How does one communicate effectively in a multi-cultural environment?

IME very carefully. Be wary of making jokes—half or more won’t understand them. Be wary of making cultural analogies or metaphors. Have respect for every individual foremost in your mind. Invite lots of questions and opinions—even in cultures where people are taught not to question the instructor, maybe especially there. Avoid presenting your opinions as if they were facts. Own your VABEs. For example, “Y may I ask how old you are? I’m 73. Aha. In your experience thus far in life, given all the people you’ve met so far, how much of their Visible Behavior, what you can capture on film, in your estimation is habitual? By habitual, I mean mindlessly repetitive.” Y answers—usually about 75%. The age question personalizes the discussion and brings it down to ground. I reveal my age first. The second question is applicable to anyone. “X, may I ask how old are you? Thank you. In your N years in life, given all the people you’ve met so far, what proportion of the way they think would you estimate to be habitual—that is, mindlessly repetitive?” Most will say 85ish%. “Z, may I ask how old you are? Thank you. In your N years in life given all the people you’ve met, what proportion of their VABEs would you estimate to be habitual?” I explain VABEs. They usually say 95%+. “Now the rest of you, do these estimates match your experience in life? “ I usually do that one after each of the Level One (visible behavior), Level Two (conscious thought), and Level Three (VABEs) questions.

For the vast majority of people, these are totally new questions that they’ve never thought about before. The numbers highlight the difficulty of making changes in individuals, teams, and companies. “Given your estimates, what are the odds that anything I’m going to say today or this week will change what you do, how you think or what you believe?” Very very low. “So, why would I even come here? Because I’m hoping there are 5%, 15% or 25% of the people in the room who are and will be open to rethinking what they do, how they think, and what they believe.”

Although this example is taken out of context of a week-long leadership development seminar, IME it works extremely well in engaging participants in the first hour and works with those from Asia, Australia, South America, Central America, North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Working at Level Three, carefully and respectfully, is a powerful, universal set of concepts that bridge multi-cultural environments.

See my website at Level Three Leadership