In February this year, Fons Trompenaars held a keynote speech at the Social Conference 2012 about social media and its connection to dilemma reconciliation. Watch it here.

In his speech, Trompenaars explains dilemmas and how they may be reconciled. His speech aims to help understand cultural differences in dealing with a number of dilemmas. What would you do if you were confronted with the following situation? You witnessed your boss or teacher make a mistake – would you tell him or her? Under which circumstances? Are you honest or polite? Is hierarchy more important to you or the quality of your work/studies? Could you have it both ways? And there are many more dilemmas! Trompenaars introduces some of them in his speech.

Some cultures propose specific solutions to these problems, and these solutions are closely connected to their value preferences. In one group or society, honesty might be more important than politeness, and in another, the reverse may be true.

The same goes with respect for hierarchy. How do we deal with situations where someone who expects a high level of politeness and hierarchy meets someone with the opposite expectations? There are many situations like this that we have to deal with every day – especially in intercultural environments.

In our work with international AFSers – colleagues, volunteers and sojourners – and when you come to another country, many of us know what it means to try to reconcile the differences and to find a way to deal with each other that builds on recognition, respect, and understanding. This speech will help you to understand how.