The Cultural Intelligence Difference
By David Livermore
(Amacom, 206 pages, $25)
When we think back to the 1950s, the days captured in the book The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, we conjure up a workplace of individuals much like each other. That isn’t as true as we instinctively think, but certainly the workplace of that era was not as multiflavoured as today. We work with people of contrasts, be it in the cubicles next to us, customers from around the globe, or, if we are offered an offshore assignment, citizens and colleagues in the host country.
To succeed, David Livermore says we need cultural intelligence. Mr. Livermore, a consultant, built his at an early age, when his parents left Canada for the Rochester, N.Y., area, but he made regular treks back to visit his grandparents and cousins. He was intrigued by the different money in Canada, varied ways of saying things, and different foods. His American classmates laughed when he said “mum” or “eh.”
Perhaps as a result, Mr. Livermore enjoys navigating between different cultures. That talent has been called cultural intelligence, the capability to function effectively in a variety of cultural contexts, including national, ethnic, organizational, and generational.
And he argues that cultural intelligence – or CQ, as it is commonly shortened to, the acronym for cultural quotient – is the No. 1 predictor of your success in today’s borderless world. It’s more important than IQ or, the current darling, EQ (emotional intelligence).
“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 backgrounds – the inevitable reality for all of us over the next decade,” Mr. Livermore writes in The Cultural Intelligence Difference.
Your cultural intelligence is made up of four different capabilities, he says:
First is CQ drive, or motivation, your interest and confidence in functioning effectively in culturally diverse settings.
Second is CQ knowledge, your cognition about how cultures are similar and different.
Third is CQ strategy, which covers how you make sense of culturally diverse experiences – can you plan effectively in light of cultural differences?
Finally, there’s CQ action, your capability to adapt your behaviour appropriately for different cultures.
Where Mr. Livermore goes beyond his previous book, Leading With Cultural Intelligence, and the work of other writers, is to lay out techniques to improve your cultural intelligence based on these four dimensions
To improve your CQ drive
Face your biases: Explore which subcultures really push your hot buttons, encourage your defences or just make you uncomfortable. Any time 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. Another approach is to explore your hobbies and pastimes – be it art, sports, or food – in new cultures.
To boost your CQ knowledge
Discreetly watch people from other cultures when you’re in public places. Attend celebrations of other cultures in your city; eat their foods and attend their music and dance events. When you’re travelling, visit public markets, shopping districts, museums and art galleries. Increase your global awareness by visiting BBC news online and reading The Economist, for example, or by plunging into novels and movies that immerse you in different cultures. Learn about different cultural values in other countries, how they may differ from Canada’s in terms of factors such as individualism, avoidance of uncertainty, co-operativeness, and orientation to time.
To enhance your CQ strategy
To boost your ability to plan appropriately for different cultures, you need to train your mind to think more broadly, to reduce the mental space of what you see as wrong and increase the space of what you see as different, and tolerable. In cross-cultural situations, focus deeply: Mindfulness can help you move out of automated habits of thinking and behaviour. Also, manage your expectations in unfamiliar situations.
To strengthen your CQ action
This refers to the behaviours needed to handle to cross-cultural situations, so look for cues on the basic manners expected in a culture and try to adapt. Become an actor, imitating the behaviour of others. Make taboos taboo, eliminating behaviours that are offensive in the culture you are visiting. Develop a basic vocabulary: Learn how to say words such as please, thank you, sorry, good, not good, hello and goodbye in the foreign language.
This book is an excellent guide to cultural intelligence – illuminating some of the research and concepts; highlighting seven differences between countries that you must be sensitive to; and offerings specific ideas about how to improve your CQ. It won’t transform you overnight, but will alert you to important factors and help you along the path to fitting in beyond your traditional culture.
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POSTSCRIPT
In The Third Screen (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 230 pages, $29.95), media researcher Chuck Martin discusses how to market to your customers in a mobile world.
Gemba Walks (Lean Enterprise Institute, 348 pages, $35) is a collection of letters and essays by noted “lean management” expert Jim Womack.
Market research consultant Bruce Gabrielle offers tips to improve your presentations of strategic plans, executive briefings and research reports in Speaking PowerPoint (Insights Publishing, 296 pages, $29.95).
Special to The Globe and Mail
