Simple Fun Stories with a Lot Behind Them

When we started writing our books, we wanted to teach a lot without it being obvious.

After all, what child wants to read a book about theories and research?

Certainly a few do, but after years of living and educating my child in the Swedish schools, I see the value in play, in fun, and in learning through fun.

That's what we set out to do in our 'ittle Bear Books.

Starting with my Masters studies at Stanford, I have been fascinated primarily in two areas: Intercultural Communication and Positive Psychology.

Intercultural Communication

Early in my career, I had a chance to bridge cultures and companies. I read and practiced theories and work from Edward Hall and Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner. I realized that a person's behavior doesn't have the same interpretation as we cross borders, and even companies, and that there are many different models to interpret and navigate those differences. My current favorite models include:

• Erin Meyer, of INSEAD, Culture Map - this is the primary tool that I use in my adult classes for cultural differences as it includes the main factors that are noticeable in business. I also find the scale very helpful as it helps to explain small differences that might appear insignficant on the scale (as both cultures exhibit the same type of behavior) but will have noticable differences in the interactions

• Geert Hofstede, of Maastricht University, Dimensions of Culture - this tool is helpful as a second step to go deeper into the motivations and nuances of behavior and especially helpful beyond work.

• Ingelhart-Welzel World Culture Map - this tool is helpful to understand the basis that values and religion play when mapped against socioeconomic and political stability.

Lastly for Culture, and especially for anyone navigating travel or a move between countries, I highly recommend Dr Jörg Wittwer's book I Am the Monkey, which helps remind us that when we enter another culture, even though everything appears strange to us, it is actually ourselves that are the strange one. With our books, we are striving to meet his first step, Awareness, so that one can Accept, Adapat, Adopt, and take Action.

Each of 'ittle Bear's misunderstandings in the country books are developed through use of cultural maps, tools, and models to be a common misunderstanding that visitors and immigrants to the country experience.

By using her superpowers of curiosity, courage, and compassion (and often input from her own research or talking with Big Person or her friend, a cultural guide), she is able to navigate the differences.

Positive Psychology

I encountered Martlin Seligman's Learned Optimism when I was at Stanford and became fascinated with exploring the role our own mindset played in our lives - impacting health, happiness, longevity, and life satisfaction.

I also recognized how my own perceptions of my abilities influenced my desire to try new things, and especially accept the hard work and time that goes into achieving excellence.

There are so many wonderful works in this field that influences 'ittle Bear and that have gone into both the superpowers themselves, but most importantly the Growth Mindset clearly stated in the first book:

Carol Dweck's research on the growth mindset was a paradigm shift for me when I read it, in my mid-40's, as I realized the role that talent mindset had played in my life until that point. I struggled with self-esteem from early childhood and defined my worth by my achievements.

From a combination of having a stay-at-home mother with a Master's degree in elementary education and parents who invested considerably in books and educational opportunities, I succeeded at school and many academic pursuits a lot because of my advantage and somewhat through talent. But when things didn't go well, I saw it as a failure of myself, not of a lack of work and effort.

Some things, like learning to study when I hit college, I figured out and worked through, but it really took reading Dweck's book, Mindset, in my mid-40's to realize the power of a growth mindset, of recognizing that skill mastery takes work and practice, and prioritizing where to apply the effort (speaking Swedish, improving speaking and writing skills, enhancing technical and job competence), and where to accept that I'm never going to be a master, but enjoying it anyway (playing tennis, woodworking, etc.)

The Growth Mindset is essential to learning languages andd adapting to new cultures. Both require continuous and frequent training to master, and is probably one of the most important messages that we give through the books and discussions that we have in our school visits.

I particularly enjoy school visits in Sweden, where my Swedish has a strong American influence. Inevitably, a child asks, "Why does your Swedish sound funny?"

My answer is, "Do you know what it means when someone sounds funny speaking a language?"

"It means they learned another language first."

Then we have discussions about how language is learned, how it's hard to sound perfect when you learn another language, that the important thing is to understand and be understood.

In multicultural classrooms, this often raises questions to classmates about what other languages they speak and an increase in respect for the ability to speak another language rather than judgment of being stupid or bad at language. It also raises the willingness to try and speak more from those who do come from another language.

While I call out Dweck specifically, there are so many other influences from researchers such as Adam Grant, Brené Brown, Angela Duckworth, Amy Edmondson, and Thupten Ginpa that touch our books and work that I wanted to specifically name them. For reading recommendations, check out this page.