Patti McCarthy

My business is called Cultural Chemistry and like most chemists, I am interested in understanding why some things bond immediately, while others repel or even explode. In a multi-cultural situation, the failure to bond frequently leads to poor engagement levels between employees and their managers, students and their teachers or salespeople and their customers. Many people don’t anticipate differences, and when they do encounter them, they don’t know how to deal with them. They often feel the other person is difficult, rude or wrong - hardly the best position from which to grow a successful relationship. I help people working in multi-cultural environments to be better informed, to be more self-aware and less likely to always blame others, to be less judgmental and more inclusive. Engagement, productivity and well-being grow as a result. I set up Cultural Chemistry in 2008, after seeing how poorly prepared most expatriates were for cultural challenges both at work and at home. The combination of naivety and inexperience was dangerous and expensive and work soon expanded to support not just expatriates, but anyone working with someone from somewhere else. I am a lifelong expat, with plenty of lived experience. I am a Master Life Coach and Master NLP Practitioner and I am certified to deliver and debrief a psychometric cultural intelligence assessment tool, the Global DISC. In July 2016 I published a book called Cultural Chemistry: Simple Strategies for Bridging Cultural Gaps (Ranked 4.8 stars on Amazon) and am a regular media commentator on cross cultural issues.