Navigating Multicultural Teams: Lessons from Adform's Cultural Business Guide – with Charlotte Kure Juul

Work in Progress – People & Culture

What happens when Danish sarcasm meets hierarchical expectations in India? How do you navigate when a team in one country expects decisions from above while another values collaborative consensus? Charlotte Kure Juul, EVP and CHRO at Adform, takes us inside her company's innovative approach to bridging cultural divides across their 700-person workforce spread across 29 countries.

Rather than creating another standard harassment policy, Charlotte explains why Adform developed a Respect Policy and a Cultural Business Guide focused on fostering respect through understanding. The guide addresses five critical dimensions where cultures often clash: communication style, feedback approaches, decision-making processes, trust-building methods, and perception of time. Through personal examples and practical applications, we learn how seemingly small cultural differences—from the timing of project deadlines to expectations around meetings—can significantly impact collaboration.

Charlotte shares a revealing moment when her sarcastic joke to an Indian colleague was interpreted as a serious criticism, highlighting how our cultural backgrounds shape every interaction. The conversation explores how Adform's guide serves as both a reference tool and a foundation for team workshops where cultural differences become visible, tangible, and discussable.

Beyond problem-solving, we discover the strategic advantages of cultural diversity—from coverage across time zones to varied perspectives that drive innovation. Charlotte's insights reveal how respecting different viewpoints strengthens teams and improves business outcomes. Her refreshing approach focuses not on what employees should avoid, but on what they should actively do to create a respectful, high-performing multicultural workplace.

Whether you manage global teams or work alongside colleagues from different backgrounds, this episode offers practical wisdom for turning potential cultural misunderstandings into opportunities for deeper connection and more effective collaboration.

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Chapters

1. Introduction to Adform's Global Structure (00:00:00)

2. Cultural Misunderstandings in Global Teams (00:03:34)

3. Creating the Cultural Business Guide (00:08:15)

4. Practical Examples of Cultural Clashes (00:13:36)

5. The Guide's Structure and Application (00:19:30)

6. Building Respectful Multicultural Teams (00:27:15)

7. Benefits of Cultural Diversity (00:30:51)

8. Implementation Strategy and Leadership (00:36:27)