An American expatriate manager we know had his cultural intelligence tested while serving on a design team that included
two German engineers. As other team members floated their ideas, the engineers condemned them repeatedly as stunted or immature or worse. The manager concluded that Germans in general are rude and aggressive. A modicum of cultural intelligence would have helped the American realize he was mistakenly equating the merit of an idea with the merit of the person presenting it and that the Germans were able to make a sharp distinction reaction to the engineers' conduct, and
proposed a new style of discussion that preserved candor but spared feelings, if indeed anyone's feelings had been hurt.