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Beware of Unintended Intruders

By helen@bannigan.com • March 1, 2019 • Culture, Expat Life, Travel
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True story.
I was at a resort in Thailand and needed to quickly run up to my room from the pool to get my water bottle. The door to my room was propped open, as when the cleaners are in there, but inside the 2 Chinese cleaners were in their underwear. It was an extremely hot day, so couldn’t blame them frankly. My water bottle wasn’t where I had left it, so I searched around a bit. The Chinese cleaners were saying things to me I couldn’t understand, and I put my finger up as if to say, “I’ll be in and out in just 1 sec, sorry to disturb your work”…..and they had strange looks on their faces.
Turns out they weren’t cleaners at all, I had walking into the wrong room and they were fellow guests getting dressed!
So very sorry, lovely Chinese couple – wherever you may be!
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About the Author

helen@bannigan.com

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    WELCOME HOME.

    WELCOME HOME.
    Seven countries. Forty-odd years of packing boxes, learning new currencies and languages, getting things gloriously wrong, and figuring it out anyway. After all that, I've come to believe that home isn't a place — it's a feeling you learn to carry with you, and occasionally stumble into somewhere unexpected. Consider this one of those places. This blog is where I think out loud about culture, identity, leadership, and the endlessly entertaining business of being human across borders. Pull up a chair. Put your feet up. Disagree with me. Share what resonates. That's the whole point. And if somewhere along the way you find yourself wondering whether I might be useful to you — whether that's helping your team actually work across cultures rather than just survive them, speaking at your next leadership event, or joining us for something altogether different at our 17th-century palazzo in the Sabine Hills of Italy — the door is open. It usually is. No hard sell. Just a warm welcome. And perhaps a cup of tea. Come find me: helen@bannigan.com · bannigan.com Curious what Executive Cultural Coaching actually means in practice? Scroll down — I promise it's more interesting than it sounds.
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    Executive Cultural Coaching

    At Bannigan Communications, we work with global leaders who are smart, experienced, and occasionally baffled by why something that works perfectly well at home lands completely flat somewhere else.

    That’s not a failure of intelligence. It’s a gap in cultural fluency — and it’s entirely fixable.

    Our workshops (in-person and virtual) give executives and their teams the self-awareness, practical tools, and genuine understanding of other cultures needed to build trust, communicate effectively, and lead with confidence across borders. Less theory, more “here’s what to actually do on Monday morning.”

    Participants leave with actionable frameworks they can use immediately — whether they’re relocating, managing a global team, or simply trying to understand why their counterpart in Tokyo keeps saying yes and meaning something else entirely.

    Curious? I’d love to talk. helen@bannigan.com · bannigan.com

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