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parties.
Decide (D): the third step is to decide how to close the gap, that is, decid-
ing whether to change or adjust your behaviour or ask the other person 
to do so by about 20 per cent, depending on the situation. Tomalin and 
Nicks recommend doing this by using the 80/20 principle to decide what 
20 per cent change should be made to balance the relationship.
Act (A): put what you have decided into action.
Review (R): finally, and most importantly, review the outcome to check 
whether your approach has been successful. If not, try another approach. 
Remember that success is about doing more of what works and less of 
what does not.
The principle behind the RADAR system is simple and reassuring. Huge 
changes are not necessary to achieve cultural compatibility. What are needed 
are small, incremental changes. Once those changes have been made, the 
other person in the adaptation process will often adapt more strongly to 
accommodate your willingness to change. This is a ‘rule of thumb’, validated 
by experience, but it is one of the simplest examples of how a framework can 
be applied to improve performance across cultures.
The limitations of cultural profiling
It is reasonable to question the scientific accuracy of the comparison as to 
whether the user’s perception of his or her style is correct and whether the 
expert analysis is more than the collected views of a number of informed 
observers. If it is not, in the absence of scientifically verifiable evidence, 
mapping does allow the user to identify possible differences in attitude, 
communication style and management style, and promotes reflection on 
how to harmonize the perceived difference.
The understanding of culture is, as we have seen, ultimately an art, not 
a science. This kind of profiling is a way of indicating how to identify dif-
ferences and how to adjust behaviour to optimize good relations with the 
other party, but it is not objectively verifiable. This is why it is a convenient 
tool for use in education and training and pre- departure briefing, but should 
not be used on its own as a definitive selection criterion.
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272 Cross-Cultural Communication
The other problem with national cultural profiling is that the user’s style 
may not match the default national style. For example, in Japan, one of 
the key principles in negotiation is ‘nemawashi’ (preparation for collective 
negotiation) and ‘ringi-sho’ ( multiple- point formal sign-offs). The Japanese 
make decisions cautiously to ensure that everyone is fully supportive. Once this 
is achieved, negotiations can then move quickly forward. However, when 
the authors were analysing one company which was used to working with 
American organizations on a long- term basis, profiling revealed that the 
Japanese colleagues had adopted the practice of their American counter-