Cross Cultural Communication Training - Part II

Review

Welcome back!  So after watching that video of the two stick figures, you should be able to see the importance of cultural competency and how forms of communication can mean very different things in different cultures.

What do you think the stick figure man could have done prior to the business trip?  For one thing, attending some cultural training specific to the country might have helped avoid this situation.  It demonstrates pretty well that while some things are considered harmless in one culture, other cultures may react to it quite differently.

Why do you think the female stick figure reacted the way she did?  Its possible that in her culture there is not as much separation between business life and personal life; or his behavior crossed a very distinct line in her culture.  The only way to know is to be prepared!

What is culture?

Define Culture and its effect on communication

So what is culture? That really depends on who you ask.  Here are a few definitions. 3

• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
• Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.
• Culture is communication, communication is culture.
• Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.
• A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

So what is the common thread? Beliefs and behaviors are both mentioned often.  And the highlighted item in the third bullet perfectly describes the purpose of this training. Verbal, written, nob-verbal communication elements help us to define and understand a culture.

Watch the movie below to understand what culture is and how it can interfere with communication and what you can do to avoid some of the issues you might experience.

Does this clip help you understand what was going on in the stick figure scenario from the first post?  Consider that the male stick figure's culture has a more distinct line between business and personal communication, where the female's culture takes a more holistic approach.  It's easy to see how different cultures could perceive the same behavior differently than intended, leading to conflict.

The first tool, as with almost any new thing you learn or try to get better at is awareness.  Think about this question: How can you train yourself to be more aware of the different cultures you work with?  How does one become more aware of being aware?  Formal and informal training like this is a start, but in the next post we will discuss ways to improve communication with a cross-cultural audience.