Kay Xander Mellish's "How to Work in Denmark" workshops on business culture in Denmark are active and creative. The goal is to build bridges between Danish colleagues and international colleagues, avoid misunderstandings, and work better together.

Recently I was at a midsize client in Copenhagen, where we talked about how to work together better across cultures….and then examined and reinforced those messages with reflection groups and improv exercises. Among the general topics we worked with:

- Hierarchy: newly-arrived internationals may be hesitant to challenge a Danish boss, in particular if they are here on a working visa. We did improv exercises on how a Danish boss might give an international team member “permission” to disagree.

- Small talk: Danes are famous for wanting to get right to the task at hand, but other cultures often prefer a bit of small talk before getting to work. One improv exercise involved strategies for light small talk – how was your birthday party? – before getting down to business.

- Blame culture: In work cultures with less of a social safety net than Denmark, the first response when things go wrong may be to look for someone to blame. We talked about tactics for redirecting the emphasis toward fixing processes to avoid future mistakes.

- Positive feedback: Internationals who are new to the Danish workplace are thirsty for positive feedback, and they need more praise, and more frequent praise, than a Dane who feels secure and established. I explained how several internationals at various Danish companies have told me they got so little positive feedback that they were afraid they were about to be fired - and were surprised to be given a raise and a promotion!

With these workshops, it's important that everyone looks at their expectations and why they have these expectations.

Danes, for example, have never known a life without a social welfare state and a highly unionized population. They take it for granted that team members will work only the hours they are paid for, and take all their vacation.

People from less secure or more competitive cultures may feel they have to work until midnight to prove their dedication to the job, or skip taking time off, maybe even shorten their parental leave to get back to work.

Figuring out what someone else is expecting is a good way cross-cultural bridges and work better together.

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