BOOK REVIEW
Book Title: Forging Bonds in a Global Workforce: Build Rapport, Camaraderie, and Optimal Performance No Matter the Time Zone
Author: Andy Molinsky and Melissa Hahn
Publisher: McGraw Hill
List Price: US $32.00
Format: hard cover; 256 pages
Publication Date: February 2024
ISBN: 9781265212339
Reviewer: Yasmina Khelifi
Review Date: February 2024
Introduction to the Book
Today’s global teams are increasingly dispersed around the world, but team members and leaders are not necessarily trained or taught how to work with diverse teams. Of course, we know we must have empathy and be respectful. But how do we know that our good intentions will be well-received? And how do we go beyond merely being polite, to forge a real connection? This book is for professionals who want to learn how.
Forging Bonds explains how to foster cross-cultural collaboration on global teams by prioritizing relationships over do’s and don’ts. Erin Meyer’s “Culture Map” may come to mind here for avid readers of books on culture and global work. Well, this is a fresh perspective on a crucial topic we are all confronted with in our work lives: How can we go beyond merely learning about cultural differences, and actually build trusting, authentic relationships despite our differences? This book will give you concrete solutions and practical frameworks that are based on more than 100 interviews of global professionals, as well as the authors’ own decades of experience in the field.
Overview of Book’s Structure
The book is divided into four sections:
- Mindset: Set a solid foundation for building relationships in a global world. The authors reveal the “6 Ps” that influence relationship building: power, purpose, place, privacy, pacing, and presence. They then take a deeper dive into each P, one by one.
- Beginnings: Spark an initial connection using the quasi-universal conversational style of small talk. The authors outline cultural differences in small talk, offer advice for starting a conversation with someone you don’t know, and suggest ways to transform small talk into “real talk.”
- Deepening: Build on the progress you made during your initial interactions. The authors discuss how much to let your own personality shine through, how to find common ground, and how to learn the local trust language.
- Finer Points: Apply what you’ve learned to specific issues that arise. The authors address how to build relationships on teams, how to manage disagreements, how to cultivate your own curiosity, and how to honor your own internal experience.
Each short chapter introduces new frameworks, features real-life stories, and offers a brief series of questions to ponder (called thought exercises).
Highlights: What’s New in this Book
Unlike other books on global work, Forging Bonds doesn’t offer elaborate theoretical frameworks that try to explain every possible cultural difference. Indeed, the book isn’t prescriptive and avoids one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, the authors highlight the importance of being human: listening, observing, making mistakes, and learning from experiences…
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How to cite this work: Khelifi, Y. (2024). Forging Bonds in a Global Workforce: Build Rapport, Camaraderie, and Optimal Performance No Matter the Time Zone, book review, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue II, February. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/pmwj138-Feb2024-Khelifi-forging-bonds-in-a-global-workforce-book-review.pdf
About the Author
Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career at Orange S.A. (the large French multinational telecommunications corporation), she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: project management skills, the languages she speaks, and a passion for sharing knowledge.
She is a PMP certification holder since 2013, a PMI- ACP and PMI-PBA certification holder since 2020. She is an active volunteer member at PMI France and PMI UAE, and a member of PMI Germany Chapter. French-native, she can speak German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and she is learning Arabic. Yasmina loves sharing her knowledge and experiences at work, in her volunteers’ activities at PMI, and in projectmanagement.com as a regular blogger. She is also the host and co-founder of the podcast Global Leaders Talk with Yasmina Khelifi to help people in becoming better international leaders.
Yasmina can be contacted at https://yasminakhelifi.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/
Visit her correspondent profile at https://pmworldlibrary.net/yasmina-khelifi/
To view other works by Yasmina Kehelifi, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yasmina-khelifi/
