What Does It Mean to Navigate Cultural Differences Appropriately?

This is the second post in a three-part series exploring my current working definition of intercultural competence. I define intercultural competence as the capacity to communicate and act effectively, appropriately, and authentically across cultural differences, locally and globally.

Last month, I explained that effectively highlights the fact there’s something we’re trying to do—some outcome we want to achieve—that necessitates navigating cultural differences. This month, I’m exploring what it means to communicate and act appropriately across cultures.

Navigating cultural differences appropriately involves adapting our behavior, message, communication style, or other ways of going about achieving our goal to the cultural context. We adapt both to achieve the goal and to ensure that others involved feel understood, appreciated, and respected in the process. If we don’t act in a way that’s appropriate to the cultural context, we’re unlikely to be very effective.

To act appropriately, you need to first get curious and try to understand the cultural context and possible differences at play. That involves working to better understand your own and others’ perspectives. What assumptions and judgments are you making? What’s your perspective and how was that shaped? What’s the perspective(s) of others involved? Assuming there’s a valid reason for their behavior, why might they be behaving as they are? How can you empathize with them?

The aim here is to try to understand where others are coming from as much as possible so that rather than following the Golden Rule (treat others as you want to be treated), you can practice the Platinum Rule (treat others as they want to be treated). For example, you may want to treat others with respect (that’s the goal—what you’re trying to do effectively), but you can only do so appropriately if you understand what “respect” means and looks like to them. Considering what you learn through this process, you may decide to update your goal (see last month’s post about effectiveness).

Once you have a deeper understanding of the cultural differences at play, you can then consider ways to adapt your approach, communication style, behaviors, etc. to be effective at what you’re trying to achieve. For example, if you suspect communication differences might be preventing you from accomplishing your goal, you could try adapting your communication style—perhaps being a little less direct or focusing on building a relationship before getting down to business, depending on the differences you’ve observed. You’re not just adapting for the sake of adapting, but to achieve the goal.

Note that the way you adapt is not permanent or assimilationist, but context-specific and temporal. That is, you’re not changing who you are, but consciously choosing to adapt in that particular context in order to achieve what you’re trying to achieve. We’ll explore this last point more next month, when I discuss what it means to navigate cultural differences authentically.

Photo credit: Ayo Ogunseind, Unsplash