Every engagement begins with a question, not a conclusion.
Culture informs what people notice, assume, communicate, and understand. We work with organizations when those differences become consequential — to a decision, a strategy, a relationship, or an institution — and investigate what is actually happening beneath the visible point of friction.
Nationality and language matter. So do organizational history, professional training, institutions, religion, region, politics, economic conditions, community, education, and the experiences through which people have learned what to expect from one another.
People participate in many cultural contexts at once, and each person encounters them through their own experience.
These contexts help us ask better questions about why something may be interpreted differently — and whether those differences matter to the question at hand.
Clients come to Interstice with a consequential question.
Perhaps a relationship is developing differently than expected. A strategy that made sense in one setting is meeting a different response somewhere else. Two organizations are trying to work together. Leadership is preparing to enter a new environment. A message is being interpreted in ways no one anticipated. Or an organization wants to examine itself more deeply before deciding what comes next.
We begin there.
What are you trying to accomplish, and what do you need to know in order to move forward?
That determines what we investigate, whose perspectives matter, what evidence we need, and how far the inquiry needs to go.
Expectations, practices, institutions, and ways of interpreting develop over time. Their meaning carries forward in ways that remain consequential in the present, even when the people involved would never describe what they are doing as historical or cultural.
When that formation matters to the question, we examine it.
We ask how something became what it is, what has shaped it, what has persisted, and what continues to carry meaning or consequence now.
Formation alone doesn't explain why a difference becomes consequential at a particular moment. Something that worked for years stops working. An assumption that went unspoken suddenly needs to be said out loud. A difference that seemed minor becomes the center of the problem.
We look at what has shifted — a merger, a leadership change, a new market, a period of pressure or disruption — and whether it has exposed something that was already there rather than shaped something new.
This is often where the real question lives.
The purpose of the inquiry is to establish what our findings mean for the question the client brought us.
We may identify an assumption that has obscured part of the picture. We may find that the same practice carries different meanings in different contexts. Cultural context may prove to be one part of a larger explanation. The evidence may also lead us somewhere we did not expect.
The value is in knowing the difference.
We return what we have learned, what the evidence supports, and why it matters to what the client is trying to accomplish.
The decision remains with the client.
When useful, Interstice can stay involved as leadership considers the implications, weighs possible responses, or carries what we have learned into strategy, communication, brand, relationships, or other work that follows.
Cultural formation is the starting point of our work: the histories, habits, assumptions, values, language, and lived experiences that inform how people and institutions understand the world around them.
When something does not translate as expected, we look beyond the visible point of friction. We examine the assumptions involved, what may be visible from one cultural position but not another, and what may become visible when the situation is considered from more than one point of view.
The purpose is not simply to identify cultural difference. It is to consider what that difference may be doing in the situation, and make what we learn useful.
Interstice also works particularly closely between French and English and across American, French, and broader European contexts. Here, translation may include language, but the more consequential work is often cultural: considering what a message assumes, how it may be received, and what may need to travel with it for the intended meaning to remain recognizable.
The work can take place in very different settings. Among those we work with, or whose questions are particularly suited to this approach, are:
"The translator's task is to release in his own language that pure language which is under the spell of another."— Walter Benjamin, The Task of the Translator
How we work together depends on the question, the people involved, and how much time the work requires.
For work that benefits from continuity: an evolving market, organizational change, a long arc of communication across cultures, or another situation in which understanding develops over time. We remain involved as thinking partners, observing patterns, testing assumptions, and informing decisions as the context evolves.
For a defined challenge such as a market entry, cultural or brand positioning question, communication problem, program review, cross-context research question, or a particular point of friction. We work closely with you to understand what is happening, identify what may not yet be visible, and develop a useful way forward.
A focused day devoted to one question, challenge, or area of uncertainty. You bring the situation; we bring sustained attention, cultural analysis, and an outside perspective. The aim is greater clarity about what you are seeing and what a useful next step might be.
Cross-cultural advisory may take the form of an individual conversation or a series over time. Speaking and facilitation may be structured as a talk, workshop, salon, or longer conversation with a group.
You do not need to decide where your question belongs before contacting us. Some questions cross more than one current, and understanding the situation is often part of the work.
If something is not translating, if a familiar approach is producing an unfamiliar result, or if you suspect there is more happening culturally than you can see from where you are standing, begin with a conversation.
hello@intersticeatelier.com