[Music] working together to build a safe and productive environment where people of all backgrounds and cultures can thrive is part of having a successful organization it might be that you are part of the cultural majority and that you have new cultures coming into your workplace that you have never met or worked with before or it might be that you are partnering with an organization in another country or even another part of your own country interacting with different cultures is inevitable in the modern workforce and frankly including different cultures means being forced to view things from different perspectives which means building a stronger organization as a whole the goal of this program is not to help you identify and work with specific cultures the goal of this program is to help you engage with people of any culture respectfully and successfully here are some really simple basic ways you can do that in your workplace everyone deserves to be respected for who they are where they come from and what they value the same is true in the workplace many of us spend more time with our co-workers than we do with our own families and we should therefore be treated respectfully and feel safe in our workplace whether you understand why someone does what they do or not they still deserve to be treated with respect our way of being is so ingrained in who we are that we often don't notice the things that we do on a daily basis that might cause someone of a different culture to feel alienated or offended this can be anything from the way we greet people to our hand gestures to our figures of speech become aware of the things you do in your daily life that might be confusing or offensive to someone different cultures have very different understandings of personal space some parts of the world are so crowded that they're used to standing closer or even touching strangers while standing in lines they're more comfortable talking closely or it is expected or common to hug or give a kiss on the cheek when greeting your concept of personal space may be very different from those you are interacting with be aware of what you're comfortable with and find ways to respectfully communicate that if needed we all get set in our ways we do things the way we have always done them and we likely do things pretty similar to the people we are around most frequently but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be open to learning new ways listening to what others say gives you a lot of insight into who they are and how you can best interact with them really listening to the things they say helps you not only understand their values which is an overarching indicator of how to interact with them but also how they conduct business how they view time how they approach tasks and problems and much much more it's one thing to be aware of our behaviors and the behaviors of others it's another thing to be accepting of the behavior of others and it's another thing altogether to be flexible ourselves the ability to adjust what we're doing in order to accommodate what others are doing is one of those easier said than done things being flexible includes compromise and a willingness to change two things that aren't always easy for us to do but that are worth doing it's just a fact that things will not move as quickly when you're learning to work either within or with a new culture be patient with yourself and with others as everyone adapts and learns the group dynamic everyone has their own strengths or weaknesses they have their own individual viewpoints of their own cultures they bring different ideas to the table at work they view the goal and the ways of reaching that goal based on their personal experiences get to know them as them give them a chance to teach you about who they are and at the same time give them a chance to get to know you as an individual as well following the previous thought don't automatically believe what you hear about someone or about a culture yes word of mouth can be helpful and it can be a great way to learn about new people but the person spreading the information is filtering it through their own personal experience you have to form your own relationship with that person based on your own experiences or interactions with them not someone else's now i want to pause here and point something out the more you exhibit these behaviors your willingness to learn your efforts to be self-aware your flexibility and your patience others will notice they will recognize that you are working to adapt and you can expect that when you extend that effort others will do the same for you in return if you make the first move others will follow and your work environment will improve exponentially this might just happen again norms are different in different cultures if you are offended by someone's behavior you have a few options depending on the scenario your decision on how to respond might be based on your relationship with the individual your role within the organization and the relationship between the two organizations if that is a factor in many instances a respectful conversation between two individuals might be enough you might want to loop your manager or the manager of both individuals into the conversation or this may be a conversation that representatives from hr of both organizations need to handle the point being you have options if you are working with someone who is engaging in behavior that is offensive or that you need help understanding you should feel empowered to say something so this is really just the basics some simple reminders of how to have a successful work environment with people of different cultures the most important takeaways here are that everyone is an individual deserving of respect and expecting a safe work environment do your part and encourage others to do the same