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Switching Cultural Codes by Andy Molinsky B orn and raised in India, Partha brought strong aca- demic skills and an outgoing personality to the MBA program at the Brandeis International Business School in Waltham, Massachusetts. But despite these strengths, the information technology consultant faced a major stumbling block at the end of his first year: He struggled to promote himself to potential employers at career fairs and networking events. In India, humility is seen as a great virtue, and self-pro- motion is considered immod- est, Partha explains. "We were taught to use 'we' instead of 'I,'" he says. Because of his background, networking in the U.S. was a "bad experi- ence," he adds. "All I wanted was to leave the room." I have changed Partha's name—as well as the names of other Different cultural expectations can place business students in uncomfortable situations. By learning to "switch" behaviors, they can adapt more successfully to another country's value system while staying true to their own. students mentioned in this article—to protect his privacy, but I've found that his story is far from unique. As more students leave their native countries to work and study in other parts of the world, they are sure to find themselves in situations where anoth- er culture's expectations come into conflict with their own. To help students develop cultural fluency, I created a training program, offered for the first time in the spring of 2008, as part of my MBA elective course, "Managing Across Cultures." The course includes a combination of case studies, role-playing exercises, video clips, simulations, and other interactive classroom activities. 32 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2009