From the course: Developing Cross-Cultural Intelligence (2016)

Assess the situation

From the course: Developing Cross-Cultural Intelligence (2016)

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Assess the situation

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- By now, you have a sense of high and low context culture and you can probably place your country in the general continuum of the seven dimensions that we discussed throughout this course. But will you remember all these terms and examples? Will you reflect on how people make decisions or how they adapt to change? Maybe not. What makes cross-cultural chameleons successful is not their ability to have all their culturally correct answers for each situation. When working across cultures, the secret for success is to be able and ask all the right questions. What I call a cross-cultural intelligence mindset. A set of questions to go through in every stage of your interaction. Now, here's how it flows. First, you go ahead and make a list of questions when you know you will come across a new situation or a new culture. Then based on what information you have, you strategize that approach based on your strengths while finding help to make up for your weaknesses. After you assess and strategize, take action. Finally, take the time to evaluate the outcomes or get feedback through a trusted source. Adopting a cross-cultural mindset follows a continuous model of assess the situation, strategize your approach, take action, and evaluate. If you can get comfortable with going through the cultural mindset process, keeping in mind that nuance of each cultural dimension, you will be successful in every new cultural environment you enter. So, the first step in assessing the situation is asking yourself a set of questions. They can be questions like, how are people interacting during casual conversations? Do I see strangers that, do they seem to exchange pleasantries? For some sample questions, to help you assess the situation, look into the handout file in this chapter. These questions are important because they drive you be observant and aware as you interact with a new culture. For sure, things are going to come up with questions that you don't have all the answers to. Again, it's okay if you don't have the right answers for every situation. The purpose of asking yourself these questions is to raise your awareness to a new situation and collect new information.

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