Tips for Developing Cultural Intelligence

“In today’s borderless world, we know surprising little about diverse business people, whether they are a 12 hour flight away, or in the next cubicle.” Edward Iwata, Silicon Valley journalist
In a world seemingly more divided than ever, businesses cannot afford to ignore cultural challenges and opportunities.
What is culture?
? A shared pattern of assumptions, attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors characteristic of a group.
? National culture is just one type of culture. Others include: regional, organizational, business function, team.
What does it mean to be culturally intelligent?
? Cultural intelligence is the ability to work well with diverse individuals and groups.
? Warning: An individual is not simply a ‘mirror image’ of a cultural group. He or she has their own unique life experiences as well as their own personality.
What capabilities are needed to become culturally intelligent?
? Motivation: Desire and confidence to interact with others who are culturally different.
? Curiosity: Desire to understand and gain knowledge of cultural differences.
? Adaptability: Modification of one’s own thinking and behaviors to get best results in cross-cultural situations.
? Learning: Reflection on cross-cultural experiences and making continuous improvements.
What are some strategies for developing cultural intelligence?
? Invest time in gaining general knowledge about a culture that is most relevant to your work performance. Start small before branching out into learning about other cultures.
? Reach out to people from other cultural groups and get to know them. Pay attention to how they interact with one another, e.g. greet each other, communicate, and express disagreements, and use body language.
? Observe yourself. At first, you may not understand another’s behavior or way of approaching a problem. Listen and observe, and stay open to learning. It is more important to interpret accurately than to interpret quickly.
? Practice empathy by trying to see the situation from the other person’s perspective. Your perspective is only one among a world of others.
? Make small adaptations, e.g. phrasing requests in a more direct or indirect way. Small adjustments in behavior can deliver a significant positive result.
? Keep reminding yourself that you don’t work with, sell to, or negotiate with a culture. You work with, sell to, and negotiate with complex individuals. Challenge stereotypes – positive or negative.
? Practice cultural due diligence – integrate cultural insights and thinking into your daily planning and decision making.
? Look for similarities as well as differences. Even small similarities give you some common ground on which to explore differences and develop productive relationships.
? TMA World 2015. All rights reserved.