Germans think systematically. They formulate their understanding of a decision to be made in a very broad and interconnected context. Therefore Germans do not always consider it helpful to take complexity and, as Americans say, “break it down” into its component parts. They aim to do the opposite, to see particulars in their interrelationships. They look for patterns, strive to understand complexity as a whole, as a system.
system vs. particular
System vs. Particular
German Approach
Germans are systematic in their thinking. They believe that complexity is understood only by grasping how its component parts interact and interrelate. Explaining complexity is persuasive in Germany. Examples
American Approach
Americans are particularistic in their thinking. They prefer to break down complexity into its component parts, in order to focus on what is essential. Americans are skeptical of theory. Facts and experience are far more persuasive. Examples
American View
The German inclination to paint the big picture, especially with the help of theory, can make a professorial and arrogant impression on American ears. German comprehensiveness can come across as long-winded, overly complicating and impractical. Americans react impatiently.
German View
Facts and experience, without an understanding of the big picture, do not persuade the Germans. To concentrate on the key variables often means to misunderstand or to overlook other important aspects. Americans are often judged to be over-simplifying and superficial.
Advice to Germans
A wholistic approach is fine, but be careful not to get tangled up in theory. Warn your audience when you need to go into detail in order to get a particular message across.
Leave out facts and factors which are not pertinent. Do not be comprehensive for the sake of comprehensiveness.
If Americans need more supporting information, they will request it. Anticipate those questions. Have the data ready. Questions are a sign of interest, and not that you are unprepared.
Advice to Americans
Take the time to explain the analysis which led to your conclusions. Your German colleagues want to know the what (statements), the why (reasons) and the how (methodology).
Go into much more detail. Include facts and information about various factors. Germans rarely save information for the question & answer part of a presentation. Provide it up-front.
In the German context, the fewer the questions asked during Q&A, the more persuasive the presentation.
System vs. Particular
Americans are particularistic in their thinking. They prefer to break down complexity into its component parts, in order to focus on what is essential. Americans are skeptical of theory. Facts and experience are far more persuasive. Examples
System vs. Particular
Germans are systematic in their thinking. They believe that complexity is understood only by grasping how its component parts interact and interrelate. Explaining complexity is persuasive in Germany. Examples
American Teaching
Perhaps because of the high cost of tuition at American universities, Americans typically view students as customers and schools as businesses. As such, teachers will attempt to cater to the needs of their students – if a certain process doesn’t interest the customers (students), the teacher will change it in order to keep the customers attentive.
During their classes, if American teachers notice that students aren’t paying attention, they will often include several amusing anecdotes that they tell throughout the class to keep their students’ focus.
For example, during a physics class, it would not be uncommon for an American professor to stop the lecture to talk to students about how Herman Weyl (one of the early proponents of group theory) had an affair with Erwin Schrodinger’s (the physicist who’s best known not only for his quantum mechanics equation but also for his potentially dead cat) wife, or how Murray Gell-Mann (who won the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics) was so narcissistic that he once warned his cab driver not to cash his check, because he believed that his signature was worth more than his cab fare had been.
American teachers will also include anecdotal stories from their own lives if these stories have any relevance to the subject matter. For example, if the teacher is describing a discovery made at CERN, he/she might talk about a colleague who worked there.
Eyewitness News
The first eyewitness news program began at KYW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio in 1959. Although this program was called Eyewitness News, it still followed the traditional news format (a news anchor reading the news while looking into a studio camera), until Al Primo became the news director in the early 1960s. Primo, a former anchorman, decided that instead of the typical news format, his news station would rely primarily on visuals, especially film and videotape.
Soon, the new format had spread to more than 200 local television stations across the country, and in 1965 KYW moved from Cleveland to Philadelphia, where Primo formed the first on-camera reporting team. Now, in addition to news anchors, reporters could be seen onscreen.
As the eyewitness format grew in popularity, more developments occurred all over the US. WLS in Chicago began using co-anchors who would chat on air about the news stories, a new style which was known as “happy talk.” At WABC in New York, field reporters appeared on-camera to discuss the stories about which they were reporting.
Eventually eyewitness news became so standard and so popular with the masses that now it is often referred to as “people’s news.” These days, virtually all local television and network stations in the U.S. use some form of eyewitness news, and many countries in Europe and Latin America also use similar news reporting styles.
Richard P. Feynman
Richard Feynman was an American physicist who is best known for his work on QED (quantum electrodynamics, and a pun on the Latin phrase ‘quod erat demonstrandum’). He also developed the now-standard Feynman diagrams and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.
Feynman was a strong advocate for simplicity and explaining things so that the average person could understand them. He believed that anyone who understood something should be able to explain it to a layperson.
In fact, he believed this so vehemently that once, when he was asked to explain why spin one-half particles obey Fermi Dirac statistics, Feynman initially said that he would prepare a freshman lecture on the subject.
Later he admitted “You know, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t reduce it to the freshman level. That means we really don’t understand it.” It’s also believed that Feynman said “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t really understand it.”
Searing
Searing: Very hot; marked by extreme intensity, harshness, or emotional power.
The United States is an immigrant country. More accurately stated: a younger, more recent immigrant country. For the history of mankind is the history of man moving, settling, then picking up and moving again.
There were and are reasons for why people moved and continue to move to the United States. Many seek greater freedom of thought, of religion, of way of life. Economic opportunity was/is certainly a motivation for many, if not most. And there are those who wanted to break out of the inflexible structures of their native country.
The immigrant experience is searing. It is of great emotional intensity, forming who we are as individuals, families, ethnic communities, and as a nation. The stories, the emotions, the choices made are passed down from generation to generation.
Oddly, but understandably, an American of German descent will say: “I’m German,” meaning, “My ethnic heritage is German,” in a deeper sense, “My national cultural hard-wiring is American and German,” just as it is for others: American and Italian, American and Irish, and Vietnamese, and Mexican, and Polish, and so on.
A searing experience. People left behind all that they knew. Language, culture, traditions, friends and relatives. The risks were both high and not entirely known. The immigrant experience leads to a complex relationship with what was once home. For people take their culture with them. National culture changes only slowly and painfully.
Immigrants admire, respect, long for their home. But they also leave it behind, in some ways they reject it. Americans have always seen America as the New World. Not just a new settlement, a new country. But a new world, as if mankind were starting afresh, anew. It is a part of the American self-understanding to believe that you can strike out on a new path, question old ways, methods, traditions.
Realistic for Americans means that the present is a starting point to the future, a new starting point towards a new future, possibly different and better than the past. Yes, the present is the result of the past, but not locked into a pre-determined, unalterable trajectory. The past, therefore, has less relevance. There is less need to explain how the present was arrived at.
Whereas for Germans realistic means “keeping your feet on the ground,” maintaining a sober view of the situation, not deviating too much from known ways; “knowing where you come from.” For Americans realistic means developing a vision, imagining new possibilities, stretching beyond, reaching for more and greater things.
Ten Slides
Imagine the same task given to ten different Americans, in ten different companies, in ten different business sectors. A thousand people. They’re asked to use a maximum of ten slides in a presentation in order to persuade an audience of fellow Americans about the virtues and value of their product, service, idea, concept, recommendation.
On average, how many slides would the Americans use to explain the present (current situation), the past (how the present was arrived at), and the future (the desired situation)?
Business Storytelling
Business Storytelling for Dummies. Author Karen Dietz. What does amazon(dot)com say about the book in order to promote it?
Learn to: translate data, facts, and figures into rich, captivating messages; harness the power of good storytelling to influence and motivate employees; effectively convey messages to buyers and funders; connect with your audience and drive your business to new heights; use storytelling to influence people and move them to action
Use stories to tap into their imaginations and translate sterile facts and stagnant case studies into exciting concepts they can identify with.