Culture is Fascinating! Did you know that the practice of “brainstorming” can be rather uncomfortable for people from other cultures? Answers.Com defines brainstorming as “A method of shared problem solving in which all members of a group spontaneously contribute ideas.” In the U.S. we encourage this practice, and usually do it in a “comfortable” atmosphere where people are free to express themselves. We invite participants to open up, be creative, and contribute thoughts or ideas which might appear less than brilliant for the sake of thinking “outside the box”. This means that our idea might either be the one that is chosen as a great solution, or one that is thrown out as having no merit whatsoever. Other cultures find this practice very unsettling. For some cultures, important thoughts and solutions are much too serious to be spontaneously given, and one’s brain is not the place for a storm! The Germans, for example prefer to examine all areas of a problem and systematically arrive at a logically constructed conclusion. The Japanese, fearing loss of face, are not prone to give spontaneous opinions in front of superiors or subordinates. Brainstorming can be perceived as impulsive and disorganized to those from other cultures, yet appears very efficient and democratic to us. How then do we best tackle problem solving and promote innovation when we work in multi-cultural groups? Global LT's Cultural Training Programs - Brainstorming across Cultures