working effectively with different cultures or people of different cultures requires a certain level of cultural intelligence is this a term you're familiar with maybe not but that's what we're going to talk about now you might be more familiar with the concept of emotional intelligence or cultural intelligence is similar whereas emotional intelligence is learning to read process and factor in the emotions of those you're engaged with cultural intelligence is about reading processing and factoring in the cultures of those you're engaged with in the book cultural intelligence authors christopher early and soon ang define cultural intelligence in this way someone's ability to adapt to different cultures and to understand people's values beliefs attitudes and behaviors such as body language culturally intelligent people can then use this information to communicate collaborate and negotiate with people from diverse backgrounds so cultural intelligence is one's ability to adapt to different cultures in order to live or work comfortably or successfully think about it in this way if you're invited to participate in a business exchange with people from china but never consider adjusting your work schedule to accommodate the time difference you might find that the business relationship suffers and you might find that business decisions start happening without your consultation or on a personal level if your neighbors are from burma it might be expected that you remove your shoes when entering their home someone with a normal to high level of cultural intelligence would notice the pile of shoes and would remove their shoes versus someone with low or underdeveloped cultural intelligence who would likely not even notice that everyone had their shoes off or who might notice but who would assume the standard did not apply to them for that family our behavior might be deemed as disrespectful regardless of our intentions cultural intelligence isn't something you learn in class i mean you can learn the basics but the real work is done internally it requires examining your own thoughts and feelings just as with emotional intelligence cultural intelligence requires people to separate their own judgments from their understanding of someone's or a culture's behavior it requires them to remove themselves from the equation and just process the intention behind that person or culture's actions as a result they're able to understand that different backgrounds generate different social norms and that's okay when we're able to develop a healthy amount of cultural intelligence there's less chance of causing events or being offended ourselves and there's greater opportunity for open dialogue and for working together successfully developing cultural intelligence doesn't mean learning all about all the different cultures so that you're ready to engage with anyone you meet at any time that would be an impossible undertaking instead developing cultural intelligence means you're able to act with empathy and understanding and are therefore able to develop healthy working productive relationships with people of any culture so here are some ways to increase your level of cultural intelligence know that your way is not the only way for everything you do in your daily life your work life someone else will likely naturally do that thing differently that's true of a sibling you were raised with that's true of the co-worker who sat next to you in your orientation training and that's certainly true of someone who spent their entire life on the other side of the globe we all have our own ways of doing things and we all process things differently this is a very basic concept that you not only have to understand but you have to embrace in order to develop cultural intelligence now there will be tasks that you don't care how someone does small things like how they choose to set up their workspace but there will also be more intrusive things like the way someone greets you to the way they conduct themselves in a conversation with someone of a different gender that will really stand out as different and incorrect or even sometimes offensive in those moments it's important to revert back to this very simple idea that my way is not the only way then from there you have to know that your way is not the right way knowing there are other ways of doing things is the first step but then believing that your way isn't the right way is another step altogether just because your way is what you've always known and it's what everyone in your workplace your family has always done does not mean that it is the right or the only right way to do that thing even if that other way of doing that thing seems counterintuitive to you it's important to remember that your background and your way of thinking is your cultural standard it's not a global standard in fact in the workplace approaching something with a fresh perspective might be just the thing you need to make new progress keep in mind that to someone else your way seems counter-intuitive or even offensive yep that's right your way of greeting someone your way of ending a meeting right at the one hour mark your way of waving but not saying good morning will cause someone else at some point to cringe and to question your intentions while you're trying to process someone else's behavior they're doing the same towards you and if this surprises you then i suspect that you're still struggling with understanding that your way is not the only way or the right way it really comes down to our values and so developing cultural intelligence has a lot to do with understanding and respecting different value systems for most of us our values dictate our behavior think about your workaholic co-worker they value doing their job perfectly versus your co-worker who's just returning from parental leave their current value system prioritizes family time those different values will dictate the different choices each of them makes and again this example is just within your current workplace if you work with other businesses in a partner client or vendor relationship you're exposed to different workplace cultures and therefore different workplace value systems some workplaces value in-person meetings because relationships are priority some workplaces do everything they can to avoid meetings altogether out of respect for an individual's time their value priorities are different one values relationships the other values time neither is incorrect they're just different but now let's think even bigger consider the values based on different countries ethnicities and religions so as you approach a relationship it's important to factor in their value system what is it that they value in terms of as an individual as influenced by their workplace and is influenced by their cultures when you can do this as you run into roadblocks or hiccups in your business with them you can work from a place of understanding you are also able to understand that what they're doing is not intentionally offensive or destructive to productivity instead what they're doing is deeply rooted in their own very personal value system and what you're doing or what you believe you both should be doing is deeply rooted in your own very personal value system influenced by your own individual workplace and cultural standards and then when you can learn to quickly identify their values you can more fluidly adapt or adjust the way you are working with them to create a more successful and productive working relationship