Swedish justice

Last week I was in Lund again doing the Cultural Understanding course with a chatty group at Sony Ericsson. One of the models I use in the course to represent the difficulty of changing deeply held cultural beliefs is a drawing of a buoy. The buoy floating on top of the water that you can see represents behaviors -- they're observable and can change pretty easily. Below the water, hidden from view, is the buoy's tether -- this represents the norms we live by and the values we hold, which are more difficult for us to change. And where the tether is anchored to the ground at the bottom of the ocean, that's where our core assumptions about life are. These are nearly impossible to change and make us very uncomfortable when they are challenged.

I bring up this model because I was surprised by my angry reaction to a piece in the paper today about the murder of a teenage girl a few months ago here in Sweden. The 15-year-old girl was strangled to death in a forest by 2 other teenagers (a girl and a boy), both 16 and mentally fit i.e. they weren't psychotic or on drugs when this happened. Yesterday they were sentenced to a mere 20 months in a youth facility ("undomsvård" -- have no idea if this is prison type situation or a tennis camp in Solna. Please tell me it's not cozy or I might be ill).

In the paper an expert says that 20 months is a reasonable sentence because children are very sensitive and if they served a long sentence the perpetrators might never recover and "have a future." It's best for society, she argues, that they received a short sentence. Now, if you ever wanted an explicit example of the fact that Sweden prioritizes the needs of society over the needs of the individual, here it is. As an American I wonder where on earth is the justice for the victim and her family? How are they supposed to cope with the fact that these murderers are going to be out running the streets in their tight pants and died blond hair in 20 months? In Sweden are they really expected to accept this verdict for the greater good of society? Personally, I think this is way too much to expect of these parents, Swedish or otherwise, and in my rock at the bottom of the tether, justice has not been served.

Germish

Earlier this week I facilitated a workshop for a bunch of Germans on working successfully in Sweden. I spoke mostly English and some German, and was sort of horrified to realize that my German is sounding a bit Swedish (a bit too sing-songy with too many "-ning" noun endings when they should be "-ung") and that Swedish words are coming to my mind faster than the German equivalent. In short, I realized I now speak Germish instead of German. So sad, my German was so good ... and that was so many years ago.

For the workshop I used Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions and it's the perfect model for Germans and Swedes working together because there are huge gaps in two of the dimensions: Masculinity (how assertive people are), and Uncertainty Avoidance (how comfortable people are with ambiguity). Sweden is the least masculine (or most feminine) culture in the world according to Hofstede, and so Germans tend to perceive Swedes as, well, girly men, and Swedes perceive Germans as overbearing, immodest and aggressive. Swedes are much more comfortable than the Germans with ambiguity and so they need fewer rules designed to eliminate uncertainty. As a result, they tend to view Germans as process-obsessed and unwilling to listen to different opinions. Germans tend to think Swedes are slow and wishy-washy.

As you can imagine, this led to some great discussions. Since they were German, it was all very frank and helpful I thought. I did my cultural adaptation part and prepared lots of graphs and data. (You Germans out there might be rolling your eyes, but there are not too many cultures out there in which people tell you they don't agree with various parts of your model and that they are going to change it so that it "makes more sense".)

Having had so many Swedes in my workshops lately, I was almost taken aback by the energy of the Germans -- lots of talking, side conversations, jokes, and just more body energy. Very un-Swedish. Sort of refreshing, actually. It was like the undercurrent in the room was buzzing, when usually it is, well, very low-key and Swedish and everyone listens calmly and politely and doesn't question too much and quietly enters and exits the room.

At the end of the day the participants said they were going to involve their Swedish colleagues in decision-making more, expect longer decision-making timelines, stay calm when they disagree and ask open questions to get the other person's perspective, and make an effort to go to more coffee breaks (fikas) to build relationships with colleagues. So I think some of what we talked about sunk in. But somehow I don't expect Jens and Hans to be dancing around the maypole by next mid-summer. Naja.