Cultural Intelligence - Questioning the Obvious

Feb 12

Photo credit: Jukan Tateisi @tateisimikito from Unsplash — **Photo credit:** **Jukan Tateisi** @tateisimikito from Unsplash

Culture goes way beyond our nationality, our colour, or our religion. Corporate Culture also goes beyond organisational purpose and values.

Culture is seen in how we think, feel and act.

I have spent nearly all my career working in international organisations. I notice that often the culture of the organisation led by that of Headquarters (HQ), often the country is a factor, but it goes beyond that, there is a way of being, thinking and acting that equates to the corporate culture.

Many organisations may operate internationally but is the culture international? Is the culture sensitive to all the diversity that makes up the organisation, is that HQ culture relevant in countries and locations around the world? Often there is a dominant culture, one set by the thinking, feeling and actions of a few people. The leaders.

If boardrooms and leadership teams are made up of people who not only look the same, but have the same beliefs, thinking, norms and behaviours, we may be limiting or selves and organisations. If we seek equality, inclusion, innovation and freedom to be ourselves. We will need ‘Cultural Intelligence’ too.

In many organisations and society we are making progress by improving and building emotional intelligence in leaders. The World Economic Forum has named emotional intelligence as one of the top skills needed for leaders and Travis Bradberry said “90% of top performers are also high in emotional intelligence”.

… But the future calls for more. We still see racial and gender inequality in the workplace. People are changing but is the culture changing too?
I believe we need to go beyond mandated training, we need to develop skills in emotional and cultural intelligence and apply them with curiosity and courage.

What is Cultural Intelligence and what does it take for current and future leaders to lead with cultural intelligence?

The Obvious
Because we don’t need to explain it… the things in our culture identities sound very strange when spoken out loud. Here is what obvious can sound like…
When we go into an Asian household we take off our shoes
When we are in a meeting we take turns to talk
It is not worth taking a risk if there is a chance of failure
Data beats opinion or instinct
You don’t cry openly at work
If I don’t agree I keep that opinion to myself
We shake hands
We don’t shake hands, we hug
We help someone when they fall
We don’t leave work before 6pm unless it is an emergency
’How are you’ is part of a greeting
’How are you?’ is a genuine question
We don’t disagree with the boss in front of her
We don’t show it if we don’t understand

What is culture?

Culture is the ‘smell’ of the place, what we see but also what we sense…

“Generally accepted beliefs, conventions, customs, social norms and behaviours associated with people who self-identify as members of a particular group”- (van Nieuwerburgh, 2016)

Culture is, what we have in common and what brings us together, usually any group that needs to co-ordinate to do something together - there is an ‘us’, what ‘we’ believe and how we do things around here. All these things are obvious to us.

So obvious that we do not need to explain it!

(Check out the list to the right for some examples)

Culture is made up of an infinite number of identities that we choose. From personality, to work, social groups, family, characteristics, sports, interests, professional groups, … the list goes on.

“Are you Indian?” I often get asked… My parents are Indian. So am I Indian? My father moved from India at five years old and then from Tanzania at 17 to live in England. My mother came to England at 22 when she married my father (then 32) who was living in a small village in the countryside. Together they led the family and set up a unique culture, we learned values of hard work, study, respect of religion and culture, to be independent, generous and free thinking, say what you feel, integrate with others, help others and be part of the community.
I felt ‘part of’ and ‘apart from’ Indian culture at the same time.
At school I was part of 'English culture’ and at home I had a different blended Indian culture.

One of the ways we can understand what culture we are swimming in, is to compare it to another. Becoming aware of differences and the range of diversity of all humans.

Exercise to notice culture:

1) Make a list of all the groups you identify with… (maybe stop at 10, because I can bet there will be a lot more)
2) Now write down how you might think, feel and act in that group in a positive situation; when things are going well, there is something to celebrate or someone is exited.
3) Next write down how you might think, feel and act in that group in a negative situation; when there is conflict, things are going badly or someone is upset.
Reflect:
What do you notice? How are these cultures different?
When you introduce yourself in a family setting do you use different words that you would use at work?

Leaders set the culture

If ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ then we need to consider and manage the effect of culture in organisations.
Leaders at every level play a role.
Leaders at the top may set the tone, but each team and department may have its own culture one that is a conscious set of beliefs, norms and conventions, for example; the media team might have a different culture to the financial reporting team. We are each part of multiple cultures, when we organise in groups of people from different cultures we need to connect and interact across cultural groups.

When leaders communicate, we need to build bridges- connect people and cultures.

Questions to help leaders:

How well do we know our culture?
Does the culture match the strategic ambitions and goals we have?
How do we need people think, feel and act? What is obvious for us?
What is obvious … that holds us back from our goals?
Who are we listening to? How well are we listening?
What can we put in place to help us notice and challenge our obvious?

What is Cultural Intelligence?

“Cultural Intelligence is our capability to interact effectively across cultures” (Thomas & Inkson, 2017)

This means that we have the skills to understand culture and its impact. Our own culture and others’.
Our maturity and intelligence in intercultural communication is seen in how we interact with empathy and sensitivity in the moment. In how we learn from experiences and adapt thinking for each person, situation and encounter.

Day to day that might mean, we take time to notice and deal with misunderstandings between groups
Over time we hope to create climate or environment of trust and respect for diversity

A model that makes a lot of sense to me is the one below from Bennett, Milton (2017)

Bennett, Milton. (2017). Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity.

Denial: As it sounds, people here fail to even recognise cultural differences exist or matter. Stereotyping or dehumanising others who are different. “All immigrants are bad”

Defence: We feel threatened by other views, difference is seen to be taking away from what they feel is right. Difference is polarised and competitive, us-against-them. “They are taking away from me!”

Minimisation: People assume that their culture’s values as universal human values that apply to everyone or neglect the importance of cultural differences “We try to treat everyone equally” or “I don’t see color”. We don’t recognise our own cultural biases and difficult conversations.

Here is a switch… Our own culture was seen as central in earlier stages and now the focus shifts to others.

Acceptance: We recognise and accept that different beliefs and values are shaped by culture and that they are valuable. Respect and curiosity sparks us to seek out more variety in our relationships. We might not agree with what we see and hear but we accept because we have realised that the culture and context feeds our values, beliefs, and behaviours, including our own. “We have immigrant friends and we like hearing about their life experiences”

Adaptation: We are relaxed and authentic with people from different cultures and we can empathise with and adopt perspectives from another culture, rather than abandoning our cultural identity, we extend our beliefs and behaviours to include different cultures. “Our friends have suffered more than they should have to”

Integration: Our identity evolves and expands, we genuinely include values, beliefs, perspectives, and behaviours of different cultures in appropriate and authentic ways. We can move our view of our self in and out of different cultural worldviews…. we become flexible ‘multicultural beings’

Where are you?
Think about your social settings and your work settings.

Each of these stages progressively asks us to evolve. We might have been able to run large international organisations on a mono-culture in the past, but the future challenges in work and society will demand evolution.
Diversity of thinking, beliefs and actions bring innovation, creativity, high performance. But also people are happier when they can be themselves at work. No matter how different they are.

This is just one model but there are many more and much more research and literature on leadership culture and cultural intelligence.

I invite you to get curious and learn more about your cultures and those that exist around you so that we can create more relationships and connections that respect and honour diversity.
Question the obvious

I leave you with a quote from the young and famous poet from this year’s inauguration ceremony:

“We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.

We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms, so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.”

— Amanda Gorman

Did this make you think?

Do you want to explore this topic more?

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