Kijun Times

I just returned from San Francisco giving a presentation at The Wharton West Business School. My audience was 65 Latin American Exeuctives. My subject: Cultural Intelligence. Do you know what it means?

CI for short, raises the question, “Why do some leaders, executives, managers,easily and effectively adapt their views and behaviors cross-culturally and others don’t?” A big part of the answer is cultural intelligence—the capability to effectively understand and adapt to a myriad of cultural contexts.

Considering that more and more people have to travel to another culture to get the job done and that the odds are that in your place of work, you interact with those with a different cultural origin, you can see why the subject is global. My message here is to act intelligent by developing your cultural intelligence

“Like all types of intelligence, cultural intelligence is made up of a bunch of competencies, so researchers tell us.” I said something along these lines to my Latin American alumnos to begin with but quickly told them that there are a lot of books, good papers, and research studies on cultural inteligence and if interested, they could read and educate themselves. I was more interesested in developing thier cultural intelligence. And if you’ve been to San Francisco, you know it is a city that would provide them with a rich, fun, diverse setting to enjoy, develop, and practice their cultural intelligence.

The thrust of my presentation was built around one of the four Cultural inelligence competencies that I personally thought to be very interesting–motivation to learn about other cultures.   Do you enjoy it?  It is this motivational energy that helps individuals go out explore cultural information and cultural experience.  When you go on a vacation, do you sit around a pool and work on your tan or do you take time to explore the local town?

I thought of myself as motivated for cultural learning. Only the day before, on my way from the airport to the hotel, I initiated a conversation with the cab driver that I learned  was from Africa, I immediately asked him, “What’s the biggest difference between your African hometown and America?” What do you think he said?

First, the amount of religons in America amazed him. In his hometown, almost every one is Islamic. Here, he told me, "There are more religions than I can count."  I confirmed that religous freedom is deeplyh ingrained in the American culture.

Next was the concept of Time.  “At home, we think of time in the moment. We do not think about the future.  I see people here thiking about twenty years from now. In my hometown, you would never see parents saving money for their kid's college. In America, everyone does.” I thought these to be interesting insights and differences and would share them with my alumnos.  When he dropped me off at my hotel, I capped the fare by giving him a great tip in lieu of a few bucks --- to read one my books, Emotional Intelligence at Work.

The next day, after a brief pre-class lunch with a few of the alumnos, class stated with a quick introduction to CI that included my cabby experience and some academic stuff. We conversed about cultural differences between Latin America and America. “If I am an American business man coming to Latin America, what is the one thing you want me to know that will help me be effective? You tell me and then I will tell you what I think you need to know when you do business here.” It was a good deal because we both would learn.

They told me, “Family is very important. We have family gathering on Sunday.” I listened and told them we have plenty of family gatherings in America, but often, family members bring with them anxiety and anger as well as love and enthusiasm. Most laughed so I guess their family gatherings have similar guests.

The table than turned.  They wanted to complete the deal. I told them, “Be direct in your communications.” Prefaced with , "In my opinion," I explained the importance of direct, clear communicaiton and how a lack of it creates errors, ineffective relationships, and destroys trust and that those who are most effective pay attention to this point.

I wanted more so I asked, “What is the one custom I would note all Latin Americans do?” They told me it was a particular relgious celebration and I am sorry that I forget the particular.

They asked me the same: “Standing up whenever the national anthem is played. It’s not a law, yet millions of sports fams do it at every sporting event. What does that tell you?” I asked. 
“Altanero, orgullo,” was the agreed upon response.

Now I wanted to increase the CI of my alumnos. Getting them to enjoy developing their CI was my class objective.

“You’re in a great town to practice and develop your CI and you will have fun too.” I wanted their cultural inelligence activities to be fun, interesting, and educaitonal so they would want to keep developing it and become more globally effective.

To meet my objective, I prepared three cultural activities that would increase their cultural knowledge, develop their cultural intelligence by doing and, further motivate them to continue thier cultural learning. I made it point to tell them they were free to do extras of their choice.

“You are here for a week, so each day, take an hour and Walk the Cultural Streets of San Francisco.  (I should have epected that none of them had ever seen the great show, The Streets of San Francisco so it was a wasted reference, or my lack of CI)  Observe everything. See what you can learn about America and about San Francisco. Besides walking the city streets, you might also walk along the Wharf, Pacific Heights, ride the cable cars, walk the crooked street. Go to Chinatown too. If you can squeeze in the time, take the Bart to Berkely–you’ll be rewarded. Check out Haight Asbury. Do as much as you can. Each day, share your observations with each other and check out each others observations on your next walk. At the end of the week, see if you can come up with your book, American Cultural Rules for Latin American Business People.”  You can actually do this in any city.

The second activity I called Three Strangers. “THis is very simple. Go to the conceirge and ask for a recommendation to a San Francisco landmark that is within a twenty minute walk. The go outside and walk two blocks eaither way of the Hotel. Then, approach a stranger and ask him or her for directions to the landmark. However, only speak in Spanish. Observe their reaction. Do they make an effort to understand you? Do they use behavioral gestures to direct you. Do they seem friendly or distant. Repeat this with two more strangers, more if you have the time. You can learn alot about a culture by the way its people respond to you.” You can do this in any city.

The third activity, I told them was my favorite and for sure, one they would enjoy. “San Franciso has a great eating culture. You will enjoy sampling it. Your task is to go to a very good resturant. Practice the American business culture by billing the dinner to your company! You can ask the Hotel staff for recommendations, your friends who have been here, search the net. You can check out the menue on the internet, or you can be surprised. If its good, it’s good. I’ll give you two recommendations: The Slanted Door, and if you motivate yourself to go to Berkley, Chez Panisse. If you go to either one, you will want to thank me.” You can do this in any city but the food might not be as good.

We had a little more discussion: -At what age do you learn cultural intelligence? Does a child who has multi-cultural friends have greater CI than one who doesn’t? We all found it interesting to hear each other’s thoughts and experiences.

My time was up, so I said Adios and they responded with that universal cultural expression that shows appreciation for a job well done: Applause.

PS: At the reception I learned something about their company product: In America, it is the custom to drink Corona Beer (Coronita in Spain) with a piece of lemon or lime in the bottle’s top. In Latin America, no such thing. Remember that if you go to Latin America.