What it usually means
For someone working in a culture they were not raised in, this is rarely about language. It is usually one signal — a pause, a softener, how directly you disagree — being read by different rules than the ones you learned.
What else it can mean
- Directness. You are too indirect for this room, or too direct for the person saying it.
- Structure. The point arrives at the end. This room wants it first.
- Written, not spoken. Your emails are doing the damage, and the meetings are fine.
What to find out first
One example — an email, a meeting, a sentence. "Communication" covers everything and names nothing.
What the research says, and where it stops
Finnish and Japanese participants faced the same person making the same eye contact. Their bodies responded alike; their reading did not — the Japanese participants rated the face angrier, less approachable and less pleasant.
Akechi et al. 2013, PLOS ONE 8(3). Limit: A lab study of one cue in two countries. It shows the same signal can be read differently, not how your colleagues read you.
Which door
This is The Room — “I had the answer. The meeting ended before I said it.”