Who cares about cultural differences? I mean truly caring about what it means and how it affect the way you performing and the organization operated, not just being nice or patient to your clients, co-workers and employees who come from a totally different culture from you. And how can you turn any of potential disadvantage/danger of those effects into leveraging factors?
Often time, at the end of the day, I sat down and asked myself similar questions. Who cares? Do I care? The answer always went not very positive. People are so busying at finishing tasks, running to meetings and conferences, preparing for next project or multi-tasking on a crazy number of projects, etc. etc. Yes, for many of us, cultural sensitivity may not be a necessary thing to give conscious attention to, not even mention that many of us confidently assume we are already culturally equipped because we are born and living in a country where multi-culture is a key social context. And for many of us, the power of intercultural communication skills has never been important until harmful lessons have been given by the consequences of miscommunication.
I came to this conference with a hope to find a group of people who truly care about the importance of intercultural communication and who may know and teach how to implement strategies to bring opportunities and create power.
The first day was full of inspiration and excitement. I managed to go four sessions: a (1) a digital video mini-conference with Alexandra Parrs and Jameela Al Mahari on a joint virtual cross-cultural communication education project among American University, Al Bayan College in Oman, and the University of Bahrain; (2) an informative and exploring session by Richard Linowes on using cross-cultural skills for Competitive Advantage in the corporate settings; (3) an interactive workshop type of group discussion on HR practices on today’s mixed cultural norms created by emerging technologies; and (4) a self-exploring exercise with Donna Stringer on using social psychology concept and training to apply intercultural skills for personal and organizational uses. High engagement is the cool part of this conference and prevents me from getting information without digesting. Here are some inspiring ideas and questions I took out of the Day I participation. Hope you will find one or two interesting to you:
- Lack of structure in intercultural communication could lead to conflict or even disaster. However, it may promote self-learning and self-discovery motivations. It’s easier to say it than finding a degree to define how much is “lack”. It’s really up to your case-by-case evaluation. But at least be aware of it!
- Building trust in a multicultural communication is essential. You may successful do that through out a year or two. The question is how you can build trust with a tight time barrier (let’s say a week…)?
- What are the dimensions of culture? How do you define culture?
- Do you expect millennials to know every popular technology and put it into execution at work? Or are you expected to be a know-how millennial? How should HR process be tailored for new generations and for an era with so called Traditionalists, Boomers, Gen X and Y being together at the same workplace?
- Try hard to identify core values you have for who you are and what you do, and try harder to find those for others.
- Being an outsider of a team or an organization may not necessarily lead to a negative outcome (although it does not generate positive feelings). Try to interpret it in another way. How you feel is really depending on what perspective you have and what philosophy you embrace.
Arts Management at American University
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