At our 24 Ideas event in August, I delivered a taster workshop on Cultural Intelligence (CQ), which is our ability to understand and adapt to different cultural situations.
CQ doesn’t have a fixed score and can be continuously developed throughout our lifetime. Cultures are shaped by geography, faith, gender, generation, organization, and sector. At our “core” identity are unchangeable beliefs, values and behaviours, while the “flex” portion includes the beliefs, values and behaviours we are able to adapt. High cultural intelligence involves knowing and managing this core/flex boundary.
In the workshop, I created a safe space with discussion-based exercises designed to explore the topic of Cultural Intelligence in small groups.
Here are some exercises we explored that you may find useful to use within your organisation:
Exercise 1: Exploring your core
- Introduce yourself and describe the place you grew up. What is the way of life like there? Is there anything specific about the beliefs, behaviours and values you can recall?
- Are any of the beliefs, behaviours and values you described, still with you today?
- Are there any misconceptions or stereotypes associated with the place you are from? How do these make you feel?
Following discussion around cultural backgrounds and global cultures, the session honed in on sector and work-based cultures. Understanding culture in sectors and workplaces involves recognising that different industries and organisations have distinct working cultures, with variations even within departments, which necessitates exploring, appreciating, and sometimes adapting to these diverse environments to enhance collaboration and productivity.
Exercise 2
Work-based culture: Discuss the sector you work within or the most recent sector you have worked within. Is there anything unique about the beliefs, behaviours or values within this sector?
Exercise 3: Your flex: Can you share an example of a time when you adapted your behaviour to better align with another culture?
Exercise 4: Overcoming barriers: How easy or difficult do you find it to communicate and build relationships with people from different cultures? What is easier and what is more difficult and why?
A common barrier in cultural intelligence is the fear of saying the wrong thing. The session concluded with three tips to enhance CQ:
- Adopt a curious and open-minded attitude: Ask questions out of a desire to learn and appreciate rather than to judge or compare.
- Show respect and sensitivity: “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I’m really interested in learning about…”
- Share your own experiences: For instance, after asking about a cultural tradition, you might share a similar tradition from your own culture.