Professional Documents
Culture Documents
aware of what makes us who we are, and how our culture influences
the way we work with other people.
Cultural Intelligence is needed wherever cultures clash and problems
go unsolved. It is about more than bridging national borders and
developing our capability to operate globally. It is about crossing all
kinds of cultural divides, learning to operate effectively in unfamiliar
surroundings and finding a way to break down barriers that may well
not be geographical at all.
Many of us look around the world and wonder at the problems we see.
This is mostly the result of a failure to communicate, misinterpretation
and misunderstanding. Particularly across cultures. There needs to be
a desire and willingness to do things differently. Leaders need to
manage this complexity and be prepared to articulate the issues in a
way that brings people together and makes progress.
A need for Cultural Intelligence
many criminals too). When the judge looked at us all at me, my wife
and my kids he said, This adoption cannot happen. Ms Baluch is
white, Mr Baluch is brown. The other children are of many colours.
And this child is black. Fortunately, we had a very good lawyer who
made our case well. We pushed back, and were approved. I left
thinking about that judge, who saw nothing but colour. It really doesnt
matter: we are us, the Baluch family, and we have built our own
culture.
Issa Baluch, Chairman, African Agribusiness Knowledge Centers,
USA
You just do have to learn to adapt. I am already a woman, which
clients find hard to deal with, because very few people in business in
India are seen as women: they are daughters-in-law, mothers or
wives. (India is completely dominated by men. Dont be fooled by the
tiny number of exceptions to this.) How I treat the CEO of a global
Indian business and the CEO of a family-owned Indian business bear
no resemblance to each other. With the first, I will use first names;
with the second, I will say sir. With the first, I will reveal that I am a
professional woman with two children, who travels for work; with the
second, such words would never be uttered (they would assume that
my children were abandoned). The former would not be interested in
who my Chairman was; the latter would want to know (and know that
it is my husband this seems to give legitimacy in their minds, that
business could be discussed with me). I will adapt not just my words
but my speed of talking, the subjects I use to establish a rapport and,
crucially, how I show deference.
Vandana Saxena Poria, CEO, Get Through Guides, India
put on, and it wasnt prepared. It came naturally, and thats how
people responded to it, and to him. He went beyond IQ, and
Emotional Intelligence, to CQ.
Ron Arculli, Senior Partner, King & Wood Madlesons, Hong Kong
I was born a crossover person: I have always believed that I am a
black person in a white skin, but put me in China, and I sink. To start
with, I was huge, taller than anyone. I swear that everyone in the
street was looking at me. I became incredibly self-conscious. I was
lost, I wasnt me. I felt looked at, so I shut myself up. I became like
Gulliver. I got on a bus to go back to the hotel, but I got on the wrong
one. When I realised it was going in the wrong direction, I panicked.
So I marched up to the driver and showed him the address. He
reacted to my stress by stressing himself. In the end, he threw me off
the bus, shouting you dont belong. I felt like an alien and, to my
shock, I behaved like one.
Di Schneider, Head of Strategic Talent & Transformation, Deloitte
& Touche, South Africa
Julia Middleton