So many ways to post to a blog

His is a test to see how easy it is to write and email that will instantly be posted on my blog.

 

Amazing how technology works.

 

From my PDA, from email, from inside firefox through firescribe, the possibilities are endless!

 

Be a voice to world, the question is: who is out there that can find my words on my blog in the incredible jungle called cyberspace?

 

New blog worth visiting

One of my colleagues has just started a new blog worth while visiting. Beth has a passion for making things work between people in the Inter-Cultural world of today. Have a read on her new blog and keep this space on your radar: interculturalconsulting.wordpress.com/

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Cultural Learner or Cultural Critic

In our exposure to so many cultures across the world I have more and more become convinced that the main determining factor for inter-cultural international success is captured in one simple thing: "Am I a cultural learner or a cultural critic?" This has to be a daily commitment and has to be daily practiced in the same way as a professional athlete never stops training and developing.

How do we define a Cultural Learner... Well, here are a few behavioral traits common to a Cultural Learner:
• one’s own culture is experienced as one of a number of equally complex constructs
• acceptance of other cultures does not mean agreement
• cultural judgments are not ethnocentric
• tends to be curious about and respectful toward cultural difference
• able to express perceptions and behaviours appropriate to another culture
• one’s world view is expanded to include other constructs
• able to look at the world “through different eyes”
• may intentionally change behavior to communicate more effectively
• one’s experience of self is expanded to include movement in and out of different world views
• often dealing with issues related to own “cultural marginality”
• common among minorities, expatriates and “global nomads”
• exhibits high levels of Inter-Cultural Intelligence

A Cultural Critic has a very different way of operating. Here are some traits you might recognize as somebody who is a cultural critic:
one’s own culture is experienced as the only “real” one
• other cultures avoided by psychological and/or physical isolation
• generally disinterested in cultural difference
• may act aggressively to eliminate differences if threatened
• one’s own culture is experienced as the only “good” one
• “we” are superior, “they” are inferior
• may be threatened by cultural difference
• tend to be highly critical of other cultures
• elements of one’s own world view are experienced as universal
• deep cultural differences may be minimized or obscured
• other cultures may be trivialized or romanticized
• may correct others’ behavior to match expectations
• exhibits low levels of Inter-Cultural Intelligence

In the last few weeks I had the opportunity to facilitate a number of groups through a process to look at developing Inter-Cultural Intelligence.

The one group got pretty excited about the idea and when I asked: "Do you really want to create a corporate environment where being a cultural learner is the norm, not the exception?" Most of the participants were ready to embark on the journey.
But the reality is: this 'cultural learner, cultural critic' stuff is not like learning to type, or doing a course in writing technical reports. It's about seriously deep stuff, stuff that has developed in our lives from when we are young.

I had the priveledge of meeting with one of the great leadership thinkers of South Africa last week, Mark Manley. It was refreshing to see how he displayed the attributes of a Cultural Learner in discussions. In his case I wasn't surprised because he was the one who came up with the quote: "Character is the ability to hold on to your truth, learning is the ability to let go of your truth."

The journey of becoming an intuitive Cultural Learner is not always easy, but the view on the other side is surely breathtaking.