Danish Work Culture: Shepherding Cats

“Managing Danes is like herding cats!” laughs Heidi Rottbøll Andersen. Not her own words, but those of an American manager who, baffled at the attitude of the Danes he was supposed to manage, asked her for help. The Danish working culture code can be hard to crack

In 2004, Heidi Rottbøll Andersen founded The Living Institute, a consulting and training company aimed at helping companies in Denmark with practical ways of tackling cultural differences in the work place.

Diversity is the key word: an open eye and a practical mind, the company is mostly engaged with expats coming to work in Denmark, and to a lesser degree, also involved with Danes returning home. Apart from the consulting business, The Living Institute offers crash courses to freshly arrived foreigners and their partners. “So you can share you Danish experiences with each other,” says Heidi. The Living Institute has developed the much-acclaimed presentation: Why are Danes so Weird?