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there needs to be a 3 to 4 pages summary/notes by reading the following ebook THE CULUTRAL INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENCE posted in the attachments about the things mentioned below: just write notes/summary about the things below by reading the ebook….
summarize and
write about
Chapters 3-6 present each capability area and the strategies you can use to improve your capabilities
o
Each strategy is explored and then the author challenges you to choose 1 or 2 of the strategies to improve your CQ.
o He forces you to commit to starting your work within the next week, rather than sometime in the future.
write about
how it makes you aware
of the things that you do and their impact on you cross cultural interactions.
write about how it
Helps you identify weaknesses and explore techniques to improve on them and turn them into strengths.
write about CQ Strategy (chapter 5)
–
The
Chart with strategies listed
– A
Scenario
– How the book would suggest improving your performance
write about CQ Action (chapter 6)
– Chart with strategies listed
– Scenario
– How the book would suggest improving your performance
More advance praise for The Cultural Intelligence Difference
“Being ‘international’ is not defined by the stamp in your passport; it is
what happens after you ‘get there’ that defines your ability to understand
and adapt to different cultures and different approaches to common
concerns. Living and breathing international 24/7, I would describe
Livermore’s concept as not just applicable in today’s world, but brilliant,
and not a minute too soon. The Cultural Intelligence Difference is a must-
read for adults and should be a mandatory read as a part of a secondary
or undergraduate education.”
—Mary Jean Eisenhower, President and CEO,
People to People
International, and granddaughter of President Eisenhower
“As companies globalize more and more, working across cultures is
becoming a critical competency for executives everywhere. This is one of
the best books to attack the question of how to measure and improve
this key competency.”
—David Rock, cofounder, NeuroLeadership Institute,
and author,
Y
our Brain at Work
“The case for Cultural Intelligence in all interactions with people who
are different is paramount today and in the future. David has made a
critical competence for effectiveness in global engagements more easily
understood.”
—Geri P. Thomas, Senior Vice President, Global Diversity
and Inclusion Executive, Bank of America
“Written so the common man can understand and digest, this brilliant-
ly crafted book on Cultural Intelligence explains how to engage with the
‘other’ rather than just observing from afar. Using brilliant everyday
examples, Dr. Livermore explains how you can take practical steps to
become a first-class global citizen!”
—Wilbur Sargunaraj, Performing Artist, Humanitarian,
and Global Ambassador for CQ
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
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THE CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENCE
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THE CULTURAL
INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENC
E
Master the One Skill You Can’t Do Without
in Today’s Global Economy
DAVID LIVERMORE, Ph.D.
American Management Association
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This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information
in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding
that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other
professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required,
the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Livermore, David A., 1967–
The cultural intelligence difference: master the one skill you can’t do
without in today’s global economy / David Livermore.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1706-5 (hbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-8144-1706-X (hbk.)
1. Diversity in the workplace. 2. Cultural intelligence. 3. Intercultural
communication. 4. Management—Cross-cultural studies. 5. Organizational
behavior—Cross-cultural studies. I. Title.
HF5549.5.M5L58 2011
650.1’3—dc22 2010043843
© 2011 David Livermore
All rights reserved.
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This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of AMACOM, a division of American Management Association,
1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
ABOUT AMA
American Management Association (www.amanet.org) is a world leader in
talent development, advancing the skills of individuals to drive business
success. Our mission is to support the goals of individuals and organizations
through a complete range of products and services, including classroom and
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Printing number
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To Linda, Emily, and Grace, my cherished ones.
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, x i i i
This book is devoted to helping you make the most of today’s
multicultural, globalized world. You’ll learn how to improve your
cultural intelligence, or CQ—an evidence-based way to be effective in
any cross-cultural situation.
PART I
AN INTRODUCTION TO CQ
CHAPTER 1 CQ FOR YOU, 3
See how cultural intelligence is uniquely suited for not only surviving
the crazy demands of our globalized world but also thriving in them.
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
ix
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CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH BRIEF,
21
Get a briefing on the most important CQ research done by academics
from around the world and learn why it is proven to increase your
effectiveness.
TAKING THE CQ SELF -ASSESSMENT ,
35
With the purchase of the print edition of this book, you have
access to the most popular and only academically validated cultural
intelligence assessment in the world.*
PART II
STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE YOUR CQ
CHAPTER 3 CQ DRIVE,
41
Learn how to increase your motivation for the challenges that often
accompany multicultural relationships and work.
CHAPTER 4 CQ KNOWLEDGE,
69
Grow your understanding about cultures and gather creative ideas
for how to continue learning about cultural differences and
similarities wherever you are.
CHAPTER 5 CQ STRATEGY,
107
Improve your ability to be aware of what’s going on in a
multicultural situation and learn how to plan accordingly.
x CONTENTS
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
*Notice: The CQ Self-Assessment is not available in this electronic edition of The Cultural
Intelligence Difference. You can purchase the assessment at www.CulturalQ.com or access
it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
www.CulturalQ.com
www.amanet.org
CHAPTER 6 CQ ACTION,
141
Increase your repertoire of behaviors for use in a variety of
multicultural social and work settings.
PART III
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
CHAPTER 7 THE POWER OF CQ,
169
See how CQ is helping individuals and organizations successfully
accomplish their objectives and simultaneously make the world a
better place.
EP I LOGUE,
188
Turn the ideas of these pages into reality. It isn’t easy, but the results
are well worth the hard work. Use CQ to discover the possibilities
awaiting you in today’s borderless world.
,
190
,
199
,
200
,
201
,
207
xiCONTENTS
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PREFACE
The number one predictor of your success in today’s borderless
world is not your IQ, not your resume, and not even your exper-
tise. It’s your CQ, a powerful capability that is proven to enhance
your effectiveness working in culturally diverse situations. And
CQ is something anyone can develop and learn. Research con-
ducted in more than thirty countries over the last decade has
shown that people with high CQ are better able to adjust and
adapt to the unpredictable, complex situations of life and work in
today’s globalized world.1
CQ or cultural intelligence is the capability to function effec-
tively in a variety of cultural contexts—including national, ethnic,
organizational, and generational. It’s a whole new way of
approaching the age-old topics of cultural sensitivity, racism, and
cross-border effectiveness. And it will open up a whole new world
of possibilities for you. The purpose of this book is to improve
your cultural intelligence. Welcome to The CQ Difference!
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
xiii
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I never actually left the continent until I was in college, but I’ve
been intrigued by cultural differences for as long as I can remem-
ber. My parents moved from Canada to the United States shortly
before I was born. Multiple times a year we made treks across the
Canadian border to visit my grandparents and cousins. I was
intrigued by the different money, the varied ways of saying things,
and the different foods that existed on just the other side of
Niagara Falls. Once I started kindergarten, my American class-
mates laughed when I said “mum” or “eh.” And my Canadian
cousins accused me of becoming an arrogant, flag-waving
American. With youthful patriotism I rebutted, “Well at least we
don’t still bow to the queen!”
Many years later, I’ve had the privilege of traveling all over the
world. The excitement of getting on a plane has long dissipated,
but landing in a new place hasn’t. Few things get my adrenaline
flowing like scouting out a new place, roaming the streets, eating
the local food, and soaking in everything I can. Like anyone who
has traveled internationally, I’ve made more than my fair share of
cultural gaffes and blunders. But those are some of the best ways
I’ve gotten better at working and relating cross-culturally.2
Cultural intelligence, however, runs so much deeper than dis-
covering new foods, languages, and currencies. It strikes right at
the core of our beliefs and convictions. My journey from my
Canadian-American home to a life of worldwide travel has been
fun and fulfilling. The journey of rethinking my faith, ideals, and
opinions has been much more disorienting and painful, albeit
deeply rewarding in its own way.
Like many people, I grew up with an insulated view of the
world. Our family’s social network revolved around people like
us. We associated with people who looked like us, shared our reli-
gious beliefs, affirmed our political perspectives, and defined suc-
cess and failure like we did. We were convinced our way was the
one right way to view the world.
xiv PREFACE
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But the more I encountered people who saw the world differ-
ently from us, the more suspect I became of our way being the
only right way to interpret reality. I began to wonder, Can’t we
still live out our values and convictions without automatically pre-
suming our way is what’s right and best for everyone?
I’m forty-three now. The simplistic categories of “us” versus
“them” don’t work for me anymore. To be sure, this is an ongo-
ing journey for me. I don’t know how to think about the world
without some set of universal morals, whether it’s the preservation
of life, caring for our young, or apprehending evil oppressors. But
the more I encounter the diversity of the world, the more chal-
lenged I become with how I arrive at my own points of view. I’m
not interested in some vanilla tolerance that just nods in agree-
ment with everything I hear. Instead, let’s have a rigorous debate
with a true openness to hearing one another’s ideas and perspec-
tives. CQ is more than just a technique for cross-cultural work. It
transforms the way I teach, parent, watch the news, discuss issues,
work with colleagues, and grow in my friendships.
I’ve tried to write a book that provides simple strategies for
improving your CQ. The strategies themselves are things any of us
can apply and use. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that
underlying these strategies is a willingness to undergo a transfor-
mation in how we see ourselves, the people we encounter, and the
world at large. This kind of change takes many years and can be
disorientating, frustrating, and painful. However, the benefits far
outweigh the cost.
* * *
We begin in Chapter 1 with a brief introduction of how cul-
tural intelligence is proven to help you succeed in the midst of the
cultural challenges and demands of our rapidly globalizing world.
Chapter 2 will give you an overview of the cultural intelligence
research and its origins.
xvPREFACE
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With the purchase of the print edition of this book, you also
have access to the CQ Self-Assessment.* To date, this is the only
academically tested CQ assessment in the world. You can take the
assessment at any time, but I recommend you do so after reading
Chapters 1 and 2.
Chapters 3 to 6 provide dozens of proven strategies for
improving your CQ. Previous books about cultural intelligence,
including my own, have mostly focused on what CQ is. This one
is devoted to how you can improve your CQ. After completing the
online CQ Self-Assessment, you can better determine where to
begin work on increasing your CQ based on your highest and
lowest scores. The strategies in this section are all things I’ve used
and personally benefited from. But that’s not why you should pay
attention to them. They are important strategies because they have
emerged from rigorous research conducted by academics around
the world.
Chapter 7 describes the power of CQ by synthesizing the key
strengths of the CQ approach and sharing some inspirational sto-
ries of individuals and organizations who are harnessing the
power of CQ in their multicultural pursuits. Growing numbers of
organizations and leaders are using these findings to increase their
effectiveness in reaching their bottom-line objectives and as a way
to make the world a better place. That’s what compels me to give
so much of my energy to the cultural intelligence work. I truly
believe that if you use the strategies in this book, you’ll not only
survive the challenges of our twenty-first-century world, you’ll
thrive in the midst of them and tap into the possibilities waiting to
be discovered in our changing world. That’s the CQ difference!
Welcome to the emerging domain of cultural intelligence. It’s
a whole new way of seeing the world.
xvi PREFACE
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
*Notice: The CQ Self-Assessment is not available in this electronic edition of The Cultural
Intelligence Difference. You can purchase the assessment at www.CulturalQ.com or access
it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
www.CulturalQ.com
www.amanet.org
PART I
AN INTRODUCTION TO CQ
Cultural intelligence might sound like a really academic, intellec-
tual topic. It is rooted in years of scholarly research conducted by
academics in places around the world. But it’s easy to grasp, and
the findings offer benefits to all of us.
In the next two chapters, you’ll gain insight into how cultural
intelligence connects with you and your interests. And you’ll dis-
cover research findings that show how increasing your CQ will
improve your effectiveness at whatever you set out to do in today’s
borderless world.
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C H A P T E R 1
CQ FOR YOU
Your success in today’s globalized world requires an ability to
adapt to a variety of cultural situations. Conventional wisdom has
been telling us this for decades. But only in recent years have aca-
demics discovered a proven way to quantify and develop this abil-
ity. It’s called cultural intelligence, or CQ, and it’s defined as the
capability to function effectively in a variety of cultural contexts.
All kinds of people are discovering the possibilities that CQ opens
up for them. But improving your cultural intelligence does require
some commitment and intentionality on your part. Rest easy. The
rewards are well worth the effort.
The world is shrinking. Today, we’re connected to people from
around the globe more than ever before. Fifty years ago, you
could have lived most of your life surrounded by people who
looked like you, believed like you, and saw the world pretty much
the same way you do. A few individuals still manage to pull that
off. But most of us encounter and work with people who look,
believe, and think in radically different ways from us. We’ve
learned that we don’t need to become like whomever we’re with.
But our effectiveness and success is largely dependent on our abil-
ity to adapt to various cultural contexts. When we learn to effec-
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
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tively and respectfully interact with people from diverse cultures,
we strike a gold mine of opportunity for personal and profession-
al fulfillment.
The shifting realities of our rapidly globalized world are well
documented in best-selling books like The World Is Flat by
Thomas Friedman and One World by Peter Singer. Most of us are
well aware that globalization and worldwide connectivity are
lunging forward with racing speed. Here are a few examples:
• 1 billion tourist visas are issued annually, and the number
keeps rising.1
• General Electric calculates that 60 percent of its growth
over the coming decade will come from the developing
world, compared with 20 percent over the past decade.2
• 49 percent of U.S. kids five and younger are children
of color.3
• China will soon be the number-one English-speaking
country in the world.
• 67 percent of international air travel revenue is generated
by Asian and Middle Eastern airlines, and the percentage
is growing annually.4
• More than 1 million university students study abroad
annually.
• 4.5 million North Americans participate in religious
international mission trips each year.5
4 THE CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENCE
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I doubt you’d pick up a book on cultural intelligence if you
weren’t already convinced of our global and multicultural connec-
tivity. But this is a book about you and your life in our borderless
world. To what degree do you possess the capabilities needed to
succeed in this cultural mosaic? Why do some of us succeed while
others fail at cross-cultural effectiveness?
Intercultural success has little to do with your IQ or EQ (emo-
tional intelligence). It’s primarily dependent on your CQ.
Everyone has a cultural intelligence quotient (CQ), and we can all
improve our CQ. This book, along with the corresponding online
CQ Self-Assessment, will enable you to understand your CQ and
give you the latest tested strategies for improving it.
WHAT IS CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE?
Again, cultural intelligence is the capability to function effectively
across a variety of cultural contexts, such as ethnic, generational,
and organizational cultures. CQ has some similarities with vari-
ous approaches to cultural competence, but it differs in its specif-
ic ties to intelligence research. As a result, the emphasis is not only
on understanding different cultures, but also on problem solving
and effective adaptations for various cultural settings. By using the
“intelligence” approach, the CQ model also acknowledges that
your multicultural interactions are as much personal, individual-
ized experiences as they are simply knowing about differences
between Germans and Koreans. Even if you and I have the same
cultural background, we’ll experience new cross-cultural situa-
tions differently according to who we are as individuals.
CQ is an overall capability you can take with you anywhere.
You can benefit from its insights even if you’re experiencing a cul-
ture for the first time, unlike approaches that place primary
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emphasis on learning all the dos and don’ts of specific cultures.
You can use CQ to become better relating to neighbors, class-
mates, and colleagues who come from another part of the world,
or you can use it to increase the chances your meme goes viral
throughout the world. You’ll evaluate your CQ a little later when
you complete the online CQ Self-Assessment included with the
print edition of this book.* High CQ doesn’t come automatically,
but anyone can develop it.
Throughout the last ten years, most of the discussion about
cultural intelligence has been buried in academic journals. Some of
these studies are really fascinating; unfortunately, most of us never
see them. For example, one study found that an individual with
multiple international working experiences, even if those experi-
ences were relatively brief, is likely to have higher CQ than an
individual who has lived overseas for several years in one or two
locations.6 And neurological studies find that the brain gets wired
differently depending upon one’s intercultural experiences, which
in turn impacts the way the individual approaches problem solv-
ing and day-to-day work.7 These kinds of findings have significant
implications for how individuals and organizations maximize
global opportunities. We’ll look at many more of these findings in
the chapters that follow.
During the last couple of years, CQ has started to go main-
stream. Growing numbers of leaders in business, government, and
nonprofit organizations are realizing the benefits that come from
this intelligence-based approach to adapting and working cross-
culturally. And many corporations, government agencies, and uni-
versities are tapping into the CQ difference to achieve results. A
few specific examples are included in Chapter 7.
Your cultural intelligence is made up of four different capabil-
ities, each of which is assessed in the online CQ Self-Assessment.
6 THE CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENCE
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
*Notice: The CQ Self-Assessment is not available in this electronic edition of The Cultural
Intelligence Difference. You can purchase the assessment at www.CulturalQ.com or access
it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
www.CulturalQ.com
www.amanet.org
1. CQ Drive (motivation) is your interest and confidence in
functioning effectively in culturally diverse settings. This
often gets overlooked. Without the ample drive to take
on the challenges that inevitably accompany multicultural
situations, there’s little evidence you’ll be successful.
2. CQ Knowledge (cognition) is your knowledge about how
cultures are similar and different. The emphasis is not on
being an expert about every culture you encounter. That’s
overwhelming and impossible. Instead, to what extent do
you understand some core cultural differences and their
impact on you and others?
3. CQ Strategy (meta-cognition) is how you make sense of
culturally diverse experiences. It occurs when you make
judgments about your own thought processes and those
of others. Can you plan effectively in light of cultural
differences?
4. CQ Action (behavior) is your capability to adapt your
behavior appropriately for different cultures. It involves
having a flexible repertoire of responses to suit various
situations while still remaining true to yourself.
Together, these four capabilities make up your overall cultur-
al intelligence quotient. The online CQ Self-Assessment will reveal
which of these capabilities is strongest and weakest for you. But
what’s your best guess? As you read the four descriptions, which
one seems like it’s the strongest for you? What about the weakest?
After you complete the CQ Self-Assessment, you’ll be able to tap
into pinpointed strategies that are proven to enhance your CQ.
Before you do so, here’s a bit more about the CQ model.
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WHAT DOES HIGH CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE LOOK LIKE?
Despite its academic origins, cultural intelligence is pretty easy to
grasp. Everyone can improve their CQ. I want to help you become
more successful as you pursue the things most important to you in
our borderless world. Having a high CQ doesn’t mean exhibiting
flawless behavior in cross-cultural settings. Instead, it is personi-
fied by people with a strong sense of their own cultural identity.
They know who they are and what they believe, but they’re equal-
ly interested to discover that in others. And individuals with high
CQ have an integrated view of the world that appreciates both the
similarities and differences among people. Rather than being
threatened by differences, they look for what they can learn from
them.
Here’s one way of thinking about the progression from low
CQ (1.0) to high CQ (5.0):
1.0—You react to external stimuli (what you see and hear,
etc., in a new cultural context) and you judge it based on
what that means in your own cultural context.
Example: You observe that some individuals are silent
during a meeting and you presume they’re using the “silent
treatment” to demonstrate they’re bored and upset.
2.0—You begin to recognize other cultural norms.
You’re motivated to learn more about how cultures differ.
Example: You observe that some individuals are silent
during a meeting and you wonder if remaining silent
means the same thing in their culture as it means in yours.
3.0—You begin to accommodate other cultural norms into
your thinking. You can explain how culture impacts the way
people might respond differently to the same circumstances.
Example: You observe that some individuals are silent dur-
ing a meeting and you decide to explore whether their
silence is a form of respect, as it is in many cultures.
8 THE CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENCE
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4.0—You adapt and adjust your thinking and behavior to
other cultural norms.
Example: You observe that some individuals are silent
during a meeting and you intentionally ask for their input,
believing they might consider it disrespectful to offer it
unless invited to give it.
5.0—You automatically adjust your thinking and behavior
when you get appropriate cues, sometimes subconsciously.
Example: You observe that some individuals are silent
during a meeting and, almost without thinking about it,
you offer them alternative ways to offer input; you’re
subconsciously aware that their cultural background
typically uses silence as a form of respect.
Nobody behaves flawlessly in cross-cultural interactions. And
frankly, the mistakes we make are often the best teachers for
improving our CQ. But with experience and intentional effort, we
can move toward the CQ 5.0 description where we begin to auto-
matically accommodate a variety of behaviors and strategies into
the ways we work with people from different cultural back-
grounds. As you grow your CQ, you’ll gradually be able to inter-
pret the behavior of people from unfamiliar cultures as if you were
an insider in their cultures.
Low CQ is often easier to spot because faux pas are more
interesting to talk about. For example, the Dairy Association led
a wildly successful marketing campaign throughout the United
States built on the slogan, “Got Milk?” Unfortunately, when the
campaign was exported to Mexico, the translation read, “Are you
lactating?”8
People with low CQ will dismiss the seismic influence of cul-
ture on themselves and others. They may use overly simplistic
approaches to working cross-culturally and make statements such
as, “People are people. A smile and kind word work anywhere.”
Furthermore, many business leaders with lower levels of CQ use
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disjointed, slap-dash approaches to the myriad of cultural forces
barraging them—whom to send overseas, how to create a more
innovative culture, how to extend into more emerging markets,
how to read trends in their own culture, HR policies, etc.
Low CQ is a primary reason many businesses continue to lose
millions of dollars when expanding into culturally diverse mar-
kets. It explains why many charitable organizations get kicked out
of developing nations because of their inability to work with local
officials in addressing atrocities like HIV-AIDS or human traffick-
ing. The globalization of every field is lunging forward at an
unprecedented rate, yet 70 percent of international programs in
business, government, and charity are largely ineffective and cost-
ly.9 But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Individuals with high CQ have a repertoire of strategies and
behaviors to orient themselves when they encounter unfamiliar
behaviors and perspectives. When something seemingly bizarre or
random happens, they have a mental frame to discern whether it’s
explained by culture or it’s something unique to a particular per-
son or organization. With enhanced CQ, you have the ability
to encounter new cultural situations, think deeply about what’s
happening (or not happening), and make appropriate adjustments
to how you should understand, relate, and behave in these
otherwise-disorienting situations. For example:
• Teachers with high CQ learn how to adapt their teaching,
assessment, and feedback strategies when working with
students from various cultural backgrounds.
• Human resource managers with higher levels of CQ have a
better sense of how to handle a Muslim employee’s request
to miss a sales conference during Ramadan.
• Hospitals led by culturally intelligent leaders are more
effective at treating immigrant patients and have fewer
lawsuits due to misdiagnosis of those patients.
10 THE CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE DIFFERENCE
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• Students with higher CQ who volunteer or study abroad
gain more long-term benefits from the experience.
• Liberals and conservatives with high CQ temper their broad,
sweeping statements about one another, seek to understand
the other party’s position, and learn where the true
differences lie rather than sensationalizing artificial polarities.
These kinds of adjustments involve a complex set of capabilities
that stem from enhanced cultural intelligence. Anyone can grow his
or her CQ. It doesn’t happen automatically, but with a little effort,
you can experience several benefits by increasing your CQ.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF INCREASING YOUR CQ?
Sometimes capabilities like emotional and cultural intelligence get
written off as soft skills with limited, tangible benefit for life in the
real world. Business leaders with low CQ might see discussions
about culture as far removed from the P&L sheets that determine
their survival. A naive military leader might believe cultural intel-
ligence has little impact on a strategic combat mission. And study-
abroad students with low CQ may view conversations with locals
as irrelevant to their purposes for being overseas. These attitudes
miss the hard-core, bottom-line differences that exist for individ-
uals who prioritize enhancing their cultural intelligence.
A growing number of individuals, however, are discovering
the competitive edge that comes from enhancing their CQ.
Scientific research reveals that the most predictable results you can
expect from increasing your cultural intelligence are the following:
• Superior cross-cultural adjustment
• Improved job performance
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• Enhanced personal well-being
• Greater profitability
Let’s look further at these benefits.
Cross-Cultural Adjustment
Most twenty-first-century interests, jobs, and causes require
adjustment to various cultures. The demand for this is going to
grow exponentially over the next decade. What’s your passion?
• Business? Some of the most profitable opportunities lie
in new offshore markets and stem from synergizing and
motivating culturally diverse work teams.
• Investment? Intercultural sensibilities are a huge asset for
making the most of our globalized economy.
• Teaching? Classrooms are increasingly filled with a diversity
of students who need to be prepared for life in our
globalized world.
• Leadership? There’s hardly anything a leader touches that
isn’t shaped by culture, including vision casting, managing
people, and developing a strategic plan.
• Making the world a better place? Whether your cause is
HIV-AIDS prevention, animal rights, environmental sustain-
ability, or mentoring kids in the inner city, charitable activi-
ties are rife with the need for cross-cultural adaptability.
Music, sports, travel, religion, research, technology, science,
farming, raising a family, politics, filmmaking—I’m hard pressed
to think of a pursuit in today’s world that doesn’t involve some
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need to interact with and adapt to people and situations of vari-
ous cultural backgrounds. And the greater your cultural intelli-
gence, the more likely you are to successfully adjust to the cultures
you encounter in whatever you pursue.10
In fact, your cultural intelligence has more to do with your
success in these kinds of multicultural endeavors than your age,
gender, location, IQ, or EQ. Multicultural situations are filled
with ambiguity. We’re often unaware when a problem arises, and
we miss what is really happening. Enhanced CQ provides the
motivation, understanding, and strategy for dealing with that
uncertainty. Sometimes, individuals presume they can’t be success-
ful in multicultural situations because they’ve grown up in a very
monocultural context or because they’re too “old.”
That’s not true! We can all improve our CQ, and an enhanced
CQ is far more likely to contribute to successfully adjusting cross-
culturally than your age or where you’re from.11 Men and women
can be equally successful in multicultural situations. Your effective-
ness is more a result of your CQ than your gender. And if you’ve
never been at the top of your class, take heart: Your CQ is more
likely to predict your intercultural work and relationships than
your academic achievement or IQ. EQ is a strong predictor of your
success when you’re working with people who come from the same
culture as you, but your CQ is a much better predictor of how
you’ll do working with people from different cultural back-
grounds—the inevitable reality for all of us over the next decade.
One reason you’ll more likely succeed with enhanced CQ is
that cultural intelligence contributes to increased flexibility. If
you’ve ever participated in any kind of cross-cultural training,
you’ve been told again and again about the need to be flexible. But
rarely are we offered specific training and skills in how to truly
adapt. Instead, the mantra is just repeated, “Be flexible. Expect
the unexpected. Be flexible, and then flex some more.”
Okay—but how?
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As individuals grow in cultural intelligence, there’s a direct
correlation with their ability to adapt to various situations and
environments where the assumptions, values, and traditions differ
from those with which they’re most familiar. For example,
research shows that people with higher levels of CQ work more
effectively with multicultural teams than leaders with lower levels
of CQ do and, therefore, they have more success in forming col-
laborative environments across a diversity of cultures. In the com-
ing decades, this kind of capability will become nonnegotiable for
anyone in management.12
One of the realities of living in such a rapidly globalizing
world is that an ability to respectfully and effectively connect with
individuals and situations from various cultural backgrounds is
required of all of us. Enhanced CQ helps you be more effective at
whatever you pursue.
Research Note: The relationship between CQ and an
individual’s adjustment cross-culturally was much stronger
than the relationship between an individual’s age, experience,
gender, location, or IQ with their cross-cultural success.13
Job Performance
With higher CQ you’ll also have an edge in a crowded job mar-
ket. Even if a position doesn’t require any international travel,
managers and HR departments are realizing the importance of
having culturally savvy employees who can dynamically meet the
challenges of serving a diverse customer base at home and abroad,
as well as becoming effective participants of culturally diverse
teams. In addition, employers are finding that personnel with high
CQ are not only more effective cross-culturally but also are more
adaptable and innovative as they go about tasks within their own
cultural contexts. Growing numbers of companies are assessing
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the CQ of job candidates and existing workers. Dozens of academ-
ic studies have discovered the connections between higher CQ and
better job performance. Some of the most important job-related
results for individuals with higher CQ are in the following areas:
• Decision Making. One reason why CQ increases your job
performance is that it results in better judgment and
decision making. Individuals who lead with their gut and
intuitively go with the flow are often caught off guard by
situations that yield unpredictable results when working
cross-culturally. Individuals with higher CQ are better at
anticipating and managing risk and at making decisions
that involve complex, multicultural dynamics. Cultural
intelligence will help you make better decisions.14
• Negotiation. Being able to negotiate effectively across
cultures is cited as one of the most important competencies
needed in today’s global workplace. Individuals with higher
CQ are more successful at cross-cultural negotiations than
individuals with lower CQ. When faced with the ambiguity
of intercultural communication, with high CQ, you’re more
likely to persist and invest great effort in reaching a win–win
despite the absence of cues that help you negotiate effectively
in a more familiar environment. Heightened CQ will give
you a better understanding of how to read the nonverbal
cues during a negotiation and make you more aware of how
to motivate an individual or company from a different
culture.15
• Networking. Networking is another one of the most sought-
after skills in today’s work environment. Individuals who can
successfully network and build relationships with individuals
and organizations that span geographic, cultural, and ethnic
boundaries are in high demand. CQ will enhance your ability
to network effectively across varied contexts. Anthropologist
Grant McCracken tells his fellow baby boomers, “It’s the
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network, stupid!” He writes, “My generation treated the
corporation as a source of security. [Gen Y] has another
source of security. As long as they have their social network,
the place they work matters much less.”16 Networks are the
currency that matters in today’s global environment.
Military operations that require multinational peacekeeping
efforts and companies that depend on creative mergers
and acquisitions are best facilitated by individuals who
can build multicultural networks. High CQ will help you
do this.17
• Global Leadership Effectiveness. Finally, today’s managers
need to effectively hire, motivate, and develop personnel
from a variety of cultures. Even if you don’t aspire to a
primary leadership role, your job performance may require
that you effectively influence and develop teams of culturally
diverse participants. With higher levels of CQ, you’re more
likely to develop trust and effectively lead multicultural
groups and projects at home or dispersed around the world.18
Research Note: Organizations want to hire individuals with
high CQ because employees with high CQ are better decision
makers, negotiators, networkers, and leaders for today’s
globalized world.19
Personal Well-Being
Enhancing your cultural intelligence is proven to enhance your
personal satisfaction and overall well-being, particularly when
engaging in culturally diverse situations. When you enhance your
cultural intelligence, you’re less likely to experience burnout from
the constant demands faced by multicultural interactions. We all
want to be effective at what we do. Fatigue and stress are
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inevitable challenges that accompany cross-cultural encounters, so
anything that helps reduce the fatigue and stress is welcome.
Growth in CQ leads to reduced stress for individuals who
interact with a large number of cross-cultural situations regularly.
People such as immigration officers, refugee placement workers,
short-term business travelers, and social workers working in
urban contexts are under a great deal of stress, given the chal-
lenges associated with cross-cultural work. Professionals with
higher levels of cultural intelligence are less likely to burn out
from this kind of work than those with lower levels of cultural
intelligence. For example, many short-term business travelers are
expected to fly in and out of many different places from month to
month. It’s impossible to master the proper norms for every cul-
ture encountered, but with cultural intelligence, a decent measure
of respect and effectiveness is possible. Many managers work all
day long to bridge different cultures and find themselves mentally
exhausted by being the interpreter between various generational,
professional, and ethnic subcultures. Those with higher levels of
cultural intelligence experience less burnout from a litany of mul-
ticultural encounters.20
Employees with higher levels of CQ also report a greater level
of enjoyment from traveling and working internationally than
those with lower levels of CQ. And individuals with higher CQ not
only survive but also enjoy the invigorating challenges and insights
that emerge from multicultural work. CQ will not just reduce your
stress; it will also increase the personal satisfaction you experience
from learning how to remain true to yourself, respect others, and
collaboratively accomplish something important.
Research Note: Individuals with higher levels of CQ report
a greater level of enjoyment and satisfaction from intercultural
work and relationships than those with lower levels of CQ.21
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Profitability
Finally, in light of these other benefits of CQ, it’s no surprise to
find a connection between CQ and profitability. Individuals who
more successfully adjust cross-culturally and who perform better
in fundamental tasks such as decision making, negotiations, and
networking help their organizations save and earn more money.
As a result, CQ increases your earning power.
One study specifically examined the role of cultural intelli-
gence on corporate profitability. The companies involved partici-
pated in an eighteen-month cultural intelligence program that
included training, hiring, and strategizing in light of CQ. Of the
companies surveyed, 92 percent saw increased revenues over the
eighteen-month period, all of which identified cultural intelligence
as a significant contributor to their increased profits.22
Leading companies such as Barclays, Lloyds TSB, and Levi
Strauss have all adopted cultural intelligence into their business
model and have seen increased income streams, better cost man-
agement, and higher profit margins. Of course, these results aren’t
limited to industry giants. Small businesses, universities, charita-
ble organizations, and government entities have seen similar gains
from implementing cultural intelligence into their domestic and
global operations.
Many executives see the benefits of hiring, promoting, and
rewarding individuals with high CQ. On average, individuals with
higher CQ earn more. Cross-cultural flexibility and an ability to
negotiate with people from various cultures is a highly desirable
skill set. The job market is constantly changing. It’s going to
become increasingly important to demonstrate cultural intelligence
to secure the most sought-after positions and opportunities.23
Research Note: Of companies that used the cultural intelligence
approach through training, hiring, and strategizing, 92 percent
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saw increased revenue within eighteen months of implementa-
tion. Every company named cultural intelligence as a significant
factor that contributed to increased profits. Therefore, companies
are prioritizing hiring and retaining personnel with high CQ.24
Recent research on cultural intelligence points to many prom-
ising benefits. As you increase your CQ, you can tap into one of
the most important capabilities needed to thrive in today’s world.
Ultimately, heightened CQ helps each of us make the world a bet-
ter place. Nobel Prize–winning author Elie Wiesel identifies cul-
tural hatred as the major source of problems between people,
across all times.25 Cultural clashes are a major destabilizing factor
in our world, whether it’s neighborhood rivalries, office politics,
or international disputes. Cultural intelligence provides a way to
work through the many misunderstandings and conflicts that
accompany cross-cultural encounters.
Ken Wilbur, a postmodern philosopher, writes, “It’s not that I
have to agree with everything you say, but I should attempt to at
least understand it, for the opposite of mutual understanding is,
quite simply, war.”26 I’m not interested in promoting a vanilla cul-
ture without all the wonderful zigzags of our colorful world. But
cultural intelligence can help us replace divisive rancor with recog-
nition, respect, and mutual understanding—the CQ difference
that matters most.
CQ rests in something bigger than us. If more power, wealth,
and personal success are all that drive us, we’ll quickly face
burnout. But as we fit into things larger than us, join them, and
serve them, we can take our role in the big picture and find our-
selves with heightened energy for persevering through the hard
work of cross-cultural interactions. Life is about things that tran-
scend us.27
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MOVING FORWARD
Our lives depend on our ability to get along. Cross-cultural inter-
actions are no longer the exclusive domain of Peace Corps work-
ers, anthropologists, missionaries, and State Department diplo-
mats. We find ourselves encountering people from vastly different
cultural backgrounds. As a result, cultural clashes and the ability
to effectively respect each other and work together is one of the
seminal issues of our day.
Research demonstrates that individuals and organizations
with higher levels of cultural intelligence are finding a better way.
Enhanced CQ is proven to strengthen your ability to work effec-
tively and respectfully with individuals and situations in various
cultural contexts. Not only do individuals with high cultural intel-
ligence survive the twists and turns of our rapidly globalizing
world, they thrive in them.
Everywhere is now part of everywhere. The world is global.
There’s no going back. As you commit to increasing your cultural
intelligence, you can join a community of individuals who are
experiencing the benefits of the CQ difference.
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C H A P T E R 2
RESEARCH BRIEF
Twenty years ago, researchers confirmed what many business
leaders had thought for a long time: A high IQ doesn’t guarantee
successful performance in business. You also need the skills that
come from emotional and social intelligence. In fact, many CEOs
used this research as fodder to tell business schools, “Quit send-
ing us 4.0 MBA graduates who fail miserably because they have
zero social skills and can’t solve real problems!” Successful busi-
ness requires a good dose of common sense and an ability to relate
well with a lot of different people.
As a result of this research, emotional intelligence, or EQ, sud-
denly became the craze. Leaders in all kinds of organizations were
seeing the dividends gained by enhancing the EQ of themselves
and others. More recently, the same kinds of results are emerging
for individuals and corporations that are embracing CQ. Some
have argued that cultural intelligence is the single greatest differ-
ence between professionals who thrive in today’s rapidly changing
world and those who become obsolete. The social skills and com-
mon sense learned through emotional intelligence don’t automat-
ically translate into successful performance when applied to other
cultures. For example, the very thing that lightens up a tense meet-
ing or builds confidence can have the reverse impact in another
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cultural context. Cultural intelligence picks up where emotional
intelligence leaves off. It guides leaders and their teams through
the twists and turns of our frenetic, globalized economy.
As stated earlier, cultural intelligence isn’t just a new and
improved label for cultural competence. It’s a different way of
approaching the multicultural challenges and opportunities of
today’s world, and it’s rooted in research across dozens of coun-
tries around the world. This chapter will provide a brief introduc-
tion to the research underlying the cultural intelligence difference.
IN THE BEGINNING
The driving question behind the cultural intelligence research is
this: Why can some individuals and organizations move in and out
of varied cultures easily and effectively while others can’t? This is
a question that has long interested researchers across a variety of
academic subjects. A great deal of this long-standing research has
informed my own understanding about cross-cultural effectiveness.
For example, I regularly draw on the seminal contributions of
Milton Bennett’s work on identity and intercultural development
and Hall, Hofstede, Schwartz, and Trompenaars’s work on cultur-
al dimensions.1 One of the challenges, however, is the disconnect-
edness between the many different intercultural models and assess-
ments. How do we pick between them, and how do they relate to
each other?
As a whole, the intercultural field has suffered from what
some academics have called the “jingle and jangle” fallacy—
where evidence-based perspectives get mixed together with peo-
ple’s personal observations, and where learned capabilities get
muddled with inherent personality traits.2 Without an overarching
research-based framework, there’s little agreement about how to
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actually assess and enhance cultural competence. Therefore, the
validity of the corresponding assessments and interventions
becomes highly suspect.3 Furthermore, most intercultural
approaches focus on comparative knowledge wherein it’s assumed
that teaching individuals the differences between French people
and Thai people will translate into an ability to work effectively
with French and Thai people. It’s just not that simple. Cultural
knowledge and global consciousness by themselves don’t translate
into intercultural adaptability and successful results. A more holis-
tic approach is required.
Soon Ang from Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore is one of the pioneering researchers of cultural intelli-
gence. Ang began to seriously consider the question of intercultur-
al effectiveness and adaptability in the midst of consulting with
companies preparing for Y2K—the ticking time bomb that had
everyone anxious about what would happen when the world’s
computers crossed from 1999 into 2000. In 1997, Professor Ang
was consulting with several companies to draw together some of
the best IT professionals from around the world to help solve the
much-feared technological meltdown. Early on in this work, Ang
noticed that the programmers from around the world were tech-
nically competent but couldn’t work together.
IQ is an important predictor of job performance in the IT pro-
fession because of the complex mental processes involved in cod-
ing and programming. And IT specialists’ technical expertise in
writing code is a crucial part of their success. But even though com-
panies were putting their smartest, most technically competent per-
formers on the Y2K project, there was an unusual level of incon-
sistency in what was getting accomplished by various employees.
Indians and Filipinos would agree to a programming approach but
then go off and code things differently. The company pulled togeth-
er their brightest and best IT talent, but far too little was getting
accomplished, and the clock was ticking . . . literally!
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Some companies attempted to deal with the challenges being
faced by doing training on work styles, emotional intelligence, and
social intelligence. This approach appeared to help a little but the
struggles were still significant. Emotional and practical intelli-
gence helped the IT specialists solve problems in their own cul-
tures, but that did not automatically translate to what they could
do in unfamiliar cultural situations or with colleagues from differ-
ent cultures.
As a result of this growing challenge that was facing Ang and
her clients, she began to work with fellow researcher Christopher
Earley to conceive of a new workplace capability—one that would
eventually become CQ.
Surveying Intercultural Research
The process began by studying the most important intercultural
theories and models, including those by Hall, Hofstede, Schwartz,
and Trompenaars. Most of these approaches focus on enhancing
one’s knowledge about cultural differences, such as knowing how
most Germans view time and trust building, as compared to most
Japanese. But just because you understand the differences between
Japanese and German cultures doesn’t mean you’ll actually be
able to work effectively with individuals from those backgrounds.
And increasingly, we encounter individuals like my friend Arthur,
who has a Japanese mother and a British father and attended a
Dutch school while growing up in Indonesia. What culture should
I study to understand Arthur? The existing approaches don’t ade-
quately equip us to engage with these complexities that are
increasingly the new normal. Something more was needed to
address the problems being faced in the multicultural workplace.
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Surveying Intelligence Research
In addition, the intelligence research was examined to understand
its relevance to the intercultural work and relationships. It’s
important to understand what they were looking at here as it
relates to intelligence. When you walk through your local book-
store, you can see the term intelligence applied to all kinds of
ideas. We have books about financial intelligence, business intelli-
gence, artistic intelligence—the list keeps going. Most of these are
simply using the term intelligence as a creative way to talk about
a particular topic, but many have little, if any, connection to the
technical definition of intelligence—mental, motivational, and
behavioral capabilities to understand and adapt effectively to var-
ied situations and environments.
The most traditional way of understanding the technical idea of
intelligence is IQ, measuring an individual’s cognitive capabilities.
But there also has been extensive scholarship on varied forms of
intelligence that go beyond the traditional, academic notions of IQ.
After IQ, emotional intelligence is the form of intelligence that’s
most familiar to many of us. Emotional intelligence is the ability to
detect and regulate the emotions of one’s self and others.4
Significant work also has been done on social intelligence and prac-
tical intelligence. Social intelligence is the ability to understand and
manage other people. It’s knowing how to act appropriately in
social interactions.5 Practical intelligence is the ability to solve prac-
tical problems as opposed to academic, theoretical ones.6 All three
of these intelligences—emotional, social, and practical—predict the
likelihood of our effectiveness when working and relating in cul-
tures like our own. Researchers saw the relevance of these intelli-
gences to effective job performance, but they believed something
additional was needed to address the increasing cultural complex-
ities facing most individuals and their organizations.
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Cultural Intelligence Is Born!
Researchers’ extensive review of intercultural theory and intelli-
gence approaches led to the initial conceptualization of cultural
intelligence—an intelligence rooted in the same fundamentals as
other intelligences but with a focus specifically on the skills needed
to be effective in our globalized, interconnected world. Cultural
intelligence complements these other forms of intelligence and
explains why some individuals are more effective than others in cul-
turally diverse situations. Because the norms for social interaction
vary from culture to culture, it is unlikely that emotional and social
intelligence will translate automatically into effective cross-cultural
adjustment, interaction, and effectiveness. Likewise, because the
practical challenges faced cross-culturally are related to regional
and cultural factors, high scores in practical intelligence aren’t a sure
predictor of practical success in a new cultural context.
The first publication of cultural intelligence research was in
Earley and Ang’s 2003 book Cultural Intelligence: Individual
Interactions Across Cultures.7 They wrote the book for an aca-
demic audience. A year later, a report in the Harvard Business
Review described cultural intelligence as a core capability essential
for success in twenty-first-century business. Since then, cultural
intelligence has attracted worldwide attention across diverse disci-
plines and has been cited in more than seventy academic journals.
Most of the research has examined what gives rise to cultural
intelligence and testing interventions that enhance CQ.
A variety of publications exist about cultural intelligence,
many of which offer helpful insights on the challenges of working
cross-culturally. But similar to other books that use the “intelli-
gence” label liberally, some of the books and articles on cultural
intelligence present models that have no direct correlation to the
academic research on varied forms of intelligence. Intelligence is a
label some of these authors have added to their own conceptual-
izations of cultural competence. There’s certainly value to what
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many of these books have to offer. It’s simply important to under-
stand that the term cultural intelligence is not used consistently by
all who write about it.
In contrast, Earley, Ang, and their collaborators were specifi-
cally interested in viewing cross-cultural capabilities as a form of
intelligence, drawing on Sternberg and Detterman’s extensive sur-
vey of intelligence research.8 This distinction is important for a
few reasons:
• Intelligence research focuses on learned capabilities
(something you can develop through experience and
learning) rather than on personality traits (something you
can’t change because it’s hardwired into who you are).
• Intelligence research integrates a wide range of research
findings from both psychology and sociology. Your
intercultural relationships are shaped by both your individual
personality and your sociocultural background. Emphasizing
one without the other is limiting.
• Intelligence frameworks emphasize the capability to
reformulate one’s concept of self and others rather than just
learning about cultural thinking and behavior.
• Rooting multicultural behavior in the intelligence research
allows for a direct correlation with the other insights that
have come from intelligence research (IQ, EQ, etc.).
Early into the emergence of CQ, I was in the midst of my own
research, which was primarily focused on studying the itinerant
travels of North American students and professionals going over-
seas for one or two weeks. My research revealed an ongoing gap
in the travelers’ ability to adjust to the cultural norms they
encountered. Yet most of these travelers had been through cross-
cultural training and they espoused a desire to be culturally aware.
I was intrigued about why their training and good intentions did-
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n’t translate into effective adjustment cross-culturally. I wasn’t
content to merely be one more person talking about “ugly
Americans” without offering a solution.
But the intercultural approaches I reviewed seemed unrealistic.
They were developed for individuals who would be spending
extensive time living and working abroad. The approaches
focused on learning a new language and understanding the intri-
cacies of a particular culture inside and out. I celebrate the impor-
tance of this kind of approach when it’s possible, but I knew most
of the travelers I had observed simply didn’t have the time or the
capacity for that level of preparation. Furthermore, many of them,
like most of us in today’s world, move in and out of countless cul-
tural situations almost daily. So I desperately needed a different
kind of solution.
A mutual colleague introduced me to Soon Ang, and I was
immediately drawn to her work on CQ. As I began to study her
initial findings, I knew this was a research process I was interest-
ed in joining. The prospects were extremely bright for using CQ
to help the kinds of individuals I felt called to serve. I’m privileged
to have encountered the cultural intelligence research during some
of its earliest forms, and am grateful to be part of a global research
community committed to moving the research and practice of cul-
tural intelligence forward.
Why These Four Capabilities?
One of the consistent threads across the varied forms of intelli-
gence is a set of four complementary factors. These four factors
are consistent whether we’re talking about emotional, social,
practical, or cultural intelligence. The four factors are motivation,
cognition, meta-cognition, and behavior.9 These four factors are
interrelated, whatever the form of intelligence. A person who
knows (cognition) how to relate interpersonally but has no desire
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to do so (motivation) won’t function in a socially intelligent way.
An individual who can analyze (meta-cognition) a practical situa-
tion deeply but can’t actually solve it in real life (behavior) does-
n’t have much practical intelligence.
In parallel fashion, cultural intelligence is a four-factor capa-
bility that consists of these same four intelligence factors—moti-
vation, cognition, meta-cognition, and behavior. The four CQ
capabilities covered in this book—CQ Drive (motivation), CQ
Knowledge (cognition), CQ Strategy (meta-cognition), and CQ
Action (behavior)—aren’t just four ideas I decided to include
based on my experience or insight. They stem from theoretically
grounded scholarship on intelligence. As a result, many of the
strategies included in the following chapters will not only enhance
your cultural intelligence but can also strengthen your intelligence
in other areas as well.
HOW IS CQ MEASURED?
Once the four-factor framework for CQ was developed, the next
step was to obtain input from other academics in business, psy-
chology, sociology, education, and anthropology to develop a
valid way of assessing CQ. The question at hand was this: Can
you actually quantify an individual’s capabilities for multicultural
effectiveness? The Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) measures an
individual’s competency in each of the four capabilities.10 The
empirical evidence for using the CQS as a valid measurement of
intercultural capabilities was published in 2007.11
Although it’s difficult to quantify something as subjective as
intercultural capability, the CQS has amazing consistency across
varied times, samples, cultures, and professions. The CQS has
excellent reliabilities (all exceeded 0.70) and incremental as well
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as predictive validity. The CQ assessments resulting from the CQS
are now being used widely by leaders in business, government,
charitable settings, and universities.
The online CQ Self-Assessment that comes with this book is
based on the CQS. It gives you a snapshot of where your greatest
strengths and weaknesses lie in regard to cultural intelligence.
Obviously, it’s only as valid as the honesty of your responses. The
goal is not to see how high you can score. Use it as a personal
development tool to find out which of the four areas are strongest
and weakest for you. Then you can narrow your attention on
leveraging your strengths and managing your weaker areas.
The Cultural Intelligence Center also offers a CQ Multi-Rater
Assessment (360°) that combines your self-assessment with feed-
back from others. In addition to personally evaluating your CQ,
your colleagues or peers answer similar questions on your behalf.
The CQ Multi-Rater Assessment provides a more complete and
reliable picture of your CQ because it allows you to compare your
own assessment of your CQ with how others see you. Several
Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, charitable organi-
zations, and universities are using the CQ Multi-Rater Assessment
in their leadership development initiatives.
In addition to using these online assessments, you also can
roughly gage your own CQ by simply making observations with
these four capabilities in mind. As you look at your interactions
cross-culturally, ask yourself about your motivation (CQ Drive),
understanding (CQ Knowledge), level of awareness/ability to plan
(CQ Strategy), and behavior (CQ Action).
You can also use the four CQ capabilities to roughly assess the
CQ of others. Which of the four capabilities are their greatest
strengths? What appear to be the areas where they need the most
growth? As you watch and interact with others, you begin to see
which capabilities are strongest and weakest and how that com-
pares with other people with whom you interact.
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More forms of CQ assessment are being tested, including
ways to track your visual and neurological responses to various
cultural situations and images. And dozens of other studies of CQ
are under way at universities around the world.
MOVING FORWARD
The research on cultural intelligence is far from over. Much more
needs to be studied to understand CQ and its implications for all
of us. Faculty, students, and industry leaders from many countries
are working together to learn how CQ can best be applied. To
date, the majority of CQ research has focused on assessing and
developing CQ in individuals. But more recent research is exam-
ining how to assess and develop CQ in teams and social networks.
Can a company have a cumulative CQ score? What about a faith
community? Do certain cities and regions display a different level
of CQ than others? These are some of the facinating questions
being examined.
A growing community of researchers and practitioners from
around the world is working together to continue the research and
application of CQ. CQ doesn’t belong to any single individual or
organization. It can’t. The needs for cultural intelligence are too
great. By reading this book, you’re part of that movement. And
when you take the CQ assessment, you’re contributing to the next
phase of CQ research because your results are anonymously kept
and aggregated with those of other individuals around the world
as part of the worldwide CQ norms. Most of all, when you apply
these findings to your relationships and work, one by one, we can
use the CQ difference to make our world a better place to live and
work.
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Cultural Intelligence vs. Other Intercultural Approaches
CQ differs from other leading approaches to cultural compe-
tence and intercultural interaction in five primary ways:
1. CQ is an evidence-based meta-model for diversity
and international work. A key strength of the cultural
intelligence concept is that it is a research-based,
overarching framework that synthesizes volumes of
material and perspectives on cross-cultural leadership
and diversity. The CQ measure has been tested across
multiple samples, times, and cultures.
2. CQ is a form of intelligence. Cultural intelligence is the
only approach to intercultural effectiveness that is explicitly
rooted in contemporary theories of intelligence. The four
capabilities of CQ are directly connected to the four
dimensions of intelligence (motivational, cognitive,
meta-cognitive, and behavioral) that have been broadly
researched and applied around the world. CQ is a
specific form of intelligence that helps individuals to
function effectively in multicultural situations.12
3. CQ is more than just knowledge. The cultural intelligence
approach goes beyond simply emphasizing cultural
understanding. Understanding the sociological differences
in cultural beliefs, values, and behaviors is essential,
but it’s incomplete apart from also exploring the social-
psychological dynamics involved as one person interacts
with another.
4. CQ emphasizes learned capabilities more than
personality traits. Although it’s helpful to understand how
our predisposed personality influences our cross-cultural
behavior (e.g., extroverts vs. introverts), it can be
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paralyzing because personality is difficult to change.
The emphasis of CQ, however, is on what any individual
can do to enhance cultural intelligence through education,
training, and experience. CQ is not fixed. It can develop
and grow, and it incorporates both individual and cultural
factors of how you relate and work across cultures.
5. CQ is not culture-specific. Cultural intelligence is not
specific to a particular culture. The emphasis is not on
mastering all the specific information and behavior
needed for effectiveness in individual cultures. Instead,
CQ focuses on developing an overall repertoire of
understanding, skills, and behaviors for making sense
of the barrage of cultures we encounter daily.13
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TAKING THE
CQ SELF-ASSESSMENT
Now it’s time to assess your CQ. This will help you learn where
your greatest strengths and weaknesses lie in CQ.
COMPLETE THE CQ SELF-ASSESSMENT
With the purchase of the print edition of this book, you obtain
access for one person to complete the CQ Self-Assessment.* Locate
the unique access code at the back of the book and then go to
www.cqdifference.com and follow the instructions carefully.
BEFORE YOU BEGI
N
Here are a few rules of thumb I’ve learned from using this assess-
ment with thousands of people around the world:
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*Notice: The CQ Self-Assessment is not available in this electronic edition of The Cultural
Intelligence Difference. You can purchase the assessment at www.CulturalQ.com or access
it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
www.cqdifference.com
www.CulturalQ.com
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• Don’t overthink your responses. Just answer as honestly and
frankly as you can. Usually, the first response that comes to
mind will be the most accurate for revealing your CQ.
• This isn’t a test. You can’t fail. We’re all stronger in some of
the four capabilities than others. You’re the only one who
will see your results. The key is to find areas of strength
and areas of weakness so you know where to channel your
attention to gain the benefits of a heightened overall CQ.
• You’re smart. You can game some parts of the self-
assessment by figuring out how to get high scores. But then
you’ll miss out on the insights offered by honestly looking
at where to focus your work. Be true to yourself to gain
the most from this.
INTERPRETING THE RESULTS
Try not to be defensive if you aren’t pleased with your scores. This
is just a snapshot in time, and it’s based on your frame of mind as
you completed the assessment. At the same time, don’t too quick-
ly dismiss the results just because you might not agree. The assess-
ment has been tested and validated with thousands of people
across numerous life spans and cultures. The results offer some
important insights for you.
Scores for the Four CQ Capabilities
You’ll see several scores, the most important of which are the
overall scores you received for each of the four capabilities. Enter
your scores in the shaded column in the table:
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1. CQ Drive Your level of interest,
(Motivation) drive, and confidence
to adapt to multicultural
situations
2. CQ Knowledge Your level of under-
(Cognition) standing about how
cultures are similar
and different
3. CQ Strategy Your level of awareness
(Meta-cognition) and ability to plan for
multicultural interactions
4. CQ Action Your level of adapta-
(Behavior) bility when relating and
working cross-culturally
Are you surprised by the results? Why or why not? When you
read Part II of the book, pay special attention to the strategies that
go with the CQ capability where you scored lowest.
The “Low, Medium, High” ratings are based on how you
evaluated yourself compared to thousands of others who have
completed the assessment. This gives you some standard by which
to compare your results.
Scores for the Sub-Dimensions
You’ll also see several scores that are called sub-dimensions. Each
of the four CQ capabilities can be further assessed and developed
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by paying attention to these sub-dimensions. As we walk through
each of the next four chapters, we’ll revisit your sub-dimension
scores to help focus your attention on the strategies that may be
of greatest help and interest to you for improving your CQ.
* * *
Now that you’ve completed the CQ Self-Assessment, we’re
ready to focus on improving your CQ. Keep your feedback report
nearby to gain the most from what follows.
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PART II
STRATEGIES TO
IMPROVE YOUR CQ
The next four chapters are devoted to helping you improve in each
of the four capabilities of CQ. You may want to read straight
through this section, or it might be more helpful for you to just
read the introductory material for each chapter and then focus on
the list of strategies that accompany the capability where you
want to begin work. Then you can come back to another list of
strategies when you’re ready to work on a different capability. Do
what helps you most.
Several of the strategies that enhance CQ stem from things you
already do in other parts of your life (e.g., setting goals, creating
space for physical and emotional health, making checklists).
Becoming more culturally intelligent doesn’t mean you have to take
on a whole new set of responsibilities. But it does require some
intentionality to use these tools to strengthen your cross-cultural
effectiveness. These strategies have been researched and tested aca-
demically.
There’s also a story running through these chapters to demon-
strate how CQ or the lack thereof shows up in real life. Like all of
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us, the characters demonstrate some strengths and weaknesses in
their cross-cultural perspectives and interactions. I’ll offer some
commentary along the way about how the four CQ capabilities
relate to the various individuals and events in the narrative.
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C H A P T E R 3
CQ DRIVE
Cross-cultural training is usually the de-facto response for dealing
with the challenges of multicultural work. As valuable as it can be
to learn about cultural issues, it’s ineffective without ample drive
and motivation to pursue the hard work of cross-cultural effec-
tiveness. CQ Drive asks the question: Do you have the confidence
and motivation to work through the challenges and conflict that
inevitably accompany cross-cultural situations? This is one of the
most significant yet overlooked ingredients to successful work
cross-culturally.
CQ Drive: The extent to which you’re energized and persistent
in your approach to culturally diverse situations. It includes
your sense of self-confidence in your abilities as well as your
sense of the rewards—both tangible and intangible—that you
will gain from functioning effectively in situations characterized
by cultural diversity.
Key Question: What’s my level of confidence and motivation
for this cross-cultural situation? If it’s lacking, what can I do to
increase it?
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Robert, an African American CFO at an Indianapolis telecom
company, is no stranger to cross-cultural issues. His extended family
still marvels that he broke through the glass ceiling. He rose quickly
to a C-level suite in the corporate world. He met his wife, Ingrid,
a German woman from Munich, when they both attended the
University of Chicago. Robert and Ingrid are a ridiculously good-
looking couple with three beautiful kids. At 6’2”, Robert towers
above Ingrid, but she outran him last month at their local 10K race.
They moved to Indiana after college when Ingrid got a job teaching
German at an Indianapolis high school. Now she’s the principal.
Twenty years later, Indianapolis feels like home to Robert, Ingrid,
and their family.
Robert spends evenings and weekends at his kids’ ball games
around affluent Indianapolis suburbs. He feels more at home these
days among his neighbors and friends in Indianapolis than he does
when he goes back to the south side of Chicago to visit his family.
In fact, he finds it harder and harder to take the time to get up to
Chicago to see everyone.
It’s Friday morning, and Robert’s day is booked solid with
meetings. After his early-morning workout, the first thing he does
at the office this morning is talk with his daughter Sarah on Skype.
Sarah just started a study-abroad program in Budapest for the
semester. This morning, she tells her dad that a group of her American
friends are planning to go to T.G.I. Friday’s together for dinner tonight.
She’s trying to convince the group to try an authentic Hungarian
place instead. But a couple of her friends say they just need to eat
something “normal.” Besides, her roommate is freaked out to go to
a Hungarian place all by themselves. At least they’ll know what
they’re ordering at Friday’s, and the servers will speak English.
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While Robert listens to Sarah, he simultaneously reads through some
of his e-mail that came in overnight. He says to Sarah, “Ah—lighten
up, honey. They just want a good burger. There’s nothing wrong
with that.”
Robert has several appointments this morning, and the first three
are interviews for a new administrative assistant he needs to hire.
Last time he needed to hire an administrative assistant, he just let
human resources find the person and they hired a guy. He tries to
be open-minded, but even in the twenty-first century, there’s something
that just seems wrong about a man being his secretary.
The first interview is with Sana, a tall, olive-skinned young woman
who recently moved to Indianapolis with her husband. Sana wears
a head covering to the interview. She appears to be a Muslim.
She’s very articulate with an impressive résumé, but Robert feels
unnerved by her. He’s uncertain of how Sana will fit in with the
company culture. He has a hard time imagining working with a
Muslim woman every day, but he knows he can’t verbalize that to
human resources.
Why isn’t this easier? Robert has been looking forward to just
having a competent employee who would get the job done. Ingrid’s
administrative assistant is a mom who has lived in Indiana her
whole life. She’s been working for Ingrid for eight years. Why can’t
human resources find someone like that for Robert?
Robert interviews two more women for the opening, and then he
has five minutes to spare before today’s most important appointment:
a meeting with three executives from a telecom company based in the
Middle East. They’re interested in buying one of the best-performing
business units in Robert’s company. Robert has been telling his CEO
he thinks they should seriously consider any fair offer.
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WHAT’S CQ DRIVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
CQ Drive is your interest and confidence in functioning effective-
ly in culturally diverse settings. This often gets overlooked when
dealing with issues like cultural diversity and international travel.
The tendency is to immediately jump in with training (CQ
Knowledge) to help people deal with cultural differences. But
without the ample drive to take on the challenges that inevitably
accompany multicultural situations, you’re likely to experience a
high rate of failure and frustration through training alone.
There are several indicators of Robert’s CQ Drive in just this
brief snapshot, from his reluctance to travel back home to the south
side of Chicago to his interactions with his daughter and his assump-
tions about what would make a good administrative assistant. We’ll
refer back to issues like these as we walk through the strategies for
enhancing our motivation for cross-cultural effectiveness.
Again, CQ Drive asks the question: Do you have the confi-
dence and drive to work through the challenges and conflict that
inevitably accompany cross-cultural situations? The ability to be
personally engaged and persevere through cross-cultural chal-
lenges is one of the most novel and important aspects of cultural
intelligence. Study-abroad students are often more interested in
the adventure of a semester overseas, hitting the pubs, and fulfill-
ing their academic requirements than they are in interacting with
the local culture. Employees often approach diversity training
apathetically, and do it just because it’s required. Personnel head-
ed to international assignments are often more concerned about
moving and adjusting their families overseas than they are about
developing cultural understanding.
High CQ Drive stems from an intrinsic interest in a different
culture and a confidence to be able to relate effectively and natu-
rally in that culture. The Hungarian culture probably doesn’t seem
nearly as foreign to Sarah as it does to her American friends
because of her mom’s German roots. Individuals with high CQ
Drive are motivated to learn and adapt to new and diverse cultur-
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al settings. Their confidence in their adaptive abilities is likely to
influence the way they act in multicultural situations.
If you have high CQ Drive, you might become easily frustrat-
ed with others who don’t share your cross-cultural curiosities and
interests. You tell them about an overseas adventure or about a
new ethnic restaurant you discovered and they give you a blank
stare. Keep in mind that not everyone is equally energized by all
things cross-cultural—and that’s okay.
ASSESSING YOUR CQ DRIVE
How is your CQ Drive? Are you motivated to discover new cul-
tures and confident you can engage effectively when you work and
relate cross-culturally? Based on the feedback report that accom-
panies the online CQ Self-Assessment, what overall
CQ Drive
score did you receive?*
Overall CQ Drive:__________
Did you rate yourself low, medium, or high compared
to others who have completed the CQ Self-Assessment?
(circle one)
Low Medium High
From what you’re learning about CQ Drive in this chapter, are
you surprised by the results? Keep in mind that the self-assessment
is just one snapshot of your view of your CQ capabilities at a par-
ticular point in time. But it’s worth considering the results, given
the high level of reliability found in the assessment as it is used
among individuals around the world.
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*Notice: The CQ Self-Assessment is not available in this electronic edition of The Cultural
Intelligence Difference. You can purchase the assessment at www.CulturalQ.com or access
it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
www.CulturalQ.com
www.amanet.org
In order to dig more deeply into your CQ Drive, the CQ Self-
Assessment also helps you assess your motivation for multicultur-
al situations in three specific areas of CQ Drive (intrinsic, extrin-
sic, and self-efficacy). There has been extensive research examin-
ing the way these various bases of motivation influence your over-
all drive and perseverance through the hard work of multicultur-
al interactions.1 Write your scores for each of the following and
note the descriptions of these sub-dimensions.
Intrinsic: _________
This is the extent to which you demonstrate a natural
interest and enjoyment in multicultural experiences.
A high score means you’re energized and enthused by
the chance to explore different cultures. A low score
means you don’t derive enjoyment from culturally diverse
experiences in and of themselves.
Extrinsic: _________
This is the extent to which you see tangible benefits from
multicultural interactions and experiences. A high score
means you think multicultural work helps build respect
and accelerate success in your career or other pursuits.
A low score means you don’t give much thought to the
external benefits of multicultural experiences.
Self-Efficacy
: _________
This is your level of confidence in doing cross-cultural
work effectively. A high score means you expect to
succeed in a cross-cultural encounter, and a low score
means you’re uncertain and maybe even anxious about
how you will behave in multicultural situations.
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These three sub-dimensions of CQ Drive—intrinsic, extrinsic,
and self-efficacy—are the scientific bases for the strategies that fol-
low. You’ll see these sub-dimensions alongside the list of strategies
at the beginning of the next section. Not every strategy fits per-
fectly with a single sub-dimension, but the strategies have been
organized according to the sub-dimension with which they are
most closely associated. Use your scores from the sub-dimensions
of CQ Drive to help you pinpoint which strategies to use first (pre-
sumably, the strategies that go with the sub-dimension where you
scored lowest).
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Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Self-Efficacy
IMPROVING YOUR CQ DRIVE
The following section is a list of strategies to help you improve
your CQ Drive. All these strategies are anchored in science and
research on motivation for multicultural situations and stem from
the three sub-dimensions of CQ Drive (intrinsic, extrinsic, and
self-efficacy). The point is not for you to use all these strategies
right now. There are many paths to increasing CQ Drive. Start
with a couple that interest you.
1. Face your biases.
2. Connect with
existing interests.
3. Scare yourself.
4. Visualize success.
5. Reward yourself.
6. Recharge your
batteries.
7. Maintain control.
8. Travel.
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1. FACE YOUR BIASES
To what cultures are you naturally drawn? Which ones make you
uncomfortable? It might sound noble to say we view everyone the
same, but it’s just not true. Whenever we meet someone, we sub-
consciously categorize them as a “friend” or a “foe.” It does little
good to deny this. Honestly explore what subcultures really push
your hot buttons, set up your defenses, or just make you uncom-
fortable. An important strategy for enhancing CQ Drive is admit-
ting the implicit prejudices and biases we have toward certain
groups of people and working to overcome them.2
From the moment we’re born, we’re taught to see the world in
a certain way. Most of this socialization process occurs subcon-
sciously. Our parents teach us what’s “normal” and what’s
“weird.” We’re quickly given a sense of right versus wrong and
success versus failure. Our childhood networks expand to include
extended family, neighbors, and school friends and our view of the
world is developed further. But usually these individuals further
reinforce what we’ve been learning at home. We’re taught good
and bad manners, what it means to be a man or woman, and how
to get ahead in life. Then we watch for cues about how to act and
the consequences for those who don’t conform. As we continue
through high school and go on to college or the working world,
we continue to learn what’s cool, important, and right.
Most of us feel the greatest trust and warmth when we’re with
people like us; we feel uncomfortable and suspicious of people
who are different. Even so-called “alternative” groups usually
conform to the agendas and styles of other alternatives in their
subculture. There’s something secure and stabilizing about being
with people who view the world like us. Laughing together about
things we find funny, ranting together about things that tick us off,
and sharing an appreciation for some of the same food, art, and
perspectives on the world can be the ingredients for building
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serendipitous memories together. But it also can further reinforce
our biases about people who view the world differently.
We all have implicit biases. The key is whether we act on
them. One way to explore your biases is through some tests devel-
oped at Harvard called implicit association tests. These tests
expose the implicit biases we have toward people’s skin color,
weight, age, and religion. They’re fascinating! You can find them
at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/. The tests reveal automat-
ic impulses we have toward certain cultural groups. The goal is to
be honest about our biases instead of pretending they don’t exist.
While our internal biases are automatic, honestly understanding
them can help control and moderate our interactions. We can
make a deliberate choice to suspend the judgment we’re biased to
make. Anytime you meet someone new, make an effort to connect
with them on a human level as early as possible rather than just
seeing them in light of their cultural context (e.g., she’s a parent
like me; or he is looking for a way to do something significant in
his life like I am).
Think back to the opening scene with Robert and Sana. It
would be helpful for Robert to stop and acknowledge his implicit
bias about the kinds of jobs men should have and what it means
to work closely with people from different faiths. There’s also
something underlying his resistance to make trips back home to
the south side of Chicago. No matter how busy we are, we make
time to see the people who are really important to us. The first
step for Robert is to acknowledge his biases, which in and of itself
can weaken their ability to determine his behavior.
Biases are inevitable. Acting on them isn’t. Spend time learn-
ing what implicit prejudices you have. Notice how they influence
your thoughts and behaviors. The next time you encounter some-
one from a culture against whom you have some implicit bias,
make a deliberate choice to see the person beyond your prejudiced
stereotype.
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https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
2. CONNECT WITH
EXISTING INTERESTS
Think of a hobby that naturally energizes you. It can be any-
thing—cooking, exercise, fashion, photography, music—you
name it. Now think of a way to connect that interest to a cross-
cultural context. Most of our interests exist in some form among
a variety of cultures. This strategy takes an area where you’re nat-
urally motivated and draws from that motivation to increase your
CQ Drive. Connect an existing interest to a cross-cultural situa-
tion or assignment.3
If you like art, what artistic expressions can you discover in a
different cultural context? If you love sports, discover what sports
are hot there and find a way to attend a sporting event. If you’re
a foodie, the options are endless. If you eat, drink, and sleep busi-
ness, use the cross-cultural endeavor as a way to learn new busi-
ness insights.
I love to run. And one of the first things I do when I get to a
new place is look for where I can go for a run. Not only does it
help me deal with jet lag, but I get to take in the sights and sounds
of a different terrain. I have a different set of physical challenges
when I’m running in the desert-like climate of Dubai than when
I’m running through the humidity of Bangkok. Running in the city
is different from running along a mountainous trail in the Alps.
All of these connect one of my existing interests to places I travel.
It’s something I look forward to when traveling to a new place.
We have to be careful not to exploit different cultures and peo-
ple simply to pursue our selfish interests. But as we factor in the
other priorities of cultural intelligence, our natural interests can
provide powerful connections for increasing our CQ Drive.
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3. SCARE YOURSELF
There’s a reason why so many politicians and marketers use fear
to motivate us. Brain researchers say one of the built-in preoccu-
pations of all humans is to minimize danger to ourselves and those
we love. When you’re scared, you pay attention. It makes you
highly alert. Fear causes a deep and immediate alertness. Think
about what happens when you’re driving sleepy along a highway.
If you suddenly veer onto the rumble strips on the side of the road,
you immediately wake up. A similar kind of alertness happens for
many people who fear public speaking. Our brains produce high-
er levels of adrenaline when we’re afraid.4
Despite the popularity of fear tactics among many politicians,
news pundits, and religious leaders, I’m not a big fan of using fear
to motivate people. In fact, I don’t like it at all unless there’s a very
genuine danger. But given that our safety—be it physical, psycho-
logical, vocational, or otherwise—is such a high value for us, we
can find ways to use this intrinsic power of fear to our advantage
when working to enhance our CQ Drive.5
Fortunately, you don’t have to be in real danger to experience
the adrenaline rush that comes from fear. Think about how your
heart starts racing when you’re watching a movie and an attack is
about to happen. Watching a villain sneak up on an unsuspecting
victim gets your heart racing. Fear makes you alert even if it’s not
based on reality. One way you can use fear to develop your CQ
Drive is by visualizing the cost of not becoming more culturally
intelligent. Low CQ will make you look ignorant, clueless, and
self-absorbed. Worse yet, cultural ignorance can cost you your
job, rob you of great opportunities, or even put your life at risk.
One time a group of Liberian educators told me about an
American construction team that came to Liberia to build a
school. The Liberians were extremely grateful for the team’s inter-
est and investment in helping them rebuild their country after so
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many years of civil war. But as the American men began to build
the school, the Liberians gently suggested there would be a better
kind of roof for the school that would not only be less expensive
but also better able to handle the tropical weather in the region.
The builders scoffed at the “ignorant,” unsolicited input from the
Liberians and quickly let them know they’ve done this kind of
work all over the world and this would definitely be the best way
to build the school roof. Three months later, a monsoon came
through, the roof came crashing down and killed some of the chil-
dren inside and injured many more. Taking time to listen and heed
the insights of people from different cultural backgrounds is about
more than just interacting with respect and dignity. It may be a
matter of life and death—yours or someone else’s.
You can use the power of fear to enhance your CQ Drive.
Visualize the potential career implications of cultural ignorance.
Growing numbers of organizations are assessing what it costs
them when employees are ineffective cross-culturally. Some of the
questions they ask include the following:
• Which senior-level leaders have had to deal with the fallout
from an unsuccessful cross-cultural venture? What’s their
pay? Try putting an hourly rate on their time and calculate
the cost.
• What other staff had to get involved in this failure?
How much did their time on this cost?
• What opportunities were missed because of all the energy
diverted toward this issue?
Imagine being viewed as a liability when it comes to your
employer’s interests in cross-cultural markets. Use this fear to
increase your motivation to do cross-cultural work well. Make
yourself indispensable.
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Sarah’s roommate in Budapest feels safer when she thinks
about going to T.G.I. Friday’s because it’s familiar. She assumes
the staff will speak English, and that gives her a sense of safety.
But going to an unfamiliar place with a group of friends might
seem less threatening than venturing out all by herself. Perhaps her
fear could motivate her to seek out some Hungarian students who
could join them. Not only would she have someone along who
“knew the ropes” and could speak the language, but this would
also allow the American students the chance to begin interacting
with locals rather than just observing them from afar. And inter-
acting with and learning from the locals in Hungary might have as
much or more to do with getting a good job when they graduate
than the classes they’ll attend while they’re in Budapest. Think
about what seems most threatening for you, and look for ways to
orient those fears toward becoming more culturally intelligent.
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4. VISUALIZE SUCCESS
I’m an eternal optimist, so I’m a much bigger fan of motivating
ourselves and others with the possibility of opportunity and suc-
cess rather than with fear. Instead of visualizing the failure that
can occur if you don’t become more culturally intelligent, imagine
the possibilities if you do.
Think of a time when you were successful interacting with
someone from a different cultural background. What can you
learn from that experience? As simplistic as it might sound, just
“imagining” your cross-cultural success and the corresponding
benefits can powerfully influence your CQ drive. Many of the sit-
uations that are most difficult for you don’t come up as often as it
might seem. Picture the kind of cross-cultural situation that’s most
difficult for you. For example, imagine trying to negotiate pricing
with a prospective client who offers you virtually no feedback.
Then imagine how it could go in a way that would make you feel
successful. Walk through it in your head as an imaginary scenario.
Scientists have found that anticipating a positive outcome, any-
thing the brain perceives as a forthcoming reward, actually gener-
ates energy.6
Make a list of the tangible benefits you can obtain by improv-
ing your CQ. We looked at several benefits that come from height-
ened CQ in Chapter 1 (cross-cultural adjustment, job performance,
personal satisfaction, and profitability). Review these often.
Visualize being your organization’s best decision maker, negotiator,
and networker. These are realistic prospects with increased CQ,
and bearing this in mind can be a powerful source of motivation.
By improving your CQ and hence the effectiveness of your
multicultural capabilities, you increase the probability of:
• Landing your dream job
• Gaining a competitive edge as an innovator
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• Developing friendships with new and diverse people
• Becoming a leading activist for a cause that’s important
to you
• Broadening and deepening your faith
• Earning more money to support what matters to you most
Just as we used the fear of what can come about as a result of
cultural ignorance, visualize the success that awaits you with
increased CQ. Even if you aren’t naturally interested in all things
cross-cultural, think about how pursuing the hard work of cultur-
ally intelligent engagement increases your likelihood of succeeding
at something that is really important to you. You may quickly find
yourself gaining an appetite for prioritizing CQ as a way to enjoy
some of the opportunities awaiting you.
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5. REWARD YOURSELF
Whether it’s an exercise regime, breaking an addiction, or saving
money, psychologists continually examine the power of rewards
to modify our behavior. We use this with kids all the time. We get
them to do something by promising a prize or reward. This is
another strategy we can use to enhance our CQ Drive.7
To benefit from this strategy, first you need to set some goals for
increasing your cultural intelligence. Goals orient the brain to move
toward a particular end. Be sure the goals are realistic; otherwise,
they can decrease your CQ Drive. Don’t come up with too many.8
Now create some rewards for reaching your goals. Without
any rewards, you’ll be tempted to abandon the perseverance need-
ed to improve your CQ. Don’t just reward yourself for big accom-
plishments; reward small steps as well. If your goal is to learn five
phrases in a different language, then reward yourself as soon as
you can recall each one.
It’s ideal if the reward somewhat correlates to the goal itself
(e.g., learning Spanish and then going out for a Mexican meal
where you order in Spanish). But even if the reward isn’t directly
related to the goal, rewarding yourself for reaching goals is a
strong way to increase your motivation. Give yourself something
that will reinforce the behavior for the next time. Rewards can be
as simple as watching your favorite TV show, buying your favorite
food, or even just taking a few minutes to sit back and veg out. It
needs to be something you wouldn’t have otherwise done or you
aren’t training yourself for this particular behavior.
The most important time to reward yourself is immediately
after doing the particular task you set out to do. Associating good
feelings with the practice and application of the skill will bring
your entire mind into the learning process required for enhanced
CQ. You can experiment with different rewards to see what works
best for you.
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Eventually something deeper, intrinsic, and more transcendent
needs to drive us. In fact, cultural intelligence cannot exist apart
from true love for the world and for people.9 At the very core of
cultural intelligence is the desire to learn with and about other
people. So our drive will need to go beyond the rewards we give
ourselves. But as we fit into things larger than us, join them, and
serve them, rewarding ourselves along the way can be a helpful
way to help us persevere.
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6. RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES
Cross-cultural interaction and work is fatiguing. Even people with
high CQ are more quickly drained by working and relating cross-
culturally than when doing so in familiar contexts. It’s likely that
it’s going to require more energy for Robert to interview Sana than
for him to interview someone more similar to himself. There’s a
heightened level of energy and focus required to keep up with
cross-cultural demands and challenges. When you’re in the midst
of cross-cultural situations, find ways to recharge your batteries.
Otherwise, if you associate your cross-cultural interactions and
work with exhaustion and fatigue, your CQ Drive will suffer. Our
bodies and psyche are wired for health and replenishment.
There are lots of resources available to help us recharge our
batteries amidst our frenzied lives, many of which can help us
enhance our CQ Drive. Your physical and mental well-being are
directly connected to your CQ Drive. Perhaps the best thing you
can do to enhance your CQ Drive is to take a nap. Sleep, exercise,
and healthy eating are one of the ways to increase your energy
level. Go for a good run, drink some coffee (or your preferred bev-
erage), and leave some margin for recreation. Play a round of golf
or spend time with your partner or a friend. For some of us, an
unscheduled day at home is the best way to recharge, while others
of us will be energized by a hard workout and a busy day with
friends. Taking time to care for your physical and mental health
has implications on so many fronts, one of which is your ability
to be effective and resilient cross-culturally.
The importance of your health and stamina to your CQ Drive
is greatest when your cross-cultural activity involves international
travel. The hard work of cross-cultural interaction becomes com-
pounded when we’re dealing with jet lag and being away from
home. Dealing with jet leg is more an art than a science. You can
find lots of recommended techniques online such as setting your
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watch to the time at your destination as soon as you board the
plane; not taking afternoon naps; getting a lot of sunshine; exer-
cising first thing in the morning, and so on. You’ll learn what
works best for you. Don’t shrug off the importance of your phys-
ical stamina to how you work and relate cross-culturally. Your
CQ Drive is affected by your physical and mental energy.
I’m a strong advocate for eating local food when traveling and
in immersing myself in whatever culture I encounter. But when
traveling for several days in an unfamiliar place, there’s something
to be said for eating something that’s more familiar for an occa-
sional meal. If you typically eat Indian food, grabbing a curried
meal somewhere can help you recharge before going back to just
eating the local fare. If you’re a Starbucks addict, a quick fix can
give you just the recharge you need.
Another way to recharge your batteries is to deliberately dis-
connect from your tech gadgets. The “always-connected” capabil-
ity afforded us through smart phones is wearing us out and may
actually be making us dumber. One University of London study
found that individuals who are constantly connected via e-mail,
texting, and social networking sites experienced a ten-point drop
in their IQ. In fact, researchers found that constantly being “on”
via technology has a similar effect to regularly giving up one night
of sleep. The problem isn’t using technology. That’s a no-brainer
for most of us in today’s world. The problem is what it does to our
mental health when we never unplug from the distractions of tech-
nological connectivity.10
Choose specific times to connect technologically and then shut
it off so your brain can focus more deeply. This will have implica-
tions that go far beyond CQ Drive, but it’s one of the simple
strategies you can employ that will allow you to channel the
increased energy that ensues toward your cross-cultural work.
Before we’re too quick to criticize Robert for reading his e-mail
while talking to his daughter overseas, how many of us do the same
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thing all the time? And for those of us who pride ourselves on being
able to multitask, research demonstrates we can’t really focus
deeply on multiple things at the same time, no matter who you are.
Robert can’t really engage with his daughter and her cross-cultural
issues with her friends while also tending to his e-mail.
Things as simple as taking a brisk walk, closing your e-mail
program, and getting a full night of sleep can increase your CQ
Drive. Maybe you need to close this book and go take a nap.
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7. MAINTAIN CONTROL
Most cross-cultural training emphasizes the importance of flexi-
bility and going with the flow. I wholeheartedly agree with the
importance of flexibility. But sometimes we take this ideal too far
and presume it means we shouldn’t plan or try to control anything
that happens in a cross-cultural situation. Sometimes we use “flex-
ibility” as an excuse for laziness and lack of planning. CQ Drive
is enhanced when we have a sense of autonomy, which is directly
connected to the level of control we feel over our circumstances.11
Evidence indicates all humans and animals are threatened by
a loss of control. Amy Arnsten, a neurobiologist at Yale
University, studies the effects of feeling in control upon how we
function. The brain actually functions less efficiently when we
believe we’re out of control. In contrast, even an illusion of con-
trol helps the brain perform more optimally. The perception of
being in control is a major driver of behavior.12
Stress is most damaging when it results from something unex-
pected and when we feel like there’s no way we can stop it. We feel
out of control when we lose a job or, worse yet, a loved one and
as a result, the stress can be debilitating. However, when stress is
self-induced, such as the stress from a new exercise regime or from
pursuing a graduate degree, the stress can actually be a motivator
because it’s something we chose to inflict upon ourselves.
We see the way gaining control motivates people who leave
the stability of a job to start their own businesses. Many individ-
uals do so because they’re sick of the crazy demands placed on
them by employers. Yet these entrepreneurs usually work more
hours, for less money, than they ever did working for someone
else. But as business owners, they’re able to make their own choic-
es and, as a result, they have a higher degree of motivation. In con-
trast, when you feel like you have less control—for example,
because you’re on an international trip where you’re entirely
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dependent on a host to get you around and communicate—it often
feels threatening.13 Start slowly. Take a walk by yourself. Go to the
store and buy a newspaper on your own. Then try public trans-
portation on your own. These kinds of baby steps enhance your
sense of control, which, in turn, increases your CQ Drive.
If we’ve learned anything about cross-cultural relationships
and experiences, it’s that they’re highly unpredictable. But many
things aren’t as unpredictable as we might think. We can feel a
greater sense of control, agency, and therefore CQ Drive by sim-
ply taking time to maintain control of our priorities while travel-
ing. This requires a little planning ahead. If you like to run, figure
out how, where, and when to work that into your schedule. If it’s
important to stay in touch with family or friends, a little home-
work can help you figure out how to make that happen in most
places where you go without spending $3/minute to call home.
The need for control is especially true for those of us who
come from highly individualistic cultures (i.e., most “Western”
cultures) where we’re used to shaping our own destiny. When you
find ways to make choices, your stress is reduced. If all you can do
is choose your response to an event, that kind of control is still
useful. When traveling, learn how to cope for yourself so that you
aren’t entirely dependent on someone else. When managing and
guiding others, find ways to give them choices, such as when and
where to eat and how to develop a negotiation strategy. Increase
your sense of control over cross-cultural situations and you’ll
enhance your CQ Drive.
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8. TRAVEL
As you can probably guess, frequent cross-cultural experiences are
a good way to enhance your CQ Drive. Multiple experiences trav-
eling and interacting cross-culturally create an enhanced sense of
familiarity, comfort, and confidence for you in future intercultur-
al interactions.14 Gaining direct experience working, volunteering,
or studying in cross-cultural situations, watching others who do it
successfully, and learning “on the job” are some of the most
important ways to gain confidence to do it more.
Cross-cultural experience by itself does not ensure cultural
intelligence. Just because you do something a lot doesn’t necessar-
ily mean you learn from it. But when experience and frequent
travel are combined with the capabilities and priorities of cultural
intelligence, it plays a significant role in enhancing our CQ
Drive—particularly our confidence. Individuals with multiple
experiences in different places experience more of the benefits of
travel to CQ Drive than those who have only been in one or two
places, even if for a long time. That’s because multiple experiences
in varied locations force you to keep adapting and recalibrating
how you relate and work, and the more experience you have
doing so, the greater your sense of confidence.
In addition, the more countries where you’ve lived for more than
a year, the more positive connection there is between your cross-cul-
tural experience and cultural intelligence.15 Childhood experiences
play less of a role in developing CQ if children simply accompany
their parents, though surely this provides a wonderful opportunity to
begin learning about the world at a young age. But as adolescents
and adults make their own choices about cross-cultural travel, work,
and interaction, the travel is more likely to lead to increased CQ.16
Similar kinds of confidence-building can occur through multicultur-
al experiences done domestically.
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There are many fun, safe, and relatively inexpensive places
where you can vacation or study without spending a ton of money.
Scope out the local haunts, walk the streets, shop the local markets,
and take in as much of the culture as you can without being a nui-
sance. Volunteer with a nonprofit organization doing relief work.
Do a Spanish immersion program in Quito or a Mandarin immer-
sion in Kunming. Accept work assignments that put you in contact
with people from different cultural backgrounds. All these experi-
ences contribute to increasing your CQ Drive, which will further
your effectiveness in future cross-cultural experiences.17
Robert’s daughter Sarah has traveled with her family to visit
her relatives in Germany. That experience gives her more confi-
dence to strike out and go to a local restaurant in Budapest with-
out help from a local. She needs to realize that her friends haven’t
had as many opportunities to do this and look for ways to help
them use their time in Budapest to make future cross-cultural
experiences easier.
Robert needs to explore his implicit biases regarding gender
roles and religious differences. Instead of seeing a colleague’s dif-
ferences as a threat, he should consider the benefits to him person-
ally and to the company. If the company is going to effectively
expand into more diverse markets, it needs the input of people like
Sana, the woman Robert is interviewing. Robert could be much
better prepared for a meeting with Middle Eastern executives if he
had a colleague like Sana. A culturally diverse workforce enhances
an organization’s ability to meet the opportunities and demands of
our globalized world.
As we more closely encounter Sana, we’ll see ways that her
CQ Drive influences her behavior as well. She recently moved
away from her family network that existed in Detroit, where she
and her husband lived previously. Although Indianapolis is only a
few hours away, it’s a very different subculture from Detroit. Her
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need to find a job can be as powerful a motivation as anything to
help her increase her CQ Drive.
Robert’s daughter Sarah should be aware that she has a differ-
ent level of confidence cross-culturally than many of her peers.
Rather than becoming frustrated or lording her experience in
Europe over them, she can help them increase their CQ Drive by
alleviating some of their fear of the unknown and help them see
the benefits of encountering the local culture in Budapest.
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INCREASING YOUR CQ DRIVE
Many of these motivational strategies apply to many aspects of
our lives. Think about which ones to enlist to enhance your moti-
vation and confidence for cross-cultural situations.
Identify two strategies you can begin using to enhance your
CQ Drive.
❑ 1. Face your biases.
❑ 2. Connect with
existing interests.
❑ 3. Scare yourself.
❑ 4. Visualize success.
❑ 5. Reward yourself.
❑ 6. Recharge your
batteries.
❑ 7. Maintain control.
❑ 8. Travel.
Which one will you use first? When?
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Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Self-Efficacy
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C H A P T E R 4
CQ KNOWLEDGE
One of the best ways to deal with the ambiguity faced in multicul-
tural situations is by learning more about cultural differences.
Even though intercultural understanding by itself doesn’t equal
effectiveness, it is an essential part of alleviating the confusion that
often ensues from this kind of work. CQ Knowledge asks the
question: Do you have the cultural understanding needed to be
more effective cross-culturally? Growth in CQ Knowledge can sig-
nificantly strengthen your effectiveness in a myriad of areas.
CQ Knowledge: The extent to which you understand the
role of culture in how people think and behave and your level
of familiarity with how cultures are similar and different.
Key Question: What cultural understanding do I need to be
more effective cross-culturally?
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Sana was born near Detroit, Michigan. Her parents came to the
United States from Yemen in the late sixties to study at the University
of Michigan. Her dad got a good job, and they ended up staying.
Many more of their relatives followed. Last month was the first time
Sana visited Yemen herself. She and Haani took a delayed honeymoon
to the Middle East and visited Haani’s relatives in Jordan, then her
family in Yemen, and ended with a few days by themselves in Dubai
before coming home to pack up and move to Indianapolis.
Walking the streets of Sanaa and Amman, the capital cities of
Yemen and Jordan, was surreal for Sana. For the first time in her life,
she was surrounded by people who looked like her. She felt like she
was home—sort of, anyway. In other ways, she felt like a complete
outsider. Everyone seemed to make assumptions about her and Haani’s
wealth, religious convictions, and views on U.S. foreign policy. After
so many years of being stereotyped back home for being Middle
Eastern, now they were feeling stereotyped for being “American.”
During their last day in Yemen, all of Sana’s aunts sat her down and
told her she must reconsider moving away from Michigan to this new
city (Indianapolis). Her aunt scolded her, “How can you and Haani
leave your families like this? It’s just not right, Sana. This is bringing
great shame to us. You’re behaving like infidels.”
Infidels? Moving to Indianapolis from Detroit was very exciting
for Sana and Haani. This was a chance to build a new home together.
They came here because Haani was offered a two-year research
fellowship with a large pharmaceutical company. Despite the small
stipend, Haani knew this was a much sought-after opportunity.
Sana had agreed to find a steady job to support them. She’s not too
worried about finding a job because she’s always succeeded at
whatever she set out to do. But the interviewing process is new to
her. Before the move, she had worked for her father at his dental
practice in Michigan.
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This morning, Sana is interviewing for an administrative assistant
position at a telecom company. She’s five minutes early for the
interview but she has to wait a half hour before Robert, the CFO,
brings her into his office. While waiting, she notices everyone is
dressed casually. The receptionist says, “Gotta love casual Fridays!”
Sana feels like people in Indianapolis stare at her head covering
much more than they ever did in Detroit.
When Robert comes to greet her, she wonders why he’s wearing
a suit and tie on “casual Friday.” She awkwardly shakes his hand,
and he spends the first several minutes talking about his daughter,
who is studying in Budapest. Just like my dad, she thought. He’s so
proud of his daughter.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sana sees a plaque that says,
“It’s not a religion. It’s a relationship.” Just then, Robert says, “So your
résumé says you’re bilingual. I must say, you do speak really great
English.” Then he asks, “So how long have you lived in the U.S.?”
He seems taken back when she responds, “All my life.”
At the end of the interview, Sana says, “My husband would like
to meet you. May I give him your number?” For the first time all
morning, Robert seems speechless. Finally, he responds, “Let’s see
how the interviewing process goes. If you’re back for a second
interview, we can talk about it then.”
Robert has fifteen minutes before his next interview, so he pulls out
the agenda for today’s big meeting regarding the potential acquisition
by the Middle Eastern company. In thinking about the meeting, he
wonders if there’s a tactful way to bring up what his friend Sharon
told him last week over coffee. When Robert confidentially told Sharon
they might sell one of their business lines to a successful Middle
Eastern firm, Sharon said, “Just be careful. Business runs on a different
set of rules over there.” She told him about a time when her colleague
Alvin, a Singaporean manager from her company, was sent to the
Middle East to establish a new regional hub for the business.
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When Alvin arrived in the Middle East from Singapore, he went
straight to the immigration office to deal with the necessary permits for
conducting business there. Alvin was smartly dressed for his meeting
with the immigration official. He completed the application impeccably
and handed over the documents and corresponding fees. But he didn’t
offer the official any kind of tip for getting this paperwork completed.
He was confused when the officer said some additional paperwork
was needed. Alvin brought everything the website said he needed
and even called ahead to confirm that he was prepared.
Alvin went back two more times, and on each occasion, he
became more irritated at the delays. But despite some broad hints
dropped by the immigration officer, Alvin still didn’t offer any cash
as a personal accommodation. So the officer persisted in his
approach. If Alvin won’t play the game according to the established
rules, he will have to accept the consequences.
As Robert listened to Sharon recount this experience, he said,
“Well, that’s just corrupt. That isn’t a tip. It’s a bribe.”
“I know” Sharon responded. “That’s what we all thought. And we
all have to sign agreements with the company promising that we
won’t pay or accept bribes of any kind. But I guess that’s just the way
business is done there. Immigration officers are paid a very low
wage with the assumption that the individuals served will show their
appreciation with small sums of money. I’m just saying, Robert, you
better know what you’re getting into if you’re going to do business
with a company over there. They play by different rules.”
But there’s no time for Robert to think any more about that right
now. The next applicant just arrived for her interview—a loud-spoken
woman with a strong southern accent. Oh, dear Lord, Robert thinks.
Does HR do any screening before they send me these people?
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WHAT’S CQ KNOWLEDGE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
CQ Knowledge is your understanding about culture and how it
shapes behavior. This is the area most often emphasized in cross-
cultural preparation—learning about cultural values and differ-
ences. Its importance cannot be overstated. As we learn more
about cultures and different ways of doing things, it helps us bet-
ter understand what’s going on, which, in turn, helps us relate and
work more effectively.
There are so many ways enhanced CQ Knowledge could help
Sana and Robert. We get a glimpse into Sana’s level of cultural
understanding by the way she receives the criticisms from her
Yemeni aunts and the nature of her questions and comments to
Robert during their interview. And Robert’s conversations with
Sana and his friend Sharon indicate something about his CQ
Knowledge. A greater degree of CQ Knowledge will help Robert
conduct a better, more effective interview, and it will help Sana be
more successful in pitching herself to potential employers.
Again, CQ Knowledge asks the question: Do you have the cul-
tural understanding needed to be more effective cross-culturally?
The emphasis here is not on mastering all the ins and outs of each
specific culture. If Robert was going to do a lot of extensive work
in Yemen, he’d be wise to gain some very specialized understanding
of the history, character, and cultural nuances of Yemen. But Robert
can’t realistically become an expert on Yemen simply for a forty-
five-minute interview. The most important part of
CQ Knowledge
is developing a richer understanding of culture, its influence on
thinking and behavior, and the primary ways cultures differ.
With high CQ Knowledge, you have a holistic, well-organized
understanding of culture and how it affects the way people think
and behave. It begins with a strong sense of your own cultural
identity and the way the cultures of which you’re part shape your
behavior. When you have high CQ Knowledge, you possess a
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repertoire of understanding about how cultures are alike and dif-
ferent. You can encounter unfamiliar cultures and begin to under-
stand a culture in light of your overall cultural understanding.1
ASSESSING YOUR CQ KNOWLEDGE
How is your CQ Knowledge? To what degree do you understand
how cultures are similar and different? Based on the feedback
report that accompanies the online CQ Self-Assessment, what
overall CQ Knowledge score did you receive?*
Overall CQ Knowledge:__________
Did you rate yourself low, medium, or high compared
to others who have completed the CQ Self-Assessment?
(circle one)
Low Medium High
From what you’re learning about CQ Knowledge in this chap-
ter, are you surprised by the results? Keep in mind that the self-
assessment is just one snapshot of your view of your CQ capabil-
ities at a particular point in time. But it’s worth considering the
results given the high level of reliability found in the assessment as
used among individuals around the world.
In order to dig more deeply into your CQ Knowledge, the
inventory also helps you assess your cultural understanding in the
four specific areas of CQ Knowledge (business, interpersonal,
socio-linguistics, and leadership). Extensive research has exam-
ined the way these various bases of knowledge influence your
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*Notice: The CQ Self-Assessment is not available in this electronic edition of The Cultural
Intelligence Difference. You can purchase the assessment at www.CulturalQ.com or access
it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
www.CulturalQ.com
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overall understanding and insight as you interact cross-culturally.2
Write your scores for each of the following and note the descrip-
tions of these sub-dimensions.
Business (Legal and Economic Systems): _________
This is the extent to which you understand the various
cultural systems that exist in places around the world
(e.g., economic, legal, educational). It’s not simply for
people in business, but it does refer to your knowledge
of some of the different approaches used for business
in various cultures. A high score means you have a good
grasp of the various systems that exist among different
national cultures. A low score means you have limited
understanding about the varying economic and legal
systems between one country and the next.
Interpersonal: _________
This is the extent to which you know about how cultures
differ in their values, norms for social etiquette, and
religious perspectives. A high score means you have
a strong understanding of cultural values and how they
play out in various contexts. A low score means you rated
yourself low in your knowledge of the norms and values
of various cultures.
Socio-Linguistics
: _________
This is your understanding of different languages and
your knowledge of various rules for how language gets
expressed verbally and nonverbally in various cultures.
A high score means you understand the rules for verbal
and nonverbal behavior for many cultures and a low
score means you don’t.
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Leadership: _________
This is your level of understanding about how effective
management differs across cultures. A high score means
you rated yourself strongly in terms of your knowledge
about managing people and relationships across cultures.
A low score means you have limited understanding of
how management and relationships differ from one
place to the next.
These four sub-dimensions of CQ Knowledge—business, inter-
personal, socio-linguistics, and leadership—are the scientific bases
for the strategies that follow. You’ll see these sub-dimensions along-
side the list of strategies at the beginning of the next section. Not
every strategy fits perfectly with a single sub-dimension, but the
strategies have been organized according to the sub-dimension with
which they are most closely associated. Use your scores from the
sub-dimensions of CQ Knowledge to help you pinpoint which
strategies to use first (presumably, the strategies that go with the
sub-dimension where you scored lowest).
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Business/Cultural
Systems
Interpersonal/Cultural
Values
Leadership
Socio-Linguistics
IMPROVING YOUR CQ KNOWLEDGE
The following section is a list of strategies to help you improve
your CQ Knowledge. All these strategies are anchored in science
and research on intercultural knowledge and stem from the four
sub-dimensions of CQ Knowledge (business, interpersonal, socio-
linguistics, and leadership). The point is not for you to use all
these strategies right now. There are many paths to increasing CQ
Knowledge. Start with a couple that interest you.
1. Study culture up close.
2. Google smarter.
3. Improve your global
awareness.
4. Go to the movies
or read a novel.
5. Learn about cultural
values.
6. Explore your cultural
identity.
7. Study a new language.
8. Seek diverse
perspectives.
9. Recruit a CQ coach.
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1. STUDY CULTURE UP CLOSE
There’s no better way to learn about culture than when you’re in it.
Culture is all around us and influences everyone and everything. But
it’s easy to miss it if we don’t intentionally look for it. Adolescent
researcher Terry Linhart traveled with a group of U.S. high school
students to Ecuador to observe how they interacted with the local
culture during their two-week trip there. He said their interaction
with the Ecuadoreans was similar to how people act when they visit
a museum. The students gawked at the “living artifacts” from
Ecuador without really encountering them. The high schoolers per-
formed for the Ecuadoreans, poured out affection on the children,
and visited local businesses. However, with limited ability to under-
stand the culture, and even less ability to speak Spanish, the stu-
dents were unable to make accurate perceptions about the locals
they encountered. Linhart writes, “Without spending significant
time with the person, visiting his or her home, or even possessing
rudimentary knowledge about the person’s history, students made
quick assessments of their hosts’ lives and values.”3
When you encounter another culture, whether it’s a nearby
neighborhood or a far-away city, immerse yourself in it and learn
about the culture from the inside-out. Here are a few ideas for
how you can study culture up close.
People Watch
When you’re in a public place, discreetly observe someone who
comes from a different cultural background and observe what he or
she does. Listen and watch longer than you would when watching
people from a familiar culture. Look for similarities. What appears
to be the same about how people interact with significant others,
family members, strangers, and others? More important, what dif-
ferences do you observe? What seems different about the body lan-
guage, touch, pace, and behavior of the people you observe?
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Attend Cultural Celebrations
Locate an ethnic organization in a community near you and
attend one of its cultural celebrations. If at all possible, participate
in the event rather than just observing from the sidelines. Ask
someone to explain the significance of the activities, foods, and
rituals. Get a group of friends to go to a Cinco de Mayo party
together or attend a religious festival from a faith that is different
from yours. If you’re invited to a wedding of someone from a dif-
ferent cultural background, by all means go—mostly to support
your friend or colleague, but with the added benefit of learning
about how the wedding ceremony takes place in this culture.
Observe the way a funeral takes place among various cultures. If
at all possible, ask an insider to explain to you what’s going on
and the meaning associated with it.
Visit Grocery Stores
Find out where the locals shop and look at what’s on the shelves.
Do this in ethnic neighborhoods in your own community as well
as when you travel abroad. The products sold and the way they’re
displayed provide some interesting cues about what’s there. Or go
into other stores that target niche markets like older people, out-
door enthusiasts, or tea lovers.
Eat
Food provides a powerful window into culture. Go to restaurants
with ethnically different foods and explore the meanings beneath
the entrees. Are the foods served authentic or are they adaptations
for the local pallet (e.g., the Chinese food served in many Western
locations is significantly different from the typical fare in China.
And in many years of traveling to China, I’ve yet to see a “take-
out” box with wire handles or a fortune cookie).
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Better yet, share a meal with someone who comes from the
culture of the food you’re eating and see if he or she can offer
some perspective about various dishes. A Thai friend might not be
able to offer the history behind pad thai any more than you might
know what’s behind some of your own cultural favorites. But at
the very least, ask if your friend ate this growing up and what
memories, if any, are associated with this dish.
Look at Art
Visit an art museum when you travel or simply notice the art that
is displayed in public places. What kinds of pictures, if any, are
hanging up in restaurants and stores? What do you see in people’s
homes or in office settings? What can you learn about the culture
based on the architecture and the layout of a city?
Notice whether solid, straight edges and moldings permeate
interior design, architecture, and paintings. Or does the art reflect
more fluid, seamless lines? Does the music follow a pattern with
fixed pitches and precision, or is it more incremental and blurred?
I recently visited an art gallery in Melbourne, Australia, filled
with Aboriginal art. This provided me with a whole different per-
spective on the indigenous people in Australia than what I’ve
learned from books and lectures describing them. A painting, a
sculpture, or a graphic novel portray norms of a culture that are
hard to understand through words and language alone. We have
to beware of assigning one artist’s portrayal to how everyone in
that culture sees things. But art provides a multidimensional per-
spective on a culture.
There are countless other ways to learn about culture wherev-
er you are. Roam the local streets, take in local events, and talk to
taxi drivers. I love talking to taxi drivers wherever I go. They usu-
ally have strong opinions about almost everything. They’re watch-
ing and listening to various people all day long and hear things
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that aren’t meant for public consumption. Or talk with elderly
people. Ask them how this place has changed during their lifetime.
Find ways to experience something more than the faux cul-
ture that exists in most places where you travel and instead, look
for the authentic life of a place. For example, you can be at the
Grand Palace in downtown Bangkok surrounded by thousands of
camera-carrying tourists who linger at Starbucks and KFC. Or
you can hop on a city bus and be instantly engulfed by locals
without a tourist in sight. The real experiences are there to be
had. You just have to seek them out. Free yourself from thinking
you have to catch all the “must-see” attractions and go for the
more authentic, local experiences. This is a fun and powerful way
to increase your CQ Knowledge.
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2. GOOGLE SMARTER
If you need information on anything—movie times, the tempera-
ture in Capetown, or how to deal with sinus pressure—the first
default for many of us is Google, the source of all knowledge.
Search engines and the Internet provide us with unprecedented
amounts of information. And the vast resources on the Web can
be powerful for enhancing CQ Knowledge. But how do we begin
to wade through the endless information to gather input that’s
truly helpful? How do we figure out whether the blog posted by
someone about what’s going on in China is accurate?
Edna Reid, an expert in intelligence gathering, consults with
leaders around the world to help them gather information that
will truly enhance their CQ Knowledge. Reid teaches how to max-
imize the powers of Google. Let’s assume that you’re going to
Qatar and you want to get more than just a Wikipedia or travel
site description about the country. Here are a few ways to refine
your search:
• To search specific kinds of sites related to Qatar, search using
specific domain extensions (e.g., .org, .edu, .gov). Here are
some examples:
• To search government sites with information about
Qatar, enter: “Qatar site.gov.”
• To search educational sites (universities, etc.) with
information about Qatar, enter: “Qatar site.edu.”
• To search Qatar-based sites about Qatar, search: “Qatar
site.qa.”
• Remember that quotes limit the search to finding the exact
combination of words you enter (e.g., “Qatar commerce”
will find only information where those two words occur
together).
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• Next, wield the power of”Advanced Search” in Google. Here
you designate much more specifically what you do and don’t
want to have come up in your search results. The “Advanced
Search” link is usually just to the right of the main search
window on Google’s home page. A few examples of how
you can do an advanced search:
• You can limit your search to only retrieving pdf
documents by using the “File type” menu.
• You can search specific websites. For example, you can
limit your search to anything written about Qatar on
an IBM website.
• You can limit the date range in order to pull up only the
most recent information or for a specific time period.
• Go to Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) to search
academic and research-based material related to your topic.
You’ll notice that the search results indicate the number of
times the publication has been cited by others.4
With just a few more clicks and keystrokes, you can gain
much more credible information from the Internet. When looking
for country or culture-specific information, narrow your search to
get more accurate and helpful information.
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3. INCREASE YOUR
GLOBAL AWARENESS
Global awareness is a crucial part of growing CQ Knowledge. It’s
difficult to thoughtfully engage cross-culturally without a global
perspective. Knowing that Singapore is not part of China and
understanding that it’s not a land of squalor is an important (and
elementary) point of understanding before engaging with a
Singaporean or someone else from the region. Speaking about
African countries as specific nations rather than making arbitrary
statements about all of Africa as if Nigeria, Sudan, and Morocco
are all the same place is again pretty basic, but it’s surprising how
often this is a problem and the negative consequences that result.
In addition, a basic purview of major historical and current
events around the world is important on so many levels. For one
thing, when you know even the basic history between Japan and
China, it makes you think differently about what might be going
on when a Japanese and Chinese colleague are interacting. For
years, Japan attempted to dominate China politically and militar-
ily to secure its vast resources. It’s unlikely that a Japanese and
Chinese colleague are consciously thinking about the historical
dynamics between their nations every time they interact, but it
might be implicitly shaping what occurs based on the “history”
lessons they received growing up. And if you’re traveling to the
country hosting the World Cup or during a major election there
but never mention it, it will probably suggest an ethnocentric
ignorance. You might think, I’m not being ethnocentric. I’m just
not into sports or politics, but that’s not the point. Referencing
these culturally significant events demonstrates some awareness
and interest in what’s going on in the local setting.
It requires some intentional effort to increase your global con-
sciousness because many news outlets only report on fads, trends,
or events for a local market. And many families and educational
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systems spend little time teaching much value for understanding
what’s going on around the world. But once again, an informed
use of the Internet can pretty quickly offer some decent insights.
Americans, in particular, are notorious for our abysmal glob-
al consciousness. One of the things that fuels disdain for the
United States is the sense that many American know little about
the world beyond themselves.
Here are a few ways to enhance your global consciousness:
• Visit BBC news (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) for one of the more
robust purviews of world events. The “In Pictures” link is
one of my favorite ways to get a quick global purview of
the day around the world.
• Read The Economist for a survey of current events
internationally.
• Check out http://www.worldpress.org for a quick overview
of current stories globally.
• Visit http://www.languagemonitor.com/ to see the top ten
words of the year.
• Tune in to public broadcasting.
• Learn to ask good questions when you’re with people from
different parts around the world. Most love to talk about
their culture and share some of the timely news stories in
the region.
There’s little excuse for global ignorance in today’s technolog-
ically connected world. There’s no need to be a walking newscast,
but even two or three minutes a day spent scanning major global
events goes along way in raising your CQ Knowledge.5
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4. GO TO THE MOVIES
OR READ A NOVEL
Literature and film provide a visceral way to see the world
through someone else’s eyes. It’s one thing to understand the con-
cepts and principles of culture described in nonfiction books like
this one. But there’s another kind of insight and perspective pro-
vided by seeing how cultural dynamics impact the characters and
subject matter of a good movie, novel, or memoir.
Almost any novel, memoir, or movie is filled with cultural
dynamics because culture is everywhere. Notice how culture
shapes what occurs. And look for storylines that specifically take
place in a different culture. How does culture influence the way
characters interact with their coworkers, friends, and family?
How does conflict get resolved? Even if the story presents an inac-
curate stereotype, you’ll encounter individuals who defy stereo-
types in real life, too.
Stories provide a much more dynamic experience with culture
than most principle-based business and professional books. And
they’re much more true to how we experience culture—in the con-
text of life, relationships, and a myriad of other circumstances. As
you follow a story, think about how you would manage the vari-
ous individuals. What if the lead character was your boss? How
would you relate to her as a peer? To which characters are you
most drawn? Which ones rub you the wrong way? How might
culture explain some of these reactions?
As compared to when you’re actually interacting with some-
one from a different culture, books and movies allow you to be an
observer rather than having to fully participate and worry about
your effectiveness and potentially offensive behavior. You can sit
back and observe what’s occurring. This gives you the mental
reserves to study the influence culture has on what’s going on and
to learn.
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National Geographic contributor Daisann McLane suggests a
twist on this idea by encouraging us to go to cinemas when we
travel abroad to see the destination with new eyes. She writes,
“I’ve had some of my most interesting experiences watching films
‘out of context.’ Like the times I was the only American in a youth
club in Croatia showing Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and
ended up explaining the slang.”6 And, of course, watching a
Bollywood epic when you’re visiting Mumbai can provide a whole
different level of insight into Indian culture—both the film itself
and the experience of going to the movie. Go to a movie, read a
good story, and enhance your CQ Knowledge in the process.
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5. LEARN ABOUT CULTURAL VALUES
One of the most important strategies for growing CQ Knowledge
is understanding a core set of cultural values. Cultural values are
a society’s ideas about what is good, right, fair, and just.
Researchers have developed a variety of ways to categorize these
values in order to quickly compare one culture with another. We
shouldn’t carelessly stereotype an entire culture with these values
because there will be individuals and subcultures within a larger
culture that are exceptions to these norms. But these values pro-
vide a helpful starting point for understanding cross-cultural rela-
tionships and situations. They give you an educated guess about
how someone from a culture is likely to approach something.
The influence of these values is usually subconscious to most
people within a culture—including ourselves. However, cultural
values play a powerful role in shaping the thoughts and behaviors
of individuals, organizations, and societies, regardless of whether
they realize it. It’s neither better nor worse for an individual or
culture to be one way or another along these values. But they do
play a powerful role in how we live and work.
I’ve written more extensively about these cultural values in
other books along with offering a deeper discussion about the
leadership implications of each of them.7 But here’s a quick
overview of some of the most important cultural values you
should understand.
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Individualism—Collectivism
The extent to which personal identity is defined in
terms of individual or group characteristics.
Highly individualist cultures, such as the United States or
Australia, emphasize the rights and responsibilities of the
individual. Collectivist cultures like China and Jordan prioritize
the rights and needs of groups.
Individualism Collectivism
Australia China
United States Jordan
Individualism: Individual Collectivism: Personal
goals and rights are more relationships and the benefit
important than personal of the group are more
relationships. important than individual
goals.
Power Distance
The extent to which differences in power and
status are expected and accepted.
Low power-distance cultures such as Israel and Canada
diminish the significance of formal titles and roles and prefer
flat organizational charts. High power-distance cultures such
as India and Brazil think titles and clear authority lines are
important indicators of how to relate and behave.
Low Power Distance High Power Distance
Canada Brazil
Israel India
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Low PD: Status difference High PD: Status difference
is of little importance; should shape social
empowered decision making interaction; authority should
is expected across all levels. make decisions.
Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which risk is reduced or
avoided through planning and guidelines.
Low uncertainty avoidance cultures such as Hong Kong and
the United Kingdom have a higher tolerance and comfort
with ambiguity and risk. High uncertainty avoidance cultures
such as Russia and Japan look for ways to prevent uncertainty
and risk.
Low Uncertainty Avoidance High Uncertainty Avoidance
Hong Kong Japan
United Kingdom Russia
Low UA: Focus on flexibility High UA: Focus on planning
and adaptability; tolerate and reliability; uncomfortable
unstructured and unpredictable with unstructured or
situations. or unpredictable situations.
Cooperativeness—Competitiveness*
The extent to which achievement and competition are valued
in contrast with a priority on social relationships and emotions.
Cultures that have a cooperative orientation such as Chile
and the Netherlands value a more collaborative, nurturing
approach to situations. Cultures with a more competitive
orientation like Hungary and Japan have a more aggressive
and assertive approach to life.
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Cooperative Competitive
Chile Hungary
Netherlands Japan
Cooperative: Emphasis Competitive: Emphasis on
on cooperation and nuturing assertive behavior and
behavior. A high value competition. A high value
placed on relationships placed on work, task
and family. accomplishment, and
achievement.
*This value is sometimes referred to as femininity and masculinity, but
I’ve moved away from those labels in my work rather than perpetuate socially
constructed, gender stereotypes. But the idea of low versus high
competitiveness is important, regardless of how it is labeled.
Time Orientation
The extent to which there’s a willingness to await success.
Short-term cultures such as Australia and the United States
emphasize instant results. Long-term cultures such as South
Korea and Brazil are more interested in long-term innovation
and success, even if it means delayed gratification.
Short-Term Long-Term
Australia Brazil
United States South Korea
Short Term: See future as Long Term: Value long-term
unpredictable and value planning, willing to sacrifice
immediate outcomes more short-term outcomes for
than long-term benefits. long-term benefits.
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Context
The extent to which communication is direct and
emphasizes roles and implicit understanding.
Low-context cultures such as Israel and Canada will usually
post a lot of signs and directions and emphasize very direct,
thorough communication. High-context cultures such as Saudi
Arabia and Mexico presume individuals know how to get
along more intuitively where explicit communication is
unnecessary.
Low Context High Context
Canada Mexico
Israel Saudi Arabia
Low Context: Emphasize High Context: Emphasize
explicit words; value direct harmonic relationship
communication. and implicit understanding;
value indirect communication.
Doing—Being
The extent to which action and
results are emphasized and valued.
Doing cultures such as the United States and Austria are
extremely task-focused and outcome oriented. In contrast,
being cultures such as Sweden and Brazil prioritize
relationships and social networks and live for the moment.
Doing Being
Austria Sweden
United States Brazil
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Doing: Task completion Being: Social commitments
takes precedence over and task completion are
social commitments; there equally important; there are
is clear separation of diffuse boundaries between
the two. the two.
These dimensions of cultural values are most often used to
describe national cultures (e.g., the individualism of the United
States versus the collectivism of Yemen). But the values may also
apply to subcultures. For example, one business setting will use a
very team-based approach to leadership and decision making (low
power distance) and another will use a strong top-down structure
(high power distance). The same is true among various genera-
tions, which often gravitate toward one direction or the other
along these value sets.
Robert doesn’t have time to learn everything about Yemeni
culture and even if he did, it might be largely irrelevant to Sana,
given that she’s never lived there. But a broad understanding of the
values often held by Arab Americans would help him ask much
better questions in the interview and enhance his understanding of
Sana’s responses. And if Sana uses cultural values to understand
the subcultures of Indianapolis, the telecom company, and
Robert’s background, it will at least give her a starting point for
making sense of what she encounters.
Many resources (e.g., online, books, classes) provide a thor-
ough explanation of cultural values with designations of where
various nations lie along these continua.8 It’s increasingly difficult
to characterize entire national cultures as being oriented one way
vs. another, so we have to apply these values cautiously. But
understanding the dimensions themselves is a vital tool for under-
standing some important ways that cultures differ. Just don’t
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overextend their use by assigning a cultural value to every situa-
tion and person in a particular culture. One of the most helpful
ways to use these cultural values is to understand your own person-
al orientation in each of these areas. To learn more about taking an
Individual Cultural Values Inventory, visit www.CulturalQ.com.
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6. EXPLORE YOUR CULTURAL IDENTIT
Y
None of us are merely objective observers of culture. We’re all prod-
ucts of culture, and we all play a part in advancing and morphing
the cultures of which we’re part. As a result, another important
strategy for growing your CQ Knowledge is to understand your
own cultural identity. This is often the hardest culture to understand
and see because it’s so ingrained in us, and it’s largely subconscious.
We’ve grown up with a certain set of implicit rules and assumptions
by which to live life and view the world and without CQ
Knowledge, it’s easy to assume, that’s just the way the world is.
National cultures usually play the strongest influence in how
we see the world. But other cultures where we’re immersed also
play a profound role in how we think and behave.
Identify the cultures that most powerfully influence you.
Address the following:
• What national and ethnic cultures have most significantly
shaped you?
• What other subcultures have most powerfully shaped how
you think and behave (consider subcultures like universities,
the profession you’re in, your major at school, a corporate
culture, religious affiliations, sexual identity, generational
dynamics, physical disability groups, etc.)?
• Zero in on the one or two cultural contexts that most
strongly define who you are today.
After you identify the cultures that have most powerfully
shaped you, begin to think about questions like these in relation-
ship to one or more of these cultures:
• What does “success” look like in this culture? How about
failure?
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• What professions have the highest salaries? Societies tend to
pay the most money for what’s most valued (e.g., entertain-
ers, government officials, cosmetic surgeons, etc.).
• What’s the role of family?
• How are decisions made?
• Who holds the most power?
• Who’s given more respect—the old or the young?
• Where does your country of origin fall along the cultural
values listed in the previous strategy? How about other
cultures that have been a significant part of your
socialization?
Become a student of the history, rules, and norms of your cul-
ture. There’s little hope we’ll understand other cultures if we don’t
first understand our own. This kind of understanding provides a
basis for understanding and respecting the heritage and back-
ground of other people. Where do they fall along the cultural val-
ues continua?
Ethnocentrism—believing your own culture is the right and
best way to go about life—is a major roadblock to CQ
Knowledge. However, bashing and deprecating everything about
your culture can be equally destructive. I’ve fallen into that trap.
There are times I’ve loathed being a white male, a Christian, an
academic, an American, and so much more. There are aspects to
all those subcultures that are worthy of embarrassment. But there
are virtuous elements within each of those subcultures, too.
Sometimes, when we’re first exposed to different cultures and see
our own culture through that new view, the tendency is to focus
on all the negatives of our own culture. A commitment to under-
standing our own cultural background helps avoid either of these
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extremes and puts more emphasis on seeking to understand rather
than evaluating the culture as good or bad.
Sana’s trip to the Middle East was as much about helping her
learn about her own cultural identity as it was about understanding
the Yemeni and Jordanian cultures. And Robert’s own background
as a minority and a person of color could offer him significant
insight into what’s behind some of Sana’s behavior and questions.
Your cultural background is a significant part of who you are,
but there are some aspects of your identity that are unique from
other individuals who share your cultural background. Examine
how you’re like and unlike your culture. Identify the cultural val-
ues (from the last strategy) where you’re least aligned with your
own culture. Do the same for other cultures with which you reg-
ularly come into contact. These are important insights because
they’ll likely be the places where you experience the greatest
degree of conflict and tension.
Intercultural researcher Edward Hall writes, “Culture hides
much more than it reveals, and, strangely, it hides itself most effec-
tively from its own participants. The real job is not to understand
foreign cultures, but to understand one’s own”9
(italics added).
Taking the time to explore your own cultural identity will enhance
your overall CQ Knowledge.
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7. STUDY A NEW LANGUAGE
Languages are so much more than words. There’s a clear connec-
tion between the ability to speak another language and your CQ
Knowledge. Some say language is culture. The two are so seam-
lessly wrapped together that it’s difficult to have one without the
other. Language allows you to interact with people and to pick up
on all kinds of things you otherwise miss. The reverse is also true.
Foreign language instructors teach students about the related cul-
ture because of the integral connection between the two.
Environmental factors and societal norms shape the development
of language and language further shapes culture. There’s a reason
why there are so many different words for fish in the Norwegian
language or for snow in Eskimo languages. Wei ji is the Chinese
word for “crisis.” Wei means danger and ji means opportunity.
This says so much about the dominant Chinese culture, a society
that has always looked to leverage hardship into opportunity.
Language yanks the blinds off the window of culture and allows
us to take a much better look inside.10
Effective study of a new language should also include learning
some of the most familiar nonverbal signals and behaviors used in
a particular culture. The silent language of gestures and facial
expressions is a critical part of growing your CQ Knowledge.
When interacting with someone who speaks a different lan-
guage, there’s no substitute for learning some of the language
itself. Not only does it inspire respect and gratitude, but it will
help you understand how that person sees the world. We won’t be
able to learn the languages of most of the cultures we encounter,
but studying any new language can enhance your overall CQ
Knowledge. In Chapter 6, I’ve included another language strategy
where using a few key words or phrases in another language will
help you behave much more successfully in places that speak that
language.
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8. SEEK DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES
Most adults pursue relationships and influences that support and
reinforce their own perspectives and viewpoints. One of the most
valuable ways to enhance CQ Knowledge is by intentionally seek-
ing out diverse viewpoints. The goal isn’t just to minimize the dif-
ferences to find out what you have in common. It’s to particular-
ly look at and learn from the differences themselves.
This strategy is most helpful when you purposely find a
cultural group that represents a set of beliefs or norms that are in
conflict with your own. Attend one of their gatherings or events.
Go to a religious service, a rave club, or a political gathering that
is least aligned with your own preferences and seek to understand
what’s behind the beliefs and behaviors of this group. Beware of
hasty assumptions and suspend judgment for a while. Have coffee
with someone who sees the world differently from you. Don’t go
into it trying to persuade them to see it your way. Learn from your
differences. Tune in to a news source that has a bias contrary to
your own opinion. Pay attention to how it affects you. When I lis-
ten to volatile rhetoric about political issues that are contrary to
my own, I feel my blood pressure go up. But the challenge here is
to regulate that emotion so you can learn from a different perspec-
tive than the one you have.
You don’t have to abandon your beliefs and convictions. But
for now, purposely put yourself into an uncomfortable setting.
Convene a book club with people from varied cultural contexts.
Think about how the varied cultural perspectives shape the ways
individuals respond to the book. Or when given the choice to do
a group project at work or for a class you’re taking, seek out
someone from a different background to be your partner. Even if
you’re from a similar ethnic background, find someone more con-
servative or liberal than you. If you’re an atheist, find someone
deeply religious or vise versa. Commit to truly entering into dia-
logue together and learning from each other.
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Another way to learn from diverse viewpoints is by finding a
different news source than the one you typically choose. Whether
driven from a contrasting ideology or originating from a different
national culture, examine how the same event gets reported differ-
ently. Read the same story on Al Jazeera, NewsAsia, and BBC.
And when you travel, look for ways to read a local newspaper. If
you’re addicted to the Financial Times, South China Post, or USA
Today, at least read it alongside a local paper and compare what
gets reported in one as compared to the other. Skim all of it—
advertisements, classifieds, public notices, and obituaries. You can
gain a fascinating insight into a place by reading what does and
doesn’t get reported in the local news.
The same strategy can be applied at home. In the words of
President Obama to his fellow Americans, “If you’re someone
who only reads the editorial page of the New York Times, try
glancing at the page of the Wall Street Journal once in awhile. If
you’re a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few
columns on the Huffington Post website. It may make your blood
boil; your mind may not often be changed. But the practice of lis-
tening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship”11
(italics added).
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9. RECRUIT A CQ COACH
A CQ coach, sometimes referred to as a cultural broker or guide,
can be another integral part of helping us become more culturally
intelligent. This is a strategy that will help in every area of CQ.
But it fits best with enhancing our CQ Knowledge. When I first
started working in the university setting, my friend Andrew
already had several years under his belt as a faculty member. Even
though he worked for a different institution, he helped me under-
stand things like tenure, academic freedom, faculty governance,
and much more. Friends like Naville, Soon, Soo Yeong, and Judy
have spent years helping me understand Southeast Asia. My list of
CQ coaches continues in places and cultures around the world.
A CQ coach can be a valuable asset in any cultural context.
The challenge is finding one who can truly play that role. For
example, sometimes outsiders, like an expat, can be a valuable
guide because they too are bridging from another culture into this
one. But I’ve also encountered expats who have very skewed, ill-
informed understandings of the cultures where they live. Locals
can be good coaches, but we also have to beware of assuming that
the people who live in a culture make the best guides. They often
lack the objectivity needed, too.
An effective CQ coach will use questions to guide us and offer
support and feedback. It should be an individual who is careful
not to oversimplify things while also offering some helpful, neu-
tral stereotypes. Whoever it is, we have to remember the impor-
tance of not generalizing based on the advice we receive from any
one individual. Intercultural expert Craig Storti says,
What [individuals] say may be true for people of their own age
group, level of education, socioeconomic background (not to
mention caste, religion, region or locality, sex, and experience)
but not for other sectors of society. Ask a Montana rancher and a
Manhattan banker what proper behavior or dress is at a dinner
party and try to generalize from their answers!12
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Select CQ coaches carefully. Some things to look for include:
❑ Can they distinguish what’s different about this culture
from others?
❑ Do they demonstrate self-awareness? Other-awareness?
❑ Are they familiar with your culture, including your national
culture and your vocational culture (e.g., engineering or
health care)?
❑ Have they worked across numerous cultures themselves?
❑ Do they ask lots of questions to help you discover the
culture, or simply “tell” you?
❑ Can they articulate what kinds of personalities often get
most frustrated in this culture?
A CQ coach with a good measure of multicultural awareness
will serve you well. Reading an explanation about cultural issues
in a book or going through a cross-cultural exercise is very differ-
ent from receiving an explanation from someone who has lived
through what we’re experiencing. Research indicates that expatri-
ates and travelers who have cultural mentors fare better than
those without them.13 One of the greatest things CQ coaches do is
to help you know what kinds of questions you should ask of your-
self and others as you move into this assignment.
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BACK AT THE OFFICE
Sana would be better prepared for her interview with Robert and
other managers in Indianapolis with a stronger understanding of
the mainstream Midwest culture. Even though she’s lived in
Michigan all her life, she’s been relatively insulated within the
Arab American community surrounding greater Detroit. She
should be careful not to stereotype Robert, but with some grasp
of cultural values, she could at least think about whether Robert
wearing a suit is a reflection of his African American values for
dress and appearance.
If I were Sana, I’d be pretty taken aback by the confrontation
with her aunts in Yemen. To feel defensive in that kind of situation
is normal. But if Sana can see beyond the confrontation and think
about how her lifestyle and upcoming move may appear through
her aunts’ cultural lens, it might help her deal with the anger of
being called an infidel. One of the things about CQ, though, is that
it’s a two-way street. So Sana’s aunts would also be helped by some
cultural understanding of life for Sana and Haani back in the
United States. Before immediately making accusations, a greater
degree of CQ Knowledge would, at the very least, allow them to
approach the potentially offensive conversation differently.
As for Robert, even though he’s a minority, he seems ignorant
that many other ethnic minorities have been born and raised in the
United States, too. It’s bizarre, though commonplace, that he
assumes Sana wasn’t born in the States. And if Robert knew more
about the cultural values of individualism vs. collectivism, he
might be less thrown off by Sana’s request to have Haani meet
him. It would be a very reasonable request from a collectivist per-
spective for a spouse—and in particular, the husband in many
Middle Eastern cultures—to want to know if he can trust his part-
ner’s boss. Robert comes from a more collectivist culture himself,
compared to the mainstream, dominant culture in the Midwest.
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But because of his marriage to Ingrid and having lived and worked
largely in the dominant, professional culture for twenty years, he’s
likely to be as much a product of that individualist subculture as
of his more collectivist upbringing on the south side of Chicago.
And what about Robert’s friend Sharon advising him about
the different rules for business in the Middle East—where her col-
league Alvin was expected to pay a tip (bribe?) to get his paper-
work processed? Sharon is right about one thing—business in dif-
ferent parts of the world operates by a different set of rules. We
have to be careful to presume that different rules and practices are
bad simply because they’re different or unfamiliar. But there’s
good reason to be concerned about the many ethical dilemmas
involved in a situation like the one that faced Alvin. Who is most
responsible for Alvin’s dilemma—the immigration officer, the
country that doesn’t pay the officer adequately, or other developed
nations and their companies that don’t address this issue or who
actually perpetuate the practice? Increased CQ Knowledge will
caution Robert from stereotyping all Middle Eastern companies as
operating this way. But it will also alert him to the idea that writ-
ten policies, procedures, and contracts don’t have the same bind-
ing power in high-context societies as do commitments made
through relationships and time spent together.
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INCREASING YOUR CQ KNOWLEDGE
An abundance of information is available about various cultures.
Don’t be overwhelmed. Start with a couple of these strategies to
improve your CQ Knowledge. Then try another one.
Identify two strategies you can begin using to enhance your
CQ Knowledge.
❑ 1. Study culture up
close.
❑ 2. Google smarter.
❑ 3. Improve your global
awareness.
❑ 4. Go to the movies
or read a novel.
❑ 5. Learn about cultural
values.
❑ 6. Explore your cultural
identity.
❑ 7. Study a new
language.
❑ 8. Seek diverse
perspectives.
❑ 9. Recruit a CQ coach.
Which one will you try first? When?
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C H A P T E R 5
CQ STRATEGY
It’s one thing to be motivated to engage in cross-cultural work and
relationships and to have some basic understanding about how cul-
tures are alike and different. But the real lynchpin between CQ Drive
and Knowledge with how we actually behave cross-culturally is CQ
Strategy. CQ Strategy asks the question: Am I aware, and can I plan
appropriately in light of the personal and cultural dynamics
involved? This is one of the most important benefits of the CQ dif-
ference—the ability to apply your motivation and understanding to
real-life situations.
CQ Strategy: The extent to which you are aware of what’s
going on in a cross-cultural situation and your ability to use
that awareness to manage those situations effectively.
Key Question: What do I need to plan in order to be
effective in this cross-cultural situation?
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As Sana leaves the interview, she calls Haani. “That was a waste of
time! I’ll never get the job.” She tells him everything that happened,
including the fact that Robert started the interview thirty minutes late
and was the only person in the office dressed in a suit and tie. As she
replays it to Haani, she’s convinced Robert was making a power play
right from the start. “Why else would he wear a dark suit and start
the interview so late?” she asks. “He wanted to make it clear who
the boss is! As if I don’t know!”
“That’s crazy!” Haani responds. “He’s the CFO, so that’s why he’s
wearing a suit. And African Americans are always late, just like your
parents. It’s a cultural thing.”
She knows her head covering is probably uncomfortable for
potential employers. She wonders if she should have gone to the
interview without it. Many of her Muslim friends back in Detroit haven’t
worn one since high school. They see it as very old-school. But Sana
doesn’t feel like her hijab is a symbol of oppression. She actually
feels more comfortable wearing it. And it’s better that an employer
sees her with it now than surprising the company after she’s hired.
Meanwhile, Robert has the big meeting about the Middle Eastern
acquisition in a couple of hours and there’s no time to prepare. From
reviewing all the reports they’ve received, it seems like working toward
a win–win deal with this Middle Eastern company is a no-brainer.
But Robert can’t shake his fears from Sharon’s story about the
Singaporean who had to bribe his way into doing work in the
Mideast. Robert and his company pride themselves on their integrity
and transparency. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice just asked
Robert to come represent the company at an antitrust summit they’re
doing in D.C. because of the company’s exemplary practices.
Robert decides, You know what? I’m a bottom-line kind of guy, so
they might as well know that about me now. I’m just going to tell them
what Sharon told me and see how they respond. Their response alone
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will tell us volumes. If we’re disclosing all our financials, the least they
can do is respond to a concern about corrupt business practices.
A week later, Robert has interviewed all the job candidates, and
it’s clear Sana is the most qualified person for the job. Her references
gave her rave reviews. She scored well on the assessments adminis-
tered by the human resources office. And she demonstrates the needed
balance between administrative capabilities and people skills.
Robert is known for being a guy who makes decisions quickly.
But this one is unusually hard for him. He calls her voice mail, hoping
she won’t pick up. She doesn’t. He just wants to see if he can detect
any foreign accent when she speaks. Nope. There’s nothing about
her voice on the recording that would indicate she isn’t a native
Midwesterner. It’s not that Robert has anything against foreigners.
After all, he married one. It’s his clients he’s worried about. They aren’t
as accepting as he is. He should know. He puts up with their racist
comments and behavior all the time. His natural voice is loud and
exuberant, but he’s learned to speak more quietly lest people be fearful
of a boisterous, 6’2” African American man in corporate finance.
So what will his clients do if they show up at his office and see
someone like Sana? Most of the people he deals with aren’t going
to know how to respond to someone who looks like her.
Robert catches himself. What am I thinking? It seems like every
week someone talks about how “articulate” and “eloquent” I am.
He doesn’t speak any differently than Joe, the CIO in the office next
door, but Joe’s white so no one thinks to point out that he’s articulate.
Is Robert doing the very thing to Sana that has been done to him
all his life by the good old boys?
Robert refuses to discriminate. This is a moment of truth. He
decides to hire Sana. He’s going to ignore her ethnic and religious
background and just treat her as a human being. He thinks, No matter
what we look like, we’re all the same.
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WHAT’S CQ STRATEGY GOT TO DO WITH IT?
CQ Strategy is your level of awareness and your ability to plan in
light of your cultural understanding. This dimension of cultural
intelligence is what initially intrigued me most. I found a lot of
material that dealt with learning about different cultures and some
helpful hints about how to behave. But through my own experi-
ence and research, I knew that someone could be an expert on all
things cross-cultural and still fail miserably. There’s a whole set of
subtle, behind-the-scenes issues that have to be understood. It’s
one thing to know that you and your culture approach risk differ-
ently than another culture (uncertainty avoidance); but can you
actually use that understanding to behave in ways that are useful
and respectful? CQ Strategy is the lynchpin between understand-
ing and action. This is what really launches you into a different
league of players out on the multicultural field.
Both Sana and Robert would be helped significantly by
increased CQ Strategy. Some of the indicators of Sana’s CQ
Strategy lie in her assumptions about Robert being dressed in a
suit and his tardiness to the interview. Robert’s identification with
being a minority is an important thing to pay attention to as is his
decision to ignore the differences between Sana and him and to be
direct with his Middle Eastern guests about his fear regarding cor-
ruption. These demonstrate low CQ Strategy.
Again, CQ Strategy asks the question: Can I anticipate and plan
appropriately in light of the personal and cultural dynamics
involved? CQ Strategy is a weak capability among many individu-
als tested because many of us are forced to function at a frenetic
pace with little space for deeper thought and reflection.
CQ Strategy
is unlikely to be developed apart from intentional, focused thought.
The technical term for CQ Strategy is meta-cognition, which means
“thinking about thinking.” This is what happens when you tran-
scend your immediate emotions and thoughts and try to observe
them from outside yourself. And it’s what happens when you do
that with others. Many refer to this as reflection-in-action, or reflec-
tive practice.
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You demonstrate high CQ Strategy when you draw on your
cultural understanding to develop a plan for a cross-cultural situ-
ation or assignment. With high CQ Strategy, you’re better able to
monitor, analyze, and adjust your behavior in different cultural
settings. You’re conscious of what you need to know about an
unfamiliar culture, but you hold your assumptions about that cul-
ture loosely until you actually experience it. Individuals with high
CQ Strategy often have developed this capability intuitively or
have personalities (e.g., introverts) that are more naturally
inclined toward analysis and reflection.
ASSESSING YOUR CQ STRATEGY
How is your CQ Strategy? To what extent can you make sense of
culturally diverse experiences and plan in light of shifting realities?
Based on the feedback report that accompanies the online CQ
Self-Assessment, what overall CQ Strategy score did you receive?*
Overall CQ Strategy:__________
Did you rate yourself low, medium, or high compared
to others who have completed the CQ Self-Assessment?
(circle one)
Low Medium High
From what you’re learning about CQ Strategy in this chapter, are
you surprised by the results? Keep in mind that the self-assessment is
just one snapshot of your view of your CQ capabilities at a particu-
lar point in time. But it’s worth considering the results given the high
level of reliability found in the assessment as used among individuals
around the world.
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*Notice: The CQ Self-Assessment is not available in this electronic edition of The Cultural
Intelligence Difference. You can purchase the assessment at www.CulturalQ.com or access
it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
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In order to dig more deeply into your CQ Strategy, the assess-
ment also helps you assess your cultural understanding in three
specific areas of CQ Strategy (awareness, planning, and checking).
There has been extensive research examining the way these various
dimensions of meta-cognition influence your overall awareness and
planning for multicultural situations.1 Write your scores for each of
the following and note the descriptions of these sub-dimensions:
Awareness: _________
This is the extent to which you’re aware of the personal
and cultural dynamics occurring in a multicultural situation.
A high score means you’re very alert to and observant of
what’s occurring within yourself and others during cross-
cultural interactions. A low score means you rated yourself
low on your level of awareness during cross-cultural
experiences.
Planning: _________
This is the extent to which you take the time to anticipate
how to best engage in a cross-cultural situation. A high
score means you plan ahead and think intentionally
about how you should relate and work in a multicultural
situation. A low score means you place limited value on
planning ahead for cross-cultural scenarios.
Checking: _________
This is the extent to which you monitor whether you
are behaving appropriately in a cross-cultural situation.
A high score means you are continually checking to see
if your plans were appropriate. A low score means you
don’t spend much time testing the accuracy of your
assumptions and plans for a multicultural situation.
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These three sub-dimensions of CQ Strategy—awareness, plan-
ning, and checking—are the scientific bases for the strategies that
follow. You’ll see these sub-dimensions alongside the list of strate-
gies at the beginning of the next section. Not every strategy fits
perfectly with a single sub-dimension, but the strategies have been
organized according to the sub-dimension with which they are
most closely associated. Use your scores from the sub-dimensions
of CQ Strategy to help you pinpoint which strategies to use first
(presumably, the strategies that go with the sub-dimension where
you scored lowest).
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Awareness
Planning
Checking
IMPROVING YOUR CQ STRATEGY
The following section is a list of strategies to help you improve
your CQ Strategy. All these strategies are rooted in science and
research on meta-cognition and the ability to engage in flexible
thinking for multicultural situations. They stem from the three
sub-dimensions of CQ Strategy (awareness, planning, and check-
ing). The point is not for you to use all these strategies right now.
There are many paths to increasing CQ Strategy. Start with a cou-
ple that interest you.
1. Notice;
don’t respond.
2. Think widely.
3. Focus deeply.
4. Journal.
5. Plan social
interactions.
6. Manage
expectations.
7. Create checklists.
8. Reframe a
situation.
9. Test for accuracy.
10. Ask better
questions.
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1. NOTICE; DON’T RESPOND
One way to improve your CQ Strategy is to intentionally put up
your antenna to take note of what’s going on in a multicultural sit-
uation. The key to using this strategy successfully is to notice
without responding to what you see. Don’t rush to make sense out
of what you observe. This is counterintuitive because our natural
impulse is to notice something and then immediately interpret its
meaning and react. We inevitably form hypotheses (actually, more
often conclusions) about why people are dressed the way they are
or why you only see men together at the market. But be very cau-
tious of rushing to judgment. Notice what you’re thinking and
feeling but don’t respond to it. Try to detach yourself. It takes
effort, but it’s possible to train yourself to do this. In fact, forcing
your brain to stop short of making a judgmental response to
something you notice can actually change the circuitry in your
brain in a matter of weeks.2
The other day, a North American friend and I were boarding
a plane in Thailand. My friend said, “Most Asians seem so polite
and reserved until you see them boarding a bus or plane. Then it’s
an all out pushing match! They never defer to someone else to go
ahead of them.”
Whenever I’m in Asia, I almost always hear a Westerner make
a comment like this. And there have been plenty of times when
being shoved out of the way by a sweet old Chinese woman leaves
me just a little miffed myself. But in the words of anthropologist
Grant McCracken, when we notice things like this, we need to
stop and ask, “Hmm, I wonder why that is?”3 Rather than jump-
ing to conclusions, look at something that puzzles you and think
about it for a long time.
If you spend enough time noticing the masses of people in
Asia, for example, you’ll begin to see that pushing is often a neces-
sity here. Many times, you can’t survive here using the school-
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teacher’s mantra, “Everyone will get a turn. Just wait in line.”
Everyone won’t get a turn. Some are going to get left behind, and
a certain level of aggressiveness becomes a means to survival.
Gregory David Roberts, in his phenomenal novel Shantaram,
refers to this as the doctrine of necessity. He suggests that the
amount of force and violence necessary to board a train in India
is no less and no more than the amount of politeness and consid-
eration necessary to ensure that the cramped journey is as pleas-
ant as possible. Roberts writes, “If there were a billion Frenchmen
or Australians or Americans living in such a small space, the fight-
ing to board the train would be much more, and the courtesy
afterward much less.”4
Granted, the people boarding the plane with my friend and me
already had a “guaranteed” seat. But we don’t unlearn our sur-
vival strategies quickly, even if they don’t apply at the moment.
For Sana to take note of how Robert is dressed compared to
everyone else in the office is a good sign of awareness. But it’s dan-
gerous when she assumes she knows why he wore a suit today.
The same applies to the thirty-minute delay in starting the inter-
view. Both Sana and Haani are rushing to judgment about why
that occurred. Robert has also made some underlying judgments,
presumably based on Sana’s name and her head covering. He
would have no other reason to conclude she’s a Muslim.
Look around you. Notice and ask, “Hmm. I wonder why that
is.” Why is the airport organized like this? What’s behind the
clothes people wear to work here? What does this newsletter teach
you about this organization? With time, you’ll be able to form
some accurate interpretations about these things. For now, sus-
pend judgment. Notice, but don’t respond.
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2. THINK WIDELY
Another way to enhance your CQ Strategy is to train your mind
to think more broadly. Your level of comfort with this is some-
what related to your personality. Every individual has what psy-
chologists call a category width (see Figure 5-1). This is the extent
to which you’re comfortable with things that don’t neatly fit into
one category or another. Your category width is shaped by your
personality, your upbringing, and your culture.
Figure 5-1 Category width.
Based on concepts in T. F. Pettigrew, “The Measurement and Correlates of Category
Width as a Cognitive Variable,” Journal of Personality 26 (1958): 532–544.
I was brought up with very narrow category width. My grand-
father had a mantra that was often repeated in our home: “When
in doubt, don’t do it.” The idea was to avoid anything in the “gray
areas.” And frankly, there were very few things in our home that
were deemed gray. My parents had a lot of rules about the ways I
could dress, the kinds of social events I could go to, how long my
hair could be, and a lot more. In some ways, it made for a very
stable upbringing. There wasn’t much ambiguity. Most of the
world could be neatly divided into right or wrong.
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Going away to college, doubting my faith, and traveling inter-
nationally broadened my category width significantly. I still have
things that I consider to be right and wrong. In fact, there are
things I put into those categories that I never thought much about
as a kid—poverty, the environment, human rights, and so on. But
on the whole, I have much wider category width today. So many
things seem neither right nor wrong but simply different. Think
about how you respond to that statement; it’s probably some indi-
cation of your own category width. If you’re repulsed by what
feels like my loosey-goosey view, it probably indicates you have a
more narrow category width. There’s nothing wrong with that
(see—I have wide category width, so I’m fine with yours being
“different” from mine); but narrow category width definitely
increases your challenges when it comes to how you interpret cul-
tural differences.
Narrow categorizers focus on differences. They watch the
behavior of people from different cultures and categorize them
based on what those actions would mean in one’s own cultural
context. For example, a narrow categorizer has certain words in
mind that should and shouldn’t be used by educated people,
clothes that shouldn’t appear on men, and norms for how married
couples should relate. When there isn’t a category in which to place
the behavior of an individual, narrow categorizers judge it as an
exception and don’t entertain it as possibly being another whole
category altogether.5 Those with narrow category width are much
quicker to characterize things as right vs. wrong.
Broad categorizers demonstrate more tolerance for things that
might not fit into preexisting categories. And a broad categorizer
puts more discrepant things in the same category. For example,
broad categorizers might be quicker to acknowledge that healthy
parent-child relationships in one cultural context might look dif-
ferent from those in one’s own culture. And broad categorizers are
much more apt to put “new” behaviors observed cross-culturally
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into a category of “different” rather than right vs. wrong or nor-
mal vs. “weird.” By the way, this isn’t necessarily a “liberal vs.
conservative” difference. I’ve met liberals who were very intoler-
ant of more conservatively minded people because of their differ-
ent ideals and beliefs. You can be a “liberal” and still be a narrow
categorizer.
By training your mind to think more broadly, you can increase
your CQ Strategy. One practical way to do this is to see beyond
the details to the big picture. Again, your comfort with this is
related to your personality. And every organization and commu-
nity needs both big-picture thinkers and detail-minded ones. The
goal here isn’t to tell the detail-oriented people to change. But it is
to say that one way to improve CQ Strategy is to rise beyond a
narrow focus on details for a period of time to see the big picture.
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the software
entrepreneurs who have made tools like Basecamp and Campfire,
say that when they start designing something, they always do so
using a thick Sharpie marker rather than a ball-point pen. For
them, pen points are too fine and tempt them to get lost in the
details. But a Sharpie forces them to keep sketching out the big
picture before getting into all the important details.6
Something happens neurologically when the brain thinks
widely and globally. It’s hard for insights or creative thinking to
happen when surrounded by lots of minutia. When you’re stuck
at an impasse in how to do something, often the best thing you
can do is walk away from it for a bit, think about some other
things, then come back to it.7 This basic habit is one that corre-
lates to the development of CQ Strategy. Multicultural work often
requires adapting your thinking to deal with unpredictable situa-
tions. As you learn to think more broadly, you’ll become better at
understanding and interpreting the differences you encounter in
different cultures.
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3. FOCUS DEEPLY
The next strategy is the mirror opposite of the last one. Just as
broadening our minds can enhance our CQ Strategy by helping us
deal with unpredictable situations, deep, focused thinking helps us
to zero in on things we might otherwise miss. We need to train our
minds to do both—think widely and focus deeply.
This strategy stems from what is often referred to as mindful-
ness training. Mindfulness is complete awareness of everything
that happens within your body, mind, and consciousness. And it’s
applying the same kind of awareness to your environment. In a
cross-cultural situation, mindfulness can help us move out of our
automated habits of thinking and behavior. With little thought,
we shoot off an e-mail, tell a joke, or become discouraged by an
unresponsive audience. Our brain operates on autopilot as a way
to cope with the many things that pull for our attention. But in a
culturally diverse situation, even the task of writing e-mail and
engaging in small talk, if done well, will require that we become
more mindful.
To what extent are the following true of you?
• I drive places on “automatic pilot” and then wonder why
I went there.
• I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s happening in
the present.
• I tend not to notice feelings of physical tension or discomfort
until they really grab my attention.
• It seems I am “running on automatic,” without much
awareness of what I’m doing.
• I find myself listening to someone with one ear, doing
something else at the same time.
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These are the kinds of things measured by psychologists Kirk
Brown and Richard Ryan in their Mindful Attention Awareness
Scale.8 The more these statements are true for you, the more you
will be helped by training your mind to focus, which will, in turn,
heighten your CQ Strategy.
Here are a few exercises to help you focus deeply:
• Choose an external sound and focus on it for thirty seconds.
Don’t let your mind wander. If it does, come back to
focusing on that sound.
• Sit in silence for sixty seconds and notice where your mind
goes. Follow its train of thought. What do you discover?
• Find some incoming data (e.g., a sound, sight, scent,
sensation, etc.) and focus your attention on it. You could
think about the feeling on your body right now as you sit in
the chair, pay close attention to the texture of your clothes,
or listen to the sound of a bird chirping. Do this for ten
seconds right now . . . . You may have found it difficult to
focus on that one input even for just ten seconds. Your mind
wants to take in more. Perhaps you lost track of the feeling
or sound because you started thinking about something else
(e.g., When should I eat?). Your mind is always wanting
to move toward the next thing, so mindfulness training is
needed to slow it down and to spend more time taking in
everything around us.9
• Walk down the street and be mindful of the sensations in
your body as you place one foot down and then the other.
Concentrate on the “simple” act of walking.
If you do these kinds of exercises often, you’ll get better at
noticing how the mind wanders, which, in turn, can move you
into higher levels of consciousness as you relate and work cross-
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culturally. Formal training in mindfulness and meditation is
another way to become more mindful. Many options are avail-
able, either from a religious or secular perspective. Deep, focused
thinking will help you pick up on the subtle cues going on in mul-
ticultural encounters that otherwise go missed. Join a yoga class
and improve your CQ Strategy at the same time.
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4. JOURNAL
Carry a journal with you for a couple of weeks or when you trav-
el abroad and record your observations and insights about cross-
cultural situations. Begin to explore the meanings behind what
you observe. Just be sure to hold your interpretations and insights
loosely until you’ve had a chance to test them more thoroughly.
Your journal is a place to write down the things you notice
(the first strategy we covered). And it’s a good place to begin
hypothesizing why you think these things are the way they are.
Don’t rush to judgment but ask yourself questions.
As you journal, don’t just chronicle the events of the day.
Record your frustrations, describe how you feel when certain
things occur, and write down questions that are stirring in your
mind. Don’t write for an audience. Your journal is a safe place to
admit your biases, fears, insecurities, and rants.
In addition to chronicling your observations about others, pay
attention to what’s happening within yourself. Try to step out of
your own skin to see yourself as objectively as possible. Imagine
seeing yourself through the eyes of someone else.10 This kind of
self-awareness is important because most of the influences that
shape how we behave are largely unknown to us. Many of our
interpersonal behaviors and thought patterns are largely beyond
our day-to-day awareness.11
Using a journal can help you with some of the other strategies
in this section, like “noticing” and becoming more mindful. As
already noted, CQ Strategy requires that you shut down some of
your semiautomatic behavior and step outside yourself to see
what you’re observing, thinking, and feeling. For example, you
might catch yourself feeling irritated, bored, or lonely in the midst
of a cross-cultural encounter. Write about that in your journal. If
you have no idea why you felt that way, that’s okay. Just write it
down, the very practice of which helps you transcend merely being
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defined by your irritation or loneliness and can do wonders for
dissipating the level of energy you put toward it.
Use journaling to pay attention to internal distractions. When
you’re engaging cross-culturally, there’s a powerful conversation
occurring internally, and there are all kinds of neurological con-
nections going on. Your nervous system is constantly processing,
reconfiguring, and reconnecting trillions of connections in your
brain each moment, something called ambient, neural activity.
One study found that people hold thoughts for ten seconds on
average before the mind wanders elsewhere.12 Hold some of those
thoughts captive by writing about them.
Write by hand in a physical journal rather than typing at a
keyboard. There’s a different kind of reflective thought process
that occurs when we write by hand. This is partly because so
many of us live in continuous word processor mode and the very
tactile process of writing with pen and paper can nurture a slow-
er, reflexive process that enhances valuable journaling. Journal
writing enhances our ability to consider how to interpret the bar-
rage of cues we encounter in cross-cultural situations.
Share your journaling insights with someone you trust. Some
of the greatest value from journaling is in going back and reading
the reflections later. Read your reflections a few weeks later, a year
later, and several years later. I’ve been keeping journals since high
school. Don’t be overly impressed. It’s therapeutic for me, and
there have definitely been major lapses when I didn’t journal for a
while. But going back and reading the ways I described different
circumstances and cross-cultural realities across the course of time
has been an entertaining, enlightening, and sometimes painful but
always transformative experience.
Writing allows us to understand ourselves and others in ways
that few other things do. It forces us to slow down and become
more aware of our surroundings and the meanings therein.
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Robert and Sana appear to be engaging in some valuable
inward observation. Robert thinks about his own experience as an
African American male and is considering how that shapes his
decision about hiring Sana. Sana is thinking about whether it’s
appropriate for her to remove her head covering. If they took time
to write about this—not for anyone else, just for themselves—it
could play a powerful role in strengthening their CQ Strategy.
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5. PLAN SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
The more personal the interaction you have with someone from a
different culture, the greater the potential challenge and conflict.
Interacting with a restaurant server from a different culture can
surface minor points of confusion or discomfort, but it has limited
impact. Sitting in class next to someone from a different culture is
a bit more challenging, and if you work on a project together, the
challenge increases further. Marrying someone from a different cul-
tural background is the most challenging cross-cultural encounter
of all. For any of us, social gatherings are where we most often feel
the cultural chasm between ourselves and people from different
cultural backgrounds. Engineers from different cultural back-
grounds might be relatively comfortable working together all day
but find an after-hours drink together very awkward.
One way to make these encounters less uncomfortable while
also improving your CQ Strategy is to plan ahead when you’re
going to spend time with someone from a different culture, espe-
cially if it’s a social context. If I’m going to have coffee with some-
one who comes from a background similar to mine, chances are,
I can wing it socially because I know the basic norms of small talk,
appropriate topics, and humor. If, however, I’m having coffee with
someone who comes from a different cultural background, spend-
ing even a few minutes thinking about the appropriate kinds of
questions to ask, things to share, and ways to interact is a good
way to enhance my CQ Strategy and simultaneously improve the
way I interact with the individual. Some of the things learned
through CQ Knowledge will help me know how to plan. When I
actually get to the meeting, I might find out that my plans weren’t
appropriate. But the very thoughtfulness put into anticipating the
meeting will strengthen my CQ Strategy. This is even more impor-
tant if you need to confront someone or deal with a potentially
awkward topic like money or if you have to conduct a perform-
ance review.13
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If Robert interacts with Sana socially, he should anticipate the
most appropriate way to do so. This can catch people like Robert
off guard because he’s an extrovert who finds social interaction
easy. Some extroverts find cross-cultural, social interaction even
more disorienting than introverts because extroverts are used to
relating easily and naturally. Spending a few minutes thinking
about how to best engage socially with someone from another cul-
tural background will strengthen your capabilities in CQ Strategy
and will more than likely strengthen the quality and effectiveness
of the interaction itself.
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6. MANAGE EXPECTATIONS
Expectations—good, bad, or otherwise—are one of the most
important things to manage when working on your CQ Strategy.
The best way to manage expectations is to pay attention to them.
Focus on your expectations for an upcoming cross-cultural expe-
rience. What do you anticipate happening? What do you hope to
learn? What are your hopes and fears? What assumptions do you
have about the people in this culture? Which judgments do you
need to suspend? Write them down. Talk about them with others.
Unmet expectations are one of the most important experiences
to avoid, if at all possible. David Rock, who has written extensive-
ly on the brain and leadership, writes, “Great leaders carefully
manage expectations to avoid not meeting them.”14 This is a tricky
balance because having goals and expectations can be motivating
in and of itself. Think about how good it feels to check something
off your to-do list. Expectations alter the way your brain makes
sense of things, and meeting them reinforces the way the brain
thinks about it. Rock says we should find ways to develop realis-
tic expectations and then work to set them a little lower so you
can come out ahead of them. When a positive expectation isn’t
met, reframe the situation to see if the alternative outcome might
be better than what you expected at the outset.
If you’re heading on an overseas trip, think about whether
your expectations are appropriate. Is it realistic to come home
with a contract if this is the first time you’ve met this client? Is it
likely you’ll become fluent in Spanish from your time in the
immersion program, or might there be a lower expectation that’s
more appropriate, such as being invited to submit a proposal or
getting through a shopping excursion without using English?
This strategy can also be used in our day-to-day cross-cultural
encounters. When going to a class taught by someone from a differ-
ent cultural background, what realistic expectations can you formu-
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late that can make it beneficial? If you’re meeting with a group of
colleagues, what cultural differences will be present? How you
anticipate that will shape what occurs. Accurately anticipating an
experience plays a strong role in how we engage with it.
Robert Merton, an American sociologist, studied how U.S.
Army recruits’ expectations influenced their adaptation to the
Army culture. The more accurately the privates anticipated the
values and norms of the U.S. Army culture, the more likely they
were to succeed and be promoted.15 In a similar way, when global
professionals accurately anticipate their job expectations in inter-
cultural situations, they better adjust to the changes required.16
Whether it’s entering a new work culture, marrying into a
family with different ethnic or religious origins, or taking on a
sales account in another country, spend time anticipating the cul-
tural landscape.
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7. CREATE CHECKLISTS
Using something as simple as an old-fashioned checklist is anoth-
er way you can improve your CQ Strategy. We live in a world of
growing complexity, something often compounded in the midst of
multicultural circumstances. Atul Gawande, a surgeon and
Harvard Medical School professor, suggests an amazingly simple
strategy for dealing with the complex issues of life: a checklist.17
Military officers, airline pilots, chefs, and surgeons are realizing
the value of a basic checklist. The very process of creating a check-
list prior to a cross-cultural encounter can help you do the plan-
ning that’s essential for CQ Strategy.
Dr. Gawande notes that the pressure and complexities of
many professions today overwhelm even the best-trained practi-
tioners. He suggests that checking things off a list can prevent
potentially fatal mistakes and corner cutting. He examines check-
lists in cooking, aviation, construction, and investing, but focuses
most on his own field—medicine—where checklists mandating
simple measures like hand washing have dramatically reduced
hospital-caused infections and other complications. This can have
great relevance to cross-cultural work.
When you’re working cross-culturally, taking the time to plan
ahead by developing a checklist can prevent you from spinning off
into what you’ve convinced yourself is just a necessary adaptation
culturally, when in point of fact it might be detrimental to your
overall success. The disorienting nature of doing something cross-
culturally makes the value of checklists all the more important to
behaving in ways that are consistent with your ideals. If you see
the chance to strike a million-dollar deal, don’t lose your sanity.
Walk through a checklist created in more objective times to ensure
that this is in the best interest of your business. Or this can even
be as basic as helping other travelers plan for routine things: pack
medicine, find filtered water, plan transportation from the airport,
and so on.
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Those leading others on cross-cultural travel experiences
should prepare checklists for use in case of a crisis:
❑ Who do you need to call first?
❑ Where can you go for twenty-four-hour help?
❑ Where will you get the information you need?
❑ What’s the phone number for your nearest embassy?
Improving your CQ Strategy can be as simple as creating a few
checklists. The very exercise of making them is a tangible way to
work on your cross-cultural planning.
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8. REFRAME A SITUATION
Many of the circumstances you experience in a cross-cultural sit-
uation are beyond your control, but you can control your inter-
pretation of what happens. Reframing or reappraisal means
changing your evaluation of something. Our brains do this all the
time. You hear a loud bang and think it’s a gunshot. Perhaps you
feel panicked only to find out that the bang is fireworks going off
at a nearby celebration. Your brain immediately reorients itself
from fear to excitement or ambivalence.
I often wonder how individuals survive the tragic loss of a
spouse or child. I hope I never have to find out. Part of people’s
coping ability is tied to whether they can reframe their situation.
The most successful recoveries occur when individuals can
reframe their lives and future. Studies have revealed that six
months after many individuals become paraplegics, they’re just as
happy as someone who won the lottery. This occurs because the
brain recalibrates for a different set of circumstances.18
Reframing your interpretation of circumstances is part of how
you train your brain to be flexible in multicultural situations.
Reframing begins by labeling an emotion or reaction to some-
thing. Give it a name (e.g., “I’m ticked off that I can’t get clear
directions to the hotel). Label it but don’t obsess over it, or you’re
likely to become more anxious. Just label it for a couple of sec-
onds with a few words or a brief phrase. Then refocus your atten-
tion on another stimulus and channel your energy away from your
frustration to solving your problem.
Reframing is most helpful in intercultural situations when you
feel angry. If you’re upset and the other party isn’t, chances are,
you’re blaming the other person for doing something who’s clue-
less he’s at fault. Stopping to realize that this may be explained by
cultural differences and assumptions can help you reappraise a sit-
uation rather than allowing your anger to mount and distract you.
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Effective reappraisal requires the input of others. Peers can
help us interpret circumstances. Particularly when you’re in the
midst of a highly emotional state, you need colleagues who can
help you reframe the event. Talk it through. Write it down. Name
it. Then move toward action.
Brain researchers have often said that stress isn’t necessarily
bad. It’s how you deal with it that’s key. When you learn to har-
ness deep stress by reappraising a situation, you enhance your CQ
Strategy and your overall effectiveness. Be conscious of things that
may increase your anxiety and work out ways to reduce these
before the arousal kicks in.19
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9. TEST FOR ACCURACY
Several of the tools for developing CQ Strategy are based on
becoming aware, noticing what’s going on, and developing appro-
priate plans in light of what you understand. But an essential tool
to add is learning how to check back and see if your assumptions
and plans were appropriate. Look for ways to test the accuracy of
your observations, interpretations, and plans.20
I recently had a meeting with Bayani, a Filipino executive who
was interested in having me do some cultural intelligence training
for his company. Bayani leads a Filipino company that works
throughout Asia and the Middle East. My only contact with him
previously was a couple of e-mails. We found out that we were
both going to be in Hong Kong at the same time, so we met for
dinner one evening. Bayani had already given me a sense of what
he wanted me to do for the company, but we hadn’t talked at all
about fees and contracts. Given that Filipino culture as a whole
values building trust through relationships and time together, I
had no intention of raising the issue of money in this first meeting.
To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure when and how to bring it
up, because doing so in a follow-up e-mail didn’t seem culturally
appropriate, either. But my plan was to get to know each other,
learn more about his company, talk about ways we could work
together, and worry about the contractual elements later. No
sooner did we place our order then Bayani said, “So how much
will this cost us?” I thought he meant the restaurant bill and said,
“Oh, this is on me.” “No, no. Not that,” he said. “I mean, to get
you to come train for us.” I quickly shifted gears from my plan to
avert any discussion about finances but still didn’t answer him
directly. I was trying to read whether he was coming at me the way
he thought I’d want to be dealt with as an American or whether
this was really the way he wanted to negotiate. I told him we
could get to that but that I’d love to learn more about him and his
company before we talk about the financial arrangements. Bayani
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wouldn’t go for it. He said, “But I want to know what the fees
are.” At this point, I could see my assumptions going into this
meeting were not accurate at all, so I started to talk more directly
about finances and Bayani responded well. It was still a risk. And
I can’t presume a future conversation with another Filipino will go
that way. But I had to adapt on the fly, given that the interaction
was going in a different direction than what I planned.
You can see how several of these strategies work together.
Paying attention to the invisible cues, being aware of how I’m
being perceived, and adjusting the plan I developed in light of my
cultural understanding were all things that were necessary. Of
course I didn’t stop and think all that through at the moment.
Perhaps I should have, but I was adapting on the fly. And I can
give you as many examples of times when I didn’t pick up on the
cues and appropriately adjust my plan and floundered as a result.
Do the hard work of planning for these kinds of interactions,
but then test your plan to see if it’s working. Does what you’re
observing correlate with what experts have said about how peo-
ple from a particular culture usually behave (this requires CQ
Knowledge)? Continue your observation in other settings and of
other individuals. As you seek additional input about the same
kind of thing, does it confirm or negate the interpretations you
were making? And best of all, find someone with whom you can
discuss your interpretations. Use a cultural coach like we dis-
cussed in Chapter 4. Ideally, you want an individual who has an
understanding of both your cultural background and the culture
you’re observing. When appropriate, you can also test for accura-
cy with the individual with whom you’re interacting. Ask if what
you perceive is accurate. It might take a more indirect question to
get at this. Be creative. But look for ways to test the accuracy of
what you perceive.
Practice this strategy by forming a hypothesis about a cultur-
al situation you’ve been observing. Then test your hypothesis by
reading up on it, talking to a variety of people from the cultures
involved, and observing what occurs.
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10. ASK BETTER QUESTIONS
Questions are essential for enhancing CQ Strategy. Question your
observations, question your assumptions, and find appropriate
ways to ask questions of others. Listen carefully to the responses.
And listen for what’s not said. Then test out what you learn by
asking the questions again in another situation and to another per-
son. Asking good, probing questions is one of the most important
ways to enhance your CQ Strategy.
One of the best ways to do this is to keep asking yourself
“why?” Just as some kids keep asking their parents “Why, why,
why?” this can be an effective way to get beyond surface observa-
tions to deeper insights about what’s going on in a cross-cultural
situation. When you experience something disorienting due to cul-
tural differences, ask yourself Why. Try to dig deeper to explore
what’s behind something you observe.21
Here’s how this might look for Robert to employ this strategy
with himself. Robert thinks, Hiring Sana could be a challenge for
his clients.
Why?
Because they’re uncomfortable around people who look like
her.
Why?
Because there are lots of implicit biases against Muslims and
Arabs.
Why?
Because of 9/11, segregation, media portrayals of Muslims,
and related concerns.
You get the idea. Some of the responses we give to the why
questions might be inaccurate. So we have to ask this together with
the last strategy—testing for accuracy. But the point behind the
questioning strategy is to keep peeling away the layers of symp-
toms that can lead to a root cause of a situation. Observe a cross-
cultural situation or challenge and ask yourself, why, why, why?
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Practice this when you’re sitting in a meeting and you hear
someone making an argument. Or do it when you listen to a pres-
entation or watch the news. Be careful about asking other people
why because it can trigger defensiveness. It’s better to begin with
more indirect questions. For example, “Can you explain more
about . . . ?” or “What do you think is going on here?”
Other questions can be used to help you dig deeper into devel-
oping CQ Strategy as you travel into different cultures. For exam-
ple, some questions you can begin to ponder with a friend or in
your journal are:
• What is the dominant sound here?
• What does it smell like?
• What are the most obvious objects I see?
• What don’t I see here?
• How are young people viewed? Old people?
Useful and appropriate questions require a higher level of
thinking. Learn how to use them to improve your CQ Strategy.
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BACK AT THE OFFICE
Robert and Sana both demonstrate some encouraging signs of
being aware. They seem moderately conscious of their behavior,
engage in reflection about their interactions, and think about the
meaning behind what occurs. This suggests some strengths in their
CQ Strategy capabilities.
They need to slow down their interpretations, however. Sana
and Haani are quick to assume they know what Robert’s suit and
late start of the interview mean. Noticing these details is impor-
tant. Making hasty judgments about what they mean is very dan-
gerous. Instead, Sana could more cautiously hypothesize that the
suit might be a statement of power, or it could be a personal or
cultural preference for Robert to dress up despite it being “casual
Friday.” This could also be interpreted as a sign of respect to
appear professional to interviewees, or simply necessary attire for
a later commitment (e.g., a major meeting with international
guests). For that matter, Robert may have simply forgotten it was
casual Friday! Sana’s quick judgment is typical of what most of us
do unless we intentionally slow down our assumptions.
Robert’s commitment to overlook the differences between
Sana and him is commendable but may actually be problematic in
the long run. Seeing Sana as a fellow human being is a great start-
ing point. But he would be helped to see the great value her differ-
ences will bring to him as a person and to the job. What benefit is
there in hiring people who view things just as we do? Sure—it
might make for a bit less conflict, but it might also seriously
undermine our ability to have a more robust, holistic approach to
our work.
I have an Italian friend who says, “You Americans think, Now
that we’re friends, we shouldn’t argue. But we Italians think, Now
that we’re friends, we can have a real argument.” Perhaps neither
stereotype is fair. But the point is—many of us, regardless of
nationality, are reticent to focus on differences because it seems
divisive. Differences can be a real strength—they aren’t something
to be merely tolerated, but explored and leveraged!
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Awareness
Planning
Checking
INCREASING YOUR CQ STRATEGY
A lot of people have a decent measure of cultural understanding.
But the individuals who can move into a higher level of conscious-
ness and use that understanding to develop effective and respec-
tive relationships cross-culturally are much harder to find. Be
among this minority by improving your CQ Strategy.
Identify two strategies you can begin using to enhance your
CQ Strategy.
❑ 1. Notice;
don’t respond.
❑ 2. Think widely.
❑ 3. Focus deeply.
❑ 4. Journal.
❑ 5. Plan social
interactions.
❑ 6. Manage
expectations.
❑ 7. Create checklists.
❑ 8. Reframe a
situation.
❑ 9. Test for accuracy.
❑ 10. Ask better
questions.
Which one will you try first? When?
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C H A P T E R 6
CQ ACTION
Learning to be effective in cross-cultural situations requires more
than learning a few dos and don’ts. But at the end of the day, our
cultural intelligence is ultimately judged based on how we behave.
CQ Action asks the question: What behaviors should I adapt for
this cross-cultural situation? This is when we move beyond our
motivation, understanding, and strategy to actually engaging in
our multicultural work and relationships.
CQ Action: This is the extent to which you can act appropri-
ately in a culturally diverse situation. It includes your flexibility
in verbal and nonverbal behaviors and your adaptability to
different cultural norms.
Key Question: What behaviors should I adapt for this cross-
cultural situation?
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Robert decides to hire Sana. Human resources asks him if he wants
to call her himself, and he agrees. He’s actually in Washington, D.C.,
for the antitrust summit he’s attending on behalf of the company. He
notices women all over the place with head coverings. He’s visited
D.C. many times. Are there more Islamic women here now, or does
he just notice them more since he’s been interacting with the Middle
Eastern world so much over the past couple of weeks?
Speaking of which, Robert went with his gut and asked the Middle
Eastern guests his question about bribes and corruption. They never
really answered it, but they did assure him he could put his complete
trust in their company. After all, the three executives who came to
meet Robert and his colleagues are the sons of the company’s founder.
“You’re dealing with a family-owned business, which means you
should have none of these problems you’re worried about,” they said.
Robert has always been a pretty good reader of people, so he feels
at ease about moving forward. But when he said he would draft an
agreement outlining the next steps for making a decision on the
acquisition, they said, “Let’s wait awhile. First, you must come over
and spend time with us.” Robert doesn’t really have time for a trip
to the Middle East, but he doesn’t want to mess up this deal now.
But what will a trip accomplish that couldn’t be handled through
e-mail and teleconferencing?
Robert has a few minutes at his hotel in D.C., so he calls Sana
to offer her the job. In his affable way, he generously describes how
excited he would be to have someone with her competence working
for him, tells her what pay and benefits he’s ready to offer her, and
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lists the many reasons why working for this company would be a great
opportunity for her. And he awkwardly adds what he thinks will lighten
up the conversation: “And the fact that you can help me in adding
to the diversity mix around here is an added bonus!”
Robert talks for more than five minutes without Sana saying a
word. She doesn’t even make any sounds (such as “uh-huh” or “okay”)
to indicate she understands or agrees. This causes Robert to over-
explain himself because he isn’t sure she’s tracking with him. Finally,
he asks, “So what do you think? Can you start next week?” After a
long pause, Sana says, “Thank you for your offer. Wouldn’t it be
nice for my husband and me to have dinner with you and your family
this weekend?”
Robert says, “That would be nice. Maybe we could do that
sometime, but not this weekend. Our schedule is packed. But we’ll
have a chance to meet each other’s families at the Christmas party
in a few weeks.”
After another long pause, Sana asks, “Is the Christmas party
required?” Robert tries to disguise his frustration with a courtesy
chuckle and says, “Well I guess it isn’t required. But I thought you
were the one who wanted our families to meet. Anyway—what do
you think about the job offer?”
Sana responds, “I’ll need a little time. It would be really nice
if we could discuss this over a meal. I’ll have my husband, Haani,
get back with you. And one more question. Can I have some time
off on Fridays so I can go to the mosque? Of course, I’ll make it up
on other days, or could even come in on Sundays.”
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WHAT’S CQ ACTION GOT TO DO WITH IT?
CQ Action is your level of adaptability when relating and working
cross-culturally. This is where the rubber meets the road. Can you
behave in ways that are effective and respectful in cross-cultural sit-
uations while still remaining true to yourself? CQ Action is not
mimicking whomever we’re with. It’s learning which actions need
to be adapted and which don’t. All four CQ capabilities are vitally
important, but individuals will judge us most based on this one.
There have been all kinds of cultural behaviors going on
between Robert and Sana. They really show up in their phone
conversation, from Robert’s attempts at humor and clarification
to Sana’s questions and requests. An understanding of
CQ Action
will help us analyze how well Robert’s approach with the Middle
Eastern guests worked and what was meant by their response.
Again, CQ Action asks the question: What behaviors should I
adapt for this cross-cultural situation? This is primarily about
social etiquette and appropriate behavior to suit a particular con-
text. Etiquette doesn’t usually become an issue until you engage in
“bad” manners. Then suddenly, it stands out. CQ Action includes
adapting your verbal and nonverbal behaviors and changing your
speech acts—the way you approach different topics and situations.
Individuals with high CQ Action can draw on the other three
capabilities of CQ to translate their enhanced motivation, under-
standing, and planning into action. They possess a broad reper-
toire of behaviors, which they can use depending on the context.
They know when to adapt and when not to adapt. People with
extremely high CQ Action flex their behavior appropriately with-
out even giving it much thought. But even the most culturally
intelligent individuals still encounter cultural situations that
require new adaptations and behaviors.
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ASSESSING YOUR CQ ACTION
How is your CQ Action? To what degree can you adapt your
behavior while still remaining authentic? Based on the feedback
report that accompanies the online CQ Self-Assessment, what
overall CQ Action score did you receive?*
Overall CQ Action:__________
Did you rate yourself low, medium, or high compared
to others who have completed the CQ Self-Assessment?
(circle one)
Low Medium High
From what you’re learning about CQ Action in this chapter, are
you surprised by the results? Keep in mind that the self-assessment
is just one snapshot of your view of your CQ capabilities at a par-
ticular point in time. But it’s worth considering the results, given the
high level of reliability found in the assessment as used among indi-
viduals around the world.
In order to dig more deeply into your CQ Action, the invento-
ry also helps you assess your cultural understanding in three spe-
cific areas of CQ Action (nonverbal, verbal, and speech acts).
There has been extensive research examining the way these vari-
ous forms of behavior influence your interactions and work cross-
culturally.1 Write your scores for each of the following and note
the descriptions of these sub-dimensions:
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it by purchasing a print edition of this book.
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Nonverbal: _________
This is the extent to which you can comfortably adapt
your nonverbal behavior in cross-cultural situations
(e.g., gestures and facial expressions). A high score
means you’re very natural at adapting to appropriate
nonverbal behaviors, and a low score means it’s a strain
for you to flex your nonverbals.
Verbal: _________
This is the extent to which you modify your verbal
behavior in cross-cultural situations (e.g., accent, tone,
pronunciation, and of course language itself). A high
score means you naturally change the way you talk when
cross-cultural situations call for it, and a low score means
you rated this as something that doesn’t come naturally
to you.
Speech Acts: _________
This is the way you alter your communication to effectively
achieve a goal in a cross-cultural situation (e.g., the way
you provide critique, how you express gratitude, etc.).
A high score means you have a variety of ways you can
use words to effectively accomplish a goal in various
cultural situations. A low score means you don’t change
the overall ways you communicate, regardless of the
cultural context.
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These three sub-dimensions of CQ Action—nonverbal, verbal,
and speech acts—are the scientific bases for the strategies that fol-
low. You’ll see these sub-dimensions alongside the list of strategies
at the beginning of the next section. Not every strategy fits per-
fectly with a single sub-dimension, but the strategies have been
organized according to the sub-dimension with which they are
most closely associated. In this capability especially, there’s
tremendous overlap between the various strategies for CQ Action
and the specific sub-dimensions with which they’re associated.
Use your scores from the sub-dimensions of CQ Action to help
you pinpoint which strategies to use first (presumably the strate-
gies that go with the sub-dimension where you scored lowest).
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Nonverbal
Verbal
Speech Arts
IMPROVING YOUR CQ ACTION
The following section is a list of strategies to help you improve
your CQ Action. All these strategies are anchored in science and
research on intercultural behavior, and they stem from the three
sub-dimensions of CQ Action (nonverbal, verbal, and speech
acts). The point is not for you to use all these strategies right now.
There are many paths to increasing CQ Action. Start with a cou-
ple that interest you.
1. Develop a repertoire
of social skills.
2. Be an actor.
3. Make taboos taboo.
4. Use basic
vocabulary.
5. Try new vocal
sounds.
6. Slow down.
7. Put yourself in a
place of need.
8. Join a multicultural
team.
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1. DEVELOP A REPERTOIRE
OF SOCIAL SKILLS
I’ve continually said you don’t need to master all the practices and
taboos of every culture you encounter. You can’t. But it’s worth
developing a repertoire of various social skills and drawing on the
insights gained from CQ Knowledge and CQ Strategy to know
when and where you should use these various skills.
Look for cues on the basic manners expected in a culture,
many of which come down to nonverbal behaviors. How should
you greet people, and how does that vary if it’s someone with
higher “status” than you? What if it’s someone from the opposite
gender? What should you do with your hands and feet, and how
should you eat? Social etiquette is highly subject to cultural differ-
ences. Don’t worry about doing this perfectly. But pick up on the
different nonverbal behaviors used in various cultures and add
some to your repertoire.
This strategy can also be used to work on adapting your ver-
bal behavior and speech acts for various social occasions. For
example, you can develop a variety of back-pocket questions for
use in various cultures. In many African, Asian, and Latin
American cultures, questions about one’s extended family and
their origins can be very valuable. Learn how to talk about your
own family and background. In other contexts, inquiring about
one’s views of recent political events or even religious realities can
be effective (and can be very ineffective in other contexts—e.g.,
many Chinese or American associates would be very uncomfort-
able discussing this with someone they don’t know well).
One of the strategies for increasing your CQ Knowledge
(Chapter 4) was increasing your global awareness. This can help
here. When you’re aware of a recent event that’s happened in
someone’s country, it goes a long way to demonstrate respect and
understanding. If you’re visiting a place where they’ve just had a
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major victory in cricket or football, bring it up. You don’t have to
pretend you understand the game. In fact, a great way to demon-
strate your interest in the other person’s culture could be to ask for
a tutorial on the game. What major elections have recently
occurred that might influence the individuals you’re encounter-
ing? What economic realities have been occurring? Some aware-
ness and understanding of recent events and local concerns will
increase your effectiveness when interacting cross-culturally in
social interactions.
All of this broadens your repertoire of social skills. Eat a meal
with your hands, practice using a bow to greet someone, and talk
without having any expression on your face. This broadening of
your nonverbal behaviors and social skills will improve your abil-
ity to adapt your behavior when a cultural situation requires it.
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2. BE AN ACTOR
Try imitating the behaviors of someone else. Actors do this all the
time. They follow police officers or spend time in hospitals to try
to take on the attitudes, disposition, and concerns of the people
they are trying to portray in their acting roles. Most acting lessons
don’t focus on learning lines and projecting the voice nearly as
much as learning behavior. Good actors live in the world of imag-
ination and take on the thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and circum-
stances of the character in a way that seems authentic. There’s a
great deal we can learn from the acting world for CQ Action.
Acting schools often help individuals deal with accents and
dialects, too. Depending on the cultural intelligence of others with
whom you interact, your competency may be unfairly judged if
you consistently pronounce words differently from how they’re
pronounced by a particular group of people. Listen to how things
are said and see if you can imitate it.
A good actor gets into the skin of the character he’s portray-
ing. In a similar way, the more you can identify with the individ-
uals from various cultures, the better your ability to act like they
do. First, imagine yourself in the shoes of someone from a differ-
ent culture. Consider how you might see the world differently if
you had been born in India or Switzerland. How might your rela-
tionship with your parents be different? How about your educa-
tional experience or your religious perspective? Then try imitating
some of the behaviors you might use if you were from one of these
places. Be very cautious here. If we aren’t careful, mimicry can
seem like mockery. In real-life cross-cultural encounters, the best
approach isn’t always to imitate all the behaviors we observe. One
of the crucial parts of having enhanced CQ Action is knowing
when you should flex your behavior to mirror the behavior of oth-
ers and when you shouldn’t. That understanding grows with the
overall development of your cultural intelligence.
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The acting strategy here is less about what you do when you
actually interact cross-culturally and more of an action plan for
developing and enhancing your CQ Action “off-stage.” Behind the
scenes, respectfully practice the way you might negotiate a deal if
you were a “typical” businessperson from Beijing as compared to
Mexico City. Imitate the voice and style of someone you know.
The late sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that acting is
something we all do everyday. We continually perform in front of
others all day long, switching roles, costumes, and behavior,
depending on the audience. Goffman argued that in our acting in
everyday life, we strive to leave an impression that is as positive as
possible, working to avoid any missed lines or off-key notes that
can disrupt the entire performance.2
There will be times when learning to imitate the behaviors of
another culture will enhance our ability to interact. Some people
pick up cues and mimic quickly while others may need to practice
much longer. One of my favorite things to do when I travel with
my daughters is to hear them try to pick up the local language or
dialect. It’s fun to hear them repeat the sounds they hear. They do
a way better job than me of imitating the true local style. When
done respectfully and thoughtfully, mimicry can be a fun way to
work on growing CQ Action.
It would be inauthentic for Sana and Haani to abandon all of
their cultural background. But they could benefit by spending
some time at home imitating how the stereotypical Midwestern
couple in their stage of life would behave. This will help them
identify with the people they’re going to continually encounter in
Indianapolis.
Many actors have played very convincing roles without having
experienced anything close in real life to what they’re acting out on
stage or film. Acting professionals are ideal people to help us learn
to adapt our behavior and to thereby increase our CQ Action.
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3. MAKE TABOOS TABOO
Eliminate the behaviors that are most taboo in a culture you reg-
ularly encounter. Most people are forgiving of unintentional blun-
ders when it comes to cross-cultural behavior. But it goes a long
way when you avoid some of the basic offenses in the cultures you
most often encounter.
The many tips offered in some books about the colors you
should avoid or the inappropriate ways to greet people are help-
ful, but they can quickly become overwhelming. If you’re doing
extensive work with one culture, take the time to learn these spe-
cific things. However, most of us who move in and out of a lot of
different cultures should find out what the major taboos are for
cultures you most regularly encounter. Then keep your antenna up
to discover other taboos you should avoid.
For example, it’s a good rule of thumb to simply avoid hand-
ing people something with your left hand, since that’s a highly
offensive behavior in many cultures around the world. Avoid
extended eye contact with the opposite sex unless you’re certain
it’s appropriate for the individual and culture you’re encountering.
Pay attention to status and hierarchy, and let the person with high-
er status lead the way on the verbal and nonverbal interactions
you have.
Robert’s reference to the Christmas party could offend all
kinds of people who come from different religious backgrounds,
Sana included. Shaking her hand when they first met is also a
taboo for many Muslim women. Robert can’t be expected to
know all these things but will be a more effective leader if he
learns some of the basics and comes up with some behavioral
strategies to follow the lead of culturally different people he meets.
The bestselling book Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands is a great
resource to keep on your shelf.3 You can quickly look up the pro-
tocols for business and social interaction for more than sixty
countries. In many cases, you’ll be in the midst of a cross-cultural
encounter with no advanced warning so you can’t whip out a
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book and look up the taboos. Do the best you can, and then after-
ward, educate yourself and keep building your repertoire of
behaviors so that you know which taboos to avoid. Here are a few
taboos worth avoiding almost anywhere, since they are potential-
ly offensive in so many cultures.
• Never photograph or touch a religious symbol
(e.g., Buddha statute) without permission.
• Don’t use your left hand to give a person something.
• Don’t touch someone on the head.
• Don’t touch your feet or put them up on furniture.
• Don’t ask what someone’s income is.
• Don’t cuss or swear. What might seem innocent or
appropriate in your context might be offensive elsewhere.
• Never initiate touch with the opposite sex.
• Avoid telling jokes or trying too hard to be humorous.
It rarely translates cross-culturally.
• Avoid all ethnic slurs and jokes.
• Don’t assume someone shares your views about politics,
sexuality, religion, and so on.
Even this brief list plays out so differently in lots of places.
And most taboos are culturally specific. For example, some cul-
tures are very comfortable discussing age or personal income lev-
els, but there are so many places where it is considered taboo that
you’re safer just not going there unless the other individual does.
You can practice avoiding these behaviors even at home. If using
both hands equally is fine in your culture, try going this next week
without handing anyone anything with your left hand. Then pick
another behavior that might not be offensive at home but try
avoiding it for a week, just for practice.
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4. USE BASIC VOCABULARY
Language is a strategy that cuts through all four CQ capabilities,
but it’s most relevant to CQ Knowledge (studying a language) and
CQ Action (using the language). There’s no substitute for being
fluent in a language to have the utmost effectiveness interacting,
but that simply isn’t possible for all the cultures we encounter.
For the cultures we most frequently encounter where we don’t
speak the language, many of the day-to-day issues and needs can
be communicated with a core set of phrases and body language.
This minimal vocabulary approach is very useful when you don’t
speak the language. Here’s a list of crucial phrases worth learning
to speak in other languages:
• Please
• Thank you
• Sorry
• Yes
• No
• Good
• Not good
• Hello
• Goodbye
• How much and too much (these two, used with a calculator
or a piece of paper for writing numbers, are especially
helpful when you’re shopping)
• Come here
• Go there
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• Doesn’t work (used in combination with pointing or
handing)
• The word for your favorite beverage (water, beer, Coke)
• The word for something common to eat (rice, fish, meat,
noodles)
• The word for a place to sleep (bed, room, hostel)
• Toilet
It’s so much easier to speak a word or phrase than a complete
sentence, and these words cover a lot of ground. For example,
“Doesn’t work,” serves a multitude of situations. When you’re
in your hotel room, point to the empty toilet paper holder—
”doesn’t work” means there is no toilet paper and you want some.
On the train, point to the train ticket and say, “Doesn’t work,”
and the conductor will find your seat or compartment. At the
laundry, point to the missing button and say, “Doesn’t work,” and
someone will help you.4
I try to learn these phrases when I travel, no matter how short
my visit. And if I can’t learn them, I write them down and keep
them with me. Learning a language is the key to getting a grip on
a culture—but this strategy is better than nothing.
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5. TRY NEW VOCAL SOUNDS
Language is the most significant part of our verbal behavior, but
there are other important verbal actions to consider adapting, too.
Most of us use a variety of vocalizations as part of our communi-
cation, probably without even realizing it.
For example, in the midst of conversation, many of us use
fillers like “hmm,” “uh-huh,” clicking your tongue, or sucking in
your breath. Or it might be the simple repetition of a word like
“right,” “got it,” “sure, sure,” or “can.” Pick one of these that
you use all the time and try eliminating it during a conversation.
Or choose one you don’t often use and try it out.
Another way to use this strategy is to think about your volume
when you speak. How can you vary your volume to express dif-
ferent meanings? In many cultures, loud talking means power and
authority and soft implies you lack confidence. Of course, it might
mean just the opposite in another culture. For now, the purpose of
this strategy is to just become comfortable with varying your vol-
ume when you talk. Try it during interpersonal conversations as
well as in public speaking and see what occurs. Robert, like many
African American men in the corporate context, has learned to
soften his natural volume to avoid being perceived as a threaten-
ing, “angry black man.”
Even when the same language is spoken, such as English,
there’s a great deal of variety in how words are pronounced. There
are many variations in the way English is spoken in Australia as
compared to India or Canada. And many differences exist even
within the same countries, such as the varied dialects heard across
the United Kingdom or throughout regions of the United States.
There are also some important differences that exist among
English speakers, such as the way consonants are pronounced. For
example, the United States usually uses a very hard “r” as com-
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pared to many English-speaking regions that use a much softer
“r.” Think of the way park is pronounced in New York vs. in
Singapore. As insignificant as this might seem, strong assumptions
can be formed about you based on these kinds of verbal behav-
iors. Try using a variety of verbal approaches to expand your
options when you interact with someone from a different culture.
You’ll need to use the other capabilities of CQ to know whether
you should actually adjust your pronunciation, but at least work
on being able to do so if and when the situation calls for it.
Even though Sana and Haani have grown up in the United
States, they’re a real combination of their parents’ Middle Eastern
cultures and the mainstream American culture. Ensuring that
Haani is comfortable with Robert would be an important value to
many individuals coming from an Arab American culture. The
phone conversation between Robert and Sana is awkward because
cross-cultural differences are often felt more profoundly with the
absence of any visual cues. Many Americans (myself included!)
find it difficult to talk to someone when there are no verbal
sounds to indicate that they’re tracking with you (e.g., “uh-huh”).
But individuals from many cultures find that kind of verbal behav-
ior rude and distracting. Over time, you’ll gain a broadened reper-
toire of social skills that you can draw on for a variety of cross-
cultural interactions.
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6. SLOW DOWN
I have two speeds: fast and faster. So this is a hard strategy for
me. But I’ve learned the value of slowing down to enhance my
CQ Action. A slower, more rhythmic pace allows us to deepen
our insights and to simultaneously become more effective among
the many individuals and cultures that aren’t nearly as concerned
with efficiency and accomplishment as people like me are.
Effectively adjusting our behavior is more likely to happen when
we slow down.
This particularly applies to our rate of speech. You may need
to practice speaking more slowly and deliberately when interact-
ing cross-culturally. Don’t go overboard. We’re not talking about
speaking really loudly and slowly to someone from another cul-
ture. That’s insulting. But when interacting with people whose
dialect is different from ours or for whom our language isn’t their
primary language, we need to slow down our rate of speech. It’s
excruciatingly painful for me to speak slowly, particularly when
I’m giving a presentation about something where I have a great
deal of passion. But a simple way to enhance our CQ Action is to
slow things down a bit. Not only does it enhance our effectiveness
in the moment, but it also strengthens our overall CQ.
For many of us, our lives are predicated on an irrational com-
pulsion for speed — we rush to work, we rush through meals, we
multitask when we’re hanging out with friends. This might make
our lives feel more streamlined, but it doesn’t make our lives hap-
pier or more fulfilling. Unless you learn to pace and savor your
daily experiences (even your work commutes and your noontime
meals), you’ll be cheating your days out of small moments of
leisure, discovery, and joy. And a constant, frenetic pace impedes
an ability to adapt accordingly in the various cultural situations
we encounter.
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7. PUT YOURSELF IN
A PLACE OF NEED
Suzanne, an American expatriate working in France, discovered
the importance of how she framed a request when she’d go shop-
ping in Paris. Suzanne was fluent in French, but that didn’t miti-
gate the challenges she felt in communicating. Early on during her
sojourn in France, she couldn’t seem to get beyond her perception
that French people disliked Americans in general. Whenever she
asked for something specific of a shopkeeper, such as, “Where can
I find the lipstick?” she received a curt, abrupt response. One day,
a French friend suggested, “Try starting with something like this
when you walk into the store: ‘Could you help me with a prob-
lem?’ And if they say ‘Yes’—which they more than likely will—
then ask for help finding the lipstick.” Suzanne tried it and could-
n’t believe how it seemed to change the disposition of the people
waiting on her compared to her previous approach. She was now
posturing herself as someone in need rather than coming in and
making demands. She began to apply the same kinds of strategies
with her colleagues and subordinates at work. She was amazed
how this simple adjustment altered the way her requests were
received.
Try to learn how to say the following in the language used in
places you travel: “I’m sorry. I don’t speak _________. Do you
speak English?” The primary reason for this phrase is to posture
yourself as one in need, rather than one making a demand. Think
about how differently this communicates than when we just
march up and ask, “Does anyone here speak English?” After all,
if you’re in Thailand, why should they speak English? You’re the
guest. Even a small effort to demonstrate that you realize it’s your
ignorance that’s putting you at a disadvantage rather than vice
versa goes a long way in motivating others to help you.
Here are a few examples to get you started. There are several
online tools that can help you with the pronunciation, such as
http://www.forvo.com/languages.
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Arabic
Ana aasaf. La atakellem al’arabiyya. Hel tatakellem
alingleeziyya?
Cantonese
Um-ho-yee-see. Ngo-umsick-gong-gwong-dung-wa.
Nay sick-um-sick gong yingmun.
Dutch
Ik betreur. Ik maak je geen woord Nederlands. Denkt u
maar Engels spreken?
German
Es tut mir leid. Ich spreche kein Deutsch. Sprechen
Sie Englisch?
French
Je, suis désolé. Je ne parle pas de français. Parlez-vous
l’anglais ?
Hindi
Maaf karein. Main Hindi nahin jaanta. Kya aap Angrezi
jaante hain?
Italian
Mi dispiace. Io non parlo italiano. Lei parla inglese?
Japanese
Gomen nasai. Nihongo shaberaremasen.
Ego shaberaremasuka?
Mandarin
Dui bu qi. Wo bu hui shuo Pu Tong Hua. Ni hui shuo
Ying yu ma?
Portuguese
Sinto muito, mas não falo Português. Você fala Inglês
Spanish
Perdón. No hablo español. ¿Habla Usted inglés?
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Worst case, even saying the phrase in English, “I’m sorry, I
don’t speak _________. Do you speak English?” is much better
than just blurting out, “Do you speak English?”
Simply understanding some basic shifts in language can make
all the difference in achieving our objectives, whether it’s to pur-
chase lipstick or to launch a full-orbed initiative.5
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8. JOIN A MULTICULTURAL TEAM
Many of the strategies throughout each of these chapters are bet-
ter accomplished when they include the perspective of other indi-
viduals. Surrounding yourself with other people can help you
think better, and it enables you to see situations differently by
looking through the eyes of others. For example, it’s difficult to
reframe circumstances realistically all by ourselves (a strategy
from Chapter 5). But with the help of peers from various cultures,
it’s easier to do so. Collaborative efforts are most beneficial when
they include culturally diverse members.
When you work with people from various cultures, you begin
to observe a lot of the variations that exist in speech acts—the way
you communicate. Whether it be apologies, expressions of grati-
tude, making requests directly or indirectly, knowing how to say
“no” and how to respond when someone offers to “pay the bill,”
these are all things best learned through hands-on experiences in
multicultural groups. Seek out experiences to work on projects
that involve doing so with people from various cultures. Notice
how differently each of you on a multicultural team approach
conflict, make requests, apologize, compliment each other, and so
on. And as you gain trust with each other, discuss some of these
differences and ask questions such as, “What’s the best response
when someone won’t let me pay the bill at a restaurant?” Then
ask someone else. This will help you become more adaptable for
a variety of cultural contexts.
Join or convene a group or team made up of individuals from
a diversity of cultural backgrounds. Individuals who are part of
multicultural teams are more likely to have higher CQ Action than
those who are simply part of homogenous teams.6 Culturally
diverse groups offer you the opportunity to observe the behavior
of culturally different individuals in the same context.
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The challenge with this strategy is that most adults gravitate
toward people like them. We usually seek friends with similar
tastes, beliefs, and interests. But in doing so, we miss out on so
much. As you pursue relationships with individuals who see the
world differently than you do, you have a profound edge in grow-
ing your CQ Action.
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BACK AT THE OFFICE
A little effort from both Robert and Sana to adapt their behavior
could make their interactions much less awkward and provide a
greater degree of clarity in their communication with each other.
This is difficult during any cross-cultural interaction, but it’s par-
ticularly hard over the phone, where nonverbal cues can’t be direct-
ly observed. Robert’s off-handed comment about Sana helping him
add to the diversity mix at the office is primarily meant as a joke
and as a way of lightening up their conversation, but humor rarely
works cross-culturally, especially through telecommunication.
It’s a tricky balance because if Robert overcompensates for
how he thinks he should communicate to Sana given her different
cultural background, it could be insulting to her. But thinking
about how his words and talkative style might impact the way
Sana hears him would be advantageous for both of them.
Sana doesn’t have to use all kinds of vocalizations (“uh-huh,”
“sure” “yeah”) if that’s uncomfortable for her. But she should
understand that many U.S. professionals lean upon these kinds of
cues to demonstrate understanding, so some way of offering feed-
back would enhance her communication with Robert.
In an increasingly diverse workplace, Robert should be sensi-
tive about referring to a company gathering as a “Christmas
party.” But Sana may also need to realize that he might not be
intentionally trying to offend her or asking her to deny her faith
simply by calling the holiday party a Christmas party. Notice that
we want to see both individuals adapt some aspects of their behav-
ior rather than assuming the responsibility is fully on one of them.
It’s risky for Robert to use such a direct approach with the
Middle Eastern executives, particularly when asking whether he
should be concerned about dishonesty and corruption. At face
value, it appears it didn’t harm the negotiations, but only time will
tell whether the company feels like the question brought shame
upon them and eroded trust. A little effort to adapt our behavior
will allow us to be more effective, honorable, and respectful.
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Nonverbal
Verbal
Speech Arts
INCREASING YOUR CQ ACTION
Cultural blunders are inevitable, and most people are pretty for-
giving of someone not knowing exactly how to behave in a culture
that isn’t their own. But an intentional effort to adapt and flex in
ways that enhance understanding and cooperation will go a long
way in helping us succeed in multicultural situations.
Identify two strategies you can begin using to enhance your
CQ.
❑ 1. Develop a repertoire
of social skills.
❑ 2. Be an actor.
❑ 3. Make taboos taboo.
❑ 4. Use basic
vocabulary.
❑ 5. Try new vocal
sounds.
❑ 6. Slow down.
❑ 7. Put yourself in a
place of need.
❑ 8. Join a multicultural
team.
Which one will you try first? When?
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PART III
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The previous four chapters were devoted to drilling down into
very specific ways to improve the four capabilities of CQ. But I
want to conclude with a big-picture view of cultural intelligence
and its associated strengths for helping you succeed.
The concluding material highlights several key strengths
embedded in the cultural intelligence approach. You’ll see how
many organizations are leveraging these strengths, including an
air transport company, a youth travel organization, a university,
and the Canadian military. Finally, there are some concluding
exercises to help you pull together your action plan for improving
your CQ.
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C H A P T E R 7
THE POWER OF CQ
I’m an eternal optimist. I believe anyone can change. And I’m driv-
en by the crazy idea that the world can truly become a better
place. This isn’t blind idealism. I’ve seen it happen again and
again—one interaction at a time—as people discover that “differ-
ent” doesn’t have to equal threatening or bad.
First and foremost, I’ve seen this in myself. I’ve moved from a
pretty myopic perspective on the world to a broadened apprecia-
tion for diversity. Some of the changes have come slowly and
painfully and others more quickly and easily. And our research on
cultural intelligence has proven that everyone can improve their
CQ. Granted, increased CQ comes more easily to some than oth-
ers. But a desire to increase your CQ, combined with a plan to use
some of the strategies covered in the last several chapters, is
proven to strengthen your CQ. And increased CQ allows each of
us to make the world a better place.
The skeptics roll their eyes. People have been feuding forever.
Tribalism and ethnocentric behavior are common vices across all
people and times. But humanity also has an unusual track record
for changing history. CQ is rooted in the fundamental belief that
people can change. You. Me. Everyone.
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The power of CQ lies in its ability to foster transformation.
There are several strengths associated with the overall nature of
cultural intelligence. Let’s take a closer look at them.
INTEGRATION
One of the most significant discoveries from our research on CQ
is the importance of all four capabilities. One without the others
can derail you. I’ve encouraged you to focus on the CQ capabili-
ty where you scored lowest on the CQ assessment. But eventual-
ly, we have to get back to thinking about all four capabilities
together because excessive attention on one CQ capability at the
expense of others may actually result in increased cultural igno-
rance. All four CQ capabilities are interrelated.
If you have a deep understanding of cultural differences (high
CQ Knowledge), it doesn’t mean you can apply your knowledge
to developing an effective plan (CQ Strategy). Or if you’re very
confident in your ability to work in a different culture (high CQ
Drive), but have very little cultural understanding (CQ
Knowledge), your confidence could actually get you into trouble
rather than helping you.
Here’s how this might look practically. A traveling business-
woman with high CQ Drive and Action might fully engage in a lot
of hands-on experiences as she travels across cultures—seeing the
sights, eating the local foods, and exploring things off the beaten
path. However, without high CQ Knowledge and Strategy, she
won’t fully learn from these experiences because she lacks the
observational skills and conceptual understanding to transform
her experience into knowledge that can guide her in future cross-
cultural encounters. In a similar way, someone with high CQ
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Knowledge and Strategy who lacks CQ Drive may gain cultural
insights through books and observations but refrain from seeking
real interactions that provide more holistic experiences and deep-
er learning that can be applied to future interactions and work.1
The good news is, given the interrelationship of the four CQ
capabilities, by giving attention to one, you may simultaneously
enhance another. For example, gaining a stronger understanding
of cultural differences via CQ Knowledge can help you feel more
in control by learning more about the culture. The planning that
is part of CQ Strategy also helps you develop a sense of control
and equilibrium. And the repertoire of behaviors gained through
CQ Action gives you more options for how to engage with a
diversity of individuals. Gaining some control over your circum-
stances in cross-cultural situations will enhance your CQ Drive—
and quite possibly, the other CQ capabilities, too. The four dis-
tinct yet integrated capabilities of CQ are a crucial part of the CQ
difference.
PROGRESSION
Another strength lies in the developmental nature of cultural intel-
ligence. CQ isn’t a static or fixed capability. It’s based on the
premise that our capabilities in cultural intelligence are continual-
ly morphing and progressing. The four capabilities don’t always
develop in one particular order. It can be helpful, however, to
think about them as four steps toward enhanced overall cultural
intelligence. The most likely progression of the four CQ capabili-
ties is shown in Figure 7-1.
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Figure 7-1 CQ capability progression.
Step 1: CQ Drive gives us the energy and self-confidence
to pursue the needed cultural understanding and planning.
Step 2: CQ Knowledge provides us with an understanding
of basic cultural cues.
Step 3: CQ Strategy allows us to draw on our cultural
understanding so we can plan and interpret what’s going
on in diverse contexts.
Step 4: CQ Action provides us with the ability to engage
in effective flexible leadership across cultures.
Then it’s back to Step 1. As others respond to our behavior,
the cycle starts over. Our experiences (CQ Action) shape our moti-
vation (CQ Drive) for future interactions.
The four-step cycle is something that can be applied at a
macro level in thinking through your overall development in CQ.
Or it’s a cycle you can run through on the fly when preparing for
a cross-cultural encounter. For example, imagine Sana using this
prior to her first interview with Robert:
Step 1: CQ Drive
What’s my motivation for adapting to the culture of
Indianapolis, this company’s culture, and the culture of
my potential boss? (In part—to get a job!)
Step 2: CQ Knowledge
What do I need to know about these cultures? (e.g., What’s
their experience with Arab Americans? What’s the dominant
religious subculture here?)
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Step 3: CQ Strategy
What’s my plan? (e.g., What questions should I ask?
How can I dispel the assumptions that might be made
about me as a Muslim?)
Step 4: CQ Action
Can I adapt accordingly? (Should I shake Robert’s hand?
How should I respond to the question of how long I’ve
lived in the United States?)
A company can also use this four-step process to think about
a firm-wide initiative. Robert’s company can use it to think about
the potential acquisition by the Middle Eastern company:
Step 1: CQ Drive
What’s our motivation for understanding Middle Eastern
culture?
Step 2: CQ Knowledge
What do we need to understand about the cultures involved
to make a decision?
Step 3: CQ Strategy
What’s our negotiating plan in light of the cultural
differences?
Step 4: CQ Action
How should we adapt while still retaining our core values
as a company?
This four-step progression of developing CQ is the primary
way I apply CQ to leaders in my book Leading with Cultural
Intelligence. Nobody ever “arrives” at perfect CQ. It’s an ongoing
journey. But as we continue to work through these four steps in
lots of different scenarios, adapting to various cultural situations
will become more natural.
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TENSION
Intercultural work is full of paradox and contradiction. An abili-
ty to hold things in tension is absolutely essential for effective
adaptation cross-culturally.
• Be yourself. Adapt to local cultures.
• Retain your brand. Adjust to local tastes.
• Fight corruption. Respect cultural norms.
• Unify your team. Embrace diversity.
• We’re all the same. We’re all different.
The cultural intelligence model not only allows for holding
contradictions in tension but also creates a way to lean into the
insights and opportunities that can be created by tension. Tension
is something we often resist, but tension doesn’t have to be bad.
Think about your favorite movies. They inevitably involve stories
with some sort of trouble and conflict for various characters that
needs to be resolved. Tension makes stories more interesting and
forces creativity. In multicultural settings, tension often develops
as people from various cultures and perspectives become inter-
twined. This can derail a project and relationship or it can be the
very thing that enriches it. CQ draws on the strengths of tension
as a creative force for innovation.
The growth of multiculturalism and globalization brings us
rising levels of complexity and nuance. The ability to hold tension
is absolutely essential. Fundamentalism—strict adherence to one’s
view of the world as the only right way—is essentially a refusal to
live in tension. It’s an unwillingness to even consider a different
perspective, much less reformulate one’s view. In contrast, a cul-
turally intelligent posture holds in tension a commitment to per-
sonal values and beliefs with an appreciation and respect for
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other’s values and beliefs, even when they conflict with your own.
And this is more than just tolerance. It will probably mean accom-
modating for some shifts in your personal values and beliefs.
As noted several times, CQ includes yet transcends the tradi-
tional intercultural approaches that emphasize comparing people
from different national cultures. These simplistic generalizations
of how people behave based on their countries of origin can be
helpful but must be held loosely in order to see each individual in
light of who they are personally. CQ promotes this kind of com-
plex thinking, which is “evoked by situations where two contra-
dictory statements may be both true or where a statement may be
true and not true at the same time, or when formal logic remains
insufficient.”2
The culturally intelligent individual holds in tension the assets
and liabilities of hierarchical, top-down leadership vs. egalitarian,
flat leadership models. He or she appreciates the strengths and weak-
ness of love marriages vs. arranged marriages. Both approaches can
be positive and both can become negative. CQ allows us to hold
polarities in tension rather than simply trying to reduce or dismiss
the tension. CQ will help you embrace the tension of the opposites.
REFLECTION
To a strong degree, the power of CQ also lies in its use of reflec-
tive thinking. Over the last several years, a great deal has been
made about harnessing the power of reflection. Just as a mirror
allows us to adjust our external appearance, reflecting on our
thoughts and experiences is a key way of adjusting our internal
assumptions and behaviors. Reflection is a skill that helps us
structure meaning around our experiences. As human beings, we
can’t stop thinking. Every moment is filled with all kinds of
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impressions. As we sort through the barrage of impressions that
come our way daily, we order some into the background and bring
others into sharper focus. This occurs through reflective thinking.
Donald Schon is one of the foremost experts on the role of
reflection in the workplace. Schon looked at how professionals
think in the course of their everyday work. In his study of the way
architects, psychotherapists, engineers, town planners, and man-
agers operated on the job, he describes the process as reflection-
in-action.
Professionals can’t just problem solve. They also have to do
problem setting. Problem solving asks, “How do we build this?”
Problem setting asks, “What is the right thing to build?” The goal
isn’t just to find answers, but to form hypotheses that help explain
a problem in the first place. This is a highly generative activity that
requires a synthesis of reflection and action (another tension!).
Problem setting is unlikely to come on the fly but only through the
kind of reflective discipline elevated by the CQ approach.
Reflective practice is most strongly connected to CQ Strategy—
learning how to interpret observations and plan in light of them.
But it’s woven throughout the overall CQ model as well.
CQ highlights the importance of reflection before and after an
intercultural encounter and reflection in the midst of the encounter.
Schon argues that alongside reflection-in-action, there is also a
place for ancillary, outside-of-practice learning that enhances a
practitioner’s capacity to think in doing.3 Working and relating in
multicultural contexts requires solving unexpected problems with
unpredictable solutions. We need to learn to reflect in the midst of
action and create space to step aside from our constant movement
to contemplate, reflect, and prepare for future action.
Many of our twenty-first-century cultures place little value on
slowing down to take the time to reflect, particularly in the busi-
ness context. But cultural intelligence is integrally connected to a
disciplined effort to reflect in the midst of and outside of our fren-
zied multicultural work.
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INSPIRATION: SUCCESS STORIES
One of the things I love about being part of the cultural intelli-
gence movement is the variety of inspiring individuals and orga-
nizations I get to encounter. One day I’m working with a large
pharmaceutical company that is wrestling with how its increasing-
ly global operation fits with its conservative, Midwest U.S. roots.
The next day I’m with the U.S. Department of Justice thinking
about how CQ helps it promote justice and apprehend enemies
without perpetuating ethnic stereotypes. And yet another day I’m
interacting with a charitable organization working in Haiti.
I have little interest in academic research that doesn’t make a
difference in the world. But individuals and organizations around
the world are using the findings from CQ research to improve
their lives and to make the world a better place. Entrepreneurs,
teachers, parents, and artists are incorporating CQ into their
work. Colleen, a business coach, finds that CQ is the ideal com-
plement to the psychological tools she uses to help expats assimi-
late into a new culture (or to reenter their own culture when they
get back home).
Rising Indian rock star Wilbur Sargunaraj is using his concert
platforms to inspire and teach fans about CQ so that they not only
tolerate different cultures but embrace cultural differences and
learn from them. Habib, a CEO of a multimillion-dollar Middle
Eastern firm, is using CQ to improve the way his company does
mergers and acquisitions. Florence, a relief and development work-
er in South Africa, has described CQ as the single greatest learning
tool she’s encountered to help her work successfully with cultural-
ly diverse NGOs and her fellow Africans across southern Africa.
Thousands of organizations around the world share inspiring
reports of how CQ is helping them in a variety of ways, including
human resource policies, marketing initiatives, negotiation prac-
tices, and new business opportunities. But the most inspiring suc-
cess stories come from organizations that are integrating CQ all
throughout their work. Many groups are doing so but here are a
few specific examples.
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The International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is headquar-
tered in Geneva and Montreal, but its personnel represent 140 dif-
ferent nationalities and work in 74 countries. IATA is the primary
voice of the airline industry to government and media. It provides
technical support and training to the 230 airlines that are mem-
bers of IATA. Despite the international breadth of IATA’s staff and
work, the corporate ethos of the organization has traditionally
been biased toward Western ideas and practices, with limited
appreciation of important fast-growing markets in other parts of
the world. IATA faces the same problems many other organiza-
tions around the world have faced:
• How do we operate in markets we don’t fully understand?
• Where do we find leaders able to grow local business,
communicate with headquarters, and manage local teams
effectively while implementing global processes, initiatives,
and strategies?
The traditional solution to these problems has been to send
out experts from the corporate headquarters (Western expats) to
set up and manage branch offices around the world. In more
recent years, companies are sending Singaporean-born Chinese or
British-born Indians to work in places like China and India
because of a belief that managers with this kind of bicultural
background can uniquely bridge both worlds.
IATA has taken a different approach by developing what it
calls the I-Lead Program—Intercultural Leadership Engagement
and Development. Each year, IATA’s top management team selects
twenty high-potential individuals from its workforce to be in I-
Lead. Half the group are from traditional markets like Western
Europe and North America with individualistic and low power-
distance national cultures. The other half are from emerging mar-
kets that feature collectivist and high power-distance cultures such
as China and India.4
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Each of the twenty I-Lead participants is paired up with one
other person in the group to co-lead a team of junior, high-potential
employees in different locations and work on a real-life business
project that is relevant to IATA. Essentially, ten IATA teams around
the world are being co-led by one Western and one non-Western
leader who work extensively on a set of deliverables in addition to
their regular job responsibilities. Each pair of participants is
assigned one senior executive as sponsor and one as coach to sup-
port and guide them along this program. At the end of the six-
month period, the teams present their project results and cross-
cultural lessons learned to IATA’s top executive team. The business
innovations that have emerged from this program have translated
into increased profitability for IATA and its member airlines. Have
you noticed the move away from “swiping” your boarding pass
when you board the plane to scanning bar codes—a more efficient
way to board passengers and collect the necessary data? Airlines
and airports around the world are implementing bar code boarding.
This idea emerged from an I-Lead project.
All the I-Lead participants meet together from around the world
for one week at the beginning of the program and again at the end.
The launch workshop is held in an important emerging market and
is attended by the CEO. Everyone participates in a CQ Multi-Rater
Assessment, which includes both a self-assessment of their CQ
capabilities and assessment by a select number of coworkers and a
supervisor. When they come together, they receive their feedback
report and talk about how to interpret the findings. And they expe-
rience a week of experiential learning about culture and its impact
on how they lead on behalf of IATA around the world. In addition
to pairing up with another I-Lead participant to manage a team
together, each participant will be teaching cultural intelligence to
their project team back at their home office, which, in turn,
enhances the degree to which they internalize the material.
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Guido Gianasso, IATA’s vice president of Human Capital,
reports that this program has been one of its most profitable lead-
ership development initiatives. A recently completed empirical
study on the more than 200 past I-LEAD participants supports the
conclusion that the program has significantly improved all four of
their CQ capabilities. The program has helped IATA build bridges
across different cultures and has played a direct role in the growth
of the business in emerging markets.
Canadian Armed Forces
Military leaders have been discussing the importance of cultural
understanding and adaptability as long as any group has. But the
Canadian military’s experience in Afghanistan is playing a key
role in its renewed focus on the importance of culture and CQ.
The Canadian Forces are integrating CQ throughout their opera-
tional, strategic, and tactical imperatives. Defense researcher and
retired Lieutenant-Commander Karen Davis writes, “CQ is an
essential contributor to the ability to determine adversarial intent;
to work effectively across joint, interagency, multinational and
public domains (JIMP), to access and exercise whole of govern-
ment (WOG) approaches, and to negotiate the demands of inter-
related defence, diplomacy, and development (3D) objectives.”5
A great deal of CQ is needed by the coalition forces working
in Afghanistan. For example, many Afghan village women are
seen only by their family members. They rarely leave their homes,
and when they do, they cover their faces so no man except their
husband can see them. So when male coalition soldiers march into
villages and barge into homes to search for explosive devices,
there’s little cooperation—not to mention a huge insult and
offense to the locals.
Canadian Forces are changing this approach. When possible,
female soldiers go into the village to form bonds with the women
and children. They talk to them about education and explain how
the coalition effort will provide opportunity for Afghan children
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to go to school and have opportunities rather than joining up with
insurgency armies. In describing this experience, Canadian
Corporal Melissa Gagnon said, “The [Afghan women] actually
smiled when we came in. It seems like there may not have been
women [soldiers] here before.”6 When female soldiers aren’t avail-
able, their male counterparts are talking with village men first so
that the Afghan women have time to cover their faces before the
men come into their homes to do searches.
This more culturally intelligent strategy treats the Afghans
with respect and dignity. And it’s also a more successful strategy
in terms of the military mission. But it doesn’t stop here. As noted
by Karen Davis, “The development of CQ across the Canadian
Forces is dependent upon reflection, dialogue, continuous learn-
ing, lessons learned, and most importantly, the application of
adaptable and innovative critical analyses to cultural challenges
and dilemmas.”7
People to People
The People to People movement was begun in 1956 by U.S.
President Dwight Eisenhower, who believed that direct interaction
between ordinary citizens around the world could promote cultur-
al understanding and world peace. Today, Eishenhower’s mission
is carried out by People to People Student Ambassadors and the
People to People Ambassador Programs. More than 400,000
Americans have traveled with People to People Ambassador
Programs to seven continents around the world. The organization
focuses primarily on using educational travel to develop cultural
intelligence and social consciousness in children and adolescents.
Youth travel on People to People delegations led by classroom
teachers who volunteer their time because of their commitment to
nurture CQ in youth. They believe CQ will enhance young peo-
ple’s opportunities personally and their ability to make the world
a better place.
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Cultural understanding and engagement have been core values
for People to People Ambassador Programs long before CQ
became a formalized concept. For over fifty years, the organiza-
tion has been a leader in doing educational travel in a socially con-
scious way. Today, the executives at the company are integrating
the CQ research and model into their work from top to bottom.
They don’t believe that sending individuals overseas automatical-
ly translates into improved CQ. Instead, they intentionally design
the program to enhance CQ:
• The process begins with a careful selection process in light
of a young person’s motivation for traveling abroad
(CQ Drive).
• Next, leaders and delegates are prepared through a series of
online and in-person training modules (CQ Knowledge).
• Leaders then prepare their delegates by giving them journals
and providing specific prompts to help them become more
aware of and alert to cultural differences (CQ Strategy).
• Itineraries are developed with the use of a local guide to
think about how to best behave while interacting with
the various cultures encountered (CQ Action).
As well as rooting the overall program and experience in this
developmental approach, each day of a delegation’s itinerary
incorporates these elements as well. For example, a group prepar-
ing to visit the Vatican will consider the following:
• What’s our motivation for learning more about the Vatican
(CQ Drive)?
• What do we need to learn before we go and while we’re
there (CQ Knowledge)?
• How should we plan to behave? To what should we remain
alert (CQ Strategy)?
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• What behavior should we adapt in order to respect the cul-
tural norms (CQ Action)?
People to People Ambassador Programs look at how CQ
informs their programs. In addition, the leadership is using it
throughout the organization as a whole. Individuals in the program
office are being assessed and trained in cultural intelligence, students
who participate in the overseas trips are being assessed in CQ before
and after they travel, and the educators who lead the trips are being
trained in how to maximize the educational trips as a way to
enhance the CQ of students over the long haul. In addition, the com-
pany supports an online forum, www.societyforglobalcitizens.com/,
to foster ongoing interaction about issues related to cultural intelli-
gence and global citizenship long after a trip abroad.
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Nanyang Technological University (NTU), a leading research uni-
versity in Singapore, is often referred to as the MIT of the East. It’s
no surprise that the business school has integrated teaching and
assessment of CQ throughout its undergraduate and graduate
programs, given that some of the leading researchers of CQ teach
there. Undergraduate students in the business school work togeth-
er in multicultural teams, assess one another’s CQ, and create a
plan for developing their CQ in the areas where they need it most.
MBA students at Nanyang Business School travel abroad on
short-term study missions to places like Vietnam or Ireland. The
students are paired up with classmates from different cultures (an
easy task given the diversity at the university), and they’re tasked
with setting up meetings with businesses based in the country
they’ll visit. They have a series of assignments to apply CQ as they
encounter multinational firms, and they develop a long-term CQ
development plan for themselves and their work in business. The
business school draws heavily on CQ assessments to show accred-
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iting bodies like the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business (AACSB) how the university’s programs enhance stu-
dents’ global competency.
Nanyang Business School’s commitment to cultural intelli-
gence is one of the things attributed to putting it among the top
hundred business schools in the world and among the top ten
schools in the region.8 CQ is being adopted at other schools and
departments of the university as well. Singapore’s National
Institute of Education is based at NTU and is equipping the
nation’s teachers with CQ as a key set of capabilities needed for
twenty-first-century classrooms. And plans are under way for
every incoming freshman to take a course in CQ. Additional
expressions of CQ exist throughout the administration of the uni-
versity and in numerous other departments.
* * *
Hundreds of other individuals and organizations are incorpo-
rating the findings of CQ into their work. Large companies such
as Bank of America, Barclays, and IBM, government agencies such
as the U.S. Department of Justice and the Swiss legislature, univer-
sities such as University of Minnesota, Georgetown, and Stanford,
and charitable organizations such as the Red Cross and World
Vision are just a few of the organizations tapping into the benefits
associated with the CQ difference.
APPLICATION
The greatest strength of CQ lies in its application to our lives, rela-
tionships, and work in today’s global, interdependent world. I
have little interest in ideas that don’t actually go anywhere.
Throughout the book, I’ve been encouraging you to identify
where you’ll begin work to improve your CQ. Use the following
questions to give you an overview of your CQ action plan.
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CREATING YOUR CQ ACTION PLAN
Leverage Your Strengths
Circle your strongest CQ capability (based on your scores from
the CQ Self-Assessment):
CQ Drive CQ Knowledge
CQ Strategy CQ Action
How can you leverage this strength?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
What can you do next week to tap into this strength?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Manage Your Weaknesses
Circle your weakest CQ capability (based on your scores from
the CQ Self-Assessment):
CQ Drive CQ Knowledge
CQ Strategy CQ Action
What can you do next week to address this weakness?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
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Strategies to Improve Your CQ
We’ve reviewed the following strategies for improving your CQ.
Circle the one or two strategies you’ll begin using
immediately.
Put an * next to the strategies you’ll come back to in four
to six weeks.
CQ Drive
1. Face your biases.
2. Connect with
existing interests.
3. Scare yourself.
4. Visualize success.
5. Reward yourself.
6. Recharge your
batteries.
7. Maintain control.
8. Travel.
CQ Strategy
1. Notice; don’t respond.
2. Think widely.
3. Focus deeply.
4. Journal.
5. Plan social interactions.
6. Manage expectations.
7. Create checklists.
8. Reframe a situation.
9. Test for accuracy.
10. Ask better questions.
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CQ Knowledge
1. Study culture up close.
2. Google smarter.
3. Improve your global
awareness.
4. Go to the movies
or read a novel.
5. Learn about cultural
values.
6. Explore your cultural
identity.
7. Study a new language.
8. Seek diverse
perspectives.
9. Recruit a CQ coach.
CQ Action
1. Develop a repertoire
of social skills.
2. Be an actor.
3. Make taboos taboo.
4. Use basic vocabulary.
5. Try new vocal sounds.
6. Slow down.
7. Put yourself in a place
of need.
8. Join a multicultural team.
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MOVING FORWARD
We can’t navigate today’s globalized world using old maps. And it
won’t help to simply update the names and colors of our old
maps. They were made for a different world. CQ gives us a new
map for navigating the terrain of today’s globalized world.
The CQ map includes some familiar features of previous maps
such as learning about cultural values and studying a new lan-
guage. But CQ transcends those features. Cultural intelligence is
an integrative, progressive approach that prepares us for an
onslaught of multicultural twists and turns. CQ calls us to be
authentically true to our personal and organizational values while
also learning to respect, defer, and learn from the values and con-
cerns of others.
To improve your cultural intelligence is to embark on seeing
the world in a whole new way. It’s at times painful and even fear-
invoking, but the rewards are well worth it. It’s amazing what
happens when we’re willing to move beyond our differences to see
one another first and foremost as human beings. Then, from our
common bond as humans, we can learn from our differences.
That’s the power of CQ. That’s the CQ difference.
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The world has forever changed. Will you change with it? Will you
be an agent of change? Or will you resist with despair, burnout, and
exhaustion? Together—as we work hard to enhance our cultural
intelligence—we can be catalysts for the most unlikely connections.
* * *
Imagine a liberal politician and a Tea Party activist engaging
in respectful dialogue.
Imagine a Jewish family sharing a holiday getaway with a
Palestinian family.
Imagine a CEO working with a hip-hop artist to reduce world
hunger.
Imagine an ACLU advocate joining an evangelical pastor to
promote justice.
* * *
Tolerance isn’t enough. We have to move toward each other.
We have to transcend and include our differences to collaborative-
ly make the world a better place.
When you move toward people of difference while still
remaining true to yourself, something powerful happens.
Suddenly, you can’t go along with the conversations at your fam-
ily reunion about “those Muslims,” the problem with “all the
Chinese,” or those “idiotic liberals” or “greedy conservatives.”
The simplistic categories of “us” vs. “them” won’t work anymore,
and that’s good for all of us!
We’ve never had more opportunities to encounter people who
see and experience the world differently than we do today.
Embrace it. And discover the possibilities of seeing the world in a
whole new way.
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The One-Year Performance Review
Neither Robert nor Sana can believe they’ve been working together
for a year now. Sana isn’t very anxious about her performance review
because she senses that Robert is very pleased with her work and she
enjoys working with him. Haani isn’t happy that she often brings work
home, but he’s grateful Robert and his wife, Ingrid, recently agreed
to come have dinner with them. Who would have thought that Robert
and Ingrid would be joining Sana and Haani as they break their
Ramadan fast?
Robert and Ingrid are still as active and engaged in their Christian
church as they were a year ago. But they find themselves more
unnerved these days when they hear harsh, dogmatic statements
made about Muslims—whether it be at church, on the news, or sitting
in the soccer stands. Sana and Haani found a mosque where they go
for their weekly Friday prayers, but there’s something about Robert
and Ingrid’s unconventional approach to religion (at least through
Sana and Haani’s eyes) that’s endearing to them.
Instead of selling the business unit to the Middle Eastern company,
Robert’s firm did a merger with the company. In just six months’ time,
it’s become the most profitable line of business. Sana has been
indispensable to the company in helping it interpret various e-mails that
come in from the Middle Eastern partners. And Robert helps Sana
understand some of what Haani is experiencing at the pharmaceutical
company. Together, they’re improving each others’ lives, families,
and the work of their company.
I look forward to seeing how your own multicultural experi-
ences, combined with improving your CQ, have a similar effect on
you, me, and the rest of the world. I’d love to hear your experi-
ences. Visit me online at www.davidlivermore.com and share with
me and others what you’re learning about the CQ difference.
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NOTES
Preface
1. Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, “Conceptualization of Cultural
Intelligence” in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory,
Measurement, and Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 10.
2. For those who care about such things, I’ve used the terms cross-cultural,
intercultural, and multicultural synonymously throughout the book.
Although technically cross-cultural traditionally refers to “two cultures
interacting” and intercultural and multicultural refer to “multiple cul-
tures interacting,” I find it helps to use the terms interchangeably for this
kind of writing.
Chapter 1: CQ for You
1. Siobhan Roth, “World Travelers,” National Geographic July 2006, 25.
Admittedly, there are some individuals who get more than one tourist
visa in a year; therefore, 1 billion is a rough estimate. But there are also
others who move across borders without getting a tourist visa. So 1⁄6 still
seems like a fair estimate of the number of people in the world traveling
internationally each year.
2. Claudia Deutsch, “GE: A General Store for Developing World,”
International Herald Tribune, July 18, 2005, 17.
3. Less Christie, “CNN, Census: U.S. Becoming More Diverse,”
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/14/real_estate/rising_minorities/index.htm
(accessed May 21, 2009).
4. Giovanni Bisignani, “Improved Profitability—But Europe Still Lags in
the Red,” International Air Transport Authority, http://www.iata.org/
pressroom/pr/Pages/2010-09-21-02.aspx., September 19, 2010.
5. David Livermore, “Globalization Trends,” a technical report created
for the Global Learning Center, Grand Rapids, MI: September 2008.
6. Cheryl Tay, Mina Westman, and Audrey Chia, “Antecedents and
Consequences of Cultural Intelligence Among Short-Term Business
Travelers,” in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement,
and Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 141.
7. Thomas Ruckstuhl, Ying-yi Hong, Soon Ang, and Chi-Yue Chiu,
“The Culturally Intelligent Brain: Possible Neuroscience Foundation
of Global Leadership,” Neuroleadership Journal (forthcoming).
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http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2010-09-21-02.aspx
http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2010-09-21-02.aspx
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http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/14/real_estate/rising_minorities/index.htm
8. Gary Ferraro, The Cultural Dimension of International Business, 5th Ed.
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2006), 12.
9. Aimin Yan and Yadong Luo, International Joint Ventures: Theory and
Practice (Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2001), 32.
10. Soon Ang, Linn Van Dyne, and Mei Ling Tan, “Cultural Intelligence,”
in Robert J. Sternberg and Scott Barry Kaufman, eds. Cambridge
Handbook of Intelligence (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
(forthcoming).
11. Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, “Conceptualization of Cultural
Intelligence,” in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory,
Measurement, and Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 10.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Soon Ang, Linn Van Dyne, C. Koh, K. Y. Ng, K. J. Templer, C. Tay, and
N. A. Chandrasekar, “Cultural Intelligence: Its Measurement and Effects
on Cultural Judgment and Decision Making, Cultural Adaptation, and
Task Performance,” Management and Organization Review 3 (2007):
335–371.
15. L. Imai and M. J. Gelfand, “The Culturally Intelligent Negotiator: The
Impact of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) on Negotiation Sequences and
Outcomes,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
112: 83–98.
16. Grant McCracken, Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living,
Breathing Corporation (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 148.
17. Soon Ang, Linn Van Dyne, and Mei Ling Tan, “Cultural Intelligence.” In
Robert J. Sternberg and Scott Barry Kaufman, eds. Cambridge
Handbook of Intelligence (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press
(forthcoming).
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Cheryl Tay, Mina Westman, and Audrey Chia, “Antecedents and
Consequences of Cultural Intelligence Among Short-Term Business
Travelers” in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement,
and Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 126ff.
21. David Livermore, “The Results of Cultural Intelligence,” technical report
for the Global Learning Center, Grand Rapids, MI, 2009.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Elie Wiesel, Dawn (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), vii.
191NOTES
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26. Ken Wilbur, Boomeritis: A Novel That Will Set You Free (Boston,
Shambhala, 2002), 15.
27. Henry Cloud, Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality
(New York: Collins, 2006), 242.
Chapter 2: Research Brief
1. Milton Bennett, “Towards Ethnorelativism: A Developmental Model
of Intercultural Sensitivity,” in R. Michael Paige, ed., Education for
the Intercultural Experience (Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1993)
21–71; Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the
Mind (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997); and Fons Trompenaars and
Charles Hampden-Turner, Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding
Diversity in Global Business (New York: McGraw Hill, 2000).
2. M. J. Gelfand, L. Imai, and R. Fehr, “Thinking Intelligently About
Cultural Intelligence: The Road Ahead,” in S. Ang and L. Van Dyne,
eds., Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and
Applications (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 375.
3. Soon Ang, Linn Van Dyne, and Mei Ling Tan, “Cultural Intelligence,”
in Robert J. Sternberg and Scott Barry Kaufman, eds. Cambridge
Handbook of Intelligence (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press
(forthcoming).
4. J. D. Mayer and P. Salovey, “What Is Emotional Intelligence?” in
P. Salovey and D. Sluter, eds., Emotional Development and Emotional
Intelligence: Educational Applications (New York: Basic Books, 1997),
3–31.
5. R. Thorndike and S. Stein, “An Evaluation of the Attempts to Measure
Social Intelligence,” Psychological Bulletin 34 (1937): 275–285.
6. R. J. Sternberg, and R. J. Wagner, “Practical Intelligence,” in R. J.
Sternberg, ed., Handbook of Intelligence (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2000), 380–395.
7. Chris Earley and Soon Ang, Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions
Across Cultures (Stanford, CA: Stanford Press, 2003).
8. R. J. Sternberg and D. K. Detterman, eds., What Is Intelligence?
Contemporary Viewpoints on Its Nature and Definition (Norwood,
NJ: Ablex, 1986).
9. R. J. Sternberg, “A Framework for Understanding Conceptions of
Intelligence,” in R. J. Sternberg and D. K. Detterman, eds., What Is
Intelligence? (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1986), 3–18.
10. Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS), East Lansing, MI: Cultural Intelligence
Center, LLC, 2005.
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192 NOTES
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11. S. Ang, L. Van Dyne, C. K. S. Koh, K. Y. Ng, K. J. Templer, C. Tay, and
N. A. Chandrasekar, “Cultural Intelligence: Its Measurement and Effects
on Cultural Judgment and Decision Making, Cultural Adaptation,
and Task Performance, Management and Organization Review 3 (2007):
335–371.
12. S. Ang, L. Van Dyne, and M. L. Tan, “Cultural Intelligence,” in R. J.
Sternberg and S. B. Kaufman, eds. Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
13. S. Ang, L. Van Dyne, C. Koh, K. Y. Ng, K. J. Templer, C. Tay, and N. A.
Chandrasekar, “Cultural Intelligence: Its Measurement and Effects on
Cultural Judgment and Decision-Making, Cultural Adaptation, and Task
Performance,” Management and Organization Review 3, (2007): 340.
Chapter 3: CQ Drive
1. Linn Van Dyne and Soon Ang, “The Sub-Dimensions of the Four-Factor
Model of Cultural Intelligence,” Technical Report. Cultural Intelligence
Center, 2008.
2. M. Goh, J. Koch, and S. Sanger, “Cultural Intelligence in Counseling
Psychology,” in Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, eds., Handbook of
Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications (Armonk,
NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 41–54; Ibraiz Tarique and Riki Takeuchi,
“Developing Cultural Intelligence: The Role of International Nonwork
Experiences,” in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory,
Measurement, and Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 260,
264.
3. Soon Ang, Linn Van Dyne, and Mei Ling Tan, “Cultural Intelligence,”
in Robert J. Sternberg and Scott Barry Kaufman, eds. Cambridge
Handbook of Intelligence (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
(forthcoming).
4. David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction,
Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long (New York:
Harper Collins, 2009), 65.
5. Klaus Templer, C. Tay, and N. A. Chandrasekar, “Motivational Cultural
Intelligence, Realistic Job Preview, Realistic Living Conditions Preview,
and Cross-Cultural Adjustment,” Group & Organization Management
31, 1 (February 2006): 157.
6. Rock, 66.
7. G. Latham and E. Locke, “Employee Motivation,” in Julian Barling and
Cary Cooper, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Behavior,
Volume I, Micro Approaches (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2009), 320.
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8. E. Berkman and M. D. Lieberman, “The Neuroscience of Goal Pursuit:
Bridging Gaps Between Theory and Data,” in G. Moskowitz and H.
Grant, eds. The Psychology of Goals (New York: Guilford Press, 2009),
98–126.
9. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1997).
10. Rock, 36.
11. Ellen Langer, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of
Possibility (New York: Ballantine Books, 2009), 112–115.
12. Amy Arnsten, Prefrontal Cortical Networks, http://info.med.yale.edu/
neurobio/arnsten/Research.html (accessed January 13, 2010).
13. David Rock, “Managing with the Brain in Mind,” Strategy and Business
(Autumn 2009), 56, http://www.strategy-business.com/article/ 09306?
gko=5df7f&cid=enews20091013.
14. L. M. Shannon and T. M. Begley, “Antecedents of the Four-Factor
Model of Cultural Intelligence,” in Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne,
eds., Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and
Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 41–54. And Ibraiz
Tarique and Riki Takeuchi, “Developing Cultural Intelligence:
The Role of International Nonwork Experiences,” in Handbook of
Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications (Armonk,
NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 56.
15. Efrat Shokef and Miriam Erez, “Cultural Intelligence and Global
Identity in Multicultural Teams,” in Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, eds.,
Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and
Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 180.
16. Cheryl Tay, Mina Westman, and Audrey Chia, “Antecedents and
Consequences of Cultural Intelligence Among Short-Term Business
Travelers,” in Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, eds., Handbook of Cultural
Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E.
Sharpe, 2008), 126–144; S. Ang, L. Van Dyne, C. Koh, K. Y. Ng, K. J.
Templer, C. Tay, and N. A. Chandrasekar, “Cultural Intelligence: Its
Measurement and Effects on Cultural Judgment and Decision Making,
Cultural Adaptation, and Task Performance,” Management and
Organization Review 3 (2007): 335–371; L. M. Shannon and T. M.
Begley, “Antecedents of the Four-Factor Model of Cultural Intelligence,”
Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, eds., Handbook of Cultural Intelligence:
Theory, Measurement, and Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe,
2008), 41–55.
17. You Jin Kim and Linn Van Dyne, “A Moderated Mediation Model of
Intercultural Contact and Work Overseas Potential: Implications for
Selection and Development of Global Leaders” (paper presented at the
194 NOTES
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http://www.strategy-business.com/article/09306?gko=5df7f&cid=enews20091013
www.amanet.org
http://info.med.yale.edu/neurobio/arnsten/Research.html
http://info.med.yale.edu/neurobio/arnsten/Research.html
annual international meeting for the Society for Industrial Organization
Psychology, Atlanta, Georgia, April 8–10, 2010); Kevin Groves,
“Leader Cultural Intelligence in Context: Testing the Moderating
Effects of Team Cultural Diversity on Leader and Team Performance”
(paper presented at the annual international meeting for the Society for
Industrial Organization Psychology, Atlanta, Georgia, April 8–10, 2010).
Chapter 4: CQ Knowledge
1. Lee Yih-teen, Aline D. Masuda, and Pablo Cardona, “The Interplay
of Self, Host, and Global Cultural Identities in Predicting Cultural
Intelligence and Leadership Perception in Multicultural Teams” (paper
presented at the annual international meeting for the Society for
Industrial Organization Psychology, Atlanta, Georgia, April 8–10, 2010).
2. Linn Van Dyne and Soon Ang, “The Sub-Dimensions of the Four-Factor
Model of Cultural Intelligence,” Technical Report. Cultural Intelligence
Center, 2008.
3. Terrence Linhart, “They Were So Alive: The Spectacle Self and Youth
Group Short-Term Mission Trips” (paper presented at the North
Central Evangelical Missiological Society Meeting, Deerfield, IL,
April 9, 2005), 7.
4. Edna Reid Ph.D., Intelligence Gathering for Cultural Intelligence
(Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, April 2009).
5. P. C. Earley, C. Murnieks, and Elaine Mosakowski, “Cultural Intelligence
and the Global Mindset,” Advances in International Management,
Volume 19 (New York: JAI Press, 2007), 75–103.
6. Daisann McLane, “Moved by the Movies,” National Geographic
Traveler (July–August 2010), 12.
7. In particular, see Chapter 5 of David Livermore, Leading with Cultural
Intelligence (New York: AMACOM, 2010) for more.
8. Several of these values stem from Geert Hofstede’s work. Visit
http://www.geert-hofstede.com/ to get the ratings for various cultures.
For one of the most complete overviews on cultural value dimensions,
see R. J. House. P. J. Hanges, M. Javidan, P. W. Dorfman, and V. Gupta,
Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62
Societies (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2004).
9. Edward Hall, Beyond Culture (New York: Anchor Books, 1981), 39.
10. P. Kay and W. Kempton, “What Is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?”
American Anthropologist 86, no. 1 (1984): 65–79. And John Carroll,
Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin
Lee Whorf (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1964), 212–214.
195NOTES
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11. President Barack Obama, University of Michigan graduation speech,
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, May 1, 2010.
12. Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures (Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural
Press, 1990), 72.
13. Joyce Osland and Allan Bird, “Beyond Sophisticated Stereotyping:
Cultural Sensemaking in Context,” Academy of Management Executive
14, no. 1 (2000), 73.
Chapter 5: CQ Strategy
1. Linn Van Dyne and Soon Ang, “The Sub-Dimensions of the Four-Factor
Model of Cultural Intelligence,” Technical Report, Cultural Intelligence
Center, 2008.
2. R. Desimone and J. Duncan, “Neural Mechanisms of Selective, Visual
Attention,” Annual Review of Neuroscience 18 (1995): 193–222.
3. Grant McCracken, Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living,
Breathing Corporation (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 119–120.
4. Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram (New York: St. Martins Griffin,
2003), 105.
5. T. F. Pettigrew, “The Ultimate Attribution Error: Extending Allport’s
Cognitive Analysis of Prejudice,” Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin 5, no. 4 (1979): 461–476.
6. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, ReWork: Change the Way
You Work Forever (London: Vermilion, 2010), 74.
7. David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction,
Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long (New York:
Harper Collins, 2009), 212.
8. Adapted from mindfulness measures developed by Kirk Warren Brown
and Richard M. Ryan, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/measures/maas_description.php.
9. Rock, 94.
10. Ibid., 89.
11. William Weeks, Paul Pedersen, and Richard Brislin, A Manual for
Structured Experiences for Cross-Cultural Learning (Yarmouth, ME:
Intercultural Press, 1977), xv.
12. M. F. Mason, M. I. Norton, J. D. Van Horn, D. M. Wegner, S. T.
Grafton, and C. N. Macrae. “Wandering Minds: The Default Network
and Stimulus-Independent Thought,” Science 315 (2007): 393–395.
13. Van Dyne and Ang.
14. Rock, 147.
196 NOTES
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15. Robert Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (New York: Free
Press, 1968), 319.
16. K. Templer, C. Tay, and N. A. Chandrasekar, “Motivational Cultural
Intelligence, Realistic Job Preview, Realistic Living Conditions Preview,
and Cross-Cultural Adjustment,” Group & Organization Management
31, no. 1 (February 2006): 168.
17. Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009).
18. K. N. Ochsner, R. D. Ray, J. C. Cooper, E. R. Robertson, S. Chopra, and
J. D. D. Gabrieli, “For Better or For Worse: Neural Systems Supporting
the Cognitive Down and Up-Regulation of Negative Emotion,”
Neuroimage 23, no. 2 (2004): 483–499.
19. M. D. Lieberman, N. I. Eisenberger, M. J. Crockett, S. M. Tom, J. H.
Pfiefer, and B. M. Way, “Putting Feelings into Words: Affect Labeling
Disrupts Amygdala Activity in Response to Affective Stimuli,”
Psychological Science 18, no. 5 (2007): 421–428.
20. Van Dyne and Ang.
21. Six Sigma Financial Services, “Determine the Root Cause: 5 Whys,”
http://finance.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020610a.asp (accessed
16 August 2007).
Chapter 6: CQ Action
1. Linn Van Dyne and Soon Ang, “The Sub-Dimensions of the Four-Factor
Model of Cultural Intelligence,” Technical Report, Cultural Intelligence
Center, 2008.
2. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York:
Anchor Books, 1959).
3. See Terri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway, and George A. Borden, Ph.D.,
Bow, Kiss, or Shake Hands (Mishawaka, IN: Bob Adams Inc., 1994).
4. Cynthia Beath, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, University of Texas, introduced
me to the seventeen famous phrases concept; personal communication,
May 2, 2009.
5. Originally reported in my book Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your
CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,
2008), 115.
6. Efrat Shokef and Miriam Erez, “Cultural Intelligence and Global Identity
in Multicultural Teams,” in Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, eds.,
Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and
Applications (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008), 177–191.
197NOTES
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Chapter 7: The Power of CQ
1. Kok-Yee Ng, Linn Van Dyne, and Soon Ang, “From Experience to
Experiential Learning: Cultural Intelligence as a Learning Capability
for Global Leader Development,” Academy of Management Learning
& Education 8, no. 4 (2009): 511–526.
2. Elizabeth Liebert, Changing Life Patterns: Adult Development in
Spiritual Direction (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2000), 121–122.
3. Donald Schon, Educating the Reflective Practitioner (San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1987).
4. Ben Bryant and Karsten Jonsen, “Cross-Cultural Leadership: How to
Run Operations in Markets We Don’t Understand,” Switzerland: IMD
Business School, October 2008.
5. Karen D. Davis, ed., Cultural Intelligence and Leadership: An
Introduction for Canadian Forces Leaders (Kingston, Ontario: Canadian
Defence Academy Press, 2009), x.
6. “Frontline Females: Unlocking The World of Afghan Women,”
International Security Assistance Force Public Affairs Office, Afghanistan
(January 21, 2010), http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/frontline-
females-unlocking-the-world-of-afghan-women.html (accessed July 2,
2010).
7. Davis, x.
8. Which MBA? The Economist Online (October 14, 2009),
http://www.economist.com/business-education/whichmba/displaystory
.cfm?story_id=14536868 (accessed July 2, 2010).
198 NOTES
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http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/frontlinefemales-unlocking-the-world-of-afghan-women.html
http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/frontlinefemales-unlocking-the-world-of-afghan-women.html
http://www.economist.com/business-education/whichmba/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14536868
http://www.economist.com/business-education/whichmba/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14536868
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, thanks to the students and clients around the globe whose
feedback and questions gave birth to this book. Just about the
time I think I’ve exhausted what there is to say about cultural
intelligence, your questions and ideas push me to see that there’s
so much more ground to cover.
And thanks to the many individuals who read early drafts of
this manuscript. Your encouragement, suggestions, and, most of
all, critiques made this a much more worthwhile piece. Thanks
especially to Soon Ang, Steve Argue, Brad Griffin, Scott Matthies,
Colleen Mizuki, Kara Powell, Elena Steiner, and Linn Van Dyne.
Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, it’s a joy to call you friends as
well as professional partners and colleagues. I ride on the coattails
of your ruthless commitment to rigorous research. And thanks to
the many other academic colleagues around the world who are
advancing the study and application of cultural intelligence into
new frontiers.
Christina Parisi, thanks for another round of publishing
together. You and the rest of the team at AMACOM are such a joy
to work with. And the fact that you personally embrace these
ideals is deeply rewarding to me.
Andrew and Lynn, Tandy, Steve, Jen, Rob, and Kristen—
thanks for nurturing my soul and believing in me regardless of
how this book ever does.
Linda, Emily, and Grace: Your love alone would be enough.
But the fact that you so fully join me in the cause of making the
world a better place is icing on top. I love you.
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
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RESOURCES
FROM THE CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER, LLC
The Cultural Intelligence Center (CQC) is dedicated to assessing
and developing cultural intelligence worldwide.
• CQ Assessments: CQC offers a variety of customized
assessments for assessing and developing CQ. Current
offerings include the CQ Multi-Rater Assessment (360°)
and CQ assessments specifically developed for workplace
settings, study abroad trips, short-term mission groups,
faith-based work, and age-specific groups. CQC also offers
the Individual Cultural Values Inventory.
• CQ Certification Programs: Get certified to use the CQ
Multi-Rater Assessment (360°) in your organization or
as a consultant with other clients.
• CQ Research: CQC conducts ongoing research on CQ
and is interested in collaborating with other researchers
in the field.
• CQ Consulting and Training: CQC offers public workshops
on CQ and works with organizations to provide customized
consulting and training sessions for their employees and
constituents.
* * *
Visit www.CulturalQ.com for more information about these
offerings.
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
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www.CulturalQ.com
www.amanet.org
accuracy, test for, 134–135
acting, 151–152
adaptability, 144
“Advanced Search” in Google, 83
Afghanistan, 180–181
Africa, 84
air-travel revenue, 4
alertness, fear and, 52
ambiguity, 13, 117
Americans, lack of global
“consciousness, 85
Ang, Soon, 23, 28
Arnsten, Amy, 62
art museums, 80–81
assumptions, risk of, 99
Australia, 89, 91
Austria, 92–93
autonomy, 62
awareness, 107
Awareness sub-dimension, 112–113
BBC news, 85
behavior, 28–29, 141
CQ Knowledge and, 73–74
see also CQ Action (behavior)
being, vs. doing, 92–93
Bennett, Milton, 22
biases, facing, 49–50
brain
ambient, neural activity, 124
intercultural experiences and, 6
loss of control and, 62
Brazil, 89, 91, 92–93
Brown, Kirk, 121
burnout, 16
business, protocols for, 153
Business (Legal and Economic Systems)
sub-dimension, 75
Canada, 89, 92
Canadian Armed Forces, 180–181
case study, 65–66
CQ Action and, 142–143, 153,
158, 165
CQ Drive and, 42–43
CQ Knowledge and, 70–72, 93,
97, 103–104
CQ Strategy and, 108–109, 110,
116, 125, 127, 138
performance review, 189
categorizing people, 188
category width, 117
celebrations, attending, 79
change, 169, 188
Checking sub-dimension, 112–113
checklists, 130–131
Chile, 90–91
China, 4, 84, 89
cognition, 28–29
see also CQ Knowledge
(cognition)
collaboration, 163
collectivism, vs. individualism, 89
communication, 92
competitiveness, vs. cooperativeness,
90–91
competitive edge, from enhancing CQ,
11–19
confidence, 41
connecting with existing interests, 51
context, 92
control, maintaining, 62–63
cooperation, vs. competition, 90–91
coping ability, 132
corporate profitability, 18
CQ (cultural intelligence)
appearance of, 8–11
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CQ (cultural intelligence)
(continued)
beginnings, 26–28
benefits of increasing, 11–19
defining, 3
developmental nature of, 171–173
importance, 21–22
measurement, 29–31
vs. other approaches to cultural
competence, 32–33
power of, 169–189
as success predictor, xi
what it is, 5–7
CQ Action (behavior), 7, 141–166
assessing, 145–147
case study, 142–143, 153,
158, 165
in CQ capability progression,
172–173
importance of, 144
improving, see CQ Action
(behavior) improvement
strategies
increasing, 166
self-assessment score, 37
sub-dimensions, 146–147
CQ Action (behavior) improvement
strategies, 148–164
acting, 151–152
basic vocabulary, 155–156
multicultural team, 163–164
place of need, 160–162
slowing down, 159
social skills repertoire, 149–150
taboos, 153–154
CQ Action Plan, creating, 185–186
CQ coaching, 101–102
CQ Drive (motivation), 7, 41–67
assessing, 45–47
case study, 42–43
improving, see CQ Drive
(motivation) improvement
strategies
in CQ capability progression,
172–173
increasing, 67
self-assessment score, 37
significance of, 44–45
sub-dimensions, 46–47
CQ Drive (motivation) improvement
strategies, 48–66
connecting with existing
interests, 51
facing biases, 49–50
maintaining control, 62–63
recharging batteries, 59–61
rewarding yourself, 57–58
scaring self, 52–54
travel, 64–66
visualizing success, 55–56
CQ Knowledge (cognition), 7,
69–105
assessing, 74–76
behavior and, 73–74
case study, 70–72, 73–74, 93, 97,
103–104
improving, see CQ Knowledge
(cognition) improvement
strategies
in CQ capability progression,
172–173
increasing, 105, 139
self-assessment score, 37
CQ Knowledge (cognition)
improvement strategies, 77–104
CQ coaching, 101–102
cultural identity exploration,
95–97
culture study up close, 78–81
Google searches, 82–83
increasing global awareness,
84–85
language study, 98
learning about cultural values,
88–94
literature and film, 86–87
seeking diverse perspectives,
99–100
CQ Multi-Rater Assessment, 30
CQ Self-Assessment, 6–7, 30
202 INDEX
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accessing, 36
CQ Action, 145–147
CQ Drive, 45–47
CQ Knowledge, 74
CQ Strategy, 111–113
preparation for taking, 35–36
results interpretation, 36–38
CQ Strategy (meta-cognition), 7,
107–139
assessing, 111–113
case study, 108–109, 110, 116,
125, 127, 138
in CQ capability progression,
172–173
importance, 110–111
improving, see CQ Strategy
(meta-cognition)
improvement strategies
self-assessment score, 37
CQ Strategy (meta-cognition)
improvement strategies, 114–137
asking better questions, 136–137
checklists, 130–131
expectations management,
128–129
focusing deeply, 120–122
journaling, 123–125
noticing without response,
115–116
reframing situation, 132–133
social interactions, 126–127
test for accuracy, 134–135
thinking widely, 117–119
CQS (Cultural Intelligence Scale), 29
cross-cultural, 190n2
cross-cultural adjustment, 12–14
cross-cultural demands, energy for,
59–61
cultural broker, 101–102
cultural contexts, capability of
functioning in variety of, xi
cultural hatred, problems from, 19
cultural identity, 95–97
cultural ignorance
career implications, 53
impact of, 52
Cultural Intelligence (Earley), 26, 27
Cultural Intelligence Center, 30
Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS), 29
cultural knowledge, 23
cultural situations, adapting to, 3
cultural values, learning about, 88–94
culture study, 78–81
cultures, influence of, 95
Dairy Association, marketing
campaign, 9–10
Davis, Karen, 180, 181
decision making, 15
Detterman, D. K., 27
differences, response to, 8
distractions, internal, 124
diverse perspectives, seeking, 99–100
diversity, 169
employee response to training, 44
doctrine of necessity, 116
doing, vs. being, 92–93
Earley, Christopher, 24
Cultural Intelligence, 26, 27
The Economist, 85
emotional intelligence (EQ), 21, 25
energy, regaining, 59–61
English language, variations, 157
ethnic organizations, celebrations
by, 79
ethnocentrism, 96
evidence-based meta-model, 32
expectations management, 128–129
Extrinsic CQ Drive sub-dimension, 46
eye contact, 153
fear, as motivator, 52
Filipino culture, 134
film, 86–87
first impressions, 49
flexibility, 62
focusing deeply, 120–122
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food, 60, 79–80
Fried, Jason, 119
Friedman, Thomas, The World
Is Flat, 4
fundamentalism, 174
Gagnon, Melissa, 181
Gawane, Atul, 130
General Electric, growth estimates, 4
Gianasso, Guido, 180
global awareness, 149–150
increasing, 84–85
global consciousness, 23
global leadership effectiveness, 16
globalization, 4
goals, rewards for reaching, 57
Goffman, Erving, 152
Google Scholar, 83
Google searches, 82–83
grocery stores, 79
Hall, Edward, 22, 24, 97
Hansson, David Heinemeier, 119
Harvard, 50
Harvard Business Review, 26
hatred, cultural, 19
high CQ
example, 10
progression from low CQ, 8–9
Hofstede, Geert, 22, 24
Hong Kong, 90
hospitals, with high CQ leadership, 10
human resource managers, with
high CQ, 10
humor, 165
Hungary, 90–91
I-Lead Program, 178–180
implicit association tests, 50
independence, 62–63
India, 89
Individual Cultural Values
Inventory, 94
individualism, vs. collectivism, 89
inspiration, 177–184
integration, 170–171
intelligence, complementary factors,
28–29
intelligence research, 25, 27
and CQ, 5
intercultural, 190n2
intercultural research, 24
intercultural understanding, 69
internal distractions, 124
International Air Transport Association
(IATA), 178–180
Internet searches, 82–83
Interpersonal sub-dimension, 75
Intrinsic CQ Drive sub-dimension, 46
IQ, and performance, 21
Israel, 89, 92
Japan, 84, 90
jet lag, 59
“jingle and jangle” fallacy, 22
job performance, 14–16
jokes, 154
Jordan, 89
journaling, 123–125
judgmental response, avoiding, 115
Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands, 153
language study, 98
basic vocabulary, 155–156
new vocal sounds, 157–158
Leadership sub-dimension, 76
Leading with Cultural Intelligence
(Livermore), 173
learned capabilities, 32
learning, from others, 53
left-hand use, 153
Linhart, Terry, 78
literature, 86–87
Livermore, David, Leading with
Cultural Intelligence, 173
204 INDEX
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low CQ
example, 9–10
progression to high CQ, 8–9
McCracken Grant, 15–16, 115
McLane, Daisann, 87
mental health, caring for, 59
Merton, Robert, 129
meta-cognition, 28–29, 110
see also CQ Strategy
(meta-cognition)
Mexico, 92
Middle East, immigration office paper-
work, 72
Mindful Attention Awareness
Scale, 121
mindfulness, 120
mission trips, participation in
international, 4
motivation, 28–29, 41
bases of, 46
see also CQ Drive (motivation)
movies, 86–87
multicultural, 190n2
multicultural team, 163–164
mutual understanding, 19
Nanyang Technological University
(NTU; Singapore), 183–184
need, coming from place of, 160–162
negotiations across cultures, 15
Netherlands, 90–91
networking, 15
disconnecting for recharging
self, 60
news sources, different perceptions
from, 100
nonverbal signals, 98
Nonverbal sub-dimension, 146–147
North Americans, participation in
international mission trips, 4
noticing without response, 115–116
novels, 86–87
Obama, Barack, 100
One World (Singer), 4
organizational charts, 89
People to People movement, 181–183
people watching, 78
performance on job, 14–16
perseverance, 44
personal well-being, 16–17
personality, 32–33
place of need, 160–162
Planning sub-dimension, 112–113
power distance, 89–90
power of CQ, 169–189
application, 184
inspiration: success stories,
177–184
integration, 170–171
progression, 171–173
reflection, 175–176
tension, 174–175
practical intelligence, 25
problem setting, 176
problem solving, 5, 176
profitability, 18
progression, 171–173
pronunciation, web resources on, 160
protocols, for business and social
interaction, 153
questions, asking better, 136–137
reflection, 175–176
reframing situation, 132–133
Reid, Edna, 82
religious symbols, 154
research
beginnings, 22–29
continuing, 31
intercultural, 24
respect, 19
rewards, 57–58
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right or wrong, 117–119
risk, 90
Roberts, Gregory David,
Shantaram, 116
Rock, David, 128
Russia, 90
Ryan, Richard, 121
Saudi Arabia, 92
scaring self, 52–54
Schon, Donald, 176
Schwartz, Shalom, 22, 24
search engines, 82–83
Self-Efficacy CQ Drive
sub-dimension, 46
Shantaram (Roberts), 116
Singapore, 84
Singer, Peter, One World, 4
sleep, 59
slowing down, 159
social etiquette, 144, 149
social intelligence, 25
social interactions, 126–127
protocols for, 153
social skills, 21, 149–150
socialization process, 49
Socio-Linguistics sub-dimension, 75
South Korea, 91
speech, rate of, 159
Speech Acts sub-dimension, 146–147
stereotypes, 70
Sternberg, R. J., 27
Storti, Craig, 101
stress, 16–17, 62, 133
subcultures, 93
sub-dimensions, scores for, 37–38
success, visualizing, 55–56
success stories, 177–184
Sweden, 92–93
taboos, 153–154
teachers, with high CQ, 10
team, multicultural, 163–164
technology, disconnecting for recharg-
ing self, 60
tension, 174–175
thinking widely, 117–119
time orientation, 91
tourist visas, 4
travel, 64–66
travelers, ability to adjust to cultural
norms, 27–28
Trompenaars, Fons, 22, 24
uncertainty avoidance, 90
United Kingdom, 90
United States, 89, 91, 92–93
children, 4
“us” versus “them,” xiii
Verbal sub-dimension, 146–147
vocabulary
learning basic, 155–156
volume when speaking, 157
web resources, 85
Individual Cultural Values
Inventory, 94
on pronunciation, 160
Why questions, 136–137
Wiesel, Elie, 19
Wilbur, Ken, 19
workforce, cultural diversity in, 65
world, view of, xii–xiii
The World is Flat (Friedman), 4
206 INDEX
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
www.amanet.org
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Livermore, Ph.D., is a thought leader in cultural intelligence
and global leadership. He’s president and partner at the Cultural
Intelligence Center in East Lansing, Michigan, and a visiting pro-
fessor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He’s
worked with leaders in business, government, and charitable
organizations in a hundred countries. He’s written several books
on global issues and cross-cultural engagement, including Leading
with Cultural Intelligence. He and his wife, Linda, live with their
two daughters in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
American Management Association • www.amanet.org
207
www.amanet.org
- COVER
- PART I: AN INTRODUCTION TO CQ
- PART II: STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE YOUR CQ
- PART III: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1 CQ FOR YOU
CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH BRIEF
TAKING THE CQ SELF-ASSESSMENT
CHAPTER 3 CQ DRIVE
CHAPTER 4 CQ KNOWLEDGE
CHAPTER 5 CQ STRATEGY
CHAPTER 6 CQ ACTION
CHAPTER 7 THE POWER OF CQ
EPILOGUE
NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
RESOURCES
INDEX
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
