Many people, perhaps especially Americans, underestimate how differently people do things in other countries.
Examples and insights for avoiding this can be found in "The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business," a 2014 bestseller by INSEAD professor Erin Meyer (also check out those global communication diagrams from Richard Lewis).
Meyer claims you can improve relationships by considering where you and international partners fall on each of these scales:
Communicating: explicit vs. implicit
Evaluating: direct negative feedback vs. indirect negative feedback
Persuading: deductive vs. inductive
Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical
Deciding: consensual vs. top down
Trusting: task vs. relationship
Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoid confrontation
Scheduling: structured vs. flexibleCultural framing.
Business Insider
These 8 Scales Reveal Everything You Should Know About Different Cultures
Gus Lubin
Such categories are also operative within a single culture, as are different styles of thinking. See, for example, The Art of Thinking by Allen F. Harrison and Robert M. Bramson (formerly published as Styles of the Thinking).
The Synthesist: Sees likeness in apparent opposites, interested in change
The Idealist: Welcomes broad range of views, seeks ideal solutions
The Pragmatist: Seeks shortest route to payoff: “Whatever works,”
The Analyst: Seeks “one best way,” interested in scientific solutions
The Realist: Relies on facts and expert opinions, interested in concrete results
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