2.1 Peach & Coconut Communicate
Peach and Coconut Communicate: A training exercise
Heather Robinson. President SIETAR USA
Seattle, WA, USA
About a decade ago I encountered the model of “Peach and Coconut” as a metaphor for differences in the way people in Germany and the US communicate.  Some say the model is based on Kurt Lewin’s work in which he graphically represented public and private domains in the personal psychology in Germany and the US. The exposition of the model upon which I have based this exercise was published by Suzanne Zaninelli1.
I developed this training exercise as a consultant working for DaimlerChrysler when those two companies came together.  I have personally used this exercise in scores of workshops. The exercise has worked well on both sides of the Atlantic, and when working with bi-national teams.  Its strength lies in the fact that it both communicates a useful metaphor in a light- hearted and personally engaging way, and provides the participants’insight into how they are already successfully using communication style flexibility and provides them the option to extend that flexibility in interacting with their international partners.

Purpose and learning objectives:
    • To introduce the “Peach and Coconut” model contrasting US and German communication style.
    • To allow participants to consider their own preferred communication style.
    • To anchor in awareness communication strategies participants use to communicate across styles.
    • To expand the application of existing communication expertise to an intercultural setting.
    • In a bicultural group, to introduce “playful” vocabulary for identifying differences which can be put to good effect in relieving stress in the group.
    • In a bicultural group, to create style groupings that do not necessarily correspond with national grouping, thus emphasizing transcultural commonality.
 
Target audience
This activity can be conducted in monocultural German groups, monocultural US groups or in bi- cultural German- US groups.  Optimal size is between nine and 30 participants.
Time
    Forty-five minutes
Materials
    • Prepared instruction flip chart/slide (see number 6, under Procedure)
    • Prepared model description flip charts/slides (see numbers 6 and 7, under Debrief)
    • Blank flip chart – one per participant group
    • Two flip chart markers –one per participant group
 
Procedure:
    • Ask the participant group to describe a peach:
     Common comments include:
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Continue asking until comments similar to these have been made and then summarize saying, “So a peach is soft and fuzzy on the outside, colorful, sweet and juicy and has a hard pit in the middle.”
    • Ask the participant group to describe a coconut:
          Common comments include:
graphic
             (ask about the milk, “Is it sweet?”)
If no one mentions the coconut meat, prompt them by asking what the meat is like, eliciting the responses: crunchy, chewy.
Continue asking until comments similar to these have been made and then summarize saying, “So, a coconut is hard and hairy on the outside, has crunchy, chewy meat and in the center is liquid and sweet.”
    • Ask the participants to consider themselves.  If they had to think of themselves as either a “peach” or a “coconut”, which would they be.  “Are you soft and fuzzy on the outside, with a decided pit in the middle, or are you hard on the outside, others have to work their way in but deep down, you are liquid?”
    • Ask the participants to line-up in a single continuum from the most “peach-like” person in the group, to the most “coconut-like” person in the group.  If people know each other even a bit, ask them to comment and /or reorganize themselves or others based on their observations of each other.  Once the jostling has quieted down, ask them if they are happy with where they are.  Allow them to make any last minute adjustments.
    • Come to the center of the line.  Direct all on the “peach end” of the continuum to one flip chart, and the “coconuts” to the other flip chart, ensuring that the two groups are out of earshot of each other.
    • Ask the groups to remain standing and as a group quickly chart their responses to the following two questions which you have prepared on a flip chart/slide:
     As peaches/coconuts, we find ourselves to be:
     As peaches/coconuts, our pet peeves with our opposite type are:
  
    • Ask for a representative from the peach group to read off their responses.  Typical peach responses to the first question are:
                  -Friendly
             -Helpful
             -Easy to get along with
             -Efficient
             -Caring
             -Respectful
             -Humorous
             -Flexible
          Typical peach responses to the second question are:
                  -Gruff
                  -Don’t listen
                  -Easy to persuade (just make them think it is their idea)
                  -Insensitive
                  -Rigid
                  -Arrogant
    • Ask the representative from the coconut group to read off their responses.  Typical coconut responses to the first question are:
             -Firm
             -Consistent
             -Reliable
             -Self-contained
             -Don’t need to be coddled
           Typical coconut responses to the second question are:
                  -Too emotional
                  -Talk too much
                  -Unreliable
                  -Overly sensitive
                  -Inefficient
Debrief:
1.  Peaches do you ever work with coconuts?  Coconuts do you ever work  with peaches?
    • Peaches how do you adjust your communication strategies to be more effective in communicating with coconuts?  What active (sending) strategies do you use?  What passive (receiving) strategies do you use?
    • Coconuts how do you adjust your communication strategies to be more effective in communicating with peaches?  What active (sending) strategies do you use? What passive (receiving) strategies do you use?
    • Summarize the strategies the participants have brought up, adding any communication strategies they may have missed:
 
Peaches effective with coconuts:
Active
Do your homework
Present only the facts – no opinion or personal stories
Present in a logical sequence
Offer as many empirical measures as possible
State your case dispassionately
Stop talking when you have presented your case
Give them time to think before asking for a response
Passive
Don’t take criticism personally

Coconuts effective with peaches:
Active
Start softly, e.g., ask them how they are, what they did on the  weekend, etc.
Acknowledge them/compliment them on something you sincerely appreciate  about them
Tell them who is effected by the issue and how tell them how you feel about the issue
Look at them
Smile
Passive
Let them talk 
    • Tell them you omitted a piece of information. Not only is this a way they can think about how they communicate, it is a model that is used to characterize the difference between general tendencies in German and US communication style, with the German communication style being like the coconut and the US like the peach.
    • Display and discuss a flipchart/slide with the following information:
                                                            Coconut
        • Reserved, needs time to warm up with strangers
        • Private and public life are strictly separated
        • Social distance determined by profession, social role and status (Sie)
        • Close, very intimate sharing of experiences with friends
 
                                                             Peach
        • Extroverted with strangers
        • Open and curious
        • Makes “friends”quickly
        • Talks openly in public
        • Private and public topics and behavior are interwoven    (profession, family, free time)
        • Display and discuss a flipchart/slide with the following information:
 
COCONUT THINKS PEACH IS:
Negative Stereotype                Positive Stereotype
Superficial                                Informal
Childish                                    Open
Not to be taken seriously            Friendly
Uncommited                             Flexible
Slippery                                   Enthusiastic
Blah, blah, blah                         Humorous
 
PEACH THINKS COCONUT IS:
Negative Stereotype                Positive Stereotype
Overly reserved                        Reliable
Stiff                                         Clear
Pompous                                  Trustworthy
Harsh                                       Orderly
Unfriendly                                Honest
Aggressive                               Punctual
 
8.  Ask how this information relates to the lists they generated about themselves and their counterparts.
    • Ask how this information relates to what they have heard or thought about differences between Germans and people from the US.
    • Ask how they could apply their already existing knowledge and strategies pertaining to “peach and coconut”communication differences to interacting with their international partners.
    • In monocultural groups, ask what they think would happen if the same exercise were conducted with a group of their international counterparts? 
Confirm that a group of their international counterparts, too, would be distributed across the full range of styles, but that overall group would tend towards the “peach” or “coconut” end of an hypothetical international continuum.
    • In binational groups (where this is generally true), point out that not all of the Germans identified themselves as coconuts nor all those from the US identify themselves as peaches.
Explain that a German “peach” may have an easier affinity with US communication style, as would a US “coconut” with German communication style.  Their challenge lies in their international counterparts identifying them as their opposite type, i.e., people from the US will respond to a German “peach” as they would to a US coconut and vice- versa.  This “new role” can be unsettling.
 -Ask the participants what this all means for their work with their international counterparts.
      -Ask them for any closing questions or observations and thank the group.
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1.  Zaninelli, Suzanne, “Vier Schritte eines integrierten Trainingsansatzes am Beispiel des
interkulturellen Trainings Bundesrepublik Deutschland – Vereinigte Staaten (pp. 94-102) MIK.

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Heather Robinson is founder and principal consultant of Success Across Borders, a firm providing organization development and training to transnational corporations.  Ms. Robinson focuses on multinational teambuilding and coaching leaders in global positions. 
Her clients include DaimlerChrysler, Porsche, SIEMENS, Robert Bosch, EADS, Adobe, ThyssenKrupp and Infineon.
Ms. Robinson has authored numerous articles on international teambuilding and intercultural effectiveness which have appeared in publications such as McGraw-Hill’s Training and Performance Sourcebooks and Team and Organization Development Sourcebooks as well as their Consultant’s Big Book of Organization Development Tools and in Human Resource Press’ Intercultural Training Guide. She has also co- authored a two-part article on German- American teamwork, “Teaming with Trouble” and Teaming with Culture”, which appeared in the Society for Intercultural, Education Training and Research (SIETAR) Deutschland publication.
Ms. Robinson is frequently asked to speak at professional conferences and universities. An interview with Ms. Robinson on organization transformation appeared in the SIEMENS publication, Global Player, as well as several others in in-house publications including those for DaimlerChrysler, The Budd Company and Jenoptik. 
Ms. Robinson has a Masters degree in Whole Systems Design from Antioch University where her area of concentration was Organization Systems Renewal with a focus on Strategic Planning and Systems Design.  She also has a Bachelors degree in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

 
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