Cindy King's International Business Blog » cultural filters

Prejudice – A Cross-Cultural Business Barrier

Cindy King — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:00:32 +0000

How To Develop Your Cross-Cultural Skills

Last week I wrote about the different definitions I noticed people using for “culture” related words.

For example, occasionally readers do not immediately grasp the “business” slant of this blog because they read using their own filters for the “culture” related words used here.

Personal Filters Come To Light

There is another interesting thing that becomes apparent when you notice that someone else has different definitions to these “culture” words than you do. We might not realize it, but we all have different cultural filters.

“Culture” words also quickly get mixed up with other personal filters or issues.

And there is one personal filter you can usually clearly identify when talking about “culture” and that is:

Prejudice.

Prejudice In Cross-Cultural Communication

When prejudiced people communicate with their own emotional buttons activated, the word cross-cultural often takes on the meaning “racial difference”.

This is where I notice the disconnect between my definition of cross-cultural and theirs.

The Communication Barrier

When two people have a conversation on a subject with two different meanings, well… you do not really have a conversation, do you?

This is what happens when two people use the word “cross-cultural” with different meanings. And when one of these meanings has something to do with racial difference, the conversations are not only disjointed, they can also easily get out of hand.

Choose Your Conversations

So…

What do you do when you notice that you are not really having a conversation?
What can you do when you realize that there is too much friction in a conversation?

The first step is obviously to clearly identify where the disconnect happens. And this is the most important one.

If you are having a conversation with someone who has his emotional buttons fully locked in and is obviously stimulated by his own personal prejudice, you have a choice to make.

You can decide to try to:

Meet the other person on his topic… and take on his personal filter
Get the person to join you on your topic… and change his personal filter
Establish a different common topic of conversation… and get both of you away from any personal filters
Drop the conversation and move on

The context is probably going to influence your choice in what to do here.

Adapt Your Response To The Context

In a social context, you will decide what is most appropriate for yourself.

The problem is that these situations also arise in a business context. And we are all human. You can easily be confronted with communication problems in a business context due to prejudice.

Cross-cultural communication represents barriers for everyone. We all have different ways of dealing with these barriers and different levels of communication skills.

So how can you handle this tough situation?

Well, first… why is it tough?

Because we all react to prejudice personally
Because you cannot easily influence someone’s prejudice in a conversation

Put Aside Your Own Personal Baggage

This means that the best thing to do is to step away from your personal feelings.

But you need to:

Refocus on your business context
Evaluate your own business context
Try to establish a business context with the other person
And then go through your choice in how to deal with this

Get Past The Barrier Of Prejudice

Remember, the feelings created by a disjointed conversation are absolutely natural. The important thing is to establish the right context and then find the right way to communicate where all parties have the same understanding.

It does not happen very often, but sometimes you do run into people who are stuck in their own personal prejudices. When this happens you need to be able to do everything that you can to move the conversation forward. And when you are faced with someone acting or reacting on solely on personal prejudice, it comes down to making the best choice for your business.

The Challenge Of Cultural Filters

Cindy King — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:00:33 +0000

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges

When I was growing up in the Bahamas, my father often told that I was lucky to grow up in such a small country…

And when I asked why, I was told:

Because you can observe all of the other big countries without the handicap of cultural filters.
Because you have a clearer vision of the world compared to many others.
Because it is so interesting to watch how these bigger countries react and interact with the rest of the world… with very little cultural influence, cultural filters or cultural prejudice.

Of course, I did not understand this and could not see a value. All of those bigger countries had so much more to offer than I did, living on my little island:

Toy stores… no, just stores

Recently released movies… no, just decent movies

Mail order offers… no, just stuf

Natural Cultural Filters

Everyone has cultural filters. People acquire cultural filters naturally from their own environment.

They can’t help it.

Even the rebels, the radicals and those who claim they think out of the box usually still have cultural filters.

Coming from a small country and growing up on an island the most obvious filters I have are:

Money does not impress me. It is easy to observe how the very rich can be so very foolish if you hang around the expensive yachts in the marina. Foolishness in hurricane territory costs lives. Personal value is more impressive.

A total disinterest in “big country” political parties. Where I grew up, politics was a question of being black or white. Something no one could change.

Complainers don’t get attention. When I grew up, if you were not happy with something, it is very simple: You got on your own two feet and did something to correct it. The island I grew up on is not big. There was no one to complain to.

Cultural filters are part of what makes up our cultural differences.

People do not acquire cultural filters through stupidity. There are usually very good reasons for them.

Either in how people do things or in events.
Sometimes you need to go back in history to find the reason why a cultural filter exists.

But if you are looking in from another culture, it might take you some time to understand the “why” behind a particular cultural filter. It can take some digging.

Beyond Cultural Prejudice

The problem with cultural filters is that they often inadvertently lead to cultural prejudice. And cultural prejudice creates two problems:

You cannot develop an effective cross-cultural communication.
It is not easy to educate someone with strong cultural prejudice.

Interactive conversation stops dead in its tracks when you hit a cultural prejudice. This is where miscommunication and cultural blunders start.

Towards Cross-Cultural Communication

Your own international mindset is important in moving towards cross-cultural communication. And this leads to a key question:

Are you willing to open up, or temporarily put aside, your own cultural filters enough to open communication with people with different cultural filters?

If you do temporarily put aside your own cultural filters and prejudices you can usually move your communication forward with someone culturally different. Experience helps you notice the little signals that tell you when you are approaching the other person’s cultural prejudice. And with experience you can develop a talent in bypassing, or side stepping, these cultural roadblocks.

Connecting Across Cultures

Once both parties get beyond their cultural prejudices, real cross-cultural connection begins.

To get to this stage of real communication, you need two things:

Personal development
Cross-cultural experience

The challenge is to first recognize your own cultural filters. Most people do not like the idea of acknowledging their own prejudices. It is so much easier to label other people with cultural prejudices.

But it is easier to recognize your own cultural filters.

And if you can recognize your own cultural filters, you should be able to put them aside the time of a conversation with someone who has different cultural filters. This gets you that one step closer to real communication and understanding between two different cultures.