Interpersonal and intercultural communication could be more of a joy rather than a chore if informed by self-awareness about how effectively you bridge diversity and cultural/value differences between yourself and others. At the outset, this distinct form of self-awareness can be gained from a professional assessment – the Intercultural Development Inventory® and feedback from a professional assessor (Qualified Administrator of the IDI ®) that reveal blind spots and unconscious biases regarding your “go to” approach for managing cultural differences. The benefit of this self-awareness is being able to approach new situations henceforth from a position of knowledge and strength.
The professional assessment will tell you which of five orientations you tend to use most of the time. These orientations are based on Mitchell Hammer, Ph.D.’s theory of intercultural development. The more effective orientations are called “intercultural”.
In the intercultural development sense, “intercultural” means having the ability to shift your cultural perspective to a different cultural perspective and change your behaviour accordingly. It’s about adapting your behaviour and improving your performance for mutual benefit, and it is a significant accomplishment you can be proud of. When you can do this regularly, you can truly say you are intercultural, and this will be your new superpower.
Becoming intercultural is not impossible. Individuals and teams have the potential to learn and grow into confident and authentic intercultural role models and leaders who can prevent conflicts and foster inclusion and equity. Increasing self-awareness by obtaining a professional assessment and feedback is a necessary and preliminary step to transforming and elevating the organizational culture for everyone.
The outcomes of intercultural competence for equity, diversity, and inclusion
What is a cultural difference? The answer to this question depends on your individual and distinct orientation to cultural differences, which means how you mainly experience, make sense of, respond/react to, and navigate cultural differences. It also depends on the level of complexity of your conception of culture.
If you have the advantage of an intercultural orientation to cultural differences, it is likely you will accept cultural differences and be able to balance your insights about cultural similarities with your insights about cultural differences. You would then be able to use those insights to shift your perspective and change your behaviour accordingly. The ability to shift perspective and change behaviour is crucial for building a bridge between diversity on one hand, and inclusion and equity on the other.
This is because your ability to change cultural perspective and behaviour increases your chances of accomplishing tasks and achieving objectives. For example, you would be more effective as a leader, because you are better able to give and elicit constructive feedback, build trust, and create a sense of belonging and connection within your team (inclusion). Moreover, you would be better able to increase access to resources, opportunities, and rewards (equity) for minority and marginalized team members. In short, you have developed the ability to bridge value differences and this ability is crucial for teamwork, and for building a psychologically and culturally safe workplace culture.
Last, but not least, the ability to shift cultural perspective and adapt behaviour also has valuable implications for leaders and organizations who want to attract and connect with new and lucrative target audiences and markets. Leaders who have developed an adaptable mindset and gained new intercultural insights will be able to design more appropriate ways to appeal to such audiences and markets, expand their client base, and eventually, increase their revenue.
Building cultural self-awareness: A key component of intercultural competence and effective EDI
One of the key methods of building intercultural competence is to build self-awareness and self-knowledge. Building self-awareness is beneficial as it can help to improve our ability to bridge cultural or value differences which in turn helps us to communicate and lead better.
Building self-awareness includes being able to describe ourselves in cultural terms. When we are comfortable speaking about ourselves in cultural terms to others, we can say we have achieved an intercultural development goal.
Describing ourselves in cultural terms takes practice, and it can be challenging at first if it is something we are not used to doing. Practice and patience help us to become more confident and this confidence helps us to interact more effectively with others.
We can begin this process by identifying how diverse we might be. For example, what are our core values, gender, sexual orientation, generation, stage in life, socioeconomic status (education, occupation, and income), and political, social, and economic privileges? We can articulate our understanding of our personal diversity and share it with others to gain confidence, and simultaneously be inspired and encouraged by how others describe themselves.
The Intercultural Sharing Circle (copyright, Sights on Success Consulting) is a space that is safe for developing self-awareness and self-confidence in our cultural identities. You can join the Intercultural Sharing Circle by registering through this link.
To arrange an IDI® and professional feedback session and take the first step towards intercultural empowerment and effective EDI, send an email to Angeline at: aschia@sightsonsuccessconsulting.com.
Angeline Chia, Intercultural Development Consultant, Sights on Success Consulting, IDI QA, M.Ed. (HRD), ICF Coach, https://sightsonsuccessconsulting.com/contact/
