you quite direct feedback because the relationship provides context for it. When you need to give feedback to Brazilian colleagues, invest in the relationship first. When you receive feedback from Brazilians, understand that it comes from people who have decided you matter enough to them to tell you the truth.

Timing as Decision Dimension

In Brazil, when you decide matters, not just what you decide. The right decision at the wrong moment may fail; the same decision at the right moment may succeed.

This means reading situations—sensing whether people are receptive, whether conditions are favorable, whether the moment supports what you’re trying to accomplish. Sometimes the wise choice is to wait, not because you’re uncertain about what to decide but because the timing isn’t right. Sometimes you move quickly because the moment demands it. Develop sensitivity to timing.

Notice when people seem open or closed, when situations are ripe or unready. The content of your decision matters, but so does your choice of when to make it and when to announce it.

Navigation of Formal and Informal Dimensions

Effective decision-making in Brazil requires navigating both official rules and informal realities. Formal procedures and authority structures exist and matter—you need to work within them. But actual decisions often emerge through informal channels: relationships that cross official lines, networks that carry information outside formal paths, influence that operates through personal connection. Skilled Brazilian decision-makers operate in both dimensions simultaneously.

They respect formal process while understanding that formal structures alone don’t capture how things actually work. This isn’t corruption—it’s sophisticated navigation of complex institutional reality. Learn the official process, but also understand the informal dynamics that shape real outcomes.

Process-Oriented Rather Than Moment-Oriented

In Brazil, decision-making is a process, not a moment. Decisions emerge through dialogue and develop over time; the formal instant of announcement matters less than the entire journey from initial consideration through implementation.

This means that good decisions can’t always be rushed—they need time for consultation, for perspectives to develop, for shared understanding to emerge. It also means that implementation is part of decision-making, not separate from it. How you execute involves continuous choices and adaptations that shape what the decision actually means.

Don’t focus only on the moment of choice; attend to the entire process before and after. The decision is never really complete—it continues to unfold.

Comfort With Uncertainty

Brazilians are comfortable making decisions without complete information, accepting that outcomes aren’t fully controllable. You can’t wait for certainty—it rarely comes, and opportunities pass while you’re waiting. Make the best decision you can with what you know, accept that the outcome depends on more than your choice, and prepare to adapt as reality unfolds.

This comfort with uncertainty means moving forward despite not knowing exactly what will happen. It means accepting that some factors are beyond your control—luck, circumstance, other people’s actions, perhaps divine will. Decisions are necessary even when outcomes are uncertain. Act despite imperfect knowledge, and trust that you can adjust when you learn more.

Collective Input in Individual Decisions

Even when a decision is yours to make, Brazilian culture expects you to incorporate input from others. For significant choices—career moves, major purchases, life decisions—you consult family, seek advice from trusted people, and consider perspectives beyond your own. This isn’t weakness or inability to decide; it’s appropriate recognition that you can’t see everything yourself, that others have valuable perspective, and that your decisions affect people who deserve voice.

The person who makes major decisions without consulting anyone seems isolated, prideful, or unaware of their limitations. When facing important choices, reach out. Ask what others think. Consider perspectives that differ from yours. The consultation makes the decision better, and it honors the relationships involved.

Integration of Intuition and Analysis

Good decisions in Brazil involve both analysis and intuition—neither alone is sufficient. Yes, look at the data, study the numbers, think through the logic. But also check what experienced people think, pay attention to how the situation feels, notice whether something seems right or wrong in ways the analysis doesn’t capture.

The purely analytical decision that ignores experienced judgment is incomplete. Brazilian decision-makers trust their gut, developed through experience, as a source of information that conscious analysis cannot fully replicate. Emotional signals matter too—if a decision looks right but feels wrong, that discomfort contains information worth examining. Integrate both analytical and intuitive dimensions rather than privileging one over the other.

Adaptive and Provisional Decision-Making

Brazilian decisions are provisional, not final. The initial choice sets a direction, but everyone expects adaptation as circumstances change. This isn’t indecisiveness—it’s realistic recognition that situations evolve and good decision-making evolves with them.

When you commit to a plan in Brazil, you’re committing to the goal, not to rigid execution of every specified step. Flexibility to adjust is assumed. The person who insists on executing the original plan despite changed circumstances isn’t showing admirable commitment—they’re showing failure to read reality. Make decisions, commit to directions, but preserve flexibility.

Expect that today’s choice may need modification tomorrow. What matters is reaching the objective through whatever path works, not following the original plan regardless of conditions.