Welcome
Learn more about the course agenda, then take a moment to introduce
yourself and complete the pre-course survey.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Demonstrates why culture matters and sets the stage for developing
greater awareness of our own cultural values and those of others as well as
the importance of communication and listening skills.
Chapter 2 - Self-Awareness
Emphasizes how culture influences the identity and the perception of
ourselves and others, and how these identities and perceptions influence in
turn our actions and our relationships with others.
Chapter 3 - Bias
Explains how conscious and unconscious biases inform our beliefs,
behaviors and decision-making processes and how to mitigate their
negative effects.
Chapter 4 - Culture Shock & Adaptation
Anticipates the occurrence of culture shock and offers techniques to be
prepared for surprises and confusion and to regain effectiveness and build
resilience.
Chapter 5 - Intercultural Communication
Identifies five dimensions of communication and outlines ways to more
deeply understand and connect with your international counterparts.
Chapter 6 - Building Relationships & Trust
Examines the impact of active listening, power dynamics and how people
approach collaboration on creating trusting ties among people.
Chapter 7 - Time, Agency & Control
Assesses how the concepts of time and the control over events influence
schedules, deadlines and outcomes.
Chapter 8 - Self-Care and Concluding Remarks
Summarizes many of the helpful tips and tools that can help you build your
intercultural competence.
Chapter 1: Introduction
In this chapter we begin to address what culture is and how it is defined in
different ways. We also introduce the importance of cultural awareness
while also highlighting why culture matters. It is important to understand the
influence of culture on our own values and behavior as well as the values
and behavior of others and, in so doing, we are better able to develop tools,
skills and competencies to enable us to engage effectively and productively
with others despite, and because of, our cultural differences. Such cultural
awareness will help us move towards cultural synergy. And cultural
synergy is the ultimate goal because people are most successful in working
across cultures when more harmonious and effective decisions or
outcomes result from the combined strengths of different cultures.
Cultural Synergy Course: Football Animation
Football, the most popular sport in the world, played by millions. But what
makes a good player? Of course they must be fit and agile, but the best
players have an excellent awareness of themselves and of others on the
field, and excellent communication and listening skills.
Similar skills are needed to effectively engage within other cultures, such as
self-awareness and good communication. These skills might not prepare us
for the World Cup, but they can help to better connect with others and build
trust in this increasingly connected world.
Learning Objectives:
●​ Explain what culture is
●​ Determine what cultural synergy is and why culture is such an
important factor in human interaction
●​ Become aware of the complexity, dynamism and unpredictability of
cross-cultural encounters
●​ Recognize the importance of context and cultural awareness
Key Terms
Culture Definitions:
●​ “Culture is the shared set of assumptions, values, and beliefs of a
group of people by which they organize their common life. A culture
provides a set of directions for the way a human activity or
relationship is to be carried out…. A human is advised and guided by
his or her culture, but the human has a unique personality that plays
a guiding role, too. Values and beliefs guide the behavior of
individuals; shared values and beliefs guide the behavior of groups.”
Gary M.
●​ “The shared beliefs, traits, attitudes, behavior, products, and artifacts
common to a particular social or ethnic group. The term cross-cultural
refers to interactions across cultures and reflects the fact that
different cultures may have different communication styles and
negotiating behavior. The term multicultural refers to the acceptance
of different ethnic cultures within a society. Cultural sensitivity means
being aware of cultural differences and how they affect behavior, and
moving beyond cultural biases and preconceptions to interact
effectively.:” Peace Terms: Glossary of Terms for Conflict
Management and Peacebuilding.
Cultural Synergy
“Two or more groups interacting or collaborating to create an environment
that could capitalize on its collective knowledge, skills, strengths and
insights. Cultural synergy often produces a “third” culture by taking
elements of each of the two cultures and forming a new blended entity. The
desired outcome of this joining is greater harmony, inclusiveness and
productivity. Cultural synergy more commonly refers to organizational
effectiveness while intercultural competence refers to a skill set for
individuals. Nancy J. Adler. "Cultural Synergy: Designing a Culturally
Synergistic Organization" The Bridge, vol. 6 (no. 3) 1981: pp. 32-34.
Scenario: A Shock in the Market Place
This course will incorporate real-life scenarios experienced by practitioners
from USIP and Burning Man into each chapter. These scenarios are
intended to illustrate the type of situation you may expect to encounter in
another culture. Each scenario will be followed by choices of possible
actions you could take. These scenarios are not meant to provide you with
a list of do’s and don’ts but rather an understanding that intercultural
encounters can be confusing, complex and dynamic. It is important to
remember that such encounters are the outcome of your own culture and
identity as well as that of someone from another culture. It is important to
note that there is usually no perfect choice or solution to such scenarios.
The value in providing feedback is to help you reflect upon the
consequences of different perspectives or responses to a specific scenario.
The emphasis of this course is to show that greater sensitivity to cultural
differences and human needs as well as greater information and
awareness of a given context or situation is critical for cultural competence.
Real-Life Experience:
This scenario was modeled after a real-life experience by Leanne Erdberg.
Listen how she describes the experience:
Leanne’s Experience in Yemen
Leanne Erdberg:
So, one of my earliest trips when I used to work for the State Department
was a trip to Yemen. And because this is a podcast, I should share that I
have bright red hair and it's integral to the story because we were in the
souk. I was trying to understand a little bit more of where we were in
between lots of diplomatic meetings in buildings and we're in the souk, and
I was shopping around with a couple of my colleagues from the State
Department, as well as some of our partners that were community
members in Yemen, and all of a sudden, I had bent down to look at some
sort of scarf and I feel a giant tug on the back of my hair. And my first
reaction was to try and scream but I didn't because we were in a foreign
place and I didn't. And I turned around, and there was a young boy, who he
himself was so excited, and I couldn't figure out why he had pulled my hair.
And so I asked my colleague who was Yemeni, like, “please ask him like,
why did he pull my hair?” And this young boy was talking a mile a minute in
Arabic, so the translation was was quite difficult at the time, to say that he
had never seen hair that color and he just wanted to touch it and figure out
if it was real. And it was one of those moments for me that I felt like a fish
out of water one) because I was a woman without covering over my hair, so
I think that that was probably part of it as well, and then the color of my hair
as well. And it took me a minute to get out of the fear mentality and into the
just the joyful curiosity of a young child seeing something for the first time
and moving into that space from fear toward curiosity has been a lesson
very early in my career and it has been a lesson to try and embrace that in
as many situations as possible.
Key Ideas and Practical Tips
You can often expect the unexpected in navigating daily life in another
culture. You will be most successful when you can suspend judgment if
possible, while opening your heart and your mind to new experiences and
new ways of doing things. One should bring humility, self-awareness, and
an open heart and an open mind to any intercultural encounter.
You will be more open to new perspectives and ideas by:
1.​ Getting out of your comfort zones;
2.​ Developing new relationships and making new friends;
3.​ Asking questions and listening to the answers and asking additional
questions to understand what may be behind those answers;
4.​ Suspending judgment; and
5.​ Not automatically dismissing new information that does not fit with
your preconceptions or existing ways of doing things.
It is important to understand that cultural differences do not just reflect
tangible differences between people. In the scenario in the last lesson, the
young boy was amazed that a woman’s physical appearance could be so
different than the norm in the world with which he was familiar. But there
are also very important differences in how people understand and view
human interaction and human relations.
An Illustration of such differences is the idea of speaking up and advocating
for oneself. Here are two well-known proverbs that convey quite different
concept of speech:
The value of speaking: “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” -- An
American proverb.
The risks of speaking: “The duck that quacks the loudest gets shot.”
-- A Chinese parable
These contrasting maxims show a cultural contrast in the value of
speaking. Americans, and many from European societies, value talking,
which can often be perceived in other cultures as calling attention to
oneself. And, If one is focused primarily on speaking, one may be less
likely to listen well or be reflective--and also less aware of the
consequences of one’s speech.
Because contexts are so often different, and needs are different, and
people are different, that is why it is particularly incumbent on those
working in another culture to bring humility, self-awareness, and an open
heart and an open mind to any intercultural encounter.
Practitioner Voices: Being an Outsider
We asked some of our experienced practitioners for their thoughts on what
it means to be an outsider in another culture and what to be mindful of.
Here are some of their thoughts and cautionary notes on working in other
cultures:
Respecting Culture
Tom Price:
If you think that going somewhere and handing out a blanket, or an MRE,
or something, gives you the right to tell someone how to live their lives, you
need to find something else to do with your time. Because using that
moment of privilege power, it's no different than these American churches
that go over somewhere and hand out food aid but require someone to sit
in a church and pray for 30 minutes, or these shelters here in town that
require someone to get a lecture about God before they get a place to
sleep for the night. It's extortion with a moral bow on it. And it's
reprehensible, understandable, perhaps reprehensible.
People in need often most have a need to talk in the process, because
they've lost their agency. So start with having the humility to ask about their
situation and then listen. How do we create an inculcate a culture that is
inclusive and that allows people to be their best self? And that starts with
those of us who have the good fortune of privilege, being willing to
remember that that is an accident of circumstance, and that there are a
million ways and ideas about how to solve the challenges that we have
ahead of us. And just because of our position of privilege doesn't mean that
we have a lock on the best ideas.
Seeing Culture
Oge Onubogu:
So a bulk of, where I would say, I have the bulk of my experiences across
Sub Saharan Africa and in every context there it's always different. That
sometimes it cracks me up that folks often will generalize the entire
continent where engagement with political actors in Zimbabwe is
completely different, like night and day, of engaging with political actors in
Nigeria. So, like, so it's, it just, it's important that we see those differences,
that even because individuals occupy certain spaces as, as political actors,
the way you engage with them, the culture and the environment in which
they're in, actually influences the way you engage. So it's very important
that we do not detach an understanding of culture from what we do.
And one should also think of cultural synergy as the product of constant
interactions between peoples from different cultures, backgrounds and
identities. And such encounters can change depending on the context,
what has brought people from different cultures together, and the degree to
which our different identities and values come out at that time and that
place.
Young Professionals: Cultural Synergy is
Personal
And in an increasingly globalized world, different cultures are coming
together in family unions. Andre Ball of the United States Institute of Peace
talks about how cultural synergy is very personal and familial.
Merging families
Andre Ball:
Obviously I identified again as uh black and half black and half
Filipino-American. My wife is Chinese American. We got married last year.
We got married in Morocco, which was awesome. And on top of that, we
brought our family over for the ceremony which was even better. So, her
family, her dad is from New York, he grew up in New York but he was born
in China and grew up in Hong Kong. And her mom was Malaysian and
grew up in Hong Kong was invited to the United States north and that's
where they met.
You know, we're walking the streets of Morocco together as this family and
you could, I mean, you could obviously feel the looks, you know, on
people's faces as we're walking down the street, as we're walking through
the marketplace in Marrakesh. And,it's just busy and then you just have this
group of people that are just completely diversified and I was not very
self-aware at the moment, but now you know but there there were
moments where I just kind of looked back and I'm like yeah, if I wasn't me
and even if I was a tourist or native here and I looked at it and I was like
“who is this group people? This must be like a tourist group or something,
it's just kind of odd”. But we were a family, we were a family that was
celebrating away and in a different country, and that that whole experience
in itself I think was amazing but, at the same time, it was like just this
realization about how diverse and how culturally rich that we were.
A funny story I will share about just kind of the clash of cultures is, we had
a tea ceremony, this is a traditional Chinese ceremony that's held for
people who are getting married and um we had iy prior to our wedding. And
I had my family side come in and her family side come in and about a week
before that tea ceremony, I had all the people on my side of the family, they
asked me all of these questions like “what do I do with the tea ceremony?
Like, “who, like, do I sit somewhere? Do I do I present something? Is there
something I have to do?” and I would just be like ask my wife, she would
know. And so, there was this kind of back and forth about understanding
like what the ceremony was about and showing their respect to it. And
then, when the ceremony came around, they were essentially I guess
ready but not ready, but I think it was also very exciting for them to
experience something new, but I just thought it was really interesting that
they they had this idea of making sure they wanted to honor the culture and
tradition and to appreciate what we were doing together and just to see it,
just to be a part of it was special. Special from the perspective of getting
married then special from the perspective of bringing two families with two
cultures together into up into one room, experience it with us so. It was just
magical honestly.
Conclusion
Culture and Identity
Ilana Lancaster:
So, we all belong to many identity groups, yes. And I think, oftentimes in
which, you know, culture, when we think about culture, it's often conceived
of as something very static and in, culture is dynamic and culture presents
itself through an interaction, right? So, the interactions in which, the way in
which we find ourselves interacting, it's an interface, where culture really
comes to play, right? Because culture in a very static way means absolutely
nothing. You're gonna have a laundry list of very superficial kind of
check-the-box of this, this, these people have these cultural practices or
traditions and beliefs. But when in fact, yes, we all do belong to many
identities, with those different identity groups we have different cultural
norms and systems and practices that we engage in. And we're constantly
engaging with different, different parts of different people at different time.
And so for me, culture is always about the way in which culture is enacted
in that you that culture is, you know, it's a way in which you engage in
people's in action of. So when would you deploy culture and cultural
values? You know, it's not just static.
As Illana emphasizes, thinking of culture as dynamic is critical in building
cultural synergy. And, cross-cultural encounters themselves are often
dynamic and unpredictable. There are no general right or wrong ways to
handle a particular situation because what may be the best approach or
response in one culture may differ in another culture. That is why
understanding the context and the particular dynamics of a cross-cultural
encounter matter. The emphasis of this course is not to provide you with a
list of cultural do’s and don’ts but rather the course will help you enhance
your awareness and preparation necessary to understand cross-cultural
situations and how to engage others sensitively and effectively.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
1.​ How do you feel about meeting new people or trying new things?
How do you respond when facing the unknown?
2.​ What makes you excited about engaging others in another culture?
What makes you nervous about such encounters?
Chapter 2: Self-Awareness
This chapter focuses on how culture influences the identity and the
perception of ourselves and others, and how these identities and
perceptions influence in turn our relationships with others. Cultural
awareness is not simply a matter of appreciating other cultures but
developing an awareness of the impact of culture and an understanding of
the role of identity—the identities of others and a self-awareness of one’s
own identities. Two people can interpret the same action quite differently.
Culture has a great influence on what other people do and the meaning
they give to their and others’ actions. At the same time, culture influences
how we perceive the actions of others and the meaning and intentions
behind our own thoughts and actions.
Socrates Animation
The Greek philosopher Socrates was told by an oracle that he was the
wisest man alive. He traveled far and wide and met with great minds to
prove the Oracle wrong. After hearing how much others thought they knew,
Socrates concluded he was wiser than everyone else. Because at least he
knew that he knew nothing. Admitting your own ignorance opens the door
to learning from others. Like a mirror, self awareness helps us see our own
character, feelings, and desires, and allows us to imagine how others might
perceive us.
Learning Objectives:
●​ Heighten understanding that confusion in a different cultural
environment is natural; that is why self-awareness and humility are so
important.
●​ Validate the importance of cultural awareness and programming
concerning your own culture and the cultures with which you interact,
for building effective intercultural interactions.
●​ Increase awareness of one’s own identity and culture as essential to
working harmoniously in other cultures.
●​ Create greater understanding of the core beliefs and values of one’s
own culture, and how it may differ from others.
●​ Raise awareness that one’s values and beliefs may be challenged,
often because of fundamental differences about the role of the
individual and the capacity of people to effect change or take control
of their own lives.
●​ Realize how we are perceived as an outsider, from a particular
culture, and how our skin color, gender and religion may create
assumptions about us.
The Lack of Self-Awareness and Its Practical
Consequences
Even outsiders with the best of intentions too often emphasize the
question, how can I help you? Rather than, what do you need? Too often
we assume what the needs of others are, or we don’t take the time to try to
understand the perspective of others.
In this course, we begin with cultural self-awareness because it is important
both for knowing about and respecting the local norms and values and for
understanding how you and your behavior is a product of your culture and
the potential impact you may have on others from a different culture.
Ideally, greater cultural competency will lead to better communications and
greater respect, tolerance and sensitivity. It will help us work with the
differences that exist between us rather than just reacting to what others
do. And, in some cases it may just lead to better awareness of how others
behave and what motivates their behavior. Cultural awareness should lead
to more successful interaction with those from another culture and help you
make sense of what you experience. And, despite the importance of culture
as an influence on the beliefs, values and actions of others, what you
experience when interacting with others will also depend on specific
circumstances, context and individual personalities.
When we think of other cultures we are often focus on our differences.
Those differences are often rooted in other values and beliefs. While it may
be easy to say to oneself that I would not act in the way someone from
another culture might in the same circumstances, it is more difficult to
suspend judgment and sit back and try to understand the reasons behind
an action. We usually perceive a particular situation based on our own
cultural biases, values, belief systems, and our own life experiences.
●​ Cultural awareness is the recognition and appreciation of other
cultures while also understanding of the impact that culture and
identity—the identities of others and a self-awareness of one’s own
identities—have on human behavior.
●​ Cultural competence is the ability to engage effectively with those
from another culture while honoring and respecting the beliefs, styles
and behaviors of different individuals, communities and groups.
●​ Cultural humility is the recognition that everyone brings something
unique and valuable to a situation. We must be open to other ideas
and viewpoints while acknowledging that we will often not have the
solution to the problems of others. Cultural humility implies that we
are never done learning, ensuring that we suspend judgment while
also re-examining our own assumptions and beliefs.
●​ Context is the set of circumstances and factors that form the setting
for an event or situation. From the context one can often gain
insights into the forces that shape behavior in a particular place at a
particular time while also understanding the environment in which
decisions may be made or actions taken.
Scenario: Feral Dogs
Podcast from Laurette Bennhold Samaan:
This scenario was modeled after a real-life experience by Laurette
Bennhold Samaan. Listen how she describes the experience:
Suspending Judgment in West Africa
Laurette Bennhold Samaan:
There are many examples that I could cite where situations have gone
against my core beliefs or my value system. One, for example, was in West
Africa where I saw people kicking dogs, and from an US American probably
western point of view, that feels not, that feels rude, that feels not not
supportive of animals. However, looking at that further and talking to
people, the belief is that those dogs carry diseases. And so, by them
kicking the dog, I was interpreting it very differently than they were
interpreting it.
Sarah Fisk encountered this situation and came up with a creative and
quite sensitive response.
Being Sensitive to Others
Sarah Fisk:
But, it's generally true that you need to pay attention on multiple levels and
the only way you can do that is stop thinking about yourself and start
thinking about other people. And anything you can do to strengthen
yourself, to be more emotionally intelligent in a humble way, like what's
happening here, like. I've been in a family home where I was being given
food and I was so hungry, there were two of us, and we'd been traveling
and his family basically took us in by the side of the road, and we were a
little bit lost and frightened, and not sure where we were gonna go next.
And they had some kids and they said, “Oh, you look so tired here, you
know, have some soup”, and they brought us the soup. And the kids were
staring at us, and I suddenly realized we were eating their soup. And if I
hadn't picked that up, so what, what I did is I offered I said, “Come, come
sit with me, you have some I'll have some you have some, I’ll have some”.
And like, the mother's face like was, she was so relieved because she was
busy being hospitable, which was her cultural way. I mean, she couldn't not
offer us the food, but was the only food they had. And so then I was like,
“Oh, my God, we're eating their food”. And I was like, “we’re eating their
food!” And we couldn't say no because it was rude. So, I just took the
youngest kid on my lap and then the other ones came over and the three
kids and the two outsiders ate the food together, you know, and there
wasn't a lot, but we all had something in our bellies.
And so again, it's like, what did I do? I paid attention and looked for things.
Like, the great thing about traveling and the great thing about doing cross
cultural stuff is that it takes you out of your own little box, and in you go
“what's going on here?” And you get to learn from that and you get to see
the world in a new way. And that, you know, causes new brain cells to
happen, it's system, and causes your heart open and causes your life to
explode in good ways. Most of the time good ways, not always. But so, the
way to do that, the way to be ready to do that is to get over yourself and be
really curious and humble and fascinated by what you're seeing and
wondering what it is. I mean, that emotional intelligence really comes into
play. I think, so.
When we look at the behavior of others, we often interpret what is
happening through the filter of what our culture tells us is happening.
Cultural awareness is not simply a matter of recognizing and appreciating
other cultures but an understanding of the impact of culture and an
understanding of the role of identity—the identities of others and a
self-awareness of one’s own identities. Cultural competence is the capacity
to honor and respect beliefs, styles and behaviors of different individuals
and communities and groups. It is important to acknowledge one’s own
cultural influences and how we are perceived by others. From that
awareness, from that understanding, flows improved communications,
reduced uncertainty and misunderstanding, greater collaboration and
teamwork, and improved relationships.
Both Laurette and Sarah also reflect the concept of cultural humility which
encompasses self-reflection and a willingness to listen to others, both
critical to understanding and responding to cultural differences. In many
ways, Laurette notes the importance of being conscious of the dynamics
inherent when cultures interact. In the scenario above, it is important not to
jump to conclusions or make judgments about how dogs are being treated.
One has to check one’s own assumptions. By being more culturally
competent, Sarah notes that one is therefore in a better position to respond
in a sensitive way to an encounter with someone who makes such a
generous offer. In discussing cultural humility, both podcasts imply that
acquiring and institutionalizing cultural knowledge is particularly important
while also re-examining assumptions and beliefs. For those who work in
multicultural settings, such competence is critical to developing programs,
implementing projects and working in different cultural settings.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
With respect to the scenarios above, please share your thoughts about the
possible responses and the different consequences of those responses.
Also address the following question: What has led you to see things one
way and what do you think has led others to see the same situation or
scenario differently?
Young Professional's Perspective: Cultural
Humility
Tabatha Thompson provides us with insights from her first visit to Africa for
the United Nations. She discusses the importance of cultural humility and
being flexible.
Work with Humility
Tabatha Thompson:
So, you know, just approaching it with that mindset, that yes you may have
a project that you need to get done or, you know, indicators of success that
you have for your organization, but you're not actually the one that's living
in the environment and affected by, you know, the conflict or the emergency
or the crisis that is going on. And when your project is done, or your work is
done, you're not the one that remains. And so for me, you know, as an
outsider, so again approaching the work with humility, but also making sure
that you understand why people are motivated to do the work that they're
doing and these different communities and what makes them tick, and
moving, you know, beyond the transactional relationship, and, you know,
project space is so important because they're the ones that are going to
drive the work during the project and after you're gone and, if your idea of
success is to make real change or, you know, have a real impact, the only
way that you're actually going to be able to do that is if someone feels
comfortable and trusts you, and feels like you have their best interest at
heart, and you have their communities best interest at heart. Even if it
means, you know, maybe needing to slow down or take a pause in the
project to really understand what is going on.
Scenario 2: Rebuilding After a Hurricane
Podcast from Carmen Mauk
In 2007, Carmen Mauk describes her work in Peru in the aftermath of a
devastating earthquake. Listen how she describes the experience:
Being Flexible to Local Needs
Carmen Mauk:
Burners without Borders supported a six year disaster response effort with
over 6000 volunteers after the 2007 earthquake that decimated the city of
80,000 people in Pisco, Peru. This was an earthquake that was an 8.0 on
the Richter scale and lasted for two minutes. It's one of the most, you know,
profoundly gigantic earthquakes that have ever happened with a
population. And it was just heart wrenching when we arrived to see an
entire city basically just leveled to the ground. So when we came in to
Pisco as three green disaster responders, we felt there was a certain
mandate of what needed to be done to quickly remove rubble and help
people rebuild their lives.
But shortly after we arrived in Pisco, we were approached by the local free
dive fishermen who expressed a lot of concern about the rampant dynamite
fishing that was occurring along the coast. Now, we weren't there to do this,
you know, we were really there to help people rebuild their lives. But it
became apparent that this dynamite fishing was destroying marine habitat,
as well as putting their lives in danger. And the practice also killed anything
in the blast radius, including protected marine life like sea turtles. But what
we realized very soon, by listening to the locals and the community, was
that there was much more that needed to be done that was important to
them. And if we were going to build trust in the community, and actually be
there for the long term, we really needed to listen and come up with
strategies and plans that worked for them and not just our own agenda.
So we were like, “Okay, well, what do you guys want to do?” And they
asked us to use the disaster as like a kind of a gap in the whole chaos of it
all to actually do something really good that might not have been able to be
possible before. And they asked us to use the disaster as like a kind of a
gap in the whole chaos of it all to actually do something really good that
might not have been able to be possible before. We were really there to
listen to the people and, you know, build schools and we helped a school
get a water filtration device, so they could make money by selling water,
because that was a thing that people did in Peru. So I think the fishermen
who were also dads and parents of children going to these schools saw
something in our group that they saw this, these are the people we want to
approach to see if the thing that's very important to us, which is our marine
life is being decimated, our lives as fishermen are at stake, you know, the
future of the environment here, if they keep dynamite fishing, and so they
asked our group to help.
So they asked us to help them transform an old building on the beach into
an Environmental Education Center that would address not only dynamite
fishing, but also educate the larger community about how they could
support the health of the marine environment. So volunteers got to work
rehabbing the building and developing posters and educational materials
with a fisherman that would eventually be displayed. And the grand
opening was set for an upcoming festival holiday to attract as many people
as possible. And to our great surprise, there was a long line out the door for
the entire day. And we weren't sure how the educational materials would be
received or if anyone would take the time to read them, but we were thrilled
to see people of all ages taking the time to read and engage with the
materials and each other. So after the grand opening, this new
environmental center became a hub for all fishermen and the community to
learn how to use computers.
Podcast: Carmen Mauk
Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Carmen Mauk was part of another
Burners Without Borders team in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, working to create a
demonstration project that would show local Haitians different models for
rebuilding, including different types of housing, toilets and ways to grow
their own food. The latter included an aquaponics program.
Being Open to Change
Carmen Mauk:
When I arrived in Porphyrins, and at this location, there were two
volunteers who had come in to build the aquaponics project. They needed
a lot of rocks for the project and I found them sifting rocks out of dirt that
they had found on the property, and it was taking forever, and they only had
a short amount of time to complete the project while they were in the
country. So I suggested that, hey, Burners without Borders, we can donate
a truck full of rocks so that they could finish the project on time. Problem
solved. But during this time, a cholera epidemic was sweeping across the
country and it was right at the beginning of it, and we had to be really
careful about sanitizing our shoes every time we entered the property as to
not know spread the disease further. And this was a dangerous time for
Haitians and anyone working in the area and I had received a lot of
information on how to put in, you know, practice, best practices how not to
spread the disease.
And so we found a truck, we ordered the rocks, and when the dump truck
returned and was backing up onto the property, water was gushing out of
the back of the truck. As the driver dumped the load onto the grass. I asked
where the rocks came from and why were they wet. And I just assumed
that they would come from a company that sold building materials and
gravel like in the US or even, you know, like in Pisco, how had purchased
materials to rebuild. And it turns out, the rocks had just been taken from the
river, the same river that was known as the culprit for carrying cholera and
now it had just been dumped in the middle of the property. And I had this
sinking feeling with tears in my eyes that I had just created a scenario that
would undo all the precautions we took to keep this potentially deadly
bacteria out of the area and was going to kill everybody. I felt really stupid
and ashamed that, given the obvious dangers associated with this
epidemic, that I hadn't asked more questions and applied what I'd learned
about the epidemic before I thought I was efficiently solving a problem.
Fortunately, we were able to bleach the rocks, rake them,let the sun do its
work sanitizing them, but it took like three days to complete the job, and the
project was finished on time, but I learned, you know many valuable
lessons but the main one was about checking my Western ideas about
efficiency and my assumption that you know, the quickest way to the end is
the best way. And that could have gone sideways in so many ways.
Fortunately, it didn't, but I will never forget that lesson.
As Carmen notes, too often we focus too much on finding the solution or
the right allocation of resources without understanding the context or
thinking through the consequences. Too often those with resources, those
of us who come from privileged places, assume what the needs of others
are and how things are done. It is therefore important to keep an open
mind and to take the time to ask questions and to listen. One cannot just
assume a plan will work because a particular strategy works successfully
back home or in some other context. At times, there is a difference
between doing something efficiently and doing something appropriately.
Understand what local resources exist and how they might be used in the
best way.
Carmen reflects on the importance of being open to change. One cannot
remain wedded to one’s own agenda to the exclusion of what is important
for those who have a stake in the outcome. The most effective plans and
strategies usually result from listening and collaboration. One has to ask
whether success is measured by your metrics or by helping locals meet
their needs. To be most effective while working in another culture, one
must seize opportunities to pivot to new strategies or objectives and be
prepared to revise goals and priorities. When you have relationships with
people in the community, such opportunities become more clear and the
community will be more likely to trust you and become a partner
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
1.​ What can we do consistently to be mindful of the potential
consequences of our decisions and our actions?
2.​ Why is cultural humility so important?
3.​ What are the most effective ways to gain the support and cooperation
of a local community?
Presentation: Cultural Programming
We are the confluence of a number of factors— our genetics, our natural
personalities, our cultural programming, as well as the conscious choices
that we make as adults. And there can be tension among all of these
elements as we go through life. Enhancing one's self-awareness, as well as
awareness of others can enable us to be more effective when we're dealing
with people from other cultures, because we gather together a set of skills
and knowledge that facilitate this process.
Self-awareness requires both an open mind and the capacity to challenge
and question one’s own assumptions—about other people, one’s own
agenda, and how things are done in another place, in another culture. We
all have different identities, although most of us tend to put people in a
single cultural box. Our identities are shaped by our cultural norms but also
by our gender, religion, profession, education, as well as our parents, our
family, our upbringing and our life experiences. As Kerley notes, all these
factors matter. Our cultural dimensions shift and each of us responds
differently based on various cultural factors as well as our own individuality.
And other people will often make assumptions or stereotype you based on
what culture they think you represent.
As we grow up in our families and go to school and interact in our
communities, we are subject to cultural programming, the unconscious
absorption of lessons of how to be, of right and wrong, of how to succeed.
As adults, we more consciously decide how we present ourselves to the
world and interact with others. If we frequently engage with people from
different cultures, we may be simultaneously adapting our behavior as well
as absorbing certain characteristics of the host cultures in order to gain
intercultural competence.
Pamela Ex, an expert on cultural competence, helps us understand how all
of us are programmed culturally and shaped by the norms, values and
traditions that derive from cultural forces around us.
Self-Awareness Presentation
Pamela Bernard:
People from relatively homogeneous communities see that everyone is
basically similar to them. People from diverse environments interact with
people of many different races, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions. This
early programming, which continues through our lives, forms the way we
learn to see ourselves and others. It presents objective facts, as well as
beliefs and biases about our neighbors.
One example of cultural programming may be when parents admonish their
children to marry within their ethnic, racial, or religious group as a way to
preserve and perpetuate the culture. But societies are becoming much
more heterogeneous and there's greater acceptance of exiting one’s
cultural boundaries, and intermarriage therefore becomes more common.
Another example of cultural programming is, while Christmas is celebrated
around the world, the religious traditions, foods, music, and decorations
vary dramatically from country to country, and even house to house on the
same block.
As we become self determining adults, we may choose to keep all, part, or
none of the cultural programming we absorbed as a child. These early
influences are not totally predictive of one's personal culture later in life.
People may decide to make conscious choices about modifying or even
completely changing their cultural identities. Sometimes, the intention is to
reclaim culture that has been expropriated or extinguished, such as for
people from indigenous cultures, or people of African descent living outside
of Africa. The role of self awareness about our cultural programming is key
to building our intercultural competence. We bring our whole selves into our
social, professional, and civic activities, and our race, ethnicity, gender
identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, physical ability, and all of the other
aspects of the diverse human race come into play. We also need to
understand and give proper attention to the role that white privilege or
racism or homophobia play in our personal development, how others see
and react to us, and how we choose to interact with others.
Most people find it challenging to describe their own culture, beliefs,
assumptions, and biases. We are the fish in water unable to perceive the
characteristics that define our culture and environment. It's only when we
enter another culture that we become a fish out of water in a new
environment, allowing us to see comparatively how that culture is different
from our own.
The goal then in the next modules is to provide some vocabulary and some
concepts to objectively define these differences and to present information
on key aspects of culture that consistently influence our actions in a
consistent way. We'll be talking about culture shock and cultural adaptation,
communication skills, relationship building, and the concepts of time.
When in another culture or when engaging with people from a different
culture, you are not a mere observer but bring your own cultural and
personal influences to your interaction with others. It is, therefore,
important to acknowledge one’s own identity and cultural influences and
the meaning we give to the ideas and actions of others. In the same way,
we need to be aware of how we might be perceived by others.
Practical tip: None of us are culturally neutral. We have been shaped by a
unique blend of our own unique lived experiences and our many identities
while also significantly influenced by cultural forces. It is important to be
aware of how those have an impact on our own actions and behavior while
also influencing how we perceive others and their actions.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
●​ How does cultural programming shape the way that we see ourselves
and others and how we interpret the actions of others as well as our
own reactions?
●​ How can we come to see that a greater range of behaviors is valid
and acceptable?
●​ How can we expand our repertoire of behaviors in order to be
accepted and effective in our new communities, while still being true
to our own selves and our own values?
Practitioner Voices: Perceptions and Power
Practitioner Voices 1: Dr. Kerley Most
Dr. Kerley Most, a psychotherapist and international humanitarian, shares
her story as a Brazilian doing community development in Guinea. Her
examples of interactions with Guineans and other humanitarians illustrate
the gender- and race-based perceptions and biases she experienced.
Guina Story
Kerley Most:
Yes, I'm Brazilian, and I was born and raised in Brazil, and I've been living
here in the United States for 13 years now. But prior to this time, I spent 11
years in Guinea, West Africa, as a humanitarian and now I travel the world
supporting humanitarians to find wellness, and to process critical incidents.
I am a licensed psychotherapist, and I have a PhD in cultural education and
clinical supervision. I am in an interracial relationship and I have biracial
children, so social justice is very important to me.
When I was in West Africa, I used to wear lots of West African clothes. I
was in Guinea. When newcomers came in the environments that I used to
be, I was normally met with eyes of disempowerment of, I would try to talk
to people and they would just dismiss me or not even look at me. What I
quickly realized was that the fact that I was wearing African clothes made
the newcomers think that I was African. And when other newcomers came,
and they experienced, they knew I was a humanitarian, their behavior
towards me was much more attuned. So, our energy can create connection
or disconnection. And when people are meeting the other, the brain will
start to scan, a scan for cues of a social desirability. If the other person
perceives, they I perceive them as not desirable, they will disengage with
me.
So another factor also that can create a better connection with other people
is awareness of what I represent. We have our bodies and our bodies or
our containers, and I carry my container wherever I go. If I'm black, I carry
my black container. If I'm white, I'll carry my white container. And what I
represent has meaning to people in other cultures. Do you know what
being black means to the culture they you're connecting with, you know
what being white means to the culture. In my own story, as a Brazilian
female, I held a lot of power of decision in my own life and I was seeing as
a free female. When I went to West Africa, I instantly lost power. Because I
was a female, and I was black and in the villages, females who didn't hold
so much power. The same thing did not happen to my husband, as a white
male, the moment he got into Africa, he received instant privilege because
of what it meant to be white and because of colonialism. So it's very
important to remember those two things, that my connection will be deeper
or not according to the way I react to people and according to the way I
present myself.
Practitioner Voices 2: Dr. Kerley Most
Race and gender affect empowerment and disempowerment. Dr. Kerley
Most explores the power dynamic between blacks and whites based on the
physical bodies we inhabit.
Young Professionals: Identity and
Self-Awareness
Practitioner Voices: Andre Ball
Andre Ball discusses the different factors that have shaped his own biracial
identity:
It is important to be aware of the power (i.e., the capacity to influence the
behavior of others as well as events) that you have and the power you may
be perceived to have. It is important to be mindful of power differences and
to be humble about the power that one has.
Take advantage of the strengths your identity provides you—a combination
of who you are and who others think you are—while being mindful that
people will often hold stereotypes of you based on your country of origin,
race, gender, religion, age, or education.
Practitioner Voices: Tabatha Thomson
Tabatha Thomson provides us with insights from her work in Afghanistan
as a young American facilitating workshops focused on developing
non-violent action skills (SNAP—Synergizing Non-Violent Action and
Peacebuilding). She discusses what it means to be intentionally self-aware
in another culture.
Try the following activities to challenge your own understanding of yourself:
●​ Write down how many different identities you have.
●​ When or under what circumstances does one identity become more
important than another? For example, when might your gender
identity be more significant than the identity of your profession or your
religion?
●​ Think about what type of situations or actions that you have observed
in which you were quick to pass judgment. What types of situations
or actions lead you to snap judgments and what situations or actions
lead you to be more circumspect? Do you see a pattern?
Conclusion
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
1.​ Why do race and gender have such a significant impact on how we
are perceived or identified?
2.​ Can one truly be “unbiased” with respect to identities of race, gender,
religion or ethnicity?
Chapter 3: Biases
While no one likes to admit it, we all have biases. Many, if not most, of our
biases are unconscious. Nevertheless, such biases have a profound
impact on how we interact with other people.
It is important to remember that implicit biases operate almost entirely on
an unconscious level. We are usually unaware of our implicit biases, so that
unlike explicit biases and prejudices, implicit biases are usually
unintentional and often uncontrollable. In fact, an individual may even
disapprove of a certain attitude or belief while unconsciously still holding
similar biases. For most of us, we find it hard to acknowledge that we
would harbor such biases because they don’t fit with our own self-image
and personal identity.
It is important to emphasize that biases are not limited to discrimination
against people based solely on race, ethnicity and religion. Biases may
exist toward any social group and be based upon age, gender, gender
identity, physical abilities, physical appearance, weight or many other
characteristics. Conscious biases are generated from our lived
experiences and indicate a degree of awareness and choice. Unconscious
biases are automatic, deeply held and spring from our cultural
programming. Such implicit biases affect our understanding, actions and
decisions in an unconscious manner. Positive biases predispose us to
seek commonalities and ways to connect, while negative biases incline us
to discriminate or pass harsh judgments. While working in war-torn or
conflict-affected societies, or in development, humanitarian or
peacebuilding work, we frequently encounter people from cultures that are
socially and economically disadvantaged and it may be easy to fall prey to
paternalism or negative and limiting beliefs about the values, attitudes,
behavior and capabilities of our local counterparts. As a result, we may
come to believe that our knowledge or skills are superior and thus adopt a
mental attitude of savior or expert. This pitfall, and our inability to admit to
errors in judgment, will place us in the position of being an intruder, an
imposer of our values on others, and we quickly lose the opportunity to be
of service.
This module explores the neuroscience and history of biases as well as the
consequences of such biases and how we can manage them to have a
less harmful effect on others. A key to overcoming our biases is increased
self-awareness. Implicit bias is not just another name for stereotyping or
suppressed thought; too often, our biases are triggered involuntarily and
beyond our awareness or intentional control. Thus, the most powerful tool
we have is to bring a ‘beginner’s mind’ and embrace the idea that we often
do not know what we are doing--even when we have expertise to offer.
Cultural Synergy Course: Surgeon Animation
Brain Teaser.
A father and son were in a car crash. The father was killed, and the son
taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Upon arrival, the surgeon
exclaimed, “He's my son!” How is this possible? Most people overlook the
most logical answer, the surgeon is the boy's mother. People automatically
assume the surgeon is male and invent elaborate explanations to the
riddle. There's no escaping the powerful pool of our unconscious biases
toward gender, race, age, sexual identity, economic status, profession,
religion, and where someone lives. The key is to be aware of our own
stereotypes before we jump to conclusions.
Bias is a prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group
compared with another. Biases may be held be individuals, groups or
institutions and can lead to actions or behaviors that favor or disfavor a
person or a group. There are two types of bias: conscious (or explicit) bias
and unconscious (or implicit) bias. Implicit biases often lead people to
attribute certain behaviors, attitudes or characteristics to all members of a
particular group, a phenomenon known as stereotyping.
Learning Objectives:
●​ Understand the way biases influence us and the effect of such biases
on our attitudes, judgments and actions.
●​ Become aware that biases can drive our perceptions of others and
how we behave when engaging with people from different cultures.
●​ Learn about the impact of biases on intercultural interactions.
●​ Mitigate the negative impact of conscious or unconscious bias on
building healthy relationships with people from different cultures.
Key Questions
●​ How can I incorporate the natural propensity for human beings to
have biases into understanding my own beliefs, reactions and
behaviors?
●​ What can I do to identify, recognize and minimize the negative effects
of my biases on my interactions to be more respectful and egalitarian
in how I perceive and interact with others?
●​ What is the role that empathy can play in strengthening my own self
awareness?
●​ How might I (compassionately) recognize my own limitations while
making myself available to learn?
Distinguishing Between Bias and Discrimination
When we think of biases, we often think of discrimination, but it is important
to distinguish between discrimination, which is an action or a policy (that
can lead to racial profiling, for example), from biases which are conscious
or unconscious thoughts that shape how we perceive a situation or another
person. Our biases shape how we see others but do not automatically
determine how we act toward others. The Anti-Defamation League’s
“Pyramid of Hate” shows that biased attitudes can lead to discrimination
and bias motivated acts of violence. But that is by no means inevitable nor
is the acknowledgement that we all have degrees of unconscious bias
make someone a “bad” person. It is, however, important to understand that
our biases can influence our perceptions, our judgment and our behavior
which will then have an impact on those people and those situations we
encounter. Unconscious bias is often described as a gut reaction. So, if
we slow down and become more deliberative and mindful of the people and
situation around us, our unconscious biases will not drive our judgment and
our actions as much. And, as we emphasized in the previous chapter,
cultural competence is as much about understanding yourself and the
motivation behind your own behavior as it is understanding others.
The Anti-Defamation League’s “Pyramid of Hate”
You can review the whole PDF here.
Scenario: Hauling a Stack of Wood
Podcast from Laurette Bennhold Samaan
Gender Bias in West Africa
Laurette Bennfold Samaan:
Another example of where my assumptions and values system was
different and struck me, made me feel uncomfortable, was just recently in
West Africa, seeing a woman carrying a huge pile of wood on her head and
on her back while her husband was walking a few steps in front of her,
carrying nothing. And, again, to me that felt unfair, possibly sexist, all of
these different assumptions and perceptions came very quickly. When I
talked to some people on the staff, and I was very honest and direct again,
that's value and of mine, that they said, well, the husband is actually very
proud of the woman's strength and the woman's ability to be carrying this
wood.
Often, when we hear the term “bias” we can think of injustices and may
consider people who behave in biased ways as bad people who take
extreme actions to exclude others or treat those different from themselves
in unjust ways. While it may be easy to attribute biases to others and to
conclude that the biases that lead to stereotyping and discrimination
perpetuate much of the inequality that exists in our society, it is difficult to
acknowledge one’s own biases. As the above scenario demonstrates, one
can have the best of motives and wish for equality and justice for everyone,
no matter their race, gender, religion or ethnicity, and yet still make
judgments about a situation or perceive the actions of others based on
one’s own personal and cultural biases. Because some members of a
group or many men may treat women in a biased or discriminatory way that
does not mean that all members of that group or all men will act in the
same way. When engaging people from another culture—people who may
not be like you in many ways—it is important to withhold judgment and
work to understand their values, traditions and perceptions.
Can you think of any unconscious biases you may have? Are there any
social groups that you may stereotype? Men or women? Members of a
political party? Members of a fraternal organization? People who dress in
a certain way?
Scenario 2: Calais Refugee Camp
Podcast 1 from Christopher Breedlove
Recognizing Preconceptions
Christopher Breedlove:
I went out to a refugee camp in France, in Calais, called ‘The Jungle’. And
‘The Jungle’ is, was a informal encampment and it was a very, very
fascinating place. It had people from, you know, over a dozen different
countries and different religions, different viewpoints. And the reason
people had ended up there is that Calais is the closest place on mainland
Europe, you can get to the UK. And so everyone was trying to get to the
UK. And when I went, which I want to say was in 2016, there had been a
large amount of money invested in keeping people out of the UK. And so
there were large fences, and there were security forces, and they had shut
down a lot of the ways that people had been smuggling themselves across
the border.
And one of the reasons I was there was I run a series of grant programs
and there's one called the Civic ignition grant program, and it's a
democratic granting process, and I had done one at a Bernie man
European leadership summit. And one of the two projects that one was
funding some tools for some Burners and the Burning Man community, I
said, Burners, funding tools for builders in the Burning Man community from
the UK who are working in this camp, helping building living structures out
of pallets for people. And so I went out with two other community members,
Sarah, who lived in Spain, and Andy from Finland. And we went out there
to deliver this grant and to kind of see what was going on. And I had so
many ‘aha’ moments that week we spent in that camp, it really blew me
away and it really affected who I am and what I'm working on in the world,
honestly. I care very much about what's going on with the global refugee
population that I believe is like 75 million people at this point. But, one of
the things that was happening was one of the projects I was working on
was building out a youth center. And so we were building out a youth center
and it was going to have a pool table someone had donated and like a
punching bag so that people could like get out their aggression and just a
safe place for kids to hang out really what it was. And while I was working
on this project, people kept on coming up to me and asking to borrow my
tools. They wanted to borrow my hammer, they wanted to borrow my drill,
they wanted to borrow my saw. They didn't need me, they wanted my tools.
And that was a big ‘aha’ moment. And I would really say ‘aha’ moment of
ignorance. It was like, Oh, of course, these people used to be doctors and
engineers and contractors themselves and they can fix their own problems.
But what don't you bring when you smuggle yourself across the European
continent for whatever reason you said to go is heavy stuff like tools. And
so when their trailers were broken, how could they fix them? They didn't
have those things. And so that was just this huge ‘aha’ moment was that
maybe the best thing to do in situations like this is to provide people with
what I have kind of coined the ‘tools of empowerment’, the ability to fix their
own issues. I don't necessarily have to be there. It's not about me. It's
about giving people access to be able to solve their own problems.
In Calais, Christopher’s preconceptions about refugees were stripped
away. So too were his culturally-based values and beliefs about change
and human agency. At the same time, he had his own beliefs about himself
and his importance challenged. Too often, outsiders arrive with the
presumption that they have the power to fix or address problems. As
Christopher noted, “It’s not about me.” It may be much more important and
effective to take the time to understand how the outsider can help those
affected by the situation or problem to address in ways that reflect the local
context.
Agency is the ability to act intentionally and independently of others and
independently of the influence of social, cultural and political forces in our
community or society. Agency is the power or capacity people have to
think for themselves and act in ways that shape their experiences and the
direction of their lives. Human beings are influenced by an interconnected
set of social and cultural forces, relationships, institutions and social,
political and economic structures that combine to shape much of the
thought, behavior, experiences, and choices of individuals and groups. The
amount of influence such forces have on people and the potential agency
they may exercise varies from society to society, depending on the hold
such forces and structures have on those in the society. The stronger such
forces are, the less agency the individual may be able to realize and the
more it may seem that the path of his or her life is pre-determined and
difficult if not impossible to change.
How have you exercised agency in your own life? What forces and
structures influence your own capacity to act independently and be the
master of your own fate or the path your life has taken or will take in the
future?
Scene 2: Podcast 2 from Christopher Breedlove
Checking Implicit Bias
Christopher Breedlove:
In Calais, I was blown away at what people were building. People had built
restaurants and people had built cafes, and people had built a bar, nd there
was a mosque, and there was a church, there was even a barber shop with
like a quote unquote bathhouse in the back where you could pay like $5,
whatever, and they would heat up water in these big buckets and you could
pour it over your head and kind of like a washing sauna, sort of an
experience with steam. It's like, and like when you're in the salon, you're
looking at the chairs people are sitting on, and these chairs are literally like
one by one posts, you know, like ramshackled together with cardboard as
the fabric stapled into it so that people don't fall through it. But it works,
right? Like, it works. And I was just so amazed at the industriousness and
the innovation, and innovation but like the creative thinking, and the
solution minded, minded state of the people who are living there. They
were trying to make the most human and positive experience they could in
a very difficult and you know, in a lot of ways, dangerous situation.
Take the adequate amount of time to listen, you know, it's you may have
ideas, you may have things to add, but oftentimes, listening for a while will
not only allow the other person to feel heard, which is incredibly important,
but will often allow you to have the learnings to speak better. So for me,
number one is always listen. Number two is in this, I think is a lot is a lot
harder to do, but it's check your own biases. You know, like, just remember
that when you're working with people from other cultures, you have deep
cultural differences. And I think that those go into the stories we were told
when we were young, which goes into how we view the world, and that's
who we are in the world and who you are in the world is how, is what
changes the character of everybody else around you. If I personally decide
I'm the hero, well then everyone else is either the enemy or someone to be
saved. You know, if I decide that I'm the person with the solution, then
everybody else must not be right. It's all about my perspective of who I am
that changes others. And so check your bias of what you're coming in with
because we're all doing it to each other all the time and we're not seeing
people fully as who they are most of the time. We're seeing them as a
reflection of through of who we see we are.
Implicit biases are normal human processes that occur on an unconscious
level. Bias is a natural phenomenon in that our brains are constantly
forming automatic associations to better understand the world around us.
We often take short cuts when taking in new information so we need to
constantly check in with ourselves to ensure we are acting based on a clear
assessment of the situation rather than on stereotypes and prejudice. It is
important to often step back and question our assumptions and the basis
for our initial assessment and the actions/decisions we propose to take.
Practical Tips: As Christopher Breedlove discovered, it is best not to make
assumptions about people you will encounter or work with, just as you
should not make assumptions about the values and beliefs of different
cultures. In order that our behaviors, actions or words are not determined
by our preconceptions, it is important to approach any new situation, any
cross-cultural engagement, with an open mind. And, be aware of your own
biases, just as you should be mindful that those you encounter will most
likely have preconceptions about you. They may well see you as someone
who has power and privilege which will often create expectations on their
part about what you might be able to do for them or how you view them.
That could lead to them to view you as someone who can provide them
with something they want or they could want nothing to do with you,
assuming that whatever or however you could help them such assistance
would come with a heavy cost. At a minimum, it is important to be a good
listener and empathetic. But it is also critical not to raise expectations or
promise things you cannot deliver. Offer to get information or make
connections if you can, but do not tell people what you think they want to
hear or try to make yourself look good in their eyes. Be as transparent and
honest as you can. One can usually be most effective as an ally (someone
who is supportive and doesn’t stand by ignoring pain and injustice) rather
than try to be a savior.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
As we see from the above scenario, avoid objectifying the people you
encounter; that is, do not treat someone as an object rather than as a
unique human being. Refugees are often categorized simply as victims, or
as poor and weak. In fact, most refugees span the range of humanity and
have their own unique strengths and capabilities as well as their own
unique stories.
Given our own biases and mental short cuts when we take in new
information, how can we avoid objectifying new people we meet, whether in
a refugee camp, or in a new environment or an unfamiliar cultural situation?
Young Professionals: Awareness, Biases, and
Dignity
Nate Wilson, is a young American professional who is based in Tunisia
working overseeing efforts at conflict resolution in the war-torn country of
Libya. Nate was asked about the importance of being aware of origins and
nationality and how that shapes his work and how he interacts with others.
Podcast from Kerley Most:
Biases & Dignity
Kerley Most:
When I was in West Africa, I lived, I lived far away from the capital. So
going to a hotel, it each time we came to the capital costs too much. So,
many organizations have guest houses. So I would stay in this guest house
that was a multiple organization guest house. So I come, I have a friend
from Texas, we are there having a great time just sitting and having fun and
at the table at this common area and I get up and go to the fridge to grab
some food, and I opened and I grabbed something and I was about to walk
away when a female called me. A European looking female, she was white.
She, she called me said, “Hey, wait a minute, let me show you something”.
And I said, “Okay”. Said “here, you see this fridge? We have like some
labels. Like you have the name of this, this is a,if there's there's a name of
someone, it means that you belong to the person. The other name belongs
to the person who's here in this fridge, everything has an honor. Everything
has a name assigned to it”. And I took a deep breath. And I look to her and
the only desire had was to weep. Because I had, I felt humiliated. I felt that
I really, I didn't even ask her well, what was she thinking? As I say, today I
would have a different way of approaching. I walked away, and I cried a lot.
Because my dignity, dignity had been taken away from me because that
woman, up to today I don't know what she was thinking. Think she was
thinking that I was an African person visiting the guest house with my friend
and I was just attacking the fridge. That was her perception. She could not
see me as an expat that was working there. That I could be maybe
American or, or, or Brazilian or from England or anywhere. So that was very
sad, not to be respected or seen in the way they should be. Everybody
deserves respect. No matter the body they carry. I carry a black body, and
my black body deserves respect.
Our biases and assumptions often lead us into encounters in which we
unwittingly make mistakes or show disrespect toward someone else. Try
not to jump to conclusions and ask questions so that you are better
informed and a reaction or a statement has some basis in fact. Some of
the key cultural competencies are effective communication skills. A strong
communicator is not just articulate, but is a good listener. And a good
listener is much more likely to be an informed and empathetic
communicator.
What do you think Kerley means by dignity when she recounts her story
above? What does dignity mean to you? Have you ever felt as if you had
lost your dignity? How did that make you feel? How can one regain
respect? Kerley walked away. In your view, should she have later gone
back to the woman in question and let her know how her actions made
Kerley feel or had the time to stand up for herself passed?
Presentation: Types of Biases
In this section, we focus on how biases may manifest as unconscious or
conscious beliefs. We also define four distinct kinds of biases that people
crossing cultures may experience.
Bias Presentation
Pamela Ex:
In an earlier module, we talked about cultural programming as the lessons
learned from our parents and teachers and our community. But not all
programming may be positive or beneficial. Indeed, our community may
pass along beliefs about other people or groups that are untruthful or
unfavorable. These beliefs may be biases a prejudice for or against a
person or a group.
Recent research in Neuroscience tells us that humans are hardwired to
categorize people as a member of an ‘in group’, people like me, or a
member of an ‘out group’, people unlike me. ‘In group’ people with similar
traits or experiences are judged more positively and as less threatening,
while ‘out group’ people with different traits and experiences are assessed
more negatively and as potentially dangerous. Additionally, our positive
biases predispose us to look for commonalities and ways to connect. Well
negative biases incline us to discriminate or harshly judge others in ways to
be unwarranted, unkind, or even illegal.
Biases can be either conscious or unconscious. ‘Conscious bias’ involves
the awareness to judge someone in a certain way and these behaviors are
largely intentional. ‘Unconscious bias’ reflects deep seated beliefs that
seem to be automatic or outside one's awareness and often surface without
a great deal of deliberation or reflection.
While psychologists enumerate many kinds of biases, we have chosen for
that may be activated when we find ourselves in multicultural groups.
‘Affinity bias’ means we have more favorable impressions of people who
are similar to us in one or several ways, or ‘in group’ people. Affinity bias
can manifest itself in hiring decisions or in forming teams, as we gravitate
to people from similar backgrounds or with similar beliefs. The danger of
this preference is disregard or elimination of diverse candidates, which
research has proven to contribute to more effective and creative working
groups. This bias can also border on illegal discrimination, especially
according to the laws of many nations and organizations.
With ‘confirmation bias’, we favor ideas that confirm what we already know,
we seek information to bolster that opinion even if it's wrong or misguided.
We may also ignore or discount information that contradicts our stand. The
danger of confirmation bias is eliminating evidence we may consider
contrary but which may be correct or more helpful.
The ‘Halo’ or ‘horn’ effect applies when we tend to see one good or one
bad aspect of a person, and then extrapolate that one thing to apply to an
overall assessment. If someone did me a favor or agrees with me, I might
tend to look favorably on that person and overlook their less-pleasing
characteristics. I judge them to be a good person. Conversely, if someone
made one mistake, I might evaluate all their abilities as less than
satisfactory. This bias discourages the inclusion of a wider array of
information, which might help us form a more accurate and complete
picture.
And ‘internalized bias’ is when we believe positive or negative stereotypes
that others hold about us or our group. People who are members of
minority groups absorb the incessant messages of disapproval from the
majority, such that they may begin to doubt their own self worth, constant
discrimination, microaggressions, and exclusion cause critical
psychological and physical pain, as well as create deeply stratified
societies.
We study biases to increase our awareness of our automatic assessments
of others and to design ways to work towards minimizing negative biases
for greater inclusiveness of people and ideas.
Young Professionals Video
Andre Ball gives a personal example of how people often unconsciously
resort to stereotypes:
Stereotypes
Andre Ball:
I've had, I've definitely had experiences where I would be talking to
somebody on the phone, several experiences, a lot of experiences,
actually, and people that I've never met before, and then meeting them in
person, I've had people come up to me and say, you know, just based on
our phone conversations, I didn't expect to see you, you know. And when I
hear things like that, I think, well, I don't know who else you would expect to
see, but I kind of understood as I grew older what that kind of meant. You
know, you people, again, would maybe expect someone who speaks a
specific way to maybe look a specific way, someone who sounds maybe a
specific way to act or be a certain way, right. And, you know, me being
black, I guess, and I would imagine that would be a major piece of it, um,
and, and speaking maybe in the way that I do, which is my, the way I
naturally speak, they might not have picked up that I was black, or maybe
they might not have picked up that I, you know, that I am the way that I am
or that my mannerisms the way that I am. So, yeah, that experience, it
definitely happens. And I think, again, it's based on that type of expectation
that a lot of people have, those expectations come from a lot of different
places.
What's interesting, and the reason why I'm intentional about saying that, is
because I myself have who have gotten that that comment from varies. So
I've gotten that comment from a bunch of different people, white, black, you
know, Hispanic, Filipino, bunch of different people. And, and I think, too,
you know, is it like a black person saying “you sound white”, or Hispanic
person saying “you sound white”, or white person saying “you sound white”,
that carries some sort of like weight to it? I don't know. Um, and then the
other piece of it, too, is like, again, we're all human. For me, I've, you know,
when I talk to somebody on the phone, I automatically have an image of
them in my head, you know, and, you know, if I feel you know, if I picture
this somebody to be white, black, or Hispanic or whatever, it might pop up
in my head. And, and then I'll meet them in person and I will be, I will be
surprised, you know, I'll be like, whoa, you know, I didn't, I wouldn't have
imagined. I guess what I would change is like, how I express that, ow I
express that surprise. I guess I wouldn't tell the person I wouldn't say, “Oh, I
didn't expect you to be this way, your sound this way”. But that in itself, like
not saying it and be thinking it is something else, you know. Me thinking it is
kind of related to what I was saying before about practicing being mindful
and being open. But yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, it's, it's hard for me to say
that, you know, people think I sound white. Because I've also had people
say that I sound like something else. Like, oh, you sound like an educated,
like black person, you know, like, you sound sound like, like my cousin and
the cousin was like, I don't know, from Trinidad or something like that. So
I've had a wide spectrum of people say I sound like, I guess a specific, like,
sound like somebody that they either heard of or heard from. And I don't
know, I can generalize and say that, but it's, it's hard for me to say directly
because I don't, I don't think that's always true. I don't always think that
people think I sound white. But, I do think I can say this I guess, now that
I'm really thinking about it, I can say that maybe people don't want to talk to
me over the phone, they don't think I'm black. So that could be definitely
something I could say. If I'm talking to somebody over the phone. I've had
experiences where people have talked to me over the phone and we’ve
never met and when they meet me in person, they have expressed that I
didn't look the way that they were expecting and for some people, I would
assume that would mean that they did not think that I was black by the way
that I spoke.
Biases are both negative and positive; the key to understanding biases is
the realization that they (mostly) unconsciously affect our attitudes and
behaviors toward others.
Biases have the greatest impact when we act without thinking. When
engaging with others, particularly those from another culture, one should be
more deliberate in acting. Take your time, assess the situation and the
context, seek out information, and be intentional.
Be reflective—a reflective person takes his or her time and thinks things
through and also considers the larger context, meaning and implications of
an action or situation.
Try the following activities to challenge your own understanding of yourself:
●​ Make a list of ways in which you think your culture is different than
other cultures. As an example, is your culture more or less tolerant of
differences, or of individualism? How does your culture view
change?
●​ “Circle of Trust” activity: Make a list of six to ten people that you trust
the most who are not members of your family. Then make a note of
the following characteristics by each name: age, gender, nationality,
native language, accent, race/ ethnicity, professional background.
You can add other characteristics if you wish. After going through the
list, how diverse are your most trusted friends? How much are they
like you? Like each other? What does the fact that you have
significant diversity or minimal diversity among those you trust the
most tell you about affinity bias?
The reflective person is often viewed as a constant learner. What do you
think that means? Can you think of tools you can use or ways you can be
more reflective? Share your thoughts in the discussion below.
Practitioner Voices: Biases
Practitioner Voices 1: Dr. Kerley Most
When encountering another person, the human brain automatically scans
for safety and connection. If these criteria are not met, then negative
reactions and fear may ensue. If the brain is satisfied, then it allows for the
initiation of an intercultural relationship and an assessment of worthiness of
the other people.
Need for Safety
Kerley Most:
If you remember, we were talking about a brain and scanning for safety and
scanning for connection. Because our brain needs to feel safe and feel
connected, the brain brands for survival. And it's a biological, neurological
thing to scan a room and go towards the person that looks like you,
Because it's automatic, it’s similarity, and if this person is similar, it's more
likely that this person is not going to be from a different tribe that will attack
me. So it's a brain question.
So the first dive is that bias is a biological, natural brain reaction to the
different. Everybody has bias. Everybody experiences this natural brain
reaction. When I walk in a room, I will scan for people that look like me, that
is my brain. One piece. The second piece is that we, the bias that we
experience today in the world, is embedded into history, and there is a high
historical meaning today that we need to understand. So in the 19th
century, in order to justify colonialism and slavery, there was a very intense
movement by anthropologists to define the races of the world. Euro
Branchat in the 19th century, created the racial pyramid, and he placed
Caucasians, people from Euro descendants on top of the pyramid and
described Caucasians as the most desirable. So this is the second dive. If
they had stopped just by ascribing vocations at the most desirable would
be not so great. I don't like the idea. But after that what follow was a
worldwide campaign to portray people of different races or ethnicity as less
than, as ugly, and as less capable, and not as smart. There was people
were even measuring brains and saying, “Oh, this, this is cool. It's cute, that
it doesn't think so”.
From that time, there was this bad rap of anybody that is different from this
standard that is being white, or from Euro, from European descendants.
You add those to the brain already feels the difference. If 24/7 I'm
bombarded with messages that they are dangerous, they are different, so
my bias is going to be very heightened and my perception of the other is
going to really be very challenging to shift. And you do not need to go too
far. If you look at ads, if you look at movies, if you look at everything else,
and some movies are more stereotyped, you see that every other race of
the world, when the, when the Euro descendants are not so many but the
world is identified as defined by whiteness as the standard. Everything else
you see is them and us because if there is a them, we can hurt them, and
we can abuse, and you can call her allies. If this as we have the right to do
so. So this is important. Let's dive but let's emerge now. It's impossible for
me to work as a humanitarian anywhere in the world without understanding
that because my biases, who I decide that it's worthy and who I decided
that is unworthy, is going to play a role in everything I do.
Due to history and the legacies of colonialism and slavery, race and
ethnicity are very strong factors in our biases, for almost all groups of
people. Embedded in these biases are the factors of power and privilege.
And, as Kerley notes, the humanitarian field, despite the goals of bringing
help and relief to those in need is not immune from biases, stereotyping
and discrimination. So, the first step in countering the harmful effects of
biases is greater awareness of ourselves and our own biases.
It is highly unlikely that you will eliminate all of your biases. But you can
ensure that you limit the effect of your biases and you can prevent those
biases turning into acts of discrimination.
Discrimination is “the denial of justice, resources and fair treatment of
individuals and groups (often based on social identity), through
employment, education, housing, banking, political rights, etc.” [as defined
by the Anti-Defamation League]
As we noted earlier, everyone has biases. To point that out is not to be
critical, point fingers or assume bad intentions. It means that we all have to
work to recognize and overcome those biases. And we have to ensure that
our biases don’t lead to acts of bias or discrimination on our part. As
Kerley notes in this next section, one of the best ways to overcome biases
is to find connections with people who are different than ourselves. Making
such connections and developing relationships will be a fundamental
component of the rest of this course.
Practitioner Voices 2: Dr. Kerley Most
As the brain pursues safety and connection, it also assesses differences. If
the brain perceives these differences in a non-threatening way, then people
can accept others more easily.
Assessment of Differences
Kerley Most:
The human brain is programmed naturally to scan for cues of safety and
connection. So, if I want to be effective in my habit or of behaviors, in order
to be accepted by the community, in my first initial connection with this
community, it's vital that I manage my personal energy and that I use my
body, my eyes, everything in me to communicate acceptance and respect.
So because of bias, and because of the way we see the world, we see, it's
not our fault, you see ads on TV, help the hungry children. So in normally,
they are not from a European dominant ancestry. So in your mind, you're
programmed to discredit people, because you don't see them as worthy. It’s
not conscious.
So when you go into a international setting where people are different from
you and they mirror what you have seen on TV, your first body energy
reaction will be to disconnect from the person who thought of you, because
of the messages they have received, you are unworthy. So as a person
who as a humanitarian that worked with the different organizations and war
African clauses, as a black person, many times people connecting with me
had no idea that I was a expat, that I was a proceeding humanitarian
working with them. They thought I was the person from the host culture.
And that was an amazing difference in the way that people will receive me.
When they knew that I was a humanitarian, they interest, they were
interested in what I did, who I was. When they perceived me as a person
from the host culture, there was this automatic disconnect. And that is what
we need to pay attention in order to be effective, no quick fixing words of
affirmation, these are that, I cannot provide you with the list. But I know that
energy is very important because the brain is constantly scanning for cues
of safety. And people who have experienced this clusion will have a very
acute sense of safety enough, cues of acceptance. And if we learn to
manage our energy the way you encounter that space and use cues of
acception, then our ability to to be accepted by the new community
increases greatly.
What do you think Kerley means by “cues of acceptance”? What might
such cues be and how can we both perceive them and use them to
reassure others?
Practitioner Voices 3: Dr. Kerley Most
Sitting with the discomfort of difference is very challenging, but it can also
create a space for dialogue, openness, learning and connection.
Assessment of Similarities
Kerley Most:
Was a story that I read of this African American male, that he was super tall
and had a deep voice, and he wanted to be a primary in, a primary teacher,
primary school teacher, he could he, it was very hard for him to find a job
because the other teachers found him threatening. It had nothing to do with
his behavior, had to do with the perception of tall and deep voice
threatening because the brain sends the image then it's, it's, it's a
challenging business, but a beautiful business when you decide to sit with
the discomfort in your body and confront it, and take a deep breath and say,
“Okay, I'm gonna sit with my discomfort and I'm going to ascribe worthiness
and get involved in this relationship and do not disconnect”.
So it's liberating when we are able to sit with the different and be open,
because then relationships and connections help to challenge biases.
Every biases I've had have been challenged by relationships. So when I'm
coming up and I said to myself enough, you know, become curious to
engage in conversation, then I can develop a relationship and that
relationship shifts is my perspective. Oh, that perception was not accurate.
So, it’s a long road.
Those who want to work in different cultures must be open to differences
ad discomfort. And the best way to overcome that discomfort and
transcend differences is through the development of relationships with
people. Relationships and the trust and comfort that comes with them will
help both people change their perceptions and attitudes so that biases can
shift if not change altogether and the consequences of biases can be
overcome.
A relationship with someone helps us build the trust and connections
necessary to understand and value the differences between us.
It is often important to have a pause button. Don’t be afraid to admit that
you don’t know something or don’t know exactly what to do and ask for
time to reflect on a problem or challenge.
An interpersonal relationship is a social association or connection
between people. A relationship may have differing levels of intimacy and
sharing, but is usually centered around things shared in common.
Conclusion
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
What types of common ground do you think make for the best connections
or the basis of a meaningful relationship? Do you think common ground
can be found between you and someone from another culture as easily as
it is between you and some.one from your own culture?
Chapter 4: Culture Shock & Adaptation
We need to recognize that culture shock is a normal disruption when
crossing boundaries and that it’s possible to regain some equilibrium. It’s
also helpful to absorb a few fundamental truths about culture shock. First,
the greater the host culture differs from your own, usually the greater the
culture shock. Second, successful adaptation in one culture doesn't
necessarily guarantee successful adaptation in another. And third, practical
steps to accelerate the adaptation include pre-departure preparation and
identifying local cultural guides. It is also helpful to realize that the “shock”
of culture shock is real. It isn’t just a phrase or a value judgment but as a
way in which we have to re-orient our systems for the new encounters we
will face. Even with an open mind and a great attitude, emotionally and
physically we still need time to adjust.
At the same time, it is important to remind ourselves that we remain
grounded in our own culture and values even as we endeavor to respect
another person’s cultural ways. Eventually, our experience becomes our
guide and we become more receptive to the cues we often miss initially.
Asking questions helps. So too does having a mentor or someone who can
help us make sense of what we don’t understand. By taking the time to ask
questions of locals, we often discover whether we are asking the right
questions or whether we are framing or understanding a problem or
challenge in the most relevant way. Even reading books can be of help.
But, ultimately, there are no short cuts. We learn from experience along
with the guidance of others.
Culture Shock Animation
A new culture can sometimes feel like a new planet. You may be confused
or frustrated. Others may misunderstand or be frustrated by you. Minor
tasks can be overwhelming like buying food, standing in line, or even safely
crossing the street. The invisible cues you normally rely on are all gone.
This is culture shock. It's easy to spot cultural differences that you can see,
like clothes, language, and food, but harder to focus on cultural differences
that you can't see. Perceptions, beliefs, values. Tune in, observe, and try to
understand those things that can aid in your appreciation and adaptation.
Learning Objectives
●​ To acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes to better weather
culture shock, return to equilibrium and productivity, and build
resilience.
●​ To develop tools and strategies to become more culturally competent
and to overcome the feelings of frustration, confusion and
incompetence when nothing is familiar or routine.
●​ To understand the importance of investing oneself and one’s time in a
place and its people in order to emerge from culture shock and adapt
to an unknown culture.
●​ To recognize that engaging with the people you encounter and being
a good, active listener are the best means to being productive and
successful in a new culture.
Key Questions:
●​ How can we help build resilience when confronted with new and
unknown intercultural challenges?
●​ How can we diminish the effects of burnout or possible negative
interpretations of things we don’t understand about the host culture?
Young Professionals: Culture Shock in Zambia
Namiko Uno, former Regional Network Coordinator at the Burning Man
Project, discusses her first visit to Africa, in a very remote area.
Zambia Story - Part 1
Namiko Uno:
Before moving to Oakland, California, I spent seven months living and
learning in a rural village in Zambia. And originally, I had gone to Zambia to
visit my sister and her partner who were working in the Peace Corps, and I
went there originally for two weeks and ended up staying for seven months.
And so, I lived with them in the village and worked on projects with them,
and also worked at a nonprofit that was run by expats in the north of
Zambia. But the majority of my time was spent in a local village and in
Kalamu, and the village had no electricity, no running water, no paved
roads, and it was my first time traveling outside of the US or Europe. My
sister and her partner were my guides and translators in Zambia, they had
been working in the area for three years and we're really accustomed to the
culture and have developed fluent language skills. And so when I arrived, I
was able to be held in that environment and really get to know people right
away.
The first night I arrived in the village after a long, long bus ride and a long
bike ride, I was immediately welcomed in and invited to a neighbor's home
for dinner. And the village is really spread out and so we ended up biking
over there. And I was able to experience the the lush terrain, which was
very surprising to me. And I could see the groves of trees, and the fertile
ground, and bird singing in the trees and cicadas. And this was all very
unexpected because I had arrived with a condition, the kind of
homogeneous view of what quote unquote Africa should look like.
And so arriving at my neighbor's home for dinner, I saw the woman of the
house and I'll call her Ba Mayo. And that means that means woman in
Bemba, it's a term of endearment. And so I saw the Ba Mayo sweeping the
dirt floor in front of the hut, which was kind of surprising to me that you
would be sweeping a dirt floor. And then it was later it was something I
would come to really love is the care and the diligence to keep, keep a
home well maintained. And so, Ba Mayo was sleeping in front of, of this
small hut which was about the size of one of my old childhood bedrooms,
and the head itself was made out of cement and it had dried branches up
top, kind of as the roof. And as I approached the house, I also saw these
big like plumes of smoke rising up from a wood burning stove that sat just
adjacent to the house. And the stove was tucked under a partially covered
structure, a gazebo like kind of structure, that was called an insaka, this
place of gathering which also doubled as the outdoor kitchen.
And so after we greeted each other initially, it was time to eat and I was
invited into the home and I rinsed my hands and a bucket of water and
slipped off my shoes, I at least knew to do that growing up in a house that
did not wear shoes inside, so I took off my shoes and ducked under and
went inside. And it was really dark inside and it was kind of cold and it felt
small. And me being someone who's 5’10”, I felt like I was taking up a lot of
space. And so I made myself small, crouched down, and sat on the floor to
try and make some more room for other people. And then Ba Mayo came
up to me and she like handed me this wood carved stool, like gesturing for
me to sit on it, and I didn't want to take it you know, I wanted to convey that
I didn't need to be treated any any special manner, that I was like okay to
sit on the floor. And I was really trying to find some way to connect and say,
you know, I'm good on the floor, no special attention needed. But I saw that
she, she got a little bit more demanding in me taking the stool and her
voice raised, and I picked up on that. And so, I was I took the stool and I
sat kind of elevated above everyone else for the remainder of our meal.
And as the guest, I was the one who was invited to eat first right, and so I
picked up the serving dish and it was filled with this mushroom like stew, I
wasn't sure what it was, but I brought it really close to my face and I just
inhaled deeply and made this like hmm sound I'm really trying to convey my
enthusiasm and my gratitude. But when I, when I did that, I felt the energy
shift in the room, everyone went kind of quiet. And I opened my eyes and
looked around at everyone and I could see that my hosts were kind of
moving away from me, their mouths were shut tight, their eyes were a little
bit more hard hardened, and so my stomach turned and clenched and I felt
that I had offended them, right, which is the last thing that I wanted to do.
But I had clearly offended them and I wasn't sure why. And so all these
thoughts were going through my head, like was it that? Was it the sound I
made? Was that inappropriate? Did I touch the communal bowl? And was
this an issue of germs? Like was I smelling it and suggesting it might be
bad? Like I just, I wasn't sure. And so I tried to kind of make amends by
taking a big like heaping spoonful of this stew to show my gratitude. And in
doing so, I accidentally served myself about half of the bowl of stew, which
was meant to be dinner for five people. And I hadn't realize that until I
looked at my sister, and she gave me like, annoying look like a little
eyebrow raise in terms of like, what are you doing? Why are you taking so
much? And so, I picked up on that and went to put some of it back, which
also was an awkward thing to do. And so I, I just kind of sat there
awkwardly, not knowing how to move, how to be in that space. And to
break the silence, I asked my sister to translate for me. And I enquired
about what kind of stew it was. There was smells that I didn't recognize,
shapes I didn't recognize inside of the stew, and my sister told me that it
was meat stew. And so my neighbors, my new neighbors had killed one of
their chickens in order to honor my arrival in the village, and as she told me
this, I took it in I nodded my head slowly and my thoughts and my stomach
started to churn because I was vegetarian, I had been vegetarian for five
years. And so, really sat there with this dilemma of do I eat the stew and try
to be a good guest? Do I honor my own personal ethics and my bodily
health? And kind of stuck in that in between position. So I ended up eating
around the meat and then giving the meat to my sister's partner who then
explained to our hosts, like what vegetarianism was and really tried to
contextualize some of my behavior.
A key strategy in adapting to another culture is to develop meaningful ways
to engage with others and work to understand the history and values of the
culture. It is important to invest in listening to those you meet in another
culture, not just because for many people it is important to be heard but
also because the time invested helps one better understand a place and its
people. People working in conflict zones, peace-building missions and
international development often commit to lengthy engagements. After their
initial adaptation, they must cultivate long-term resilience in order to put
forth their best selves and work at capacity over months or years.
Practicing physical self-care such as sleeping and eating well and getting
exercise go a long way to building resilience. Nurturing human connections
at home and abroad provide welcome support and sustenance. Even
cultural differences we can see and intellectually comprehend may still
create some instability. There is a potential for system overload, even with
things that seem minor, so we need to pace ourselves. Also beneficial to
sustaining momentum is a return to the initial motivation and passion for
international work: helping others, reducing conflict, altruism or a desire to
make a difference, escape, and adventure seeking, which can inspire us to
muster through the culture shock and return to balance and stability.
Scenario: Laundry in Kenya
Podcast from Kim Cook
Cultural interaction and cultural sensitivity take place around everyday
issues and daily routines. Small things matter in the course of human
interaction and how we are perceived by others. Cultural competence is not
just about how we engage with another culture in a general sense but is the
product of interactions we have with others every day, including shopping,
eating together or washing clothes. How we act and how those actions
reflect upon who we are, our own identities and values is an ongoing part of
daily life. Being aware of one’s own power and privilege helps define us.
So does what we value and what we prioritize.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
We often think of cultural differences as manifesting around important
weighty issues. But often the most disorienting encounters are around
small, everyday things. What everyday issues, tasks or parts of your daily
routine would be most concerning for you if they had to be altered
significantly?
Young Professional Video: Style and
Communication
Young Professional Video
As Nate Wilson notes, how you conduct yourself and your style can often
help avoiding difficult intercultural situations. Nate points out that it may
often be important to rely on locals who understand the nuances of local
diplomacy as well as the subtleties of the language.
Style & Communication
Nate Wilson:
One of the challenges in working in a cross-cultural environment is simply
style and how messages are delivered. The default style for myself, and I
think for a lot of American colleagues, is to deliver messages in a relatively
straightforward way, but this is not always the way that Libyan colleagues
have tended to do so. The Arabic language, for example, lends itself, at
least sometimes when spoken, to a sort of roundabout way of making
points and of going around certain things and saying them in a highly
diplomatic manner. And so, I rely, to a certain extent, on my you know
colleagues who speak the language and know what can and can't be said
in certain contexts to be able to get the point across so that my
counterparts know what we're talking about, but that the message is
delivered in a way that they will be receptive to it.
So for example, we deal with very difficult issues in Libya, and indeed since
I started working on the country portfolio years ago, there have been
severe bouts of conflict. And so, talking about things such as political crises
or conflict or reconciliation, these can be very sensitive things that we need
to treat with the sensitivity that they deserve because we're dealing with
people's lives and they may have been personally affected by these various
aspects of life right now. And so to do so, I rely on a different kind of
language and a way of using language in a way that it will be received well
and we can accomplish our goals in the country.
So one aspect of advanced communication that really is best comes over
time, but it's something to be aware of constantly when working with people
from another culture, is the ability to make references. So the cultural
references are extremely important to people and they by themselves
they're not going to get the work done, but they helps smooth the path for it.
For example, I learned over time that Libyans are quite proud of the meat
that's produced within Libya and they call it “laham watani”, and this is
something that I can compare when they come to workshops in Tunisia and
it is not a “laham watani”, meaning Libyan meat and we can share a lament
that it's not, for example. But like I said, these kinds of cultural references
and the niceties before are not going to get the work done. Setting
expectations with partners and trying to understand where they're coming
from and what their real interests are as early in the process as possible,
and again taking the time to really ask follow-up questions about what they
mean by certain things, such as training or capacity-building, or even trips
abroad what they expect from those, is of the utmost importance because if
your interests are different than theirs, it's best to find out at the beginning
and have an understanding of to what extent you can meet their
expectations and to what extent you can’t. The issues that we've run into
and the challenges have been when their expectations, our partner's
expectations, are different than ours and we didn't discover until later.
Podcast 1: Johnny Walsh
Interpreting Gratitude
Johnny Walsh:
Well, one of my more unusual experiences during the year I spent serving
as a diplomat in Baghdad, really at the height of our troop surge, was the
President of Iraq had to have pretty serious open heart surgery. This is
Jalal Talabani, someone who I genuinely respected as a peacemaker. And
he had, the Mayo Clinic was one of the only places in the world that was
really equipped to handle all the contingencies that could come from an
older guy who wasn't in the best of shape, and who was very important.
And so that left me in the position as kind of the embassy's liaison to
Talabani of having to escort him to Rochester, Minnesota, suburban U.S.A,
along with about 25 or 30 paramilitary fighters who served as his personal
bodyguard. So this was already strange on the plane ride over because the
U.S. military provided a C 130, and they the way they move dignitaries
around is they insert a luxury capsule in the back of the plane that Taliban
in his wife slept in and then the rest of us, me and my my 25 closest
paramilitary buddies, all slept on the floor, kind of spooning each other. So
that was the first 30 hours of the adventure.
When we get out, we land in a town that might as well be my town, and that
was surreal enough. We escorted all of these folks to kind of cheesy
Mexican restaurant for their first dinner, we were all a little bit mortified as
Talabani ordered bottomless margaritas and burritos for everyone the night
before he goes into open heart surgery. He was really a character who
reveled in this. But where it became awkward was the next morning,
Talabani goes into the operating room, parenthetically I will say that he was
fine and remained the president for years after that, and his staff pulled me
aside. And one of the women who worked for him who I knew well said,
“John, this is from the President, you can't say no”. And she hands me an
envelope, and I'm saying, “Oh, God, I know what's in there”. And I opened
it up and it was $15,000 in cash in $100 bills. And so it should go without
saying that an American diplomat must not accept such a thing under no
circumstances but I would also hasten to add that this was not a bribe. This
was gratitude. This was a form of hospitality, as an old warlord plucked
from the high 20th century understood it, and it was meant as sincere
appreciation. In fact, I think it was specifically targeted at an offhand remark
I had made that I was going to visit the Mall of America after I was finally
released from the studio. So there was no giving it back to her or to the
President himself. There was one member of the entourage with the
President who had served in Washington in the past and kind of
understood the ethical principles that we are, as we understand them in the
United States, and to whom I could say, I simply can't accept this. It would
and should be the end of my career. And so he quietly made it go away. I
suppose there's an interesting question of what actually became of the
$15,000 that would not have been well spent on me. But I think I think the
important play there was to not allow this awkward situation to more deeply
undermine a relationship, which it in its own way could have if if the
American in that interaction had given real offense, or for that matter, trying
to report it, as a I did report it as something that had happened, but it tried
to counter attack the President for doing so. So, I think it deescalated
reasonably in the end.
Johnny helps us understand how other cultures may have different notions
about what is polite and respectful. Johnny provides interesting insights
into how one might deftly handle an offering of a gift that could create
negative ramifications, including legal ones. In some cultures, it is
considered impolite to accept an offer of a gift rather than simply
acknowledging the gesture; in other cultures, refusing a very generous offer
might be considered very impolite.
We asked Johnny how he interpreted this gesture. What was the intention
behind the gift?
Podcast 2: Johnny Walsh
Understanding Intention
Johnny Walsh:
You know, it's absolutely meant to deepen a relationship. It's an attempt to
show respect and an opportunity for the person on the other side to show
respect in return. There's an already deep if complicated relationship
between the United States and the Kurds and the leadership of Iraq, this
was just a drop in the ocean in that larger relationship, but it's important.
And that moment repeats itself all the time for the casual traveler. Gestures
like this happen all the time and are meant to build relationships, maybe to
overcome some of the things that hold us apart. And even if we come into
them with different understandings of what a discreet gesture means, if we
can identify on both sides the quest for mutual respect and mutual
affection, maybe that helps us to step above some of the differences in this
case in the rules that govern our jobs.
I think that many places around the world, by no means limited to Iraq, take
acts of hospitality and gestures of gratitude very seriously. I think that
versions of this exist in many places around the world, I don't think it always
takes the form of cash, it might take, it might take the form of, you know, an
artifact or a big silver bowl or something like that. But all of those can have
cash as their route, and I make no judgment about what the ethics are in
another society. And as Americans, sometimes we have to be open to
receiving the gesture, even if in this case we can't receive the physical item
in any permanent way. And me coming from a generally modest, austere
Catholic background, there's an impulse to say, “Oh, I couldn't possibly” or
“Oh, no, thank you”. And that's our notion of polite, it's not necessarily the
other side's notion of polite, and it can come across as, to is a very
American concept. So be open to accepting the magnanimous gesture.
And then if need be taking additional steps later.
Johnny quickly understood the unspoken message the monetary gift was
meant to communicate. Yet, if he had refused the gift, then what?
Podcast 3: Johnny Walsh
Reflecting on Meaning & Message
Johnny Walsh:
It would come across as the rejection of hospitality or the rejection of a gift
done in kindness. Senior officials encounter versions of this when they
travel, including to see Talabani, and they receive very elaborate formal
diplomatic gifts that they can't reciprocate, and they can't in any personal
way except. And so, there are elaborate rituals set up so that they can in
the moment receive the thing and then file it away into the warehouses of
the State Department so that they're not personally benefiting from their
job. In a way that's the same way of de escalating like to, it allows us to
appreciate the gesture, allow the ceremony of the thing to a degree, without
actually violating some very important rules that keep American officials in
line.
Understanding the history of a place or a community can deepen many
conversations and even help open doors and is a way to strengthen how
we engage with others from another culture. It is often important in
developing a personal relationship to give that person an opportunity to
open up about their own history or how they view the broader history of
their country or culture. For the outsider, it may be particularly important to
acknowledge the suffering of others. To do so can often open the door to
making a human connection. It is important to be both non-judgmental and
authentic. Thus, cultural competence doesn’t require you to be someone
you are not.
Presentation: Cultural Adaptation
An easy-to-understand model of cultural adaptation outlines a W-curve with
five distinct phases. While all of us sojourners will pass through this
W-curve, the speed with which we travel and the extremes of the highs and
lows we experience will vary by person and the circumstances we
encounter. For personal and professional purposes, we strive to learn as
we go, to attain cultural competency in our new environments and
confidence in our interactions. Understanding this complex process can
hasten our adaptation.
Understanding Cultural Adaptation
Pamela Ex:
Let's assume for a moment that you've just been asked to travel abroad for
a short term project. This is your first time to this country. Intellectually, you
know that the culture and language will be different. You've prepared by
talking to people from that country, you've watched the videos, and you've
read all of the briefing documents. But upon arrival, you're totally
overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells. You attend your first
meeting and half the people don't show up and the other half now dismiss
everything you had agreed upon previously by e-mail. The key decision
maker was called away due to a family emergency, a rainstorm has
knocked out the electricity, and anyway, you forgot your adapter plug. You
are now experiencing culture shock.
Gary Weaver, a professor who researched cross-cultural adjustment
stress, outlined 3 causes of culture shock. In the short term, the loss of
familiar cues causes you to feel unmoored without guidelines to direct your
behavior. The breakdown of interpersonal communications caused by
language barriers and different body language diminishes your competence
and therefore your confidence to make decisions that would normally be
easy in your own culture. For long-term dwellers abroad, an identity crisis
may descend and raise questions about who you are, since you may have
absorbed aspects of the new culture while discarding elements of your
native culture. Weaver identified a W curve and these five stages that take
people through the adaptation cycle: honeymoon, culture shock, surface
adjustment, crisis, and adaptation.
The high honeymoon phase is accompanied by excitement about the new
and different, and sometimes unrealistic expectations, about how smooth
the adaptation process will be. The downward culture shock trend plunges
you down, and this occurs when initial difficulty service around
communication and just the details of daily living. As you begin to adjust,
you will rise again in the curve, and that means that some equilibrium has
been reestablished around routines and the accomplishment of basic tasks.
You're probably also creating some relationships that enable you to learn
more about that culture. A major change, a crisis, or a conflict can cause a
second dip, and the impact of cultural differences and how truly they
influence your adaptation may exacerbate the expectation that you'll quickly
return to equilibrium. In the last rising stage adaptation, you have gained
enough intercultural competence to establish relatively smooth living and
working patterns, and you've probably invited a community of support to be
your friends, neighbors, and people that you can confide in.
As people travel along the W curve in cultural adaptation, their short-term
goal is to reestablish some equilibrium and the ability to function
adequately. The longer-term goal, of course, is to increase your
competence in that new culture and function at a higher level. In general,
the more similar the new culture is to your own culture, the shorter and
shallower the W curve may be, while the opposite is also true. Some
people just adapt more easily than others and so everyone will have their
own personal W curve.
How can we accelerate our adaptation and reduce the impact of culture
shock? It's very important to distinguish between some of the superficial
and deep differences. While some differences are obvious, such as dress
or the way you walk on the sidewalk, these can be learned easily, while
others are more deep under the surface and will take some time to learn
and adapt to, such as how you might address people that have different
roles and have different relative positions to you. Learn to ask questions,
find a cultural guide, read, experiment, and just be a good observer about
the cultural characteristics that people are displaying around you. Build
some resilience, learn to take the small bumps and stride, and prepare for
and adapt to the larger cultural differences you will encounter. What
happens when you get blindsided by an unexpected event, a critical
mistake, or a betrayal? Try to understand the situation more deeply before
you take action, gather information and solicit advice from friendly locals
that might give you some deeper insight, and then evaluate your options,
select one, and move ahead cautiously. In the end, taking a philosophical
approach might be helpful. You're in a new place, things will be different,
you don't know what you don't know, things will get easier over time, have
patience, and most importantly, enjoy the ride. What you learn, and as you
adapt, and as you get more successful, you can share that information and
pay it forward to help the next new arrival in that culture.
It is inevitable that we will act insensitively or do something culturally
inappropriate. It is important to be mindful of the consequences of our
actions. You won’t be perfect and your impact will rarely ever be a small
ripple but if you are receptive to change and work on being more culturally
competent, to learn and grow, the community will become more open to
accepting and working with you. It is important to be a constant cultural
learner. The respect of others is gained both by being able to adapt and
change while also remaining true to yourself. Don’t retreat or withdraw
when things don’t go as planned or envisioned. At some point, the
enthusiasm and wonder of being in a new place will wear off. You may
often feel embarrassed, misunderstood and incompetent. But rather than
becoming withdrawn or passive, continue to learn, work to connect, and
always stay engaged. There are rarely short cuts to understanding another
culture.
Feeling comfortable in another culture comes with preparation and an
investment of time in order to have meaningful engagement with others and
potentially a relationship. Learn about the history and traditions of a new
culture. Demonstrate to those you meet that you are interested in them
and their culture. Find areas of common ground by talking about your own
culture and interests. To do so helps make the unfamiliar less disorienting
and strange.
Engagement is when one actively attracts and keeps the interest of
another. It requires an investment of time and attention and a desire that
the interaction is meaningful for both.
To acknowledge another is to recognize her or his worth, validity or
legitimacy. Acknowledgement is the acceptance of the truth or existence of
something.
Culture shock refers to our emotional and psychological (and sometimes
physical) reactions when we become disoriented in another society from
losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse and the
resulting adjustments we must make in order to adapt to this new and
confusing situation.
A cultural guide is a local person local people who can help an outsider
interpret those unfamiliar behaviors and attitudes they will come across in
that culture.
Activity: Understanding Yourself
Try the following activities to challenge your own understanding of yourself:
1. Think of a time when you have visited a different country or if you haven’t
traveled abroad think of a time and place when you were a stranger. Did
anything shock you or was anything out of the ordinary? If so, were you
affected physically? Were you affected psychologically? Were there any
specific cultural differences that you would attribute to any culture shock
you felt? List what you think are some of the causes of culture shock.
2. Ideal Country Exercise (developed by NAFSA, the Association of
International Education)
This is an interesting exercise to do with more than one person, but can
also be done alone:
You are to develop your vision of the country where you would most like to
live.
First, give your country a name. Then draw a map of your country and label
it. Include the relevant geographical features—mountains, rivers, seacoast,
harbor, forests, etc. and name them. Then design and make a flag and
compose a national anthem. Then make a chart or table giving important
facts about your country. Include the following:
●​ Size (land area)
●​ System of government
●​ Climate
●​ Natural resources
●​ Energy source
●​ Population and demographics
●​ Language(s)
●​ Religion(s)
●​ Style of dress
●​ Diet
●​ Education
●​ Transportation system
●​ Sports
●​ Holidays
●​ Economy
●​ Health care
●​ Culture
●​ Tourist attractions
Practitioner Voices: Adaptation and Resilience
Practitioner Voices 1: Dr. Kerley Most
When working in different cultures, how we react to and process new
experiences can create a blueprint for deeper cultural understanding and
long-term adaptation and resilience.
Adaptation & Resilience
Kerley Most:
I think it's very important to be open to adapt to new situations. So people
who are resilient are people who just deal with what's presented before
them and adapt quickly.
I was in this big bus and wearing African clothes, I had the head wrap. And
I sat, and suddenly, this man comes and he said, he sits on my lap. And I'm
like, “Oh my God, he’s sitting on my lap, he’s sitting on my lap!” And I
looked around, everybody was just sitting there going about their business,
and some other people were sitting in people's lap too. And then I said,
‘Okay, relax’. Because the world's going to be very different, and we need
to adapt to what comes to us.
But the other very important point also, that is connected to their ability to
adapt, is self-awareness and self-regulation, the ability to sit with
discomfort, manage discomfort internally without showing it outwardly. I
could have told the man to and get out. He had no idea that I was going
through this process, but ability to self-regulate helps to adapt better and to
become more self aware.
The first way that you can connect with your energy is paying attention to
your body. When you, the brain will try to do only two things to keep you
safe and to help you to connect with others. In order to connect, the brain
first is going to check the environment to see that you're safe. So your body
is going to feel constricted in a new environment, when everybody else
looks different from you. So it's a natural body reaction. So, when I'm aware
of my body, in this natural body reactions, I can tell myself, “Oh, this is
normal. It's just my brain telling me to be safe, I'm safe. I'm here because I
want to be here”. So you can take deep breaths, connect with your body,
and manage your energy into yourself. “I'm here because I want to be here.
The people I see before me are potential friends”, and then my energy
shifts. And another way, a very quick tip to shift my energy when I am in
international encounters is to tell the intern to my mind, the internal mantra.
“This person in front of me is the super celebrity I love. This person in front
of me is the celebrity I'm crazy about!” Because that will shift their energy to
like, “ah, what about you please tell me about you. What do you eat for
breakfast?” That change the energy also.
As Kerley notes, adapting to a new culture is usually physically and
emotionally draining. You will need physical and emotional energy, so it is
important to find ways to recharge oneself. That means staying physically
active. It is also critical to remaining mentally and emotionally active. Pay
attention to and tend to those needs. That can also mean purposefully
engaging with other people to avoid loneliness and becoming isolated. At
the same time, you should also make time for yourself and your needs.
Conclusion
Above all, remain mindful that feeling a sense of empathy for yourself is as
important to the emphasis on listening to others. It is important to cultivate
the ability to tune into yourself. Humor is also helpful, and while
acknowledging our shortcomings is an important tool in terms of humility in
relationships, hanging onto those shortcomings is rarely helpful. Let go,
breathe, and do your best.
Good attitude doesn’t automatically overcome the impact of the unfamiliar
on our physiology. The encounter with a new culture brings a shock, a host
of stimuli to your system that is new and unfamiliar. Give yourself time to
adapt, and know that you will begin to acclimate to culture as you go, as
you learn, and as you come to understand more about the context and
history of the place and people where you’ve arrived.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below and share with others
below. Read and respond to other posts as well.
How do you keep up your physical and emotional energy? How do you
think you might have to modify that in a new and foreign environment?
Chapter 5: Intercultural Communication
Simply put, intercultural communication is how people of different cultures
try to make sense of each other. Intercultural communication is how we
communicate across different cultural contexts. It can refer to
communications across different religions, ethnicity or gender as well as
differences across cultures, nationalities and regions. Intercultural
communication implies much more than a basic transmission of
information; it is the interaction between two unique persons that gives the
communication meaning. What is the meaning that is intended and how is
it perceived? Good intercultural communications are strong when people
work to understand the meaning and intentions of others in non-judgmental
ways. In doing so, the interaction and the communication contributes to
greater cultural synergy. Good intercultural communications incorporate
the diverse thoughts and perspectives of people from different cultures.
Strengthening our intercultural communication skills and tools will help us
interpret information in the way the speaker intended. To do so is
enhanced when we can find common ground or common meanings for
words and by recognizing our common experience of similar events or
ideas. Over the course of our interaction, the communication moves
beyond one person’s intended meaning and the other’s interpretation to a
place of mutual creation of meaning across cultures. In this chapter, we will
look at some common cross-cultural communication challenges and five
dimensions of communication that will illustrate how to dissect
communication patterns in order to adapt your communication style to your
host culture more effectively.
Cultural Synergy Course: Smile Animation
“Peace begins with a smile”, Mother Teresa.
A smile, so simple, so universal, and so easily understood by all, right?
Smiles can convey lots of different meanings. A smile can be friendly, or
joyous, or devious, or even disingenuous. In some cultures when people
interact with each other, the focus is on the mouth. But in other cultures, the
focus is on the eyes. For example, in the United States, the emoticon for
crying is denoted ( :-( ), the downturned mouth. In Japan, the emoticon for
crying is written ( ;.; ), the tearful eyes. How people communicate differs
widely across cultures through both verbal and nonverbal gestures.
Learning Objectives:
●​ Demonstrate how to use communication skills to build relationships
and reduce misunderstandings among people of different cultures.
●​ Practice active listening and display neutral body language to
facilitate open and trusting communication.
●​ Heighten understanding that confusion in a different cultural
environment is natural, which is why self-awareness and humility are
so important.
●​ Become aware of the importance of non-verbal communications in
many cultures and be mindful of body language, expression and tone
of voice.
Key Questions:
●​ How can I improve my observation skills and adapt my
communication style in ways that build productive relationships?
●​ Can I be alert to communication cues and make sure I am prioritizing
relationships before acting on goals and tasks?
●​ How can I learn to ask open-ended questions to enhance
communication and reduce bias and conflict?
●​ What do I need to do to strengthen how I communicate to avoid
misunderstandings and misperceptions?
●​ How can I better understand the meaning of what someone from
another culture wishes to convey?
Scenario: Western Africa
When in another culture, we often find ourselves in situations where it is
difficult to know how we should communicate in order for others to
understand our meaning and our intentions. This is made even more
difficult when we are in a group setting where more than one culture has
come together.
Podcast from Laurette Bennhold Samaan:
Fish Out of Water
Laurette Bennhold Samaan:
A time that I felt like a fish out of water was probably the time when I spent
in Japan for a short period of time. Obviously, I knew I was going to a
different culture, I knew I was going to look different, I knew that I didn't
know Japanese. So, all of those expectations were set prior, that it was
going to be different. However, when I got there, it was much more different
than I expected, I felt much more like a fish out of water. I was given a list
of ‘do’s’ and ‘don'ts’, there were 22 of them, and I memorized all those lists
of ‘do’s’ and ‘don'ts’ and I had them down 100%. I had done some of those
‘do’s’ and it was obviously a ‘don't’. So, what I learned was that a ‘do’s’ and
‘don'ts’ only go so far. Of course, they're essential for security reasons and
safety reasons, but taken out of context, a ‘do’ and one context is a ‘don't’
in another. So, I later learned that that list of 22 ‘do’s’ and ‘don'ts’ for my
experience was written for an older male. So, I was a younger female, o
what I was doing was inappropriate many times.
Some of the other things in Japan that really surprised me and I wasn't
familiar with or expecting was every morning, most of the staff would get
together and do group exercises and it was a way to build team spirit and
build engagement, which I actually then tried to bring it back to my next
role, it didn't work so well in a different culture. And what I also didn't realize
was that every paper that we received had people's personal stamps on
them, and it almost reminded me of as a child where you have little rubber
stamps and you stamp pieces of paper. So, these rubber stamps were
placed all over the page, again I couldn't read Japanese, and they had
given me my own personal stamp, which of course I felt very proud of, and
I stamped it on the paper showing my approval. The next day at a meeting,
I obviously had done something wrong, and didn't exactly know what I had
done wrong, but I placed my stamp upside down which means disapproval.
So, here was a situation where you don't know what you don't know,
andcertainly even on a list of ‘do’s’ and ‘don'ts’, that would have been
helpful to know but I couldn't have read the Japanese to know whether it
was upside down or not, so I would have needed a cultural informant or
someone to advise me as to what the stamp is, where it should go, and
how it should go. So, I have always tried to find a person that could be this
cultural bridge person for me and in my life, especially when I'm living or
working overseas.
Other factors that complicate our capacity to communicate across cultures
are gender, religion and other specific factors of identity that shape who
someone is. And, in many instances, context matters. What is acceptable
in one place may be problematic someplace else, even between the same
two people.
Podcast from Juan Diaz Prinz:
A Simple Greeting
Juan Diaz Prinz:
So one really tiny example, which has to do with gender in the Islamic
world, was that I had a very modern female counterpart, who I assumed
shared a very European Western understanding of relationships, and I had
said hello to everybody in the room, mostly women and most of them were
European, and I had, Europeans give two kisses, and I gave two kisses to
everybody in the room and I got to her and I gave her two kisses, and she
whispers in my ear “Thank God my husband is not here, he would kill you”,
and then she smiled and I was a little shocked. And she smiled to me she
said, “That was a joke” in a kind of way, and I never ever, ever even gave
her my hand again. And that was really, I was so shocked by that
comment. We've stayed friends, we continue to work together, but I
realized that I was putting her in jeopardy, and I was putting myself in
jeopardy, and that's, that was a long time ago in my career right, I was very
young. But then, that also triggered me, why do you have to give two kisses
to people that you don't know, which is a very European thing to do? But
then I realized well, why do you have to do any of that? Obviously, for some
people it's uncomfortable and you don't know if the person wants to be
kissed or not on the cheeks, so I just stopped kissing people, anybody you
know. And I decided, I could suspend with all of that was my understanding
of how you say hello and that's not necessarily everybody else's
understanding of how you say hello. So, there was a moment there where I
had to really take into consideration that some of my behavior may not be
culturally acceptable in other societies, and that might even put people at
risk. However, coming back to what we were talking about, I found that if I
am, if I suspend judgment of the people, if I'm genuinely curious about how
to work with them and help them and what the story that they're trying to
tell, if I genuinely live the concept of empathy which is to try to understand
their reality.
How do you determine what is appropriate when you are greeting
someone? Do you have criteria for when to greet someone formally,
informally or even more intimately? Or do you go by a feeling at the time or
the specific context in which you find yourself?
Scenario: Miscommunication on Project
Timelines
As Sarah Fisk acknowledges in her upcoming podcast, people
communicate in different ways. And, in many societies, oral
communication, storytelling and metaphors are important ways in which
people try to convey what they mean and what their needs are. In order for
the outsider to understand that, patience and active listening becomes
critical. It is also necessary to understand how people use language. Some
languages are very descriptive and speakers use an overabundance of
words. Others are more sparse and words may have multiple meanings, so
body language and tone become even more important. Thus, it takes time
to understand how people communicate and what their meaning might be;
it is more than just a translation of the words. And, it is very difficult to
establish good lines of communication without investing in relationships
with those in the community.
Fiji Pt. 1
Sarah Fisk:
First of all, you have to understand, Fiji is a very relational society, and
everybody knows who they are based on who they're related to. And, when
you walk down the street and you pass someone, you say hello, you greet
them, you say “bula, bula, Vinaka bula, bula”, you know, you don't just walk
by people. Even in the city where people are rushing, if you watch people
walking down the street, they're sort of bobbing their heads at each other
as they go by, they're not just ignoring each other. And one time, I talked to
a Fijian friend and she said, “Why are white people so sad all the time?
Why are they so in a bad mood all the time? We feel really bad for white
people because they seem so sad and anxious, what are they scared of?”
And I was like, “I don't know, I don't know if they are sad”. And so I put
these two things together, that white people think, I mean Americans and
Australians and everything, that we think Fijians are shy, and the Fijians
think that we're sad or anxious or whatever. And what I realized is that, OK,
so this is how it happened, this is how it happened.
I was trying to learn Fijian, so I was asking my Fijian friends to tell me what
the words of the songs meant and learn the words. And there was this one
song and I said, “Well it's such a beautiful song, what's it about?” And
Joellie goes, “It's about a chicken”, and then Moses, he goes, “No it's not,
it's about a lighthouse”, and then Siliana goes, “It's about when you are in
love with someone but you have to let go”. And I said, “Wait a second,
what's the song about?”, and they all just burst out laughing, and I said,
“Well, what's this, let me learn the words. What does this word mean?” And
so there's a silence as everybody looked at the word and I was like, “You
can't tell me what the word means? Like what, I don't translate this
translate the word to English, what does this word mean?” and they started
talking in rapid Fijian amongst themselves and then Moses looks at me,
Moe, big Moe, he looks at me and goes, “Shut up, in English you have a lot
of words. In Fijian, we don't have so many words, so every word has to do
a lot of work and it means a lot of things”, and that was his explanation.
So, the reason I'm telling you this is because that sparked my interest, and
first of all, it explained why everyone would burst out laughing when I tried
to speak Fijian because I would say something like, “Have you seen my
blonde friend?” but what I was actually saying is “I have blonde pubic hair”,
and so everyone would like burst out laughing , because the words mean
both. Or you can say to a small child, you can say “mundri come here”,
which means’ you're so young you have no hair’, but it's also means
‘you've shaved your pubic area’. So it's like, everything is sort of an
off-color joke, so people are laughing constantly because they are. So, that
became interesting to me, and then I started paying further attention,
because he said we have fewer words, what I started to realize is that quite
a bit of the Fijian language has nothing to do with words spoken, it has to
do with body language, with eye contact, with very nuanced gestures, and
this explains so much to me that my experience in Fiji changed. It was like
night and day all of a sudden, I was actually having like 3 or four times as
much communication with people than I had been having before, and that's
why they think white people are anxious and sad is because they're not
making eye contact as you walk down the street. They're like, we're shut
down, we don't look at each other. They're looking at each other from far
away because they need to know who it is. Is it a relative, is it somebody
they need to relate to in a certain way? And so, the communication starts
from the first minute you see them coming like from a far distance and a lot
of the interchange happens nonverbally.
In cross-cultural encounters no matter how much you prepare, there is
always the unexpected. It is important to remember that cross-cultural
encounters are a combination of how you manage your expectations and
actions and how the other perceives your actions and intentions,
particularly as one’s intentions are not self-evident. Cultural
misunderstandings are often rooted in misperceptions about the other and
by oversimplified stereotypes. In some cultures, languages are very wordy
and have massive vocabularies to convey meaning; people in other
cultures rely on body language, gestures or tone. Both are very
expressive, but in different ways. Too often, we focus on the impact of
actions, but not on the intentions or motivations.
Context, therefore, becomes much more relevant and communication
occurs in many other ways than just the language. Communication,
understanding one another, building trust and developing a relationship
may be much more important and productive than working through an
agenda. It is very important to be able to read a situation and adjust
accordingly. The ability to do so depends on cultural awareness, being
prepared, and both active listening and understanding non-verbal cues.
Body language is a type of nonverbal communication that relies on body
movements (such as gestures, body posture, eye movement, voice
modulation, touch and facial expressions) to convey information or
meaning. Body language may be used consciously or unconsciously and
may accompany a verbal message or take the place of speech.
Have you found yourself making assumptions about what someone else
means or what they want? If so, did your assumptions lead to confusion or
cause any problems? Why do you think most people jump to conclusions
and make assumptions? Share your thoughts in the discussion below.
Presentation: Cross-Cultural Communication
Cross-cultural communication is imbued with so many layers and nuances
that professionals working in different cultures require prolonged interaction
with their hosts in order to better decode the verbal and non-verbal cues
and begin to proficiently use the range of communication methods. Among
the many ways to describe communication, we have chosen five
foundational dimensions that will enhance your decoding skills and enlarge
your range of appropriate responses.
Intercultural Communication Pt. 1
Pamela Ex:
It's easy to say that communication patterns differ across cultures as well
as languages, but we're going to present 5 dimensions of communication to
illustrate this. Please keep in mind that each dimension represents a
continua, or a range of styles, and individuals and cultures can appear or
move along many points in between the extremes.
Communicating respect for others can be shown through a willingness to
understand these cultural differences and trying to adapt, to a certain
extent, to different styles in order to build rapport and productive
relationships. Communicating across cultures involves finding a common
language, whether it's the exact same spoken language or a similar style of
communicating. It involves finding meaning that is relatively similar for all
parties. It may also involve simplification which may accelerate the speed
of communication, but which may lose nuance in the process.
Communicating across cultures always raises the possibility that
information is intentionally being omitted or distorted, and even with the
best of intentions, there are words or concepts that don't exist outside their
home language and translation can be convoluted, if not impossible, due to
cultural constructs unique to that culture.
Let's now explore these 5 dimensions to help you learn to communicate
more effectively. The first dimension is ‘low context and high context’.
Edward Hall, the U.S. cultural anthropologist, developed this concept. ‘Low
context’ cultures tend to rely mainly on words and explicit descriptions to
share meaning and depend less on the context of the communication.
These cultures might also rely more on written communication, such as
contracts and other formal agreements, as well as the expediency of
electronic communication. ‘Low context’ cultures also tend to be more
direct communicators with the short-term and task-oriented approach to
relationships. ‘High context’ cultures, in contrast, rely on contextual clues
and implicit statements, including the relationship, the surroundings, and
body language of the interlocutors to provide meaning to the conversation.
These cultures often prefer face-to-face conversations with more indirect
and relationship-oriented tendencies. Binding agreements can be made on
a handshake, rather than on a long, printed document due to long
established and trusting relationships.
Misunderstandings can easily arise when ‘low-context’ and ‘high-context’
cultures mix. ‘Low-context’ speakers feel that ‘high-context’ speakers may
take into account too many intangible factors, expect a listener to detect
subtle messages, and take a winding path to get to the point. ‘High-context’
speakers suggest that ‘low-context’ speakers minimize the impact of
contextual considerations on the conversation and relationship, and don't
provide nearly enough background information for full understanding.
The second dimension distinguishes between ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ styles.
‘Direct’ communication usually includes the desire to share information.
People are saying what they mean and mean what they say, and willingly
engage in disagreement or debate. ‘Direct’ cultures tend to be explicit and
objective, they ask probing or clarifying questions, and may easily share
their frank opinion indicating what they liked and didn't like. ‘Indirect’
communicators have the main desire to preserve the relationship, they may
utilize more implicit or suggestive wording to avoid conflict, they may ask
expansive questions, such as “What was your rationale for this opinion?”
rather than rendering a criticism. They may also offer noncommittal
evaluations such as “That was interesting”. Misunderstandings or conflict
are generated when ‘direct’ communicators feel that’ indirect’ partners are
misleading, hiding information, or even bending the truth. ‘Indirect’
speakers may determine or sense that their direct partners are demanding,
rude, and have no subtlety.
At the heart of effective communications is not what is said or is conveyed
but what is understood which in turn depends not just on what is said but
on how the listener understands what is said. Intercultural communications
are strengthened when we take a learning approach which presumes that
each of us is bringing something important to the interaction. In that vein,
we communicate to find meaning—the meaning that is intended and the
meaning that is understood. Thus, effective communication is the product
of both the speaker and the listener and their ongoing interaction in which
each tries to communicate with the other.
Reflect on one or both of the following questions:
●​ How might people from low context cultures be able to offer additional
contextual references when sharing information? How does this
translate when people are video conferencing? Can it?
●​ What might soften the edges of a direct communicator while also
allowing for information flow to be clear coming from an indirect
communicator? What communication tools like open-ended
questions and follow-up questions might work to ease the interaction?
Intercultural Communication Pt. 2
Pamela Ex:
The third dimension is ‘neutral’ and ‘affective’ styles of communication.
Well, ‘neutral’ cultures show relatively little emotion when conversing with
others. They maintain a calm demeanor and a neutral facial expression.
The rationale for this is to avoid showing weakness or vulnerability to their
partners or opponents. ’Affective’ cultures exhibit a broader range of
emotions while interacting including widely modulating their voice, laughing,
arguing, shouting, and crying. They believe that their emotional expression
makes for a richer message. Misunderstandings can arise when ‘neutral’
communicators often perceive ‘affective’ speakers as unprofessional,
uncontrolled, or even impolite. ‘Affective’ speakers assess neutral
communicators as impersonal, unfeeling, and cold.
The 4th dimension includes ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ communication.
‘Informal’ cultures communicate in a more casual way. They may easily use
first names and assume a more egalitarian relationship. They adhere much
less closely to protocols and rules of interaction. ‘Formal’ cultures
communicate following the protocols of hierarchy and courtesy. They may
use a generous amount of honorifics titles and modulate their speech to be
more deferential to show their respect for the person, as well as the rules of
engagement. Language can reflect this level of formality in a number of
different ways. In English for example, there is only one word for ‘you’,
Y-O-U, regardless of the relationship between the speakers. In many other
languages, there are two or even more words for ‘you’ depending on the
hierarchical relationship. Some languages even have completely different
forms of speech for formal and informal usage with strict rules about which
form should be used for which people and under what circumstances.
Misinterpretation can frequently occur when ‘informal’ speakers regard
‘formal’ speakers as rigid, distant, and too serious, while ‘formal’ speakers
may view ‘informal’ speakers as rude, unpolished, or uneducated.
The 5th dimension addresses the East Asian concept of ‘saving face’. This
is quite useful to practice in all intercultural communication. It involves
maintaining the dignity and social status of others, especially in public
settings and in front of peers. ‘Saving face’ also involves maintaining one's
own composure and may require small compromises or sacrifices in
service of a larger goal and a stronger relationship.
In reviewing these five communication patterns, we may observe that
people in the global North tend to be low-context, direct, neutral, and
informal, while people in the global South tend to be high-context, indirect,
affective, and formal. Of course, there is a lot of diversity among and within
cultures. These initial dichotomies can create many misunderstandings,
quick unfavorable judgments, and misaligned goals on both sides. Mix
these communication dichotomies with the nuances of hierarchy and the
trust-building process and dialogue can quickly break down. Introducing the
concept of ‘saving face’ may interject some balance and humility into
conversation. So gradually learning the nuances of your counterpart's
communication style will go far to help you better interpret their message
and to show respect and the desire to build mutually beneficial
relationships.
The fourth dimension includes informal and formal communication. Informal
cultures communicate in a more casual way. They may easily use first
names and assume a more egalitarian relationship. they adhere much less
closely to protocols and rules of interaction. Formal cultures communicate
following the protocols of hierarchy and courtesy, they may use a generous
amount of honorifics and titles and modulate their speech to be more
deferential, to show that respect for the person as well as the rules of
engagement. Language can reflect this level of formality in a number of
different ways. In English, for example, there is only one word for you, y o
u. Regardless of the relationship between the speakers. In many other
languages, there are two Or even more words for you, depending on the
hierarchical relationship. Some languages even have completely different
forms of speech for formal and informal usage with strict rules about which
forms should be used for which people and under what circumstances.
Misinterpretation can frequently occur when informal speakers regard
formal speakers as rigid, distant and too serious. Well, formal speakers
may view informal speakers as rude, unpolished, or uneducated.
The fifth dimension addresses the East Asian concept of saving face. This
is quite useful to practice in all intercultural communication. It involves
maintaining the dignity and social status of others, especially in public
settings and in front of peers. Saving face also involves maintaining one's
own country pleasure and may require small compromises or sacrifices in
surface of a larger goal and a stronger relationship.
In reviewing these five communication patterns, we may observe that
people in the global north tend to be low context, direct, neutral and
informal while people in the global south tend to be high context, indirect,
affective and formal. Of course, there is a lot of diversity among and within
cultures. These initial dichotomies can create many misunderstandings,
quick, unfavorable judgments and misaligned goals on both sides. Mix
these communication dichotomies with the nuances of hierarchy and the
trust building process and dialogue can quickly break down. introducing the
concept of saving face may interject some balance and humility into
conversations. So gradually learning the nuances of your counterpart’s
communication style will go far to help you better interpret their message
and to show respect and the desire to build mutually beneficial
relationships.
At the heart of intercultural communication is the intention of trying to make
sense of one another. To do so requires us to be respectful of each other
and our different perspectives but also to search for the intended meaning
behind the words we hear.
It is important as an outsider not to assume that miscommunication and
misperception goes only in one direction. One must realize that your
meaning might easily be misconstrued. Do not assume that key ideas and
concepts that are taken for granted in your culture are easily translatable in
other cultures.
●​ The term “cross-cultural” refers to contact between people of
different cultures or different cultural groups. Identities and cultures
are complex and can co-exist within a single city as well as within an
entire country. Making contact is only the first step to enhanced
understanding between those groups. Often, contact that is made
without diligent effort at creating common understanding can lead to
perpetuating friction and misunderstandings that serve to feed
cultural stereotypes and undermine true understanding and efforts to
build relationships.
●​ “Intercultural” implies a deeper engagement with others from which
relationships can be built. And intercultural engagement and
intercultural sensitivity can help us overcome “ethnocentrism” which
is when we apply our own culture as a frame of reference in order to
judge other cultures, behaviors and beliefs.
Do the five patterns of communication help you understand the challenges
for communicating across cultures? Where do you think there might be
common ground between the different tendencies and patterns that people
from different cultures have? Share your thoughts in the discussion below.
Practitioner Voices: Listening
Video 1: Dr. Kerley Most
In a broad sense, Western and Global North countries tend to view
communication as a tool to facilitate transactions by “getting to the point.” In
contrast, non-Western and Global South cultures utilize communication to
build relationships and trust and extend the invitation, “Let’s connect.” So,
be aware of the environment and assess the situation. What can you learn
that will help you communicate and understand better?
Connecting with Others
Kerley Most:
They spent time. They just sit and listen for hours and hours and hours.
They do not come in and tell what it is and here, that's what you do. And
then, know that if you're working, if you are in an international setting
because of business, it becomes a little bit challenging because you do not
possess the time. But understanding also that if you spend the time, you
can maybe close the deal.
I'm Brazilian and in Brazil, if you come to a meeting and you go straight to
the point, it's unthinkable. So, if you don't know that, then you go to Brazil
and you go in there and you say “OK, you do this, this, this”, you won't be
successful. So, sitting and paying attention, think that's the point. Sitting,
paying attention, listening, and adopting a learner perspective. Very open. I
don't have all the answers I'm here to learn.
Video 2: Dr. Kerley Most
Professionals in peacekeeping and international development require deep
listening skills and an awareness that their body language is also a medium
of communication. Relaxed and non-threatening postures send messages
of safety and connection and signal an openness to a positive relationship.
Listen and Listen Well
Kerley Most:
Interestingly, a significant part of the world is built by oral cultures, people
who highly value talking and being heard. From a Western perspective, we
are focused on getting to the point and we will approach to communication
with the goal of getting to the point. So, with those distinctive goals
becomes very challenging to have a proper communication. So, what do
we do? We then adjust and then place ourselves in the position that we
can increase our ability to listen. The greatest leaders that we know and
very effective peacemakers are the people who are able to listen and listen
well. So, the first step then, in order to be successful in cross-cultural
communication, is to increase your ability to listen, to listen deeply, and also
to decrease your focus on the get to the point, unless you’re functioning
with people from a culture that getting to the point is OK. So, I think that's
the bedrock of proper communication. Of course, then also you can use
some body expressions that will communicate openness. Avoiding crossing
your arms, avoiding keeping your eyes away from the person you're talking
to, avoiding distractions, avoiding open criticism because most of the
cultures that are orally orientated are cultures that want to save face, and if
you express something that can be abrasive at first, the communication is
broken because the person felt offended. So, tending to the responsibility
of the sender. When I engage in international multicultural communication,
I'm responsible for creating a sense of safety so that the person listening to
me would be able to respond and not feel threatened by what I'm saying,
even when I don't know the culture codes, and especially when I don't
know the culture codes I need to put myself in the position of listening, in a
position of body and facial expressions that communicate openness.
When Westerners operate in a non-Western environment, they need to
remember that the onus is on them to adapt and work to communicate in
ways that assure that they work to understand locals with whom they are
engaging while also finding the best ways to be understood themselves.
Listening well and listening deeply are keys to doing so.
It is not enough to work on how you can most effectively communicate what
you want or need. You also need to demonstrate that you are open to
learning; in particular, learning about the culture, local history, needs of the
community. It is important to show that you are also open to learning from
them and to do so requires your whole self—what you say and how you
say it, how you appear and what your body language is; and how you
conduct yourself. Locals will not only listen to your words but they will also
want to look into your heart—to determine who you are, not just what you
say.
Practitioner Voices: Being Present
Practitioner Voices 1: Stephen Moles
Stephen Moles, Director of Leadership and Talent Development at the U.S.
Institute of Peace, explains that being present and attentive to the speaker,
listening for nuance, and being willing to probe to ascertain the meaning of
the speaker’s implied and explicit statements are all techniques to build
better communication skills. It is often listening for what is not said that can
reveal the speaker’s true intentions.
Being Present
Stephen Moles:
Communication is not a simple matter of ‘message sent, message
received’. It's not that I have this little packet of words and I send it over to
you and you catch it, and we now share an understanding. It's really a
iterative, continuous process of creating and reinforcing shared meaning.
How do we go about doing that, how do we go about thinking about our
interactions as a continual, ongoing process of creating shared meaning
and then figuring out what we're going to do with it?
Building on something you said earlier, I think that there's a number of sort
of steps or tips that a person can keep in mind. First of all, and it sounds
simple, is be present. That means a couple different things. One, it means
actually, physically show up and give that person or that situation your
attention. It means not being distracted, it means showing that that's a
priority, it means showing that you're invested, not just from a project
standpoint but as a person. People make these form impressions of each
other, right? This person is paying attention, this person takes me seriously,
this person wants to be here or doesn't want to be here. So it's good to be
mindful of how we're coming across and also to make a purposeful
intentional effort to really be present. Turn off the phone, close the laptop,
really pay attention to the person. And so, paying attention is important but
it's not just about ask, listen, ask, listen, ask, listen.
Asking questions is important as a way of understanding what's going on. I
think especially in ‘high-context’ cultures, some people are much more
practiced at watching and learning by what people do rather than by what
they say. And by watching what people do, if you're a careful observer, you
can figure out pretty quickly what's important to them and why they've
responded the way that they did. Sometimes people talk about ‘direct’
communication and ‘indirect’ communication, it seems kind of complicated.
I sometimes say to people “Have you ever had a conversation with your
friends about where you want to go to dinner?” and you say “Oh um let's go
to Thai”, and somebody says “I could eat Thai”. And what did they just tell
you, their words said, “I could eat Thai”. That may sound like agreement,
but there's actually an implication in there that they'd like to talk about a
different option or there's something else that they would prefer. Or you
could notice that one person replied to that but another person stayed
silent. So by observing and paying attention to that, you know that there's
something that you need to follow up on even though the person didn't say
it explicitly.
One can’t just seek out and find short cuts to communicating effectively.
Active listening isn’t just asking questions. One has to listen deeply to the
answers and, more importantly, care about the answers you hear.
Work on moving beyond “listening” to what someone else is saying; focus
on “hearing” what they mean.
“While at home” Activity:
Try the following activities to challenge your own understanding of yourself:
1.​ Think back over the past month and consider a problem that you
encountered. How much of the problem was due to someone not
hearing something or hearing it in a distorted way? Did poor hearing
cause a problem or exacerbate an existing problem? Were you
aware of the impact of the miscommunications at the time?
2.​ Have someone read something to you for 3 – 5 minutes. It could be
a newspaper or magazine article or a letter or a business memo.
After the other person finishes reading, have him or her ask you
questions about the content of what was read to you. How much did
you remember? Did you misremember or forget key ideas? [Most
tests of our capacity to listen show that people tend to forget about
50% of what they have heard immediately after hearing it.]
What can you do to become a better observer of people you encounter?
Share your thoughts in the discussion below.
Chapter 6: Building Relationships & Trust
Mutual respect is the starting point for developing trust. So, it is important
to determine how one can most show respect for an individual from another
culture. Laying that groundwork can be the basis of a stronger working
relationship, which is important when there are inevitable cultural missteps,
as often happens. That trust allows the other to understand the good
intention behind an action. It is important to put yourself in the other’s
shoes because doing so can help you begin to understand the meaning
and motivations behind the words and behaviors of another. Additionally, it
often clarifies why your own motives or actions may not be as clear as you
think. Trust has to be earned and to do so often requires patience and
means an investment in showing respect and developing a relationship.
The art of asking questions is also a key to cultural competence. A good
questioner is open to hearing unexpected or uncomfortable answers to a
question. He or she is open to new ways of looking at an issue or a
problem.
Listening Animation
How can we communicate with others? Good listening is key. In
conversations, are we just waiting our turn to speak, or are we truly trying
to understand the other person? A good listener actively engages the other.
Showing interest, asking clarifying questions, and when appropriate
restating what we hear, all with body language that demonstrates
openness. It is important to hear not just with our ears, but also with our
hearts to truly understand others, which is critical to build trust and develop
stronger relationships and to find common ground.
Learning Objectives
●​ To understand the importance and value of building relationships
●​ To learn and practice active listening skills to facilitate relationship
building and trust.
●​ To recognize that cross-cultural encounters are a combination of how
you manage your expectations and actions and how the other
perceives your actions and intentions.
●​ To incorporate the cultural dimensions of egalitarianism and hierarchy
as well as task and relationship orientation to building productive
relationships.
●​ To recognize that one must invest oneself and one’s time in a place.
There are rarely short cuts to trust-building and understanding
another culture.
Key Questions
●​ What are the essential elements of building trust with another?
●​ How can I listen for deeper understanding and to demonstrate
trustworthy behavior?
●​ How can I “listen between the lines” so that I can understand the
meaning that is not put into the words I hear?
●​ What does it mean to validate another? Why is that important?
Young Professionals: Making Human
Connections
For us to build relationships and trust with our international colleagues, we
must practice active listening and nuanced communication. Many
professionals in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, humanitarian work and
development come from cultures that are on the opposite ends of multiple
cultural spectra from the communities in which they will work. Their
motivation for this kind of work often sprouts from a desire to connect
across cultures. It can be reassuring to know that there are explicit ways to
build skills and acquire knowledge to nurture the universality of human
connection through listening, the consideration of the nuances of power
dynamics, and the preference for a relationship or task orientation in
approaching work. Because a relationship is the product of the interaction
of two different and unique individuals, then there are many different ways
to connect with the other person.
It is important that we see others as individuals, not as a type or
representative of a culture or a particular group. That requires each of us
to put aside assumptions about others and break away from preconceived
notions we might have. Humility, respect and empathy are, therefore,
critical to finding common ground and, therefore, to relationship-building as
well as to cross-cultural engagement.
Young Professional: Making Connections
As Nate Wilson notes, making human connections can be very simple, and
very personal.
Making Connections
Nate Wilson:
I am living in Tunisia and originally hail from St. Louis, Missour. In my
position as Libya Country Manager at the United States Institute of Peace, I
have to not only bridge the gap between Washington, D.C. and Tunisia, but
also Libya. In working with people in Libya, I try to find things that
immediately build a bridge between us, and what I know is that St. Louis is
known as the gateway to the West. In the country program, we do a lot of
work in southern Libya, which is the gateway to the Sahara, and I try to use
this as a way to create an instant familiarity between where I come from
and where people that we tend to work with quite a bit are living currently. I
also had, my daughter was born here in Tunisia. Not only did we give her a
middle name, Imane, which means ‘faith’ in Arabic, and it's a very popular
name here in Tunisia, but also she has learned Arabic at a very young age.
So, whenever I tell people and Tunisians both her name and give them
short examples of how she speaks words of Arabic, for example saying
‘abam’ when she wants eggs, which is the Tunisian word for eggs, it forms
an instant bond with people. Living abroad, I find that I feel my own
Americanness more than perhaps other Americans do. Working, but that
allows me to sometimes be able to use certain aspects of where I come
from to my advantage. For example, people know about the United States,
or at least have some idea of it I find whenever I speak with others in
Tunisia or Libya, whether it's the history of the States or whether it's a
cultural aspects, such as music. One of my Libyan colleagues is a huge
Elvis and Frank Sinatra fan. So, I can use these bits of American identity
and people's familiarity with it, with the culture and the country, to my
advantage to create an instant bond. in addition, I know that based on
where I come from in Saint Louis, everybody likes to think about their own
locality, too. this this came out when people from Saint Louis always ask
each other in the city “Which high school did you go to?” Now, this is not
something I find in other parts of the country and basically it allows people
to frankly create a stereotype of another person. Now, I think that this can
obviously erase certain aspects of people's personality and this is the harm
that can come from it, but I find that this tactic of trying to figure out what
the thing that you have in common with the other person is, it creates huge
advantages in trying to do the work that I do.
Scenario: Connecting Over Dinner
Podcast from Tamanna Salakuddin:
Connecting over Dinner
Tamanna Salikuddin:
Since 2008, the U.S. government in fits and starts has tried to pursue a
political settlement with the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan. There have
been periods where we've been engaged actively and there have been
periods where we really haven't. So, in 2015, talks weren't going well and
we weren't directly engaged with the Taliban. And so, we were in Norway
and had a facilitated, let's say, dinner with representatives of the Taliban. I
was there as one of the U.S. government representatives and
representatives of the Afghan government. It was a very quiet, private,
secret dinner. We, as U.S.G. people, were not actually allowed to negotiate.
We were not there to negotiate or engage on any substantive parts of the
conflict, but we could sit and listen to them and we could talk to them. And
so, I was sitting next to a Taliban, a representative of the Taliban, who in his
previous life had been the deputy chief of mission in Islamabad, so he
thought of himself as a Taliban diplomat and I was a U.S. diplomat. And so,
it's really interesting. We really couldn't talk about any issues of substance,
so what do you do over a 2-hour dinner? Well, something we could bond
over was not knowing what any of this food that we were being served was,
you know, assortment of varying Norwegian dishes, and so it was a little bit
funny actually. We were, you know, he would ask me, “What is this? Can I
eat this? Is this good?” And so, we were, our discussion started off a little
shaky but, you know, after a few minutes, we were laughing over these
very interesting dishes we were being served, and that moved on to
hearing more about his family, kids, his background, you know, just a silly
discussion over foreign food actually opened the door to more substantive
conversation about someone's background and motivations. And we were
able to come to a conversation as to why he ended up in the Taliban
because he didn't seem, he had never been a fighter, he had never, you
know, he saw himself as a diplomat. He was quite well-spoken and spoke
several languages. And so, from a U.S. perspective, that is not the image
that, you know, most people have of the Taliban. And so, by exploring his
own multitude of identity and background, we were able to maybe form a
little bit of common understanding, and that helped in future times when we
met in actual negotiations.
In Tamanna’s case, the fact that she was a Muslim member of the
American negotiating team helped her connect with some in the Taliban
and can also convey a different perspective about the American negotiation
team and its stance on religion.
How is patience such an important tool for intercultural engagement and
developing a relationship with someone from another culture? How might
you think of patience as more than just biding one’s time until the right
opportunity? If patience means waiting without complaint or enduring
something tedious it also implies staying calm and not losing interest while
waiting. If so, are there things we can do during the time we are waiting
patiently that can help build trust and enhance our ability to communicate
with others? Share your thoughts in the discussion below.
Young Professionals: Advantages of Youth
Tabatha Thompson reminds us that working with other human beings is so
often at the core of the work that peacebuilders do as she discusses her
experiences with building trust in a way that combines humility and an open
mind.
Advantages of Youth
Tabatha Thompson:
When I go into a different, you know, a situation, I just, I recognize that I'm
young and I recognize that I have a lot to learn, and that kind of feeds into
my approach of humility. But I also know that I have a lot to offer as a
young person and that diverse perspectives, in this work especially, are so
important. And so I think, you know, being young, helps me actually, helps it
be easier for me to be humble, and to approach the work with humility and,
and, and still have that, you know, learning and growth mindset because I
don't know a lot of things. And I think it also helps because people don't,
might not always expect certain things from from me and so, sometimes
when I have something to say, and I'll say it and, you know, say it in a
diplomatic way, or just in a reflective way, it surprises them. And, you know,
I don't try to like grandstand with it, but I just tried to, you know, just just be
open and honest. I definitely will try to take the time to build relationships
with people and I think that it helps them see me in an unthreatening way,
but also in a way that they know that they have my respect and they know
that I know that I don't know, a lot, and I think that they appreciate that and
someone from from the outside. I also think it helps them see me not as a
threat when it comes to offering, you know, some like coaching or advice,
or making a suggestion in a respectful way, where they receive that very
differently from me than they do by someone who has more experience and
who's coming from the U.S. And so it's just, you know, kind of
understanding one, when something might be better coming from from me
versus like when something like, if I have something that I think might be
more critical or might not be received well if it's coming from someone
younger, I might ask someone that I have a relationship with in the room to
to provide that that kind of advice, or I might ask the more experienced
facilitator to provide it. But I think there's a certain power and in the position
of being a young person where sometimes it, you know, can also work to
your advantage because people see you differently than they would
someone who has more experience and someone who might be more set
in their ways.
Scenario: Leveraging the World Cup
Podcast from Mike Zuckerburg:
While working in Uganda, Mike Zuckerburg faced this situation. Mike
recounts the importance of providing a space to listen, communicate and
make connections.
Making Space
Mike Zuckerman:
I would say most of my work revolves around listening to people. In fact,
my first International Development trip or work project was in the summer
of 2010. I was invited to Kampala, Uganda to screen the World Cup that
was happening for the first time on the African continent in South Africa.
And the project was to set up an inflatable projector screen, invite people to
watch the World Cup for free, and then at halftime we would turn off the
game and we would have a community discussion. We pose the question
of ‘what are some challenges that are being faced in this local community
and what can we do about it?’ And people would stand up, and grab the
mic, and, you know, there was 1,000 people there, and all these issues
were brought up, and then say “Alright, let's meet tomorrow and work on
that”. And people would show up and we'd spend the day working on that
challenge, and then the next, some of the things that I was, you know,
thought were the problems, of plastic and, you know, these things were
very visually different and seemed like they could be fixed, were issues that
the local community had but really there were other things that were
brought up that I never would have thought about, around road safety,
around children's education. And you know, just looking at this, ‘leading
with culture’ is kind of really what defines the work I've been doing. If you
show the World Cup, people are going to show up. If you say who wants to
make our community better, you'll get people to come but they're going to
be like a subset of the society there. But, by leading with culture, you get
everyone, and that's really one of the messages that you need to have, a
diversity of input and experiences to be able to come up with actually
meaningful change. You know, diversity is seen as valuable in environment,
you know, biodiversity, and financial investment portfolios with, you know,
stocks and things, but it's also really important in trying to come up with
innovative solutions or just pretty much anything. So, that's kind of what I
try to do, is find out whatever that thing is that gathers people. In the
Philippines, after cyclone Yolanda, it was karaoke which got people
together. You know, in Uganda, especially during the World Cup, it was
showing the World Cup. So, whatever that thing is, start there. Find a
space, figure out a way to get people to show up, and then ask them what
they want to do. And really, that's kind of the three-step process that I'd say
is present in all of my projects I've done you know in International
Development.
What have you found to be effective ways to elicit meaningful participation?
Can you think of other creative ways to bring people together and give
voice to those who you might not normally hear from? Share your thoughts
in the discussion below.
Presentation: Active Listening
Being an effective active listener in cross-cultural settings requires a set of
skills that can be acquired and refined while also taking into consideration
the cultural programming of the involved parties. We review the seven
stages of active listening, and invite you to assess how well you do on
these skills. We will also incorporate the cultural dimensions of
egalitarianism and hierarchy as well as task and relationship to
demonstrate how they influence the processes of building relationships and
trust.
Active Listening Presentation
Pamela Ex:
Previous modules looked at the five characteristics of intercultural
communication that affect the way people try to connect and understand
each other. Here, we have the process of active listening. Good listening
skills are hard enough when people speak the same language and are
members of a similar culture. There are three complicating factors when we
do international work as we try to be active listeners. First, we're dealing
with language barriers. Second, very often we're working with interpreters
to do their work we're hoping that they are accurate in conveying our true
meaning. Third, we tried to fold in the cultural programming and
expectations we each hold about how communication should be
conducted. There is always the concern about what am I missing and this
may refer to misinterpreting what is being said as well as trying to discern
what is not being communicated.
There are 7 stages of active listening. First, pay attention really focus on
the speaker. Second, accept silence and pauses and don't feel the need to
interrupt. Third, use culturally appropriate verbal and nonverbal cues that
you are listening. Words like ‘I see’, ‘I hear you’, and sounds like ‘mm-hmm’
will be helpful. Neutral body signals like appropriate eye contact, head
nods, and a comfortable posture facing the speaker also help. Four,
suspend judgment, don't jump to conclusions, try to keep an open mind.
Wait till the conversation ends to form your opinions. Five, ask probing
questions for clarity to gather more information. Six, listen for what is not
being said and determine if you will try to ask for clarification to make these
points explicit or leave them unset. be alert to any options for
misinterpretation and omission. Seven, summarize with input from both
parties to verify that both have the same understanding.
As you are communicating and listening to build rapport, there are two
other influential cultural dimensions at play. The first is egalitarianism and
hierarchy and the second is task and relationship orientation. When we talk
about egalitarianism and hierarchy, we ask the question “How do people
see themselves in relation to others in their community?” In egalitarian
cultures, people see themselves as relatively equal, and a country's laws
may try to legislate and regulate relatively equal treatment of its citizens.
Power may be shared or alternated among the parties, and decisions may
be made by consensus or voting. However, even in relatively egalitarian
regional or national cultures, there are many examples of systemic unequal
treatment due to race, gender, age, religion, and many other factors. In
hierarchical cultures, there may be an acceptance and the expectation that
people occupy different levels in a society, and this may be institutionalized
in customs as well as laws. Power and decision-making are usually
concentrated in the hands of elites who are reluctant to relinquish their
control. Extremely hierarchical cultures often experience conflict, as a small
upper class holds key government and private sector positions and
socioeconomic status that is grossly higher than the majority of the
population.
The second dimension is task and relationship. This dimension asks the
question “When I'm working with another person or a group of people,
where do I start with the tasks at hand or with the people?” In a team or
task-oriented culture, the parties or the team begins work almost
immediately. There is a discussion of goals, responsibilities, budgets, and
timelines. They view relationships and trust to be built over time and
through group interactions. In relationship-oriented cultures, the team or the
partners will focus first on getting to know each other and to building trust.
They may have social interactions, they may check references, and they
are silently seeking clues to determine ‘Is this person trustworthy?’ ‘Do I
want to work with them?’ Only after trust is built can the partners or the
team proceed to the work at hand.
In summary, refining your skills and listening actively for explicit and implicit
messages can help you identify the leaders and the main clues to allow you
to go forward in a productive fashion. It can also help you determine where
to start on a project, whether with the tasks at hand or with the
relationships. Effective style switching, knowing what the preferences are of
your partners, can enable you to be more productive more quickly and this
will lead to harmonious intercultural interaction.
To be an effective communicator, you have to first know yourself and
realize how you communicate and how you see yourself and others. The
predominant culture in which you grew up will influence how you listen, how
you see others and whether you are more relationship-oriented or
task-oriented. Whatever your tendencies and preferences are, you need to
be mindful of how they will affect the ways in which you engage others who
may have different preferences and priorities.
When someone is interpreting for you, look at the person who is speaking
and who is listening to you; do not look at the interpreter. You don’t want to
miss any non-verbal cues and you want to demonstrate your interest in
what he or she has to say.
Style switching is adapting your normal behavior or communication style
or your manner of speaking to that of your audience or in response to the
context. It is not a matter of mimicking those around you but can be a way
of expressing respect for local customs and a means for possible
collaboration.
“While at home” Activity:
Try the following activities to challenge your own understanding of yourself
and others:
1.​ Observe how others around you communicate. Can you detect
someone who is very direct—gets right to the point, avoids ambiguity
and is not overly wordy? Do you observe others who are more
indirect in their communications? He or she often uses stories to
make a point, is not very clear about what they mean exactly and
uses a lot of words. Do you witness others who either do or do not
defer significantly to another because of their age, status, gender, or
profession? How effective do you find those who communicate
calmly and objectively about an idea? Are those people more
effective in their communications than someone who is passionate
and emotional about an idea?
2.​ If you are more inclined to be a task-oriented communicator, try to
switch and communicate in a way that prioritizes relationships – strive
for harmony and allow everyone to be heard. What did you learn
from communicating in this manner? How did it make you feel about
yourself? If you are a more relationship-oriented communicator, try to
switch and communicate in a way that is more
task-oriented—prioritize the goal or task at hand, be precise with your
words, and be less concerned with disagreeing with others. What did
you learn from communicating in this manner? How did it make you
feel about yourself?
1.​ How might hierarchy and egalitarianism impact your communications
with those from another culture?
2.​ Are you more task-oriented or more relationship oriented or
somewhere in the middle?
Practitioner Voices: Listening
Listening to another person attentively and exclusively is a huge challenge
when we are accustomed and required to constantly multitask. Yet it is this
focused concentration on our counterparts, without interruption, that will
yield the deepest expressions of safety and connection. If people feel they
are heard, they relax and more fully engage.
Active Listening
Kerley Most:
If a person talking to me knows exactly what is happening and if the person
talking to me knows what's happening, knows that the person is heard,
knows that my eyes are on the person, my eyes are not wandering, if the
person knows that my full attention is on their face, so they don't need to
see this person has anything holding their hands, all those factors make the
body relax and those factors also give back a queue of social desirability. If
you're looking square in the eye, and if you're taking the time to focus on
me, and if I'm the only focus of your attention and intention, that means I'm
important.
Listening is one of the hardest skills for humans, especially humans in
leadership. When you’re a leader, you're learning how to speak, you want
to be heard and respected and everything. So you stop listening. So, it's
very important to tune to the person talking to me and really listen, not with
the intention of responding, with the intention of just listening. So, when I do
that, I listen and stop here. After I listen, I then go to mirror what the person
said, and the mirror only reflects what is being displaced before it, so I
never add anything. I just say “Oh I heard you say…” and I send it back to
you. And after I send it back to you, I add one more piece and I say, “Is
there anything more? Do have any other thing to say?” But normally in our
styles of communication, we cut people off or when they are almost done
we just jump in. Hardly, I don't know if lately unless I was in a dialogue,
someone looked to me and asked, “Do you have any other things to say?”
So that when I asked that I also, “Oh, you want to really hear me”. I relax
the person some more. So, we crawl though this process and chew and
mirror back if the person has anything to say, a mirror back, and to the
person is done and I ask, “Is there more?” and the person says, “No, there
is no more”. and when I hear that there is no more, I go ahead and I
validate what I heard. Say, “Wow, what you said makes sense”. I put myself
in the person's shoes. And the validation doesn't mean agreement.
Sometimes, we dismiss people because they have a different perspective
from mine. But in order to validate, I don't need to see eye to eye.
Validation means, from your perspective, what you said makes complete
sense to me, and every human being wants to be validated. Sometimes,
once you get your point of agreement before we validate. But the fact of
validating leads us to a point of agreement because the person feels
respected for their own perspective. Then after validation, I just say I
empathize. Say, “It makes sense I imagine it must be feeling, I imagine it
must be thinking.” when I express that, I can see the person's face doing
that, and then I say “Thank you, thank you for sharing your thoughts with
me”. And then, only then, I have been a chance to become a sender,
because I respected the person that was sending to me. Now, the person is
in the place of openness, then my increase my ability to be heard because I
heard. And normally what happens is that the person is available to hear
because I offered the gift of listening. So, without offering the gift of
listening, there is no communication.
We have talking act that we call communication. We have a forcing to
agreement that we call communication. But real communication comes
from really doing your best to hear and to communicate to the person that
you heard and holding back the desire to respond, just to be preset. And
what we do is that, it works. This system of talking works because that's to
the point that humans only want presence. The thing that I want the most. If
you think of the best moments in your life, there were moments of
presence. Presence of the loved one, presence of a child, presence of
someone you care about. So, we care for presence, and doing this and
offering presents and leveraging presence to create builds for commitment
breeds for communication.
Quote: “Dr. Kerley Most: “If you're looking at me square in the eye, and if
you're taking the time to focus on me. And if I'm the only focus of your
attention and intention, that means I'm important.” Communicating to
someone that they are important to you helps to validate him or her.
Communication skills and tools are crucial to building a relationship with
someone else. That requires being as fully engaged as possible. But there
are challenges in achieving this. Human beings tend to think faster than
they can speak. That often leads to our attention wandering when listening
to someone else. As a result, we are not always engaged or “present” and
we miss some of what the other person is trying to tell us. A few tips that
can help us listen more effectively and stay engaged in the conversation
are:
1.​ Try to anticipate where the conversation is going. Don’t make
assumptions, but stay focused on what you are hearing and consider
where the discussion might lead;
2.​ Listen actively so that you are not passively trying to absorb what you
hear but think about clarifying questions you might want to ask the
speaker. It is also helpful to review and mentally summarize what
you have heard so far.
3.​ Pay attention not just to the words you hear but also non-verbal cues
such as tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language.
4.​ Listen for meaning and the intention behind what you are hearing.
Don’t try to memorize all the details you hear. Too often when people
try to remember all the small details or facts, they miss the bigger
picture and the key points the speaker is trying to make. In addition,
too often we shut down our listening when what we are hearing
doesn’t fit with our own beliefs or is not what we want to hear. At the
same time, we often blindly accept those things that fit with our
beliefs and predispositions.
From there, one can move beyond dialogue to more significant interactions.
For example, one needs to show up and be supportive of people and
communities in ways that are common practice and demonstrate that you
are invested in them. Allow yourself to be taught something unrelated to
your project that validates someone else’s expertise and knowledge.
Examples can be sitting and making things with other people such as
sewing, fishing, kneading bread or other contextually appropriate choices.
Hosting meals can also work, unless it might make others feel
uncomfortable or feel obligated to socialize with you or to host you in return
when it is not affordable or appropriate.
Validation is a way of communicating that another person and your
relationship with that person is important to you—even if you disagree
about something—by acknowledging that his or her feelings and behavior
are understandable.
Dialogue is a collaborative form of communication in which two or more
sides work together toward common understanding and finding common
ground.
Debate is a means of communication intended to find flaws in what another
person says. Debate is meant to affirm one’s own point of view, while
simplifying issues and defending assumptions as truth.
“While at Home” Activity:
1.​ Listen to someone speaking for an extended time (over five minutes).
A television or radio interview or a public speech is ideal for this
exercise. While listening to the speaker try the different methods
above to keep your focus on what is being said. Did you find your
mind wandering? Were any of the tips noted above particularly
helpful in maintaining your focus? What were the key ideas that the
speaker was trying to convey?
2.​ Repeat the activity above, but as you are listening to a new speaker
don’t use the practical tips to maintain your focus. Instead, write
down any extra thoughts that run through your mind while listening to
the speaker. How often did topics unrelated to the speaker’s topic
appear in your thoughts?
Practitioner Voices: Trust
Peacebuilders, trainers and international development specialists must be
conscious of the power dynamics with their in-country counterparts as a
challenge to open communication and deep mutual understanding. Trust
must be built through ongoing communication by email, telephone or
videoconference, or, better yet, in person. Add to this language barriers and
differing communication preferences that we discussed in an earlier
module. Until the interlocutors address these issues to the satisfaction of all
parties, the revelation of more profound issues will be limited.
Communication Mode & Trust
Stephen Moles:
I was conducting a workshop in the Caribbean. I'm out to dinner, at a ba,r
drinking a beer with one of my colleagues. And this is a person who I've
interacted with quite a bit over e-mail but we really hadn't sat down and had
a personal conversation. And in this conversation, I think it was Thursday
evening, he starts asking me a whole series of questions and telling me
about things that he's been struggling with. And I said, “Hey you know,
we've been working together and communicating via e-mail for months
now. How come you ever haven't asked me these questions? How come
you haven't of brought these issues forward?” and he said, “I didn't know if I
could trust you. You know, I'm sitting here in my office in the Caribbean
you're sitting there in Washington D.C., you're the expert. I don't know if I
can trust you with these questions because it might make me look like I
don't know what I'm doing. But now that we've met, now that we've had this
conversation, we spent some time together, I know that I can ask you these
questions and that we could you can help me figure them out”. Interestingly,
he said, “I still wouldn't ask you these questions via e-mail”. So, one of the
things I took from that was the importance of face-to-face interaction and
the importance of allowing some time and investing some personal
attention in developing that relationship and creating that comfort level
where the communications can start to flow.
Kerley Most talked about the importance of being present and Stephen
Moles noted that communication via email is antithetical to the
establishment of a relationship and personal trust. How do you think these
two ideas are connected?
Chapter 7: Time, Control and Agency
In studying time and how people perceive time as well as how we measure
and prioritize time, we can see that there are significant differences across
cultures. These differences are often some of the more marked signs of
cultural dissonance because adherence to the clock, or not, is intimately
tied to a culture’s values. Time is not merely a measurement, but a
reflection of how individuals and groups relate to and interact with each
other. It is important to consider how much we are influenced or controlled
by time or whether we can ignore or even manipulate time. Time is one of
the factors that can influence agency, which is the power or capacity people
have to shape their experiences and the direction of their lives.
Time Animation
Whether you're in Miami, Manila, or Mogadishu, not only is the time zone
different, but how people perceive time can also be very different. Some
strive to gain control over time and for them, schedules and deadlines are
important. For others, regardless of what the clock says, time could be
manipulated, stretched, or just dismissed. In other cultures, time is not
linear but cyclical. Opportunities or risks will come again. In some places,
you are late. But elsewhere, lateness happens and may be expected. Who
is responsible? You, God, or other forces outside of your control? Adjusting
your concept of time, along with your time clock, can help you in another
culture.
Learning Objectives
●​ Understand how differences in the perception and usage of time has
an impact on cross-cultural communications and intercultural
engagement.
●​ Consider the differences in how people understand agency and
control over events.
●​ Recognize that being inclusive and making connections with local
communities can take time. There are rarely short cuts to
trust-building and understanding another culture.
●​ Become aware of how we are all shaped by the power and privilege
we have in addition to our own culture and values.
Key Questions
●​ To what degree does a concept of time influence the nature of our
connections to and interactions with others?
●​ Are human beings responsible for their actions and to what degree is
everything that happens (human actions, choices, and behaviors)
determined by antecedent causes? How might cultural differences
relate to that question?
●​ Who has agency; who ought to have agency? Who gets to decide
what, and for whom?
Scenario: Planning and Time
Even with the best of intentions, quickly getting down to business and
asking, ‘how can I help you?” can create suspicion and distrust, particularly
of one’s motives and agenda. Westerners People who were trained in
more western oriented business systems often have a more transactional
approach to working with others. However, if you start with what seems to
you to be a “solution-oriented approach”, you may be missing the chance to
have a greater impact by engaging with local actors in ways that will enable
them to realize their goals and strengthen their own agency or
effectiveness. It is often more productive to take the time to create or seek
out opportunities for relationship-building which can lay the foundation for
providing support rather than imposing direction.
Here are some things you might think about as strategies for engaging in
ways that allow for agency to remain in the community where you are
offering support:
●​ Because communication is not always direct in all cultures, it may be
more effective to move away from formal meetings and negotiations
and make time and space for informal settings.
●​ The concept of control—whether people can influence, or not, the
events surrounding their lives—also varies greatly across cultures.
This difference reflects the differences in beliefs about whether that
humans determine have agency in what happens to them or that God
or luck or misfortune determines the course of events.
●​ One also needs to be aware of the power dynamics between an
outsider and those in need. Too often we focus too much on finding
the solution or the right allocation of resources without taking the time
to build trust and make connections.
●​ Outsiders often see a situation from the inside out: how can I help
you? Rather than, what do you need? Paradoxically, people in
cultures that are more deterministic often feel less controlled by or
wedded to time; cultures in which individuals profess to have more
agency and more rights are usually influenced to a greater degree by
the pressures of time.
Key Questions
1.​ How can I work productively in cultures which have a concept of time
that differs from my own?
2.​ How can I work productively in other cultures so that I contribute to
the agency of individuals in the community rather than reinforce the
obstacles and barriers they already face?
3.​ How do I thoughtfully address holding a balance between a desire to
help and keeping my ears tuned to how to do that most effectively
and not as an intruder with a savior complex?
Podcast from Marnee Benson:
The concept of time and responsibility may differ even among peoples in
the same country. Here is an example of community work in the United
States that reflects miscommunication around the idea of time and
commitment.
Project Planning
Marnee Benson:
I've been working with northern Nevada tribes for about 10 years now, for
five years through Black Rock Solar and five years through Burning Man
through my current role. I did have a really interesting learning moment a
few years ago when I arranged an XRT tour for the Pyramid Lake Paiute
tribe elders. An XRT tour is when we invite individuals or group of people
out to Black Rock City for a day or an afternoon to come see the event
firsthand. And I was working with the Pyramid Lake tribe elders to have
them come out for an afternoon in 2015. And I had arranged for them to
come out on Tuesday afternoon and had worked with a theme camp to
have a giant copper dragon be their art car, made sure they had shade and
seating, got all our volunteers lined up to make sure that there were people
there to interact with the elders and answer questions during the tour, that
we had refreshments and cold beverages and cups, and goggles in case
there was a dust storm. We had everything queued up and ready to go and
we were expecting a group of about 22 of the tribal elders to come out, and
my team was thrilled because we love hosting people and showing them
Black Rock City. And so, we had also worked out all the logistics with our
gate team and our gerlach office and ticketing. It’s a lot of
behind-the-scenes work, as you know, to host people out there. And so, the
afternoon came and we were full of anticipation and time went by, and they
didn't show. And they hadn't emailed, um we reached out, we couldn't
reach anybody at the administrative offices, and so after maybe an hour
and a half or two hours we finally had to cancel and send everyone home.
And it was disappointing and the volunteers were a little bit crushed, and I
felt like it might be disrespectful for them to have not shown up and we had
made so many arrangements. And I learned later that one of the elders had
died and our group of elders was attending the funeral that day. And, what I
learned was so important because the feelings that we had of
disappointment and frustration kind of gave way into learning about
different values and cultural norms, and that what I learned is that the
Pyramid Lake tribe, when an elder dies, is that the tribe comes together as
a community, and they come together to pay their respects, and that that's
the most important thing in the community. And so, I took away from that
experience a respect for their cultural history and also learned that in my
communication with the tribe, I need to leave time and space for
last-minute changes and that that is just a part of the norm. And so, we've
adjusted and are always thrilled to be working with the tribe. That was a
good learning moment for me.
I would say it's important to be able to recognize your own expectations
and understand that those might not be the same for other people that you
are working with, dealing with, and countering, and to be open to
discovering the differences and be open to making adjustments in your
plans and your communications. And for understanding that the way that
you see something as a priority might not match up with the way they see
something as a priority, but it's not a statement or a judgment around you,
that's just the way they operate and move through the world. I think what I
like about that story is that, you know, as we move through the world and
move through time, hopefully we're always learning. And learning about
other people and other cultures is sort of top of the list because what that
teaches us is respect and it teaches us to have an open mind, and I think
that's where we do our best work.
Managing your own expectations and those of others is an important tool
both for effective communications and in intercultural collaboration.
Patience and an open mind will enable you to adapt to unexpected
developments. It may also mean that priorities can be relative and it is
important to understand that we may be missing information that will help
us understand why someone didn’t show up or was late. Thus, we need to
extend the benefit of the doubt and not jump to conclusions based on our
own framing about what we think may have happened as well as our own
sense of time and its importance.
Podcast from Josh Lease:
Josh Lease faced a similar situation in which he found it difficult to
understand what he perceived to be a lax attitude toward commitment and
a perspective in which the individual controlled little of the world around him
or her.
Making Time for Commitments
Josh Lease:
So, this reminded me of when I was working in Senegal in 2010. It was
different than a lot of places I've been, and I was living in this older town
that used to be called Cadillac. I found myself frustrated at something, the
frustration grew after a while because in meetings you'd say, “OK, we're
going to do this thing, can you do this?” and they would say “Yes,
inshallah”. And in the beginning, I was like ‘OK, they said yes’. And then
later when you check in, like, “Hey, did that thing happen?” like, “No”. “Like,
but you said you'd do it,” and I said. “Well, yeah, but you know, it just didn't
work out”. “Like why?” “Like, well it just did it,” and so after a while,
whenever I heard someone say “inshallah” after, I'm like, ‘it's not going to
happen, it's just not going to happen’. And that really bothered me for a
while. And it actually took me leaving Senegal before I could kind of
appreciate what that meant and not, it doesn't only just mean ‘God willing’,
in a way it, for them in that situation, perhaps not consciously, it kind of
meant ‘there are so many factors, I can't say whether it will happen’, ‘I can't
say whether I'll go to that village and drop off these materials’, ‘I can't say
whether what name, name the action’. So, they say, “Yes, inshallah” and I
kind of put out of my mind sometimes when someone said that, even
though it was routine, sometimes those things did happen. I realized I was
only remembering the frustrating sides and discounting the positive, which
is natural human characteristic. So, I really appreciated that they had this
way of recognizing that they had an intention and that there were so many
things that they couldn't count for that there was just many unknown
obstacles for them to overcome given the situation, and the infrastructure,
and everything that was going on and how you functioned in that place that
caused them to, not only because of religious and, you know, customary
way of speaking, but I really felt that it was this way of just recognizing that
the unknown is the unknown and I don't know whether this will happen one
day or the next, or ever. One thing that traveling all over the world and
working in many, several different countries is that if you go into a situation
with hubris, you're going to fail. You need to go into a situation pretending
like you know nothing because you probably know a lot less than you think
you might, and you need to listen. You need to ask questions in a polite
way if you don't understand something. There's no way you can really go
into any situation and know what's going on, so going in without that, you
know, taking your ego out of it wherever you go is your best way to get
along.
A well-known peacebuilding expert was approached by a foundation that
was willing to support a series of local peacebuilding efforts in a country
that was going through a difficult transition from war to peace. The
foundation asked him to lead the project. The expert said that the primary
condition would have to be a ten-year commitment by the foundation. He
would not just parachute in and dispense funds, resources and the good
will of the foundation. From his perspective, a short-term project of only a
few years would not only be insufficient, but by raising expectations and
then withdrawing support could actually be harmful and make it likely that
future peacebuilding initiatives would be viewed negatively by the local
populace. Time is a precious resource to be invested and meaningful
change can rarely be rushed, particularly in communities where patience is
valued.
●​ Time-bound refers to something requiring completion by a specified
deadline or within a specified period of time.
●​ Parachuting in is a term that refers to those who show up in another
country with minimal preparation and lots of resources and usually
with solutions that are not sensitive to local needs. The implication is
that these outsiders appear suddenly (from the sky) with the purpose
of bringing about change and providing support but rarely stay long
enough to develop relationships with local communities nor invest in
a sustained effort over time to bring about meaningful change.
●​ The principle of Do no harm is taken from medical ethics and requires
humanitarian and development organizations to work to avoid or
minimize any harmful effects that might result from intervening in
another country or community. As the organization Conflict
Sensitivity notes, aid (and the intervention of outsiders) often involves
the transfer of resources (food, shelter, water, health care, training,
etc.) into a resource-scarce environment. Where people are in
conflict, these resources represent power and wealth, and they can
become an element of the conflict.
The importance of time is not just about how late one is to a meeting and
the promise of being somewhere or delivering something at a certain time
or on a certain date. The concept of time also reflects a sense of what
humans can control in their lives and in the world around them. Agency
and how you are perceived are critical. In some cultures, the needs of
people are adjusted to suit the demands of time—schedules, deadlines,
etc. Or time is viewed as coming around again in a cycle so that similar
opportunities, risks, and rewards will again be available in the future. Thus,
time is not wasted if an action or decision is not taken, but there will be
another point at which a decision can be taken—and, at that point in the
cycle one may be able to bring new learning or a new perspective to bear
on the situation. A decision should be the result of well-considered
contemplation rather than the pressure of time.
Young Professionals: Paris Story
Andre Ball experienced just how different time can be perceived and
experienced during his first night in Paris.
Paris Cafe Story
Andre Ball:
Yeah so, my trip to Paris was, this was maybe a couple years ago, but I've
never been to France before and it was my second trip to Europe, but my
experience was really great because, you know, there was a lot of new
things that I experienced. But this is, after a long day of walking and
exploring the winding streets of Paris, we got lost a couple of times, I went
with my wife, and it was dark and we decided to have lunch, or dinner, at
this restaurant and we were hungry. And so we sat down, the waiter came
in and gave us our menus and picked out some drinks, and came out with
these drinks. And then about 20-30 minutes later, he came back to get our
food order, our main entree order. And then, you know, about 30 minutes
after that, he put down our food. And then we ate, of course, and then,
about maybe an hour or so after that, he came and got our food. And to
me, it was, you know, I was a server part-time in the States for about 7
years, and the expectation that I had about going to a restaurant was very
different, because I was used to serving people meals almost immediately.
You know, people come in to eat, they want to put in their order
immediately, they want the food to come out as soon as possible, and then
they want their check to come out faster. And it was just about, you know,
turning the tables and getting as many people in and out as soon as
possible. But, you know, so coming from that perspective in that world and
then being here in Paris and eating and experiencing this meal at a pace
that's just really slowed down, I looked around and just noticed that
everybody was really just taking their time and of taking in and savoring
their experience, just having dinner. And for me, it really brought up the
idea of how we kind of value time and how we value just some of these
experiences and it was just kind of this weird, just kind of this different
perspective on it, you know. I feel like people in the States just really want
to kind of move at this pace even when it comes to eating, you know, but
here I was in another country, in another city, where they really valued that
type of time and they valued that experience and just relaxing, and it was
great, you know, it was good for me, but it was a shock because I wasn't
used to that and I took a lesson away from that.
1.​ Do you feel that you can control time or that time controls you? How
do you feel when you are late? Or when someone is late to a
meeting with you?
2.​ Do you feel there is a connection between being late and respect?
3.​ What do you see as the connection between concepts of time and
concepts of agency?
Scenario: Natural Disaster
Podcast from Leanne Erdberg:
Leanne Erdberg recounts her first visit to Nigeria in which she consciously
worked to create relationships with community members and be an active
listener. But she discovered that even the best communication tools and
cross-cultural tips cannot be done quickly. Initially, “several hours” seemed
like a long time and a significant investment. It is very difficult if not
impossible to find short cuts and one cannot just parachute in.
Active Listening in Nigeria
Leanne Erdberg:
My first trip to Nigeria, and I was so excited to go to Nigeria, I'd been
studying it for some time throughout my career and it was my first actual
trip there, and some of the self-awareness moments that happened there
was, there is so many sights, sounds, smells, every single one of your
senses is just completely flooded with both some of the most beautiful
things, as well as some of the things that seem very loud and difficult to
comprehend. And I spent a little bit of time on a multi-city tour of Nigeria in
a slum for the first time in my life. And I had spent, not just going through a
tour of it as some diplomatic practices may have been, but we actually
spent several hours trying to understand more of what the community
members out in the slum were really feeling in the part of Nigeria’s South.
And I found myself unprepared for what I had thought I was pretty
cross-culturally attuned, to not be able to ask the right questions that would
create those meaningful bonds. It felt like I was asking them things that
they had no ability to answer when I was trying to find out about the
community organization that they led and what they needed the most from
outside actors, and how we could really empower their work. And the
answers were like, “We don't need anything, thank you for coming, please
leave”. And I found myself unable to build some of those bonds and I had
thought that I would be, you know, pretty competent at it. And that was a
moment of humility, to realize that you would have to work a little bit harder
to create trust where perhaps there was going to be none, and thinking that
it would come easy just from an appreciation of multiculturality is different
than actually a 1 to 1 or, you know, group to group basis, being able to build
some of those bonds of trust and actually stay there.
What I found in that particular incident was I never was able to build the
trust in just a few hours, but what it's what it left with me was that others
who were living there on the ground were able to do that overtime, and so I
ended up meeting founders of an NGO who are Americans who were then
living in Nigeria later that evening and hearing much more about the
community that we were in, and understanding all of the very legitimate
reasons why that trust would be so broken from the ways in which their
dignities had been assaulted for a variety of structural as well as
non-structural efforts. And yeah, I guess my overall lesson of
self-awareness there was it doesn't always come easy and, even in the
places where you expect to be that some of your efforts will be well
received, they may not be.
I think I presupposed too early on that they needed like the type of help that
I was there to give, and where I think that it would have just been a much
smoother and smarter relationship building to just try and get to know them
and get to know their work, and not come in trying to be helpful. And I think
that gets back to one of the earlier conversations about time spent. If i
would have had more than a few hours, and I wasn't you know intending to
do something and prove my worth for taking that meeting at that time on
those specific topics, and instead saw this as you know a much longer-term
partnership which, again, eventual colleagues were able to show me that
way, but I think that that would have helped really early on the outset, is
having a much longer time horizon, as well as much more self-awareness
that my role was not to come in with a real set agenda and specific
objectives, but really just build those bonds of trust early.
Leanne’s recognition that she assumed the community needed the type of
help that she had to give is important. As she then realized, the resources
and help that you may have to offer or have control over cannot be the
starting point of your engagement with such a community in need. Viewing
engagement with people in another culture and hoping to help a community
address its needs requires “a much longer time horizon.”
1.​ Do you think Leanne’s trip and her encounter with the local
community was wasted or was counterproductive, even harmful?
2.​ After such a futile meeting, are there possible next steps that could
reverse what had happened?
Podcast from Tom Price:
Tom Price had a similar realization when he worked to help victims of a
deadly forest fire in California. Engaging with people who are in need and
who have been traumatized can’t begin with you, the outsider, and your
resources and your privilege. It is important to recognize that and not just
blunder in and try to become the savior for victims or a community in need.
Engaging after Trauma
Tom Price:
It's critically important to remember just how foundationally different your
experience is in the world and the tools that are available to you if you are
coming from this place of extraordinary privilege, and that requires deep,
conscious, continuous humility to mitigate and to warn against because it's
both profoundly unfair and it also perpetuates the false distinctions that
economic disparity create when we allow those advantages that we have to
separate us from other people. Getting past that and finding moments of
real and true connection are incredibly difficult, and it's all too common in
experiences in the developing world, or in communities of disparate
economic and social standing, for people to slip into the really easy default
one, which is that ‘I'm the person the money, and the opportunity, and the
answers, so therefore you should listen to me’. And that is profoundly
destructive and it is a barrier that keeps us from really truly connecting with
others.
Don't take the idea that because you're in that position to be able to offer
assistance to someone that makes you special. That's just the luck of the
draw. I find that over and over again, people I work with Africa, smart,
committed, passionate, intelligent, capable people who, because of their
circumstance, barely get by ,and that's not because of some fault in their
part, that's just luck of the draw. In November, there was a terrible fire in
Paradise, California, an entire community was burnt to the ground and I felt
moved to help organize a bunch of people to take a bunch of trailers and
money and resources up there and did. And on the second visit, we were
taking this convoy of RV's that we were going to donate to people, and I
had literally a pocketful of gift cards and the other pocket was stuffed with
cash. And we pulled into the fairground in Gridley, California, where
hundreds of refugees were just sort of pouring out of the hills and being
dumped into this soggy, wet, foggy, smoky field, and I was trying to figure
out how to allocate these resources. And walking around, talking to people,
instead of being a person saying ‘let me meet you where you are, let me
hear your story, let me hear you process the grief that you're experiencing
and then let's talk about, you know, how I might be able to help’. Instead, I
allowed myself to get into a situation where people looked at me like an
ATM machine. So, we were just mobbed for people asking for help and I
was there, I remember asking one couple that was laying on the ground
like, “Oh, let me get you this shade structure, put you in this thing”, and
what I realized later was I didn't stop and ask them if they needed a place
to stay. I looked at them, saw that where they were, assumed that I
understood what their needs were, and prescribed the solution, and then it
was kind of a little butt hurt that they didn't immediately jump up and thank
me, make me feel good for offering them that resource.
And that's because, in that moment, I was not a partner, not an ally, I was a
savior. And it's so easy to slip into that, you know, when you are holding a
hammer, everything looks like a nail. The question you should be asking is
not whether or not something's a nail, the question you should be asking is
‘am I holding the right tool, or is there another way that I can help?’ And
that comes when you slow down and take the time to get out of your own
ego and the need to be gratified in whatever you're doing, and instead be
humble about asking whether or not there is something that you can do, not
can I do this thing for you, but is there a thing that I can do for you. Those
are very different. One comes from a place of privilege and presumption,
and the other comes from a place of humility, and it's only by meeting
people in a place of humility that we're able to connect on equal grounds.
I've had this experience so many times, where I've gone somewhere to do
something to ‘help’ and had, you know, a pocket full of money or a truck full
of resources or whatever, and presumed that because I had this hammer,
that they must have a nail for me to knock down, and over and over and
over again have been humbled to realize that what people in need most
often need is agency. Agency comes from being treated with respect and
for being asked if there's a way that you can be of service.
Young Professionals Video: Honesty and
Authenticity
Tabatha Thompson relates a different kind of experience that demonstrates
the power of honesty and authenticity, even among people with different
perspectives or who are even in conflict with each other.
Work with Humility
Tabatha Thompson:
So, you know, just approaching it with that mindset, that yes you may have
a project that you need to get done or, you know, indicators of success that
you have for your organization, but you're not actually the one that's living
in the environment and affected by, you know, the conflict or the emergency
or the crisis that is going on. And when your project is done, or your work is
done, you're not the one that remains. And so for me, you know, as an
outsider, so again approaching the work with humility, but also making sure
that you understand why people are motivated to do the work that they're
doing and these different communities and what makes them tick, and
moving, you know, beyond the transactional relationship, and, you know,
project space is so important because they're the ones that are going to
drive the work during the project and after you're gone and, if your idea of
success is to make real change or, you know, have a real impact, the only
way that you're actually going to be able to do that is if someone feels
comfortable and trusts you, and feels like you have their best interest at
heart, and you have their communities best interest at heart. Even if it
means, you know, maybe needing to slow down or take a pause in the
project to really understand what is going on.
Your priority can’t be to play the hero. You have to be willing to cede the
stage to the locals and let them determine what they need. And what they
need may not be what you wanted to offer them. And, in many
communities, time is not linear. There is a term in Latin America, “peace
without hurry” (paz sin prisa) which implies that peacebuilding is not a
short-term project with a completion date but rather a continuous, active
and endless process. Thus, working in a different culture often requires a
shift in mindset and a different conception of time.
In addition, we too often assume what the needs of others are and get
caught up in expectations of gratitude. Such attitudes reflect privilege not
humility and reinforce an overwhelming power disparity. In many cases,
when working in another culture, the outsider comes in with expectations
and presumes to know best what others need. That is not only
disrespectful but also counterproductive. People in need require agency;
but too often the outsider expects gratitude at a minimum and conditionality
at a maximum by requiring either a change in people’s behavior or requires
them to give back something in return for the help.
1.​ Tom Price noted that he was neither an ally nor a partner. To be one,
what might he have done differently?
2.​ How can you help people achieve agency while maintaining your
humility?
Presentation: Time, Control, and Agency
The belief in how much or how little control people have over their lives
may play a role in people’s personal and professional development. You
will fall somewhere on the continuum of “I can make things happen” or
“Things will happen to me and I’ll respond.” When people work in different
cultures, they will often notice that the passage and usage of time differs in
large or small ways from their own norms. Here we present concrete ways
to understand and describe these differences.
Time, Control, and Agency
Pamela Ex:
The notion of how much control people have over their lives and schedules
varies greatly across and within cultures. The concept of time and its value
also varies greatly among different groups of people. We will see that the
intersection of these dimensions of control and time greatly impacts
intercultural communications and relationship building.
In talking about control, people from cultures with an internal locus of
control believe that they can influence the outcome of events. For example,
if I study hard, I will get good grades, and I'll get a good job, and have a
good life. I believe that I have agency to make things happen. In contrast,
those with an external locus of control believe that outside forces
sometimes, due to religious beliefs circumstances, or luck, will determine
their fate and their success. Even if I study a lot, the teacher might not favor
me or the test may ask questions that we didn't cover. And so, I believe that
bad things could happen regardless of how hard I work.
When we discuss time, we acknowledge that time moves at different
speeds and in different patterns depending on the culture. Edward Hall, the
U.S. cultural Anthropologist. developed the concept of monochronic and
polychronic time. Monochronic, or one-time, is fixed, precise, and
unconditional. 10:00 is 10:00, regardless of who is involved or the purpose
of the meeting. Time is scarce, linear, and sequential, and people prefer to
do one thing at a time. Punctuality is valued, and schedules are viewed as
commitments, so excuses or explanations for tardiness or missed
milestones are expected. Cultures that are monochronic tend to
demonstrate an internal locus of control. They believe that it's possible to
set and adhere to schedules and deadlines through specific behaviors.
Polychronic, or many times, is fluid, flexible, and conditional. What 10:00
really means can fluctuate depending on the relative position of the parties
involved and the circumstances of their meeting. I must be on time for a
meeting with my boss, which represents a hierarchical relationship, but I
can arrive late for dinner at my grandmother's because she'll love me and
feed me no matter what time I arrive. In polychronic cultures, time is
abundant and may move in circular or irregular patterns. People prefer to
multitask and concentrate on many things at once. Deadlines function as
goals rather than fixed commitments, and there is much more flexibility
about what constitutes being late. Polychronic cultures tend to favor an
external locus of control. Their late arrival isn't necessarily viewed as
disrespectful, since it may be due to forces outside their control.
Monochronic people may judge polyphonics as disrespectful and not
serious when they are late. Conversely, polychronic people may
characterize monochronics as needing to be a little bit more flexible. And
so, we can see how different sources of control and the management of
time can affect relationships and trust, as well as the pace of work and
adherence to schedules.
How one conceives of time—the difference between monochronic and
polychronic views of time—affects our relationships with others. And time
can even have contextual meaning, particularly when it comes to
schedules, commitments and tardiness.
Adapting to different concepts of time can be somewhat tricky. Even if you
are in a culture in which time is viewed in more polychronic ways, there will
likely be an expectation that you will adhere to your cultural patterns and
habits with respect to time. In other words, even if others don’t keep to
schedules, you may be expected to do so since that is a cultural part of
who you are and who you are expected to be.
“While at home” activity:
Ironically, one of the most popular sports in the United States, a very
monochronic society, is baseball in which time has almost no impact on the
course of a game. Meanwhile, two of the most popular sports in the wider
polychronic world, soccer/football and basketball are greatly influenced by
“the clock.
Try the following activities to challenge your own understanding of yourself:
1.​ Think of occasions in a monochronic society in which schedules and
deadlines are less important or rigorous. Or consider when in a
polychronic society schedules and deadlines are more rigorously
adhered to.
2.​ Write down what you appreciate about the role time plays in your
culture or society. Then write down what you wish were different
about the influence of time in your life.
What are ways that humans can learn to be more patient? Are there
practical steps one can take so that we change our behavior or is increased
patience the result of a change in attitude or mindset?
Practitioner Voices: Perceptions of Time
One way to explain the difference between monochronic and polychronic
cultures is to ask, “How does that culture value time: as adhering to
schedules and getting things done, or as being flexible to accommodate
various relationships?”
Perceptions of Time
Stephen Moles:
There are a number of interesting studies that I think really get at this, that
look at how late do you have to be before you apologize. Let's say you're at
a meeting and there's five or six other people sitting around the table
waiting for you, and I, if I remember correctly, in American culture it's about
four minutes, whereas in some other cultures, especially as you referenced
maybe in the global South or other places in the world, it could be 10
minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes before you need to explain the fact that
you’re late. The other connection that I think is really important to
understand is that some, but not all, cultures that tend to have a flexible
view of time also tend to be collectivistic. In other words, there's an
emphasis on the group and there's a real strong emphasis on relationships
and harmony. And so, if I'm on my way to a meeting with my colleague
Dominic and I run into you in the hallway, of course, I'm going to stop and
talk to you. I'm going to ask you how you're doing, I'm going to ask you
what how that project is that you're working on, that are the important client
that I know that you've that you told me about, and I'm going to trust that
Dominic understands if I'm a couple minutes late, that it's because I
stopped to have an important conversation along the way. And everybody
understands that that's more important than being ruled by the clock, to
place the importance on the relationships, on the humanity of the person
rather than being a slave to the machine on the wall that tells you what time
it is.
Can you think of occasions in which a human need or a relationship
overrode your need to be on time or adhere to a schedule? How forgiving
are you of someone being late? Are there reasons for lateness that you
would accept and others that you would not? Share your thoughts in the
discussion below.
Chapter 8: Self-Care
This course began by noting the similarities between being a good footballer and
cultural awareness. The great footballer plays balanced and under control. And she has
to have the proper mindset because she will need to be able to reflect and learn, adapt
and be resilient--conscious of the need to work hard to improve her game. (Photo: Mica
Asato, Pexels)
To be effective in another culture, we must also work to strengthen our
cultural competence tools and skills. This course has emphasized the
importance of self-awareness and cultural humility, the value of empathy
and truly listening to the other, and searching for what the other needs,
rather than what you may want. Building trust and developing relationships
will enable us to have a better chance as an outsider of making a positive
contribution to a new community in which we are working, living, or just
visiting. As in football, there are many practical tips that can maximize our
chances of performing at our best, of making an intercultural encounter
more successful. But they will not always work--as in football, one can't
always predict what the other will do--so it is important to learn from failure
and rejection. And, we have to take care of ourselves and our own needs.
Any intercultural engagement is the product of the interaction of ourselves
and others. While being mindful of the needs of others, one must also be
self-aware and reflective and practice self-care. After all, you are a human
being working with other people, with all the messiness, uncertainties,
emotions, and rich rewards that come from human interaction.
This concluding chapter provides practical tips on how to continue your
cultural synergy journey in everyday life. So much of our cultural
engagement and cultural awareness take place around everyday issues
and daily routines, even brief encounters. Small things matter in the course
of human interaction and how we are perceived by others. So, how we
navigate the challenges of daily life helps us create a foundation to become
more socially aware and more culturally competent. In doing so, we are
laying the groundwork for cultural synergy, in which our engagement with
people from another culture combines our unique strengths and leads to
something better for all.
Learning Objectives
We hope by the end of this chapter, you'll be able to:
●​ Recall key themes and ideas from the preceding chapters and
discover connections between them.
●​ Reinforce how cultural awareness is in many ways a mindset that
embodies how you interact with others in a culturally sensitive
way—one that embraces humility, empathy, curiosity, and a capacity
and willingness to listen.
●​ Develop their own ideas about how to be at their best in a new culture
through self-care as a critical complement to our well-being in a new
environment.
●​ Understand that cultural synergy results from our combined efforts
with those from another culture and is a positive end state that is
strengthened by our cultural awareness, our positive engagement
with others, an open mind, a willingness to listen, flexibility, humility,
and a concern for the needs and rights of others.
When preparing for anything - a trip, a race (such as the marathon in Portugal pictured
above), a cross-cultural encounter - a proper mindset and staying the course is key to
reaching the finish line (Photo: Run 4 FFWPU, Pexels).
While being mindful of the needs of others, one must also be self-aware
and reflective and practice self-care.
Activity: How Do You Practice Self-Care?
Let's kick things off with a quick activity. This chapter talks a lot about the
importance of self-care when experiencing new cultural environments.
Self-care is actions that people take to maintain their own mental and
physical health and wellbeing. Different people practice take care of their
minds and bodies in different ways. Some commons ways include exercise,
cooking, reading a book, journaling, meditating, yoga, etc.
In this exercise, we ask that you take out a piece of paper and write down
three ways that you practice self-care.
Self-care comes in various shapes and forms. It is based on your individual needs and
preferences (Photo: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels).
How might you adapt these self-care activities to avoid burnout while
engaging with new cultures, and how do you give space for your emotional
needs during this process?
Young Professionals: Practicing Self-Care
In this video, Namiko Uno discusses how she practices somatics as a
physical and centered approach to self-care and enhanced self-awareness.
Practicing Self-Care
Practicing Self-Care
Namiko Uno:
Oftentimes when we are under pressure, we will default to whatever we
have practiced, whatever is most readily available to us, and if you are
traveling and you're under pressure, you're in a new environment, you feel
really uncomfortable, you're not sure, you know, what the cultural norms,
are what the food is, what the language is, you're really out of your comfort
zone, right? And when you're out of your comfort zone, you want to be able
to come back to a place of steadiness, where you can say, “OK, I am aware
that, you know, X, Y, and Z are really stressing me out right now and I can
hold that and I can hold my center, and so I'm going to stay rooted within
myself, I'm going to feel my feet on the ground, I'm going to feel my chest
wide, I'm going to feel where my breath is being held, and from this place of
awareness, I'm going to be able to decide how I want to act in this situation
what when I'm under pressure”. And so, it's not just defaulting to whatever
your tendency is, in terms of wanting to lash out, run away, to none, to
dissociate, all of these responses that have kept us alive, those will come
up when we're under pressure. And so, developing new skills and new
practices is a way that we can extend from our center, from our heart, and
we can develop the type of relationships that we want.
What Namiko describes are ways to prepare yourself to stay engaged, to
be present. That requires physical health and stamina, as well as a mindset
in which you maintain awareness of what is going on around you while
ensuring that you can concentrate on active listening and retaining your
focus and equilibrium. As humans we gain strength and refresh ourselves
with "downtime" -- that is, periods when we can relax and rely on routines
and a tried and true capacity to filter and classify new information and
stimuli.
In a foreign culture, when so much of what we are experiencing is new and
unfamiliar and our normal tools for responding may seem inadequate,
everyday life, as well as our professional responsibilities, can become
physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing if not exhausting. That is why it
is so important to reset, refuel, refresh, and relax whenever possible.
Many intercultural difficulties and conflicts that we face are rooted in
miscommunication, power dynamics (and asymmetries), and inherent and
often unacknowledged biases.
Practitioner Voices 1: The Importance of
Self-Care
The Importance of Self-Care Part 1
Kerley Most, a psychotherapist and humanitarian, offers some practical
advice about self-care and building resilience while working in challenging
circumstances in cultures different from your own.
The Importance of Self-Care Pt. 1
Kerley Most:
I love your question, Pam, because as a clinician and as a person who has
been in the process for the long haul, I have noticed that resilience is
something that you can practice and build out with the skills and actions
every day. I am a humanitarian at heart, and when I was younger, I worked
in West Africa as a humanitarian doing development work. In my first three
years, I worked very hard, passion filled me. Like I just wanted to do the
work and be with the right people. I noticed that I started to distance myself
from people, be very critical of people, develop odd habits of washing my
hands, I cried often. So, I did not know but I was depressed, and the I
sought help. And in the process of therapy, I found out that I had no space
for myself. I was being killed, literally, by my desire to be with people. So, I
decided to take a day off, like take a Saturday off, stayed by myself, and
that was supportive from me. You asked what are steps of resilience that
people can take in order to face the cross-cultural challenges. One of the
things I did, and one advice and a clinical advice that I give as an expert in
that, is establish healthy boundaries. Know what works for you and do not
be afraid to claim and to ask for it. The other, I would say, be aware of your
internal world. I was depressed and took forever for me to identify that. You
can be aware of internal world by journaling or doing logs of your day.
Another thing that can really support resilience is to be aware of sleeping
patterns, and of eating and exercise. Another factor also is to feel and be
connected to someone you care about. And also let go of negative people
that sap your energy, because they affect your ability to be present to what
you need to do. Cultural adaptation takes a lot of energy, and it's important
to learn how to conserve energy, and how to keep energy. And the most
important point for me in holding the ability to function in a different setting
and be effective and not burnout is to hold to your sense of purpose and
meaning. If you know why you're there, chances are that you have strength
to hold and to be present with things become challenging.
The Importance of Self-Care Part 2
Kerley Most explains that when we experience stress, that there is no
shame but rather good sense and courage in seeking help and support.
Scenario: The Inside-Out Sweater
So much of our cultural engagement and cultural awareness take place
around everyday issues and daily routines, even brief encounters. When
we asked practitioners about their own intercultural challenges what most
remembered were often incidences in which they missed cues or were not
fully aware of a situation. Too often, they confused what they heard with
what someone really meant or needed.
In the course of living and working in another culture, it is often useful just
to re-set. Pause, step back, observe, and ask questions if something is
confusing or unclear. There is much to be said for engaging, being present,
and trying to learn. You may have power, privilege, and resources but
balancing those with humility (knowing that you don’t know everything and
cannot be the solution to most problems), self-awareness, and a desire to
learn and engage with others will go a long way to helping you to make
meaningful contributions to the community around you. Small things matter
in the course of human interaction and how we are perceived by others.
The ways in which we navigate the challenges of daily life help us create a
foundation to become more socially aware and more culturally competent.
The following scenario reflects this in a simple way.
Anjali shared this experience when working in a mountain clinic in a rural
village in Nepal.
Sweater Story
Anjali Niyogi:
I mean, one that you know that stuck with me mostly because I do health
stuff, was I kind of, I walked into clinic one day, and this is in the mountains
and it's cold, and I was wearing a sweater and I was wearing it inside out,
and, you know rushed, out of the house and showed up at the clinic. And
one of the clinic staff kept sort of very gently telling me that my sweater was
inside out and, you know, I was much younger then, and I was coming from
the United States, and in the U.S. I feel like we use sarcasm and humor in
a different way than people in other parts of the world use, and so I just sort
of, you know, eventually said, “Yes, yes, I understand that my shirts on
inside out, you know, but it's to keep me warm and it's doing its job no
matter how I wear it”. And there was sort of this silence for a while and one
of the guys kind of came and, you know, pulled me aside and said, “Well,
here we wear our shirts inside out when someone has died”. You know, and
here I was the clinician or you know the medical student in this clinic and
had just created what seemed like, you know, for the whole clinic went
silent and it was a really big deal for them and, you know, I was just flippant
and not knowing anything so.
Too often, one makes unfounded assumptions or our frame of reference is
off. Such cultural mistakes will inevitably happen. It is important to learn
from them but also not be overly sensitive to them when they occur. You
can’t always be on your guard, but pausing, taking a breath, reflecting, and
asking questions when possible helps you to be able to navigate your way
more smoothly in a new culture. Retaining a sense of cultural humility as
well as an openness to constantly learning is key. Another tip in thinking
about your own cultural missteps is what you would think if the situation
were reversed. If someone from another culture did something out of the
norm in your home community, what would you think? How would you
respond? Most of us would certainly appreciate that person asking us
about our own traditions and cultural norms as well as advice on how
things are done.
Learn as You Go
Kim Cook:
I guess for me the one thing is that I have consistently collided with
cultures, I have never entered gracefully. I have this ambition that I could be
like those Olympic high divers where they're watching them go into the
water and they're like watching whether their toes entered without any
wake, you know, just like you enter and there's no ripple, and I feel like I
constantly belly flop and it's like a big old wave of like ‘kabam, man she's
got big feet and big elbows and wide hips and like she's just bumping into
everybody and everything’. And this, for me, essentially becomes the tool
that I have, is to recognize that I will do the best that I can to have the
posture of a guest, to be listening acutely, to understand myself as a
learner, and to really be able to own the fact that the likelihood is that I will
put a foot wrong and how can I own that and hold that with a certain
amount of grace, how can I honor it, how can I surface it when it needs to
be surfaced because I can see that something has gone wrong. And then,
you know, really do my best to adjust right to make the change within
myself, but the change within myself has never turned out to be figured out
before you go and then do it perfectly when you get there. It's really been
accept that you may not do it properly and learn as you go and, you know,
hold space inside of your own body for the sort of grace of it's possible to
learn, it's possible to recover from a mistake, it's possible to move forward
and do the work that you want to be doing in the world.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have made it to the course conclusion. It is now time to self-reflect
and earn your certificate (Photo: Eberhard Grossgasteiger, Pexels).
Cultural competence is, at its most effective, a process of self-discovery.
And, in addition to that, one has to remain flexible and move beyond fixed
agendas and schedules. Building trust and creating relationships are key to
working within different cultures. Below, a number of the experienced
practitioners you have heard from remind us of the key elements and tools
from this course:
Chapter 1: Cultural Sensitivity
As Tabatha Thompson reminds us, cultural sensitivity is being aware of our
impact as outsiders and what our priorities should be.
Work with Humility
Tabatha Thompson:
So, you know, just approaching it with that mindset, that yes you may have
a project that you need to get done or, you know, indicators of success that
you have for your organization, but you're not actually the one that's living
in the environment and affected by, you know, the conflict or the emergency
or the crisis that is going on. And when your project is done, or your work is
done, you're not the one that remains. And so for me, you know, as an
outsider, so again approaching the work with humility, but also making sure
that you understand why people are motivated to do the work that they're
doing and these different communities and what makes them tick, and
moving, you know, beyond the transactional relationship, and, you know,
project space is so important because they're the ones that are going to
drive the work during the project and after you're gone and, if your idea of
success is to make real change or, you know, have a real impact, the only
way that you're actually going to be able to do that is if someone feels
comfortable and trusts you, and feels like you have their best interest at
heart, and you have their communities best interest at heart. Even if it
means, you know, maybe needing to slow down or take a pause in the
project to really understand what is going on.
Chapter 2: Self-Awareness
Cultural competence begins with self-awareness. Christopher Breedlove
explains:
Blind Spots
Christopher Breedlove:
I think self-awareness is the other side of the coin, right? It's like, not only
do you have to be aware of the other culture that you're entering into, but
then you have to be aware of your own culture because you're bringing in a
bunch of baggage too, you know. And I think that it's like, yeah I don't even
know how you split it, right? It's two sides of the same coin and I think
maybe that's the piece that's a little bit harder to do because you can go
online and you can research, “OK I'm going to go into this culture, what's
going on? What's the history? What’s the food like? Where did the
customs, you know?” You can learn all these little nuances, but it's a lot
harder to Google search ‘what's my own bias’. It's a lot harder to say, “What
are my own blind spots?” And so, that's where self-awareness comes in.
You have to spend the time to kind of figure out what are the corners that is
hard for you to see around, and we call them blind spots and so obviously
it's not easy to find them, you know. How do you become aware of what
you don't yet know? And so, that is the work of self-awareness, and I think
that anybody who wants to go into the field, and I think anybody who wants
to work with people, whether it's in your own culture or another one, you
know, developing a strong sense of self-awareness will make that work go
that much better for you.
Chapter 3: Bias
As a mediator working as part of a German team engaged in the Bosnian
peace process, Juan Diaz-Prinz experienced how stereotyping can change
perceptions in wildly divergent ways. Identity is not just who we think we
are but also identity is often ascribed to us and connections can often be
made based on the perceptions of us by others:
Ascribed Identities
Juan Diaz-Prinz:
Well, I found it fascinating that, so first of all, they always called us the
German delegation arriving in Bosnia. And then they met a guy named
Juan who was American, so then there was all this anti-American, “What
are you doing here?” And then, all I would say was, “My family's Cuban”,
and all of a sudden I was being hugged by all the Yugoslavs. “Oh my God,
Cuba! We, you know, we have such, we have such a love, you're so
welcome”. I was like, “You just hated me like 2 seconds ago when I said I
was American”. “Well, that's OK”. And all of a sudden, it was, for them,
perfectly, I was the same person, it was perfectly normal for them to shift
gears and to leave one of my identities aside and just focus on my Cuban
side. And then, we would sit in the in a meeting and I would be facilitating it
and it was so funny, they would say, “Well, you understand being Cuban”,
and then I would remind them I had never been in Cuba, it's just my
parents were Cuban. “Well, it's in the DNA.” And I found that fascinating,
that I could tell them a million times I'm American, I grew up in the United
States, but they heard Cuban, and forever I was the Cuban mediator for
them.
Chapter 4: Culture Shock and Adaptation
Dealing with culture shock and adapting to a new culture and the many
times one ends up wrong-footed when working in a new environment,
requires the ability both to make mistakes but also learning from one’s
missteps. Christopher Breedlove elaborates:
Learning from Missteps
Christopher Breedlove:
As much as you can is remember that, a lot of it's not personal. It's like,
when you run into issues, try and remove yourself from that situation and
don't take it personally. Communication isn't easy and social work isn't
easy. Working cross-culturally with people who you don't know isn't easy.
And so, when you run into problems, just don't take it personally, you know.
I think that's when you go back to those first two, which is you listen and
then check your biases, and then what, right? It's because we can all take
things personally, because sometimes they feel that way, and then when
you emotionally react to something, then that creates a cycle of emotion,
and then we're not speaking about what we were just a few minutes ago.
Chapter 5: Intercultural Communications
Tamanna Salakuddin reminds us of the importance of keeping an open
mind and checking one’s “stereotypes at the door” when communicating
with others. To do so requires intentionality and talking to the other as a
person—which also means being a good and active listener. Effective
cross-cultural engagement usually begins there.
Leave Your Stereotypes Behind
Tamanna Salakuddin:
But often we have maybe stereotypes or perceived notions of other people.
I would say that, when you are going into a cross-cultural environment, the
first thing you need to do is check some of your stereotypes at the door.
People will surprise you, and while there may be some stereotypes that you
think define a people, nobody's a monolith. And so, my very first suggestion
is to go in with humility and talk to the individual person, rather than talking
to them as part of a larger group. Talk to them as a person and often you
will find you have more in common with them than you thought. Second of
all, really try to listen more than talk. People have histories and identities
and backgrounds that they would like to share with you, and sometimes it
sounds like a lot of catharsis but in listening, you actually understand their
motivations and you understand where they're coming from. You might not
agree with it, but you will have a better sense of why they are saying what
they're saying, why their viewpoint differs from you.
Chapter 6: Relationships and Building Trust
One has to begin with building trust: “Until I know you, I don’t know if I can
trust you.” And creating trust is a long-term endeavor; losing trust can be
instantaneous. With that in mind, cultural awareness is not simply a matter
of appreciating other cultures but developing an awareness of the impact of
culture and an understanding of the role of identity—the identities of others
and self-awareness of one’s own identities. It is important to acknowledge
one’s own identity and cultural influences and how we are perceived by
others. That is the basis for trust.
Listen Without an Agenda
Carmen Mauk:
It’s incredibly important to whenever anybody stops and says, “Hey, I need
this” or “Can you guys do this?” that you not think that there's a box that
they're outside of, but just like, “OK, how do we include this in if possible?”
so that we are not seen as foreign, you know. And I think that, when you
truly listen to people without an agenda, which I think is key, that enables
the real trust between, you know, us and the community that creates the
strong relationships, you know, to go forward so that real change can
happen.
Chapter 7: Time, Control and Agency
A cultural faux pas is very different in terms of impact and consequences
when compared to an outsider coming into another culture with
assumptions about how he or she can solve problems or fix things. If it’s
not your culture, if it’s not your community, if it’s not your problem to solve,
who are you to arrogate to yourself the right to offer a solution? One has to
understand the impact of one’s own power and privilege and how those will
be perceived. That is why humility is at the heart of cultural competence.
The Solution is the Process
Leanne Erdberg:
There are moments in your cross-cultural communication where you see
that the solution is the process and it's not tasks in and of itself. and so,
those you know those bonds of trust, the unleashing of the creativity of
others through the empowerment that you can give to them, rather than
telling them to do it, can have much larger impacts than any of perhaps
some of the more pre-designed logical frameworks that that had have
dominated a lot of our field.