A million elements make up who we are. Our DNA, our upbringing, and a plethora of tiny experiences combine into a mosaic that creates the big picture of how we think, feel, and behave. One of those elements is the country and culture we’re raised in. Cultural expert and linguist Richard D. Lewis created “The Lewis Model,” an easy-to-understand chart that explains this.

Understanding what each culture values and the lens through which it sees things can be a game-changer for getting along in all aspects of life. This applies to interpersonal relationships, workplace dynamics, and even everyday interactions. The point is that there’s no single right way to interact across cultures. But understanding each other’s cultures can make a big difference.

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When cultures collide

Lewis, author of When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures (1996), gathered data worldwide after visiting 135 countries and working in over 20. He mined information from 150,000 online questionnaires and determined that there are three “distinct human behavior types.”

According to a 2013 Business Insider article, “Lewis plots countries in relation to three categories:

Linear-actives—those who plan, schedule, organize, pursue action chains, do one thing at a time. Germans and Swiss are in this group.

Multi-actives—those lively, loquacious peoples who do many things at once, planning their priorities not according to a time schedule, but according to the relative thrill or importance that each appointment brings with it. Italians, Latin Americans, and Arabs are members of this group.

Reactives—those cultures that prioritize courtesy and respect, listening quietly and calmly to their interlocutors and reacting carefully to the other side’s........

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