Origin and Culture

Family of origin and culture — particularly when working across countries — are important contexts to consider when people need to work together. This becomes especially relevant when looking at team formation and how people communicate with one another.

As part of team formation, one of the common exercises involves teams documenting their values and the behaviours that align with those values. For example, many teams will identify respect as a value. But how does that value translate into behaviour for a Zulu person from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, if they find themselves on a team with a Hindu person from Mumbai, India?

Similarly, the foundations of effective communication can be encapsulated in frameworks such as radical candour, which involves being both direct and kind at the same time. Again, what does radical candour look like for a Zulu person from KwaZulu-Natal or a Hindu person from Mumbai? What does directness look like? What does kindness look like? How is tone used?

Th1nk works with teams to build an understanding of the context each team member comes from, and how that context influences their values, communication and behaviour.