Customs of the world: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherevever You are

I enjoyed the lectures in Professor David Livermore's Customs of the World: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherever You Are. I don't do the extensive world traveling that the instructor does, but I do encounter people from all over the world as part of my job. Getting a basic understanding of the cultural archetypes provides a good starting point for attempting to understand how to relate to other people.

The first part of the course describes cultural dichotomies such as universal vs particular. In a universal culture treating everyone the same is valued over making exceptions for individual circumstances.  As an example a public school may have specific guidelines for a student who will qualify for assistance with a learning disability following the universal guideline. A private school may have more latitude to respond to the particular needs of a student.  Cultures will also differ on the value they place on being prompt and how much forgiveness they will have for being late.

In the second part of the course he examines some of the major large cultural groups and how they fit on all the dichotomy scales.  Some groups are closely related including the Nordic and Germanic cultures. Middle Asia incorporating Russia, the Baltic countries and Mongolia is a more diverse grouping with individuals at least historically adapted to a nomadic cultural lifestyle. He recommends doing extensive research prior to traveling to another country and using the knowledge of cultural norms as a starting point but not a strict guideline as for interacting with people from other countries.

Introduction the Cultural Intelligence - 2 min.