Leadership Speaker Erin Meyer: Low Context vs. High Context Societies

(Erin Meyer)
In a low context-society,

uh, while we are communicating,

we assume that we have
a low level of shared context.

What does that mean?

It means that we don't have
the same reference points

or the same body of knowledge
or relationships,

that we have a low level of
shared context.

So in a low-context society,
we believe that good, effective,

professional communication is a
communication that's very explicit,

that's very simple and very clear.

In a low-context society,
we're trained that if I want you

to understand blue,
then I have to say blue, literally.

We're trained,
in a low-context culture,

that if I give a presentation I should
tell you what I'm going to tell you,

and then I should tell you,

and then I should tell you
what I've told you.

Why do I tell you the same
thing three times?

Because we're focused, overall,
on making sure that the message

was passed simply and clearly.

In a high-context society,
while we are communicating,

we assume or consider that we have
a larger body of shared context,

that we have the same reference points,
body of knowledge, information.

And because we assume all
of this shared context,

in a high-context society
we believe good,

effective communication
is a communication

that's more implicit
or layered or nuanced.

I had a German individual
who said to me,

you know, Erin, in Germany,
at the end of a meeting,

we almost always do a recap.

First, we do a verbal recap,
and then we do a written recap.

That's low context, right?

Clarification, clarification,
clarification.

He said,
now that I've been working frequently

with the French, I often find that,
at the end of a meeting,

I'll get ready to do a recap
and my French colleagues

will just stand up,
and someone will say, a voila.

There it is.

And I'll think to myself,
but voila what?

And then I'll be very surprised
to see that it just seems that people

know what's been decided, that they know
what's supposed to happen next

without going through
all of those levels of clarification

that I'm so used to in my own culture.

I had a second example.

I was doing some work
a while ago in Istanbul,

and I had a Turkish client
who was telling me about all these issues

that he uh was having
with his new American boss.

And I said,
when your boss was here,

did you tell him
what you're telling me now?

And he said, well, you know, Erin,
I made it known

so that he could see it
if he wanted to see it.

And I thought to myself,
he probably didn't see it, right?

I'll give you a third example from China.

I was giving a presentation
at a conference in China last year,

and all the people in the room worked
for the same multinational American company.

Before I worked with them, the chairman,
who was this American from New York City,

gave a presentation that went very well,
and then he left.

Afterwards, when I was working
with the group we were talking about this.

And I had the Chinese
Human Resource Director raise his hand.

And he said, you know Erin,
this concept is very interesting to me,

because the whole time
the Chairman was talking,

I was trying to make sure that I
was listening with all of my senses,

that I was picking up all of the levels of
meaning that he might be trying to pass.

And now that I look at this,
I'm asking myself the question,

is it possible that there
was no meaning

beyond that first, those simple words
that he was saying?

And I thought to myself that that Chairman
would have been really surprised

to know-to think that anyone was trying
to understand his message

beyond the first degree.