Experiencing the Immersion that Leads to Learnng

This blog is a personal reflection on time spent in Mexico and the learning that emerged.
Once again I have immersed myself into a Latin culture and have experienced the dislocation of place and identity that moves me to an experience of intense personal observation and reflection. Each time I come into this community I find that I must first adjust my hearing and listening. My friends are speaking Spanish and my mastery of this language is still in its infancy. I pick up every third or fourth word, make assumptions about meaning, and am hesitant to say `no I didn’t understand that’. I am very aware that the literal translation of words does not capture meaning – and for me I suspect that the last thing that I will really get in this language is the jokes.
As I struggle to understand I observe a few things that happen to me; I listen very intently, I must watch the face of the person who is speaking, and I pay attention to gestures and facial experiences. My mind processes what I am hearing and asks `what am I understanding’, and `do I have the words to respond to what is being said’. I am reminded of the practice of active listening as it is described in the process of dialogue – listening for meaning, paying attention to my own assumptions, holding curiosity. It would be easier at times to sit back, stop listening and not be present, to not try to understand, however I value these relationships too much to allow any appearance of disinterest appear in my demeanor.
When I return home I want to be reminded of the importance of paying attention, to the energy that I put into listening when I am in conversations. Do I listen as intently, do I pay attention to what is being communicated in addition to the words being spoken, am I listening to each word or am I assuming the meaning that is being spoken and getting ahead of the speaker, do I recognize when I am not understanding and do I take the time to ask the questions.
As I write about this experience I find myself reflecting on why I hesitate to declare my lack of understanding and I recognize a few reasons: I am reluctant to acknowledge that I didn’t understand, I am reluctant to alter the flow of the conversation if I interject with an `I don’t understand’, I am embarrassed to acknowledge my lack of knowledge (in this case of the language however at home it might be the subject matter), I struggle with being a novice when in most areas of my life I operate from a place of expertise.
Philippe Rosinski, author of Coaching Across Cultures identifies that the cross culture environment provides a unique chance to step outside one’s comfort zone. Adapting to differences requires you to bravely step outside and experiment with changing some of your behaviors. This time I am paying attention to my patterns of communication, choosing to hone my listening skills, and choosing to stay outside of my comfort zone a little longer before I seek out people who speak my language and make it easier for me to relax back into what I know.

The Challenges of Intercultural Leadership - Watching out for Blindspots

Cross-cultural, multicultural, intercultural...these terms are often used interchangeably yet have finely nuanced distinctions. For a leader, the cross cultural context means literally crossing cultures to do business, provide service, or vacation in another culture. Multicultural refers to multiple cultures existing in a geographic place or organization, each separate and distinct. Intercultural refers to the act of understanding the values and beliefs of a culture and being able to communicate and collaborate with people across multiple cultures. Interculturalism has as its goal innovation, inclusion, and friendship. Intercultural ism implies interaction.

Milton Bennett, an interculturalist and the founder of the Intercultural Communication Institute in Portland, Oregon suggests the following definition for “Interculturalism”. It is “the learned and shared values, beliefs, and behaviours, of a group of interacting people”. There are at least two key ideas embedded in this definition. One is the notion that with enough curiosity and respect we can come to share values and beliefs and the second is that real understanding between people has to come from mutual interaction. The positive spinoffs to this approach are manifold. The act of valuing differences rather than imposing your own norms, values, and beliefs, applies to all cultures...international, professional, corporate, and perhaps best of all, families.

It seems to me that many organizations believe that a “global” perspective on leadership will simply emerge as a leader interacts with diverse cultures. This is unlikely to happen. Our own western culture values and recognizes certain kinds of behaviours. As leaders grow within an organization they quickly discover what gets recognized and therefore rewarded. We place a high premium on “getting it done”, on production, and timeliness. Someone who can bring a project in “on time and on (or under) budget” is likely to be highly sought after. Yet these valuable skills may be at odds with another cultures respect for relationship and collective decision-making. The challenge in becoming truly intercultural is raising our awareness of how and why we do, say, react and respond in the ways in which we do. It requires a high level of curiosity aimed not only at another culture but at our own.

My own curiosity is piqued when I see the preponderance of leadership books, articles, and blogs with diversity or multicultural leadership as their subject. My lived experience tells me that few of us actually know how to enact these competencies. What prevents us from seeing our own way of being in the world? Is it system blindness, cultural blindness, personal blindness? Is it because our systems don’t recognize and reward curious, reflective, experimental behaviour? What’s more rewarding the path of greatest or least resistance? Let me know when you figure it out...I’m curious.

This blog was written by Christine Bonney – Managing Partner at The Acacia Group – responsible for leadership and coaching.