How people communicate is a vital part of understanding a culture. It’s crucial to recognize an indirect communication culture because the words someone uses are only a small part of the message being conveyed.

Cultures such as India, Thailand, and Japan are quite indirect in their style. This means that individuals often speak in a roundabout way by adapting the language to be somewhat non-specific and extremely tactful. Nonverbal communication, such as facial expression, tone of voice and posture, take on a very important role as clues about the full message. While the goal of the communication is the information, at the same time the person looks to maintain harmony, avoid confrontation and allow all parties to save face.

If you recognize that you’re working with indirect communication styles in your business activities, be very careful to pay close attention to all of these signals.

- taken from RW3′s CultureWizard™

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Some basic cultural knowledge will be helpful when doing business with Swedes:

* The concept of “lagom” – “just enough” or “everything in moderation” – affects Swedish attitudes and beliefs.
* People expect to be treated with an equal amount of respect and will express their opinions based upon their ability to contribute.
* Since many people view status symbols as pretentious, you cannot evaluate an individual’s rank or importance based on external cues.
* Swedes see themselves as being egalitarian and direct and are comfortable addressing everyone in a concise mode of expression.
* It is considered disrespectful to be late for business meetings or social occasions.
* Sweden is a relatively low risk and low change tolerant culture; societal change is difficult to bring about and not received with enthusiasm.
* Swedes can be quite exacting about punctuality, agendas, and timetables.
* Swedes use silence to think before speaking and to avoid confrontation. Do not continue speaking simply because the other party is silent.

- taken from RW3′s CultureWizard™

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