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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 04/2020
  • 978-1-7334102-1-2 B0872M7K3J
  • 263 pages
  • $9.99
Paperback Book Details
  • 04/2020
  • 9781733410205 1733410201
  • 264 pages
  • $16.95
Winston Sieck
Author
Save Your Ammo: Working Across Cultures for National Security

Adult; History & Military; (Market)

Save Your Ammo is the practical, plain-language guide to working across cultures for national security. Join servicemembers who have served all over the world on action-packed journeys through puzzling encounters in Russia, Korea, Iraq, and many more. Cognitive psychologists Rasmussen and Sieck have distilled the advice in this book from interviews with more than 200 national security personnel. Seasoned professionals who have spent their careers interacting with foreign populations and partners all over the world.
Reviews
This lively guide uses anecdotes from military and national security personnel to illustrate how to work effectively and confidently with people from different cultures. The stakes are higher than in many books on communication skills, but much of the advice is the same: Don’t be a “stereotypical ugly American,” pay attention, learn from your mistakes, look for possible bias on both sides, listen to “the people on the street” rather than just trusting the official line, take cultural considerations into account, and look for common interests from which to build relationships.

Psychologists Rasmussen and Sieck offer sound advice and share pertinent anecdotes within a well-organized framework, but their efforts are occasionally redundant. For instance, one of the takeaways from chapter 7 is to ask open-ended questions. That is undoubtedly an effective method for sussing out a situation, but most readers will have come across that same suggestion elsewhere. The men and women interviewed provide vivid stories, but at times, the authors provide too many examples in driving home a particular point. One of the “key points” that ends chapter 7 is to “ask ‘why’ to disentangle weird behavior and puzzling interactions,” but the whole of chapter 8 then focuses on “figuring out why people do what they do.”

The book is geared to military and national security officials in hot spots around the globe, but its useful suggestions can be applied by anyone involved in high-stakes situations that cross cultural lines. Rasmussen and Sieck’s expertise in cognition, culture, and collaboration is clear from their guide’s organization, the personal narratives it collects, and the lessons it teaches.

Takeaway: This is the perfect guide to cross-cultural communication for those working in government and diplomacy positions, multinational corporations, and NGOs.

Great for fans of David C. Thomas’s Cultural Intelligence, Simon Dolan’s Cross-Cultural Competence.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 04/2020
  • 978-1-7334102-1-2 B0872M7K3J
  • 263 pages
  • $9.99
Paperback Book Details
  • 04/2020
  • 9781733410205 1733410201
  • 264 pages
  • $16.95
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