Diversity – Interculturality
Diversity – Interculturality
Interculturality is about developing skills and behaviours enable you to integrate with any nationality to achieve success ,wherever you are and with whomever you are with, by learning the skills to integrate while still being yourself. It draws on different disciplines to review mindset and behaviours and create new ways of being effective, managing challenge and opportunity and creating outcomes and plans for a fulfilled and rewarding personal and professional life.
A little quiz….
Which of the following do you think best defines intercultural fluency?
- The ability to deal with conflict with other colleagues.
- The ability to adapt to stressful situations.
- The ability to adapt to different cultures, work environments and contexts in order to build great relationships and collaborate.
How can we develop intercultural fluency? Select all that apply.
- a) Learn a new language.
- b) Be judgmental.
- c) Participate in social organizations that include various cultures.
- d) Be open-minded.
- e) Challenge people with cultures other than your own. Details Below….
What sort of interactions have you had with individuals from diverse backgrounds in a professional setting? Was communication effortless or challenging? In hindsight, what actions could you have taken to enhance your intercultural fluency?
- a team of associates in four continents speaking 12 languages (see People)
- four day training course on Diversity already delivered in several countries (see Train )
- talks on Diversity delivered in several countries (see Speak)
- Diversity workshops tailored for specific countries to deal with others (see Train)
- Cognitive Diversity – how to build a properly diverse team using Profiling (see Profile
- Coaching on Interculturality and on how to become Diverse (see Coach)
- Call us on +447788425688 for more details or send us an enquiry
Interculturality
Relating to many different others at the same time
Interculturality is about developing skills and behaviours enable you to integrate with any nationality to achieve success ,wherever you are and with whomever you are with, by learning the skills to integrate while still being yourself. It draws on different disciplines to review mindset and behaviours and create new ways of being effective, managing challenge and opportunity and creating outcomes and plans for a fulfilled and rewarding personal and professional life.
Eating and Drinking
One of the most interculturally difficult areas is food and drink. A truly intercultural person knows their way around menus, knows how and at what time people eat. They eat and drink everything host puts in front of them (subject to religious constraints), knows how to indicate when they had enough, and entertain knowing those constraints.
Interculturality is not just about countries
Interculturality is not just about countries. One of the most interculturally difficult areas is accent and local culture within the same country. In the UK for example, where their claims to be multiculturalism, getting on in the workplace generally requires behaving with a certain culture (restrained English) where being loud and direct is frowned upon, and where speaking with the correct accent is important. Code switching is where you behave and speak differently at work than with family. Not only do Black and ethnic minorities have to do it, anyone with a Birmingham or Northern accent has to change how they speak to get on in London. It’s not as bad as it was, but is still there. What time ‘dinner’ is , is significant and many class criteria apply in UK.
SIETAR
Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR)
SIETAR is a non-profit, non-governmental international organisation in Europe affiliated to the global network of SIETAR Organisations around the world. Its purpose is to encourage the development and application of knowledge, values and skills which enable effective intercultural and interethnic relations at individual, group, organisation and community levels.
The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) was founded in 1974 as an interdisciplinary network for trainers and researchers in the area of intercultural and cross-cultural communication.
As of 2004, SIETAR had a network of national and regional professional networks with more than 3,000 members worldwide. It holds NGO status with the United Nations.
Several SCT associates belong to, have presented to, or have served on committees including former President Pari Namazie and Clair Aghassipour
Three Colours Worldview
The Three Colours of Worldview can be visualized as three coloured lenses – formed of the basic beliefs and assumptions underlying behaviour and culture. People take in the world and make decisions on how to act through the filter of these lenses. For example, is being seen as honourable more important than being seen as right? Or is maintaining positional power more important than being shamed? To communicate effectively in a cross-cultural situation, you need to know what mix of lenses you have on in the way you see the world, and how to evaluate the lenses of the people with whom you are communicating. When we understand our own self-culture, we can begin to understand what drives others. These are what we look at first when we encounter a new situation, as they influence so many other cultural factors.
1. Innocence/Guilt
In an Innocence/Guilt focused culture, schools focus on deductive reasoning, cause and effect, good questions, and process. Issues are often seen as black and white. Written contracts are paramount. Communication is direct, and can be blunt.
2. Honour/Shame
Societies with a predominantly Honour/Shame worldview teach children to make honourable choices according to the situations they find themselves in. Communication, interpersonal interaction, and business dealings are very relationship-driven, with every interaction having an effect on the honour/shame status of the participants.
3. Power/Fear
Societies with a predominantly Power/Fear worldview raise children to assess where they fit into the pecking order of every situation they are in and behave accordingly. As they grow up, they learn how to align themselves with the right people to gain more power.
If you are well, both mentally and physically you will achieve more. Being in the right job in the right place will increase satisfaction. We run coaching, individual on-line training and group workshops in Wellness, to help you gain better understanding of the problem areas you may have in your life and begin to alleviate stress, tension and anxiety so you can live life happier, with more freedom and peace of mind, and achieve your career goals.