Customs of the World - Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherever You Are

I really enjoyed Professor David Livermore's course - Customs of the World: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherever You Are. Being curious about another culture or another human being is much more interesting than working from a rigid stereotype from limited knowledge.

He advocates an approach of intelligent stereotyping instead of negative stereotyping. This involves learning as much as you can about a different culture before you begin interacting with individuals from that culture.  You can use this knowledge as a working hypothesis to better negotiate the nuances of a culture. Remember that these are not hard rules but starting points as there are variations within cultures and be ready to make adjustments and learn the culturally appropriate ways to ask for help if you don't understand.

Learning how a culture typically treats time is very important. Some cultures value the time being spent in relationship with a person more than being punctual for a future engagement. Other cultures expect people to anticipate problems they may encounter and expect individuals to be punctual. In a relationship culture this makes scheduling meetings or even arranging a time to play golf problematic. Another author's book describes an express bus in India that stopped and allowed people to get out and join in with wedding festivities on the way out of town. The ride took longer than anticipated but people had a good time enjoying the company of other people.

Professor Livermore lists ten contrasting cultural characteristics.

1. Risk - low vs. high uncertainty avoidance
2. Achievement - individual vs. group
3. Lifestyle - being vs. doing
4. Rules - universalist vs. particularist
5. Identity - individualist vs. collectivist
6. Authority - low vs. high power distance
7. Time - punctuality vs. relationships
8. Communication - direct vs. indirect
9. Expressiveness - neutral vs. affective
10. Social Norms - tight vs. loose

Communicating in an indirect culture is often very difficult. The person speaking assumes you have contextual knowledge. This is often more common in areas that are isolated and have little contact with outsiders. Individuals often don't need to offer explicit directions because there is an assumption that you have a basic familiarity with the territory and a few landmarks will be sufficient to guide you. 

The Professor also roughly organizes cultures into groups. He notes that this list is not exhaustive and may lump some very different cultural groups together. He describes how each cultural group generally fits in with the ten cultural characteristics. 

• Anglo
• Nordic
• Germanic
• Eastern Europe
• Latin Europe
• Latin American
• Confucian Asian
• South Asian
• Sub-Saharan African
• Arab

The information from these lectures will be useful as I interact with staff and students around the world on health and safety concerns.