Ozzie Ayscue 
We live and work in an increasingly diverse and globalized business environment, and the latest census results predict that the U.S. will diversify at an even faster rate in the coming years. This diversity isn’t just about racial identity, but also age, gender and cultural backgrounds.
While diversity can pose some challenges for businesses — such as language barriers and miscommunications — it’s also an important opportunity. According to Statista, 72% of American full time employees value working with people who are different from themselves. Pew Research also shows that 56% of workers say focusing on increasing diversity, equity and inclusion at work is a good thing. Rather than taking a defensive posture on diversity, organization leaders should understand there are very practical advantages to building cultural intelligence. For example, your people will come to realize that some specific issues can be better addressed with the typical behavior of a culture other than their own.
Not only can cultural intelligence prepare employees (both local and remote) with the skills to work with and sell to diverse populations, it can help managers and supervisors navigate through all of the different habits, gestures and assumptions that come with cultural differences. And, even if your company does not employ workers from different countries or conduct international business, it’s important to recognize that there are different cultural identities beyond national origin or ethnicity. Differences between departments, divisions, professions and geographical regions can also create the possibility for miscommunication and misunderstanding.
This blog post will provide a blueprint for training and managing your workforce to help build cultural intelligence in the workplace.
What Is Cultural Intelligence?
Over twenty years ago, the term cultural intelligence was introduced by professors P. Christopher Earley of London Business School and Soon Ang of Nanyang Business School in their book of the same name. The concept was further detailed in an issue of the Harvard Business Review magazine, where it was defined as, “an outsider’s seemingly natural ability to interpret someone’s unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way that person’s compatriots would.”
Also known as cultural quotient (CQ), we can think of cultural intelligence as a person’s ability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings and to interact with others with sensitivity and respect. Some cultural intelligence example behaviors can include:
- Using observational and cognitive skills to recognize and understand different cultural behaviors
- Recognizing physical gestures that are distinct to a culture and understanding their intent
- Having the emotional understanding to learn from misunderstandings and to refine your approach
- Adapting to changing business culture and creating new, intercultural business strategies
It’s important to understand that CQ is different from emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient or EQ. An individual may have a high EQ and be able to perceive and be empathetic to the emotions of others within the context of their own culture. However, different cultures have different ways of managing and expressing emotions, so EQ does not necessarily translate to other cultural experiences.
However, both CQ and EQ share the fundamental concept that we should be mindful of our interactions and then consider how we should interact with others. Or, as the psychologist Daniel Goleman described it:
“a propensity to suspend judgment—to think before acting.”
The Four Cultural Intelligence Capabilities
There are considered to be four major components of CQ:
- Drive: This is the motivation, or level of interest and confidence, someone has to learn about and adapt to different cultures. It is also a reflection of their ability to function and be confident in culturally diverse environments. A person with a high CQ drive understands the personal benefits they can gain from having culturally diverse experiences.
- Knowledge: This includes the cognitive elements of CQ, the specific understanding of how various cultures are similar and different, including customs, values and communication styles. In the workplace, this can translate to concepts such as individual vs. collaborative work, confrontation vs. conflict avoidance and how to express power dynamics.
- Strategy: This is the larger ability to plan, monitor and adapt behavior in cross-cultural situations. This metacognitive level requires a recognition and understanding of our own, personal cultural biases and how they can impact others. Effective strategy is the ability to check one’s behavior, to review your assumptions and adjust mental maps when your actual experiences differ from what was expected.
- Action: Action consists of the actual behavior, adaptability and ability to work in intercultural interactions. This includes verbal and nonverbal actions, ranging from the words and phrases used to convey specific messages to gestures, facial expressions and body language. An individual with high CQ is able to avoid falling back on behavioral habits and can adjust depending on the situation at hand.
Any training initiative meant to promote cultural intelligence in the workplace should be able to account for all four of these components.
Common Cultural Intelligence Challenges
Cultural intelligence promotes success, growth and efficiency by helping workers to better understand their colleagues and customers to improve their productivity, help them solve problems and build stronger relationships. However, there are challenges in promoting CQ in the workplace — both at an individual level and at a larger, structural level.
- Unconscious Biases and Stereotypes — These biases are automatic and often occur without our awareness, but heavily shape our perceptions and judgments about individuals from different cultures, hindering the development of cultural intelligence. In the workplace, such biases can affect hiring decisions, team dynamics and performance evaluations. For example, a manager might unconsciously favor employees who share similar cultural backgrounds, thus limiting opportunities for others.
- Language and Communication Barriers — Effective communication is crucial for any workplace. However, misunderstandings can arise from differences in language, idiomatic expressions and non-verbal communication styles. This can affect the quality of work, collaboration and overall productivity. It is especially challenging in healthcare environments, where language barriers can lead to misdiagnosis and inadequate patient care.
- Cultural Blindspots and Knowledge Gaps — Individuals can be totally unaware of the cultural norms and practices of others, hindering any effort to build CQ. For instance, an employee might unintentionally offend a colleague by not respecting certain cultural customs or practices. These blindspots can create a workplace environment that feels unwelcoming or hostile to employees from diverse backgrounds.
- Ethnocentrism and Privilege — Viewing one’s own culture as superior to others creates an exclusionary environment. There is also the less overt nature of privilege, which refers to the unearned advantages afforded to individuals from dominant social groups. Both can perpetuate and reinforce stereotypes, which can manifest as a lack of diversity in leadership positions, biased decision-making processes and unequal access to resources and opportunities.
- Resistance to Change — Resistance to change is a common challenge in many workplaces, and the same can be true when it comes to adopting more inclusive practices. Resistance to accepting more diverse practices and cultural acceptance can come from individuals who are comfortable with the status quo or from systems that have been designed to benefit certain groups.
- Cultural Appropriation — Cultural appropriation occurs when elements of one culture are adopted, borrowed or imitated by individuals from another culture — often the dominant one — without understanding or respecting the significance behind those elements. In the workplace, the intent of adopting elements of a culture may be to promote diversity, but it can lead to feelings of disrespect and devaluation. It is important for organizations to differentiate between cultural appreciation and appropriation and to promote genuine understanding and respect for all cultures.
CQ Training Opportunities to Overcome Challenges
Overcoming the challenges of building a workplace that welcomes diverse cultures and experiences requires more than simply implementing a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy. For your employees to effectively communicate and engage with people from different cultural backgrounds, you cannot settle for surface-level notions of cultural sensitivity and awareness. As an employer, you’ll need to create a work environment where employees are comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work because they feel safe doing so.
The original article from Harvard Business Review details how cultural differences can be a valuable resource for learning once leaders have created trust, begun to dismantle systems of discrimination and embraced their range of employee voices. While improving CQ is a personal journey, there are steps that organizations can take to support and foster the development of cultural intelligence in the workplace.
- To help improve CQ drive, take time to establish specific, attainable goals for your organization. Having smaller steps that advance cultural learning and positive interactions will showcase progress in building CQ.
- To improve CQ knowledge, provide opportunities for your employees to learn more about various cultures’ values, norms, customs and practices — emphasizing both similarities and differences. Think about how to create spaces and opportunities for workers to participate in conversations and activities with people from various backgrounds.
- To improve CQ strategy, provide examples of how individuals can approach cross-cultural interactions and how your employees can adjust their approach as needed. Start by performing a self-assessment to determine how your own current organizational culture is influencing how your employees interact with others. The more they are able to recognize and consider their own cultural assumptions and biases, the more they’ll be able to understand how these attitudes influence how they communicate.
- To improve CQ action, use hands-on or practical learning opportunities to create simulations that allow employees to experience real-world scenarios and practice skills they learn. Be sure to solicit feedback from people with diverse cultural backgrounds to ensure these simulations are accurate and moving in a positive direction.
Training sessions in cultural intelligence can include language courses, cultural awareness workshops and resources such as multilingual educational materials and translation services.
If you’re looking for additional resources to build CQ, consider these certifications offered by various organizations:
In today’s ever-evolving business environment, building stronger relationships is more important than ever. Global Partners Training’s proven training programs can build the interpersonal and relationship-building skills your team members need to work together and connect with an increasingly diverse field of colleagues, customers and partners. Some of the training outcomes that we look for with participants include:
- Realizing how they can benefit from and be comfortable in a multicultural environment
- Learning to mitigate the risks of misunderstanding, leveraging those differences to differentiate from competition
- Understanding that the best way to address a specific issue in their culture can be inefficient in another one
- Realizing that some specific issues can be better addressed with the typical behavior of a culture other than their own
- Attaining a better understanding of their own culture
- Knowing how to grasp the major similarities and differences with other cultures in typical business contexts and how to adapt their behaviors accordingly
- Taking into account the added dimensions of corporate cultures and personal profiles
- Further developing the emotional intelligence skills of empathy and active listening
Webinar Series: Use Service to Unlock New Revenue
