By Mazala Zulu
I live and work in a rich international environment and the effort to understand others cultural backgrounds, beliefs and attitudes are very important for me to excel.
One will assume that this issue should not arise here in Zambia because of our vast knowledge of different cultures. Unfortunately or fortunately enough this is not the case. Cultural intelligence is not being an expert in every culture; rather, the observation, empathy, and intelligence to read people and situations and to make informed decisions about why others are acting as they are makes one a far richer person.Cultural intelligence is someone’s ability to adapt successfully to a new cultural setting.
People with high cultural intelligence are attuned to the values, beliefs, and attitudes of people from different cultures; and they use this knowledge to interact with empathy and understanding.Building cultural intelligence helps you work effectively with people who are different from you. Whether you are working in a town or province that is not of your origin or leading a cultural diverse team, it can mean the difference between success and failure, and the difference between solving problems and creating them.
Failure to work with other people based on their cultural background is a hindrance on positive development. When you include and integrate different cultures in your team, you can be assured of a predictor of strong job performance and effective results.Culturally intelligent people use this knowledge they gain to communicate, collaborate, and negotiate with people from diverse backgrounds.
[pullquote]Building cultural intelligence helps you work effectively with people who are different from you[/pullquote]
· To accomplish this you need to have a drive– Drive is your motivation to learn about and adapt to a different culture. People who aren’t interested in what shapes a particular culture are unlikely to adapt well to it. Think of what happens when you make an effort to learn about this new culture. Your mind is open, and, instead of seeing difference as a difficulty, you see it as something that you want to learn about.
· Knowledge – cultural knowledge isn’t about learning a new culture inside out. Rather, it means learning about how culture in general shapes someone’s behaviors, values, and beliefs. It’s important to learn about how a culture’s history affects people’s values and actions. Even a basic understanding of past events can give you more of an insight into people’s values and behaviors, and it will help you avoid obvious faux pas.
· Strategy – This involves taking what you have learned from being aware of cultural differences, and making robust, culturally sensitive plans as a result. Once in a while you will need to question your assumptions about why things happen differently in different cultures. This is part of their cultural heritage.
· Action – Cultural intelligence relates to how you behave, and, in particular, how well you adapt when things don’t go according to plan. Cross-cultural interactions won’t always go smoothly, so it’s helpful to be able to think on your feet, and to stay in control of your emotions.
I spend time paying close attention to what people say and do. For example, explore their voice intonations, body language, and conversation style. This gives me a deeper understanding of them, and help me interact with them in a better way. One simple way I connect with people is simply greeting them in their own language.
I do not understand what that whiteman is doing with those people, backwards and ancient
He is going to be embarrassed when he looks back that he competed and was part of this African thing
yuck
Thanks
Riff Raff
ARE YOU WHITE YOURSELF BA MUSHOTA??? YOU ARE A F*****K!!!!!
Mushota, wetha ur a lesbian, a gay or strait, ur a wasted sperm
HE IS PERFORMING OUR DANCE, JUST AS YOU ALSO PERFORM HIS DANCE. HE CAME TO AFRICA JUST AS YOU WENT TO WESTERN WORLD AND HE IS DRESSED IN OUR ATTIRE JUST AS YOU ALSO DRESS IN THEIR ATTIRE AND HE IS SPEAKING TONGA JUST AS YOU ARE HIS LANGUAGE.
I DONT SEE THIS WHEN I TRAVEL TO EUROPE, ASIA, USA (12 STATES ), BUT ONLY SOUTH AMERICA.
Mushota Ruckus!!!! lol!!!!
Hahahaha C’mon Mushota, cut the guy some slack! Do you always have to be a hardy..???
A very wonderful article.
Personally I believe cultures change or become influenced, mingled, intertwined, discarded. Traditions whether invented (as openly conducted globally during colonial times and acknowledged as divide and conquer) or real have the older background. Methinks we generally have a problem relating to culture because of stereotyping. Not every African, Asian, European, American, Australasian is the same but sweeping statements are the order of the day. Case in point those living in a country are probably more tolerant than is expressed during negative online blogging but individual keyboard warriors will make sweeping statements as though representing entire swathes of peoples even if the cultural reality on the ground differs. My two cents.
Well said A Phiri ana bwe… Perhaps I should share a link with you (if you have not already seen it) as well as other bloggers. http://alphadesigner.com/mapping-stereotypes/. Of particular interest is the world according to Americans.
CNP is trying to bembalise the whole country forgetting that in diversity we are rich. He wants every body to be dancing kalela instead of different cultural dances. KK was a strong believer in tribal balancing and it worked. What we have now is a family tree or wako ni wako
Just first sentence of the article, and I feel so offended. I can’t read anything further.
You don’t deserve a red mark for expressing your individual thought about your feelings. The irony being you discount the author for speaking of what drives his personal thought process. A free green from me for the days you are funny.
Mushota, you are a slut……What are you doing there when are supposed to be in Africa with your black Mother, father and other relatives.. your migration to Europe or whatever it is does not change the fact that you are black… Such a wasted seed or is it sperm of a black man.
Mushota likes being a loughing stock, eh. Sometimes I appreciate those who say that it is easy to notice that someone is disabled when you see a visible disability. In the case of mental handcap it may take you some time to notice that someone’s thing is weird. I leave it to others to judge, Mushota’s string of contributions on many subjects are of particular concern to a number of many bloggers. Well, we are all equal, lets contribute.
Its indeed very embarassing to see a whiteman behaving like that, i think he has no morals. Participating in a dance without a pattern? suitable for animals because they dont appreciate the rythm of music. Well i dont think he will share that terrible experience with his elite friends when he his back to the land of plenty USA
Come on people, don’t waste time on Mushota. “He” achieving “his” objective of deer dirverting yo attention to him. Stick to the topic