Danes grow up watching U.S. movies and T.V. shows and listening to U.S. music, so they sometimes assume they ‘know’ how to work with Americans – but that’s not always true.
In this presentation, Kay Xander Mellish – an American who has lived in Denmark for more than a decade – talks about how Danes can survive and thrive when working with the multicultural, competitive, sometimes excitable Americans, and how Americans can understand Danish priorities and the culture of dry, sometimes aggressive humor and Jantelov. Kay is personally familiar with some of the misunderstandings that can take place when Danes and Americans work together.
‘We are an international marketing team with people working together across the Atlantic with offices in Copenhagen and Minneapolis. We were very happy to have Kay run a session with us that in an entertaining and interactive way provided insights into the differences and similarities between the US and Danish cultures – and how these impact the collaboration and interaction between our teams. We had a lot of fun and at the same time we are now able to talk more openly about who we are and why we behave in certain ways in our daily collaborative situations we find ourselves in.
– Lars Kristian Runov, CMO, Siteimprove A/S.
A trained journalist and a former member of the communications staff at Danske Bank, Carlsberg Breweries and Saxo Bank, Kay Xander Mellish runs her own communications consulting business in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is behind the podcast series ‘How to Live in Denmark’ and is the author of the books Working with Americans: Tips for Danes, How to Work in Denmark and How to Live in Denmark.
Book an event
If you represent a company or organization and would like to have an American keynote speaker in Denmark make a presentation to your group, contact Kay via this site’s contact form for more information.
Alternately, you can read more about all of Kay’s events on the How to Live in Denmark events page.
Buy Kay Xander Mellish’s new book, Working with Danes: Tips for Americans/Working with Americans: Tips for Danes on our webshop, or at Amazon, Saxo, Google Books, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Nook, or via our webshop.
Or follow Kay on LinkedIn.