I was working as a contractor on my first Oracle implementation project in 1999 in Los Angeles.

We were about to deploy Oracle ERP in the company’s California headquarters and manufacturing plant, and were preparing to then deploy in the sales offices in nine European countries and plants in Sweden and North Carolina, in that order.

I had yet to meet the VP, Troy, who was in charge of IT and the ERP project, as he had been in Europe the entire time I was on the project in LA. He made a short visit to LA and approached me on a Monday to introduce himself.  He asked me, “Is there any reason you couldn’t go to Sweden with me this Friday?”  I told him my passport was current and I would need to check with my wife, but no, there should be no reason I couldn’t go to Sweden with him. He said “Great! Let’s meet later this week and I’ll fill you in.”

His assistant made my flight and hotel arrangements, but try as I might, Troy never had time to meet with me. I asked him if we were seated together on the plane.  When he said yes, I suggested he could fill me in on the way.  It was, after all a 12 hour flight.  He said he was grateful that I would agree to go without knowing what I was being asked to do.

That made me a bit nervous.  I’d never been to Sweden.  Until this week, I’d never met Troy.  I had heard our implementation partner Ernst and Young was having problems but I had no details.  So to prepare for the unknown, I went to the bookstore.  (Remember this was 1999.  Google wasn’t as robust as it is today.)  I bought two books to read on the plane: “Doing Business in Sweden” and “Culture Shock: Sweden”.

That Friday we boarded our flight at LAX and were headed to Stockholm.  Troy shared that he just wanted some help gathering details of the project status which included both the Oracle work as well as the infrastructure aspects of the nine new sales offices we were opening, one each in nine countries. Sounded easy enough.  I started reading my new books.  “Doing Business in Sweden” turned out to be more about tax law and trade regulations.  I set that one aside and started on “Culture Shock: Sweden”.  I had gotten to the chapter on the top things you can do to really annoy Swedish people when Troy asked me what I was reading.  When I told him the name of the book and the theme of the chapter I was on, he asked for examples:

• Do not be late for a meeting.
• Never start a meeting without an agenda.
• Share the agenda before you start.  Gain agreement that the agenda is acceptable to the group.  Adjust if asked.
• Regardless of your rank or position in the company, there must be a consensus for all decisions made in a meeting.
• Any overtime must be requested, agreed upon, and approved by the Union well in advance.  (No exceptions for an Oracle implementation that was behind schedule.)

By this time, Troy’s head was in his hands and he moaned “No wonder these people hate me!”

He then admitted to the real reason I was along.  He was guilty of every offensive behavior on the list plus about a half dozen more. Our Swedish employees were so upset with Troy that they had stopped talking to him.  He had not had a status report from any of the Swedish teams in weeks.  He truly did not  know what was going on in his own project.  His American style of management was sabotaging his relationships and his ability to get any information.  I was there to see if the Swedes would talk to me long enough to get Troy a status update.

I finished “Culture Shock: Sweden” and enjoyed the rest of our flight.

We landed in Stockholm, drove to Jonkoping and checked into our Hotel, the Stora Hotellet.  (A note if you are ever taking a cab to the Stora Hotellet.  Don’t just ask to go to the Stora.  “Stora” in Swedish means big or large, so you have to say specifically what big thing you want to go to.)

The next morning we drove about 50 kilometers to Aneby and our European headquarters and manufacturing plant.

Having taken “Culture Shock: Sweden” to heart, I was careful to adopt all of its guidelines.  In a couple of days, I was able to learn everything we needed to know about the project’s status and issues. And my Swedish colleagues commented that I was not a “typical American”.  What they didn’t know is that I am, and was.  If I had not read that book, I would have made all the same mistakes that Troy had made.  I too would have been that obnoxious American with no respect. Instead, I was named Aneby’s “Employee of the Month” for listening to their needs in the most Swedish of ways.

Oracle was deployed on time. I ended up accepting the position as head of IT for Europe and moved to Jonkoping where we stayed for about a year.  The author of “Culture Shock: Sweden” is an American woman, married to a Swede and living in Stockholm.  She and I have exchanged a few emails over that years, starting with my sending her my thanks for her book and the sharing how it helped me succeed.