Analyzing Your Audience before You Speak 89

How to adapt to listeners from high-context and low-context cultures. Listen- ers from low-context cultures will need and expect more detailed and explicit in- formation from you as a speaker. Subtle and indirect messages are less likely to be effective.

People from high-context cultures will pay particular attention to your de- livery and to the communication environment when they try to interpret your meaning. These people will be less impressed by a speaker who boasts about his or her own accomplishments; such an audience will expect and value more indirect ways of establishing credibility. A listener from a high-context culture will also ex- pect a less dramatic and dynamic style of delivery.

● Tolerance of uncertainty and need for certainty. Some cultures are more comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty than others. Those cultures in which people need to have details nailed down tend to develop very specific regulations and rules. People from cultures with a greater tolerance of uncertainty are more comfortable with vagueness and are not upset when all the details aren’t spelled out. Cultures with a high need for certainty include those of Russia, Japan, France, and Costa Rica. Cultures that have a higher tolerance for uncertainty include those of Great Britain and Indonesia.

How to adapt to listeners from cultures that tolerate or avoid uncertainty. If you are speaking to an audience of people who have a high need for certainty, make sure you provide concrete details when you present your message; they will also want and expect to know what action steps they can take. People who value cer- tainty will respond well if you provide a clear and explicit preview of your message in your introduction; they also seem to prefer a clear, logical, and linear step-by- step organizational pattern.

People from cultures that are more comfortable with uncertainty do not necessarily need to have the explicit purpose of the message spelled out for them. In addition, they are generally less likely to need specific prescriptions to solve prob- lems, compared to listeners who want to avoid uncertainty.

● High-power and low-power cultures. Power is the ability to influence or control others. Some cultures prefer clearly defined lines of authority and responsi- bility; these are said to be high-power cultures. People in low-power cultures are more comfortable with blurred lines of authority and less formal titles. Austria, Is- rael, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and Great Britain typically have an equitable approach to power distribution. Cultures that are high on the power dimension in- clude those of the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, India, Brazil, and France.

How to adapt to listeners from high-power and low-power cultures. People from high-power cultures are more likely to perceive people in leadership roles— including speakers—as credible. They will also be more comfortable with solutions that identify or acknowledge differences in social class.

Those from low-power cultures often favor more shared approaches to lead- ership and governance. They will expect a more democratic collaborative approach to solving problems and will value the extra time it may take for many people to be consulted in order to reach consensus on an issue.

● Long-term and short-term orientation to time. Some cultures take the view that it may take a long time to accomplish certain goals. People from Asian cultures, for example, and from some South American cultures such as that of Brazil often value patience, persistence, and deferred gratification more than do people from cultures with a short-term orientation to time. People with a short-term time ori- entation, which is often a characteristic of industrialized Western cultures such as those of Canada and the United States, are very attuned to time and time manage- ment. Short-term cultures also value quick responses to problems.

How to adapt to listeners from cultures with long-term and short-term time orientations. When speaking to people who take a long-term orientation to time,