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Why “common sense” is not always common across cultures






Have you ever left a meeting wondering:
In cross-cultural settings, misunderstandings are often not just about language. They happen because people often read the same situation through very different cultural lenses.
Salon 3: Decode Culture, Connect Better is a one-hour online conversation about what really happens when cultures meet.
Through real stories from international meetings and multinational organisations, we will explore how culture shapes interaction, expectations, and collaboration.
This is not a theory lecture.
It is a practical, story-based conversation for people who work across cultures and want to understand what is really going on beneath the surface.
You are welcome to bring one cross-cultural story of your own to share.
Those “Why did that happen?” moments are often the best place to begin.
Mike van der Vijver
Mike van der Vijver is a leading meeting design and cross-cultural decision facilitation expert. Since 2000, he has worked as an intercultural management consultant, trainer, and coach, supporting individuals, teams, and organisations from diverse national and cultural backgrounds. His clients include international corporations, Fortune 500 companies, listed companies, public institutions, and organisations such as the municipalities of The Hague and Amsterdam, Europol, the European Patent Office, the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the European Central Bank, Qatar Bank, Volkswagen, Bayer, and convention bureaus in Spain and Dubai.
A key part of Mike’s intercultural work focuses on communication between Europe and the Islamic world. In Rome, he delivered a training programme for more than ten years at the Interagency Law Enforcement Academy of Advanced Studies, focusing on intercultural communication with the Islamic world. He has also served as a guest lecturer at universities in Italy on the same topic.
Before becoming a leading meeting designer and facilitation expert, Mike worked as an English and Italian conference interpreter in high-level international negotiations. This gave him first-hand experience in how culture shapes communication, interpretation, and decision-making. Today, he helps organisations build trust across differences and turn complex international conversations into shared understanding, alignment, and actionable decisions.