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tips on Cross Cultural Communication

Cross-cultural communication is a skill that one has to develop over time. Words and body language go hand in hand in cross cultural communication so if your body language is not congruent with your words, the individual spoken to will stop listening to you.  It is important to be honest when  speaking to a person from a different culture. There is a tendency to underestimate an individual who does not speak English well. Hello, this person might be adept and usually is adept at interpreting body language as it is a language that does not lie.  The body speaks so quietly sometimes even the subject might not be aware of it.
At a recent Manitoba Law Society workshop, Dr. Mamamado Ka, facilitator, provided the following tips to help navigate cross-cultural communication:

-slow down your pace and speech

-separate your questions (instead of bunching more than one question together)

 -avoid questions posed in the negative

 -take turns in conversation -write down what you are trying to communicate

 -be supportive -double check meanings -avoid slang and idioms

-watch humour (may not translate)

 -maintain etiquette (this is helpful for people with high power distance, where social standing is important)

 -state objectives clearly -use terms consistently

 -rank issues by importance -minimize adjective/adverb use -minimize prepositional phrases -highlight actions, deadlines, and dates

 -spell check

tips on Cross Cultural Communication

Cross-cultural communication is a skill that one has to develop over time. Words and body language go hand in hand in cross cultural communication so if your body action is not congruent with your words, the individual spoken to will stop listening to you.  It is important to be honest when  speaking to a person from a different culture. There is a tendency to underestimate an individual who does not speak English well. Hello, this person might be adept and usually is adept in interpreting body language as it is a language that does not lie.  The body speaks so quietly sometimes even the subject might no be aware of it.

Here are some Ideas for cross cultural communication :

-slow down your pace and speech

-separate your questions (instead of bunching more than one question together)

 -avoid questions posed in the negative

 -take turns in conversation -write down what you are trying to communicate

 -be supportive -double check meanings -avoid slang and idioms

-watch humour (may not translate)

 -maintain etiquette (this is helpful for people with high power distance, where social standing is important)

 -state objectives clearly -use terms consistently

 
-rank issues by importance -minimize adjective/adverb use -minimize prepositional phrases -highlight actions, deadlines, and dates

 -spell check

10 Pre-employment Tips for Success

1.   Arrive about 10 minutes in advance to gather your thoughts and relax.

2.    Dress conservatively – do not wear a tuxedo for a job as a salesclerk/or office clerk wear something that would match the position.

3.   Try not to disclose personal information during a friendly pre-interview session. Anything you say can be used against you and to discriminate against you. This  should also apply during the interview itself when interviewers trying to put you  an ease talk about personal stuff.  If you are a woman and you disclose you want to start a family soon or disclose the number of children you have, this could be viewed as negative and limit your chances to be the successful candidate.  Discrimination on the basis of family status or pregnancy is against human rights/equal employment opportunity laws. Employers have become savvy.

4.    Let your small talk be about the weather or how much you admire the company, find out something about the culture and diversity of the organizations  and speak about that – those are safe topics.

5.    Be aware of the staff and how they interact with one another. That can give you a  clue about the culture of the workplace you are trying to enter. Are people  friendly or do they look stressed or uptight.  See the pictures on the walls, what message do they convey to you.  If they do not represent diversity, you may later get the opportunity to suggest ways of improving the company image.               

6.     Be aware than a potential employer may not ask you any question that might lead to potential discrimination, in other words, that is they may not ask you questions that  prertains to any of the protected grounds during an interview e.g. about your age, race, disabilities, sexual orientation,  religious beliefs, family status, political beliefs – the reasons for asking these  questions are mainly to discriminate.

7.    If you are applying for a job say as a construction worker which includes duties such as lifting 50 pounds, climbing ladder etc. it is reasonable for the potential  employer to ask you whether you have any limitations in this regard.

8.    Similarly, if you are 16 and trying to find work, it is reasonable for a potential employer to ask you how old you are since there are rules regarding how old a  person has to be to work.  The employer will not want to be charged with  hiring under-aged people.

9.    By all means be friendly, approachable and cordial. If you are asked an offensive  question learn how to side step the question without raising eyebrows. For example, if an employer should ask you whether you would be requiring daycare, you could say something like, it’s really nice that your company is providing day care for its employees, that’s very progressive, unfortunately, I won’t be needing daycare, or something more creative than that.

10.    If you are from a ethnic minority group, play that up and let your employer see how  you can add value to the team, talk about your experience in your country of origin and show confidence in your ability to learn quickly.

Trust your gut, it's the divine trying to speak to you.

The Iceberg Principle

The example of an iceberg shows the need to see under people's surface behaviour; the need of a deeper insight. Only 10% of an iceberg is visible on the surface, 90% is under the waterline, invisible, but yet prominent. If there is a wind coming from left to right, just by seeing the visible mass, we think it will move the iceberg to towards the right. If, against all expectations, the iceberg moves in the opposite direction (left), it is because, under the waterline, there is a strong current running towards the left.

Sometimes you, as a leader, try to move people in a certain direction by giving them orders, instructions, explanations and encouragement, but you do it on the basis of what you see above the surface. The visible part represents what is at the surface such as appearance, behaviour, manners etc. You do not see what moves them under the surface so you become surprised and maybe frustrated seeing them move in the opposite direction. The main part, which is the 90% not visible, is within the subconscious. Under the surface (subconscious) you will find emotions, fears, attitudes, deeply held values etc.

If you want to move people, if you want to motivate others for a project or even just to reach others, you need to be aware of these kinds of things that you find under the surface. The key to understanding others better is to be more aware of your own feelings and under-currents, because, at a deep level, we are very much alike.

If you understand your own fears and strong motivators, you will understand others much better.

 

www.brahmakumaris.com

 

The Importance of Cross-cultural Awareness Training

Cross-cultural awareness or diversity training has become big business these days. As our world becomes more diverse and people of various ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations are forced to work together, they have to learn to get along.

Most businesses and government departments have respectful workplace policies.  In Canada human rights laws apply throughout the country. There are federal and provincial human rights commissions that administer the human rights legislation.  However, human rights laws alone cannot protect a person in the workplace from discrimination. Some forms of discrimination can be subtle but are felt deeply by the victims of that sort of discriminatory perpetrations.  Employers need to do more to make their staff feel welcome and part of the organization. If government departments can slack off when it comes to diversity training, businesses cannot afford the expense.

Entrepreneurs depend on customers and goodwill to survive. They need their staff to produce. A happy staff is a more productive staff. If some staff members feel alienated they will spend a lot of time sulking, worrying and being absent-minded. They may be more prone to absenteeism due to illness and depression. It is therefore important for employers to ensure that they have respectful workplace policies and mandatory diversity or cross-cultural awareness training.

While these trainings may not solve all of the problems at once, they make employees aware of each other and some of the things they may take for granted.  This is especially true of the dominant culture which is accustomed to unearned privileges.

Cross cultural training helps a person become of aware of their own culture. When a person is aware of their culture and why they do the things they do or think in a certain way, they may be more empathetic to the other and better communicators.

Communication as most would agree is the single most important aspect of any job. It is communication which is at the root of many conflicts that could eat up hours and days of  working hours to resolve. When people understand each other they communicate better.

Cross-cultural awareness training should not only help people to understand different cultures but to appreciate difference and to understand that there is strength in difference, that there is beauty in difference  eclecticism in difference, creativity in difference and money in difference too. The more diverse and culturally sensitive a business is the more diverse people will want to do business with you.

To be effective employers must be serious about diversifying their businesses or operations. They should create work teams that that include people who are different in some way or the other. Diverse teams are apt  to come up with more creative ideas because each may come with his own world view and ways of solving a problem which when combined together makes for excellent decision making.

There is no getting around the idea. Without diversity a company might just as well close up shop or satisfy himself with a mom and pop corner store.  To grow and be a dynamic company you must put on a global lens and see people as flowers of one garden and leaves of one tree, each unique but equally valuable to the whole.