Books

Did You Get The Point?

Did You Get the Point? Cultural Intelligence and Diversity in Global Collaboration is a critically acclaimed book about working effectively across cultures. Based on several years of research and two decades of collaboration with various international companies, ConnectingCultures’ founder Signe Ørom, Ph.D., has published the book “Did You Get the Point? Cultural Intelligence and Diversity in Global Collaboration” (2022).

The book is aimed for any leader, team or employee looking to develop and strengthen their cultural intelligence, and improve the conditions for successful cross-cultural collaboration in the workplace.

The book has been praised for its engaging, self-reflecting and humorous language, and for its value for anyone looking to gain practical, data-backed knowledge on the differences that can emerge across cultures.

Whether you are completely new to interacting with different cultures in your professional setting, or you are an experienced in cross-cultural leadership with years of experience behind you, the real life cases and up-to-date data is guaranteed to provide you with some valuable insights, and help you develop new, fruitful strategies for cross-cultural management.

English and Danish version

The book is available in both English and Danish. The two books, “Did You Get The Point?” and “Forstod du, hvad de sagde?”, are very similar. However, where the Danish version is aimed towards Danes working globally, the English version is adjusted towards internationals working in Denmark or in other ways collaborating with Danes.

What our readers say

“Which country has the lowest percentage of gelatophobics? What is Chemyon? Where are titles important and where are they ‘’whatever’’? Which is the country where you first learn about your business partner’s 8 children and 23 dogs and then talk about business? Which company has a 200-year vision? What is Cinderella hour? Does a smile make you more or less intelligent? Are you aware of your own bias or do you work on autopilot? Do you know that your intention and other people’s perception do not always match? What makes a multicultural team perform well on innovation? How to harvest the cultural diversity bonus? I could go on and on and on… I enjoyed reading Signe Øroms book so much! 🙏 ‘’Did you get the point?’’ is a treasure, an eye-opener, a very important 21st century book to equip individuals, leaders and teams with much needed perspectives on the benefits of acting in a culturally intelligent and inclusive way. We all want innovation, optimal performance and smooth collaboration. If we put a little more effort in our global collaboration, magic will happen. I would recommend everyone to check Signe Øroms work. She is a surgeon in her field to say the least. You will experience knowledge, science, stories from global leaders’ experiences, good will, helpfulness, good energy and a feeling of peace throughout reading the whole book. You will make so many new neural connections and you will become a level-up global collaborator! I will always remember to implement points of the book in my personal and professional life with focus on the higher good Thank you, Signe and ConnectingCultures I am already looking forward to your next book

“Are you working in a global, multi-cultural and diverse organization, then I highly recommend you to read the book: “Did you get the point?” by Signe Ørom 🌍. This book provides knowledge and insight into cultural intelligence and diversity in global collaboration and is spiced with real-life cases and quotes from experienced managers from international companies. My take-away is that we need to increase the strategic and practical focus on cultural diversity in global organizations as this may have beneficial effects on motivation, innovation as well as team performance and global collaborations. Thank you Signe Ørom and ConnectingCultures for this book and for sharing your knowledge and insights with us.

Forstod DU, hvad de sagde? eller Did YOU get the point? for den engelske udgave er titlen på Signe Øroms nye bog om kulturel intelligens og diversitet i globale samarbejder. Dem, der kender mig, ved, at jeg kommer fra Tyskland, har boet i Danmark i mange år, var udstationeret i Vietnam og har arbejdet med international salg gennem hele mit efterhånden ret lange arbejdsliv. Jeg var ret sikker på at vide en hel del om kulturforskelle og de udfordringer og muligheder der opstår i internationale samarbejder. Men bogen har givet mig utrolig meget stof til eftertanke - jeg læser og genlæser, læser højt for venner og familie, diskuterer og tænker situationer igennem, som jeg kunne og burde have håndteret på en anden måde. Bogen burde læses af alle, som arbejder internationalt, lever og/eller arbejder i et andet land eller som "bare" har interesse for at se verdenen gennem andres kulturelle briller. Velskreven med mange cases, videnskabelig funderet, indsigtsfuld, engagerende - en "page-turner" man kan og vil vende tilbage til mange gange. Stor tak til Signe Ørom for denne bog!

Når man har sin chef i Singapore, nærmeste kolleger i Tyskland, Japan og Kina, er kulturelle forskelle ikke teori. Det er noget som man bliver mødt med dagligt. Fx "Talte jeg for meget og var jeg for direkte til det sidste møde?" "Hvordan skal jeg sammensætte grupperne til den næste større workshop så også folk som normalt ikke modsiger deres chef kommer til orde?". Jeg har netop læst Signe Øroms bog om kulturel intelligens, "Forstod du, hvad de sagde?". Jeg blev opmærksom på, at jeg måske ubevidst har tænkt, at den skandinaviske eller nordeuropæiske måde at drive projekter på var den bedste. Nu er jeg mere i tvivl. De mange eksempler og kulturanalyser viser, hvor specielle vi danskere er i forhold til kollegaer og samarbejdspartnere fra resten af verden. Så måske skal vi være noget mere ydmyge, når vi agerer i globale projekter. Måske bliver resultaterne endnu bedre, hvis vi prøver... #connectingcultures #kulturelintelligens, Signe Ørom 🌍

Tak Signe Ørom og ConnectingCultures for at sætte spot på vigtige elementer i at skabe et godt samarbejde på tværs af landegrænser, tidszoner, kulturer…. Bogen anbefales så absolut til alle der arbejder i en international, virtuel og multi-kulturel kontekst - man kan altid udvide sin CQ (=kulturel intelligens ref bogen) I min optik findes der ikke en endegyldig manual, der kan give dig alle guldkorn til at lykkes. Det allervigtigste ser jeg stadig være din nysgerrighed, autencitet, en vis portion ydmyghed og ønsket om at forstå og afprøve end antage….for udover kultur så er der også forskellige personligheder, hvilket bogen også understreger.

This book provides knowledge and insight into cultural intelligence and diversity in global collaboration and is spiced with real-life cases and quotes from experienced managers from international companies. My take-away is that we need to increase the strategic and practical focus on cultural diversity in global organizations as this may have beneficial effects on motivation, innovation as well as team performance and global collaborations. Thank you Signe Ørom and ConnectingCultures for this book and for sharing your knowledge and insights with us.

Roll the dice

CQ-model

Other Publications

Communication In International Companies

Signe Ørom is co-author of the book “Communication in International Companies” which you can read more about in Danish version here.

Buy "Did You Get The Point?"

Use code discount code Signe1122 and get the book for just 255 Dkk, on orders placed before April 1st.

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Signe Ørom's new book ’Forstod du, hvad de sagde?’ provides a solid insight into the pitfalls and potential gains of cross-cultural collaboration. Cultural diversity can enrich teams and organisations by, among other things, strengthening creativity and increasing productivity. But cultural differences can also lead to misunderstandings and cost companies dearly. (...) the book is a must-read for everyone wanting to learn more about how globally oriented companies ought to approach and tackle cultural differences. (...) the book’s many thought provoking, and sometimes funny stories about cultural misunderstandings, as well as clever solutions for how to handle cross-cultural collaboration, both internally and externally. Signe Ørom demonstrates great insight into the subject – her background in research and many years of experience really shine through.

Økonomisk Ugeblad
Claus Strue Frederiksen

With great competence, insightfulness and eloquence, Signe Ørom discusses the cultural challenges and opportunities in international collaboration. Meaningful, empirical examples masterfully illustrate the many challenges one can meet as a Dane, and the book shows how to achieve a cultural diversity bonus. Definitely recommendable!

Mette Zølner

Professor in Intercultural Communication at Aarhus University

I can highly recommend the new book from Signe Ørom. Her thoughts on the cultural diversity bonus are highly relevant for a company like ours, which has gone from being 95% Danish to a truly global company with a large variety of different cultures and with that, a transformation towards many more virtual meetings.

Asger Kronborg

Senior Director, LEGO

The book is an eye-opener which should be read by everyone who works with global partners and/or in multicultural teams. In a well-written, nuanced, and humorous way, this book conveys scientifically sound, evidence-based insights into the pitfalls and challenges to be aware of when people from different cultural backgrounds and communicative preferences meet. Without any preaching, the book manages to make the reader face their own cultural biases and contains specific tools on how to create strong, trust-based collaboration and well-functioning teams across cultures. I have undoubtedly received a gently kick in the butt/push to see how non-judgmental and openminded I actually am. I feel much better prepared to avoid misunder-standings and to harvest the fruits of multicultural collaboration in the future.”

Louise Winkel

Ph.d., Director, GLobal R&D Business Development, Novo Nordisk