Fons Trompenaars: Reconciling Dilemmas - a podcast by Aga Bajer: Culture Strategist, Writer, Coach

Imagine that you are in a car, driven by a close friend of yours. She's speeding, going 50 mph in an area where the limit is just 30 mph.

And suddenly she hits a pedestrian.

After the incident, your friend's lawyer reassures you: “There were no other witnesses - if you swear under oath, your friend will be free." 

Two questions: 

1. What right does your friend have to expect you to lie to protect them?

a) definite right
b) some right
c) no right

2. Would you lie or not? 

Just take a minute to answer these questions before you read on.

Ready?

Ok, let’s keep going.

What you have just experienced is a dilemma. 

While a problem is something that can be easily solved if we have enough resources (such as money or time), a dilemma is much trickier than that. 

My guest on CultureLab this week is Fons Trompenaars, a master of dilemma reconciliation and one of the 50 most influential management thinkers alive. He’s recognised as one of the world's most sought-after culture gurus and his book “Riding the Waves of Culture, Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business” is one of the most popular books on culture. Fons defines a dilemma in the following way:

"A dilemma is having two things that are important to us
(in this case friendship and truth)
and feeling like we have to sacrifice one over the other."

The way we tend to resolve the dilemmas in our lives is often driven by our national culture. Fons' research indicates that the majority of Italians, Greeks or Chinese would decide to help their friend, Germans would opt for being truthful, whereas the Americans…would say the truth - but promise to visit their friend in jail! 

One thing that almost all of us have in common is a feeling that we are forced to choose - and the choice is almost impossible to make. 

However, Fons suggests that we don't have to choose between the two.  

WE CAN HAVE THE CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO!

Listen to this insight provoking conversation with Fons and let me know what you think.

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